TV Viewing Summary W/E 28/12/97
Well, we’ve made it through the annual onslaught of Christmas specials, and despite the noticeable absence of Only Fools & Horses on Terrestrial TV, things weren’t too bad. On the comedy front, the BBC wheeled out all their other traditional Christmas crackers. Leading the way, One Foot In The Grave attracted 15.76 million, another classic feature length episode. As well as the usual sterling performances from Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie, Tim Brooke-Taylor returned to our screens in the role of the Meldrews’ new neighbour. What really carries this sit-com above the rest is the manic plot twists, in the true tradition of great English farce. It’s been two years since the last new series of One Foot In The Grave, so let’s hope that writer David Renwick will be further inspired by the success of this one-off.
The special edition of Men Behaving Badly did actually achieve a higher audience figure (16.34 million), but certainly didn’t deserve to. This show really has lost it’s original charm. Gone are the days of the great droll banter between Gary and Tony, now it’s just more and more slapstick, and in this episode, they’ve even had to resort to laughs from verbal profanities.
Boxing Day brought us a new series of The Vicar Of Dibley, a four part run, which hit the spot in its first episode, watched by 12.45 million and just above the dismally unamusing Birds Of A Feather (12.36 million) – all in all a pretty comic Christmas from the BBC.
Eastenders did its best to shock/depress, as is it’s custom at Christmas. This year it was the Mitchells’ time to bear the brunt of the Albert Square Yuletide blood letting. Lots of “I’ll get it sorted” from both brothers, and the usual “I don’t know. You two, you used to look out for each other” from Peggy. Pretty dull stuff actually, reflected in the rather low average viewing figure for the four episodes that week – only 12.29 million.
Coronation Street fared much better, with an average audience of 14.68 million over its four episodes. The TV nation probably more impressed with the ‘lighter’ plotline than its London rival. Kev and Sally back together, and dear Ashley playing the good Samaritan at the expense of his own love interests. What a drip he is, cute yes, but definitely needs a few lessons in how to deal with women.
Films remained uninteresting with nothing really worth commenting on in the BBC/ITV top thirty. Over on Channel 4 the classic Jason & The Argonauts attracted 2.82 million, with Nuns On The Run charting as the channel’s most popular film of the week, watched by 3.05 million. Channel 5’s number one was the Making Of Spiceworld ‘documentary’ (1.32) – fascinating I’m sure.
In the Sky channels’ top ten, football takes the number one and two slots, 1.54 million and 1.13 million respectively. In the Other Astra Channels chart, UK Gold’s screenings of vintage Only Fools & Horses throughout the week proved popular. Friday’s episode was at number one (0.54 million): long live Del Boy (and Dave).
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