TV Viewing Round-Up: December 2013

From Gary Barlow’s Big Ben Bash to Matt Smith’s farewell as the Time Lord, the BBC dominated the Christmas TV schedule.

Still Open All Hours – seriously, what the hell was that all about? For apparently no good reason BBC One decided to revive the classic sitcom without the major attraction of the original, the late great Ronnie Barker as penny pinching Albert E. Arkwright.

Seemingly part of the BBC’s recent ‘David Jason pension fund’, coming exactly two years to the day after the lamentable The Royal Bodyguard, Roy Clarke’s retread of his well-liked northern corner shop comedy had a staggering audience rating of 12.4 million.

The prize for the most self indulgent television moment of the year came right at the dying hours of New Year’s Eve. Pop leg-end Gary Barlow decided that it would be a fantastic idea to bring back an old Take That hit, but with the added twist of turning it into a duet… with himself!

The somewhat baffling musical moment sent social networks into meltdown, with viewers questioning whether they had actually witnessed the slimline Y2K Gary Barlow sing along with the 1990s economy-sized one.

The answer was ‘yes, but can we forget it ever happened’, which had the 8.8 million viewers of Gary Barlow’s Big Ben Bash no doubt thinking that braving the torrential storms wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.

Moving on to Matt Smith’s swansong in the Christmas edition of Doctor Who, whereby Steven Moffat preceded to undo all the good work he’d created for the 50th anniversary episode with the confusing train wreck that was ‘Time of the Doctor’.

Featuring a too-clever-by-half storyline that revisited plot points unresolved from throughout Matt Smith’s time flying the TARDIS, as well as the first appearance of non-sweary Peter Capaldi as the next Doctor, the festive special pulled in an impressive 11.1 million viewers.

It wasn’t all rubbish this December, however, with BBC One’s première of Pixar’s Toy Story 3 proving to be one of the highlights of the Christmas schedule.

The final instalment of the beloved computer animated classic drew a healthy 7.3 million viewers for BBC One’s ‘post Queen’s Speech film slot’ on Christmas Day.

Also doing well over the holiday period were festive editions of Call The Midwife with 9.2 million; Downton Abbey watched by just under 9 million people; Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special watched by an audience of 8.8 million and one-off comedy Gangsta Granny which had 7.4 million viewers.

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