Life on Mars: Reply from BBC...

I am thinking of complaining that Life on Mars has not been postponed as
it clashes with Champions League Football on ITV!

--
Julian Barker

There is a coherent plan in the universe,
though I don't know what it is a plan for.
- Sir Fred Hoyle 1915-2001

it seemed that many
people had missed the first couple of episodes

After *how much* promotion of LoM on other BBC channels?

And how the hell would they know that "many people" missed the episode who
had intended to watch it?

They've presumably been inundated with people that missed all the blanket
publicity for the start of the new series. Yeah. Right.

I missed the first episode.

The great thing about using a PVR is you don't have to watch 'live' TV
very often. I usually skip any adverts, including the BBC ones.

As it happens I knew LoM was coming back but on the day of the first
episode I was suffering from the nasty bug that's going round and
forgot to set the PVR.

Julian Barker wrote:

I am thinking of complaining that Life on Mars has not been postponed as
it clashes with Champions League Football on ITV!

To all you folk complaining about one Life on Mars, just be glad you
don't live in Scotland.

BBC1 Scotland covers a Uefa Cup game. It goes to extra time - please
switch to BBC2 at 10pm. It goes to penalty kicks - please switch back to
BBC1 at 10.30pm.

The football has commadeered the Holby City Thursday slot, so that goes
out some other day, this week it was Sunday, so where did Waterloo Road
go?

Rough Diamond went out in the middle of the night.

Without D-Sat 974 or an aerial pointed at Divis we'd be chasing
programmes all round the schedules.

--

Immunity is better than innoculation.

Peter

In article ,
says...
"Paul D.Smith" wrote in message
. ..
My favourite was that they effectively showed episode 1 once, and episode
2 twice (before last night of course) - guess which one I was unable to
record! What is the point of scheduling BBC4 to show episodes 2,3,... but
not 1?

It's so that people with "digital" can go around telling people with
analogue "I've already seen the next episode". The implication being that
anyone who has not yet got "digital" yet is either a skinflint or an
imbecile thus annoying the hell out of them.

That's exactly what they intend with those bloody ads with the posh ****ers
sitting round the dinner table - "Daddy doesn't DO digital!", cries the little
brat.

Very annoying. And doubly so for you because of:

As it happens I already have
two Freeview boxes but cannot get the Mux which carries BBC4 on either of
them.
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 1132 DVDs, 347 games, 314 CDs, 110 cinema films, 42 concerts, videos & news
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In article , {$mrtickle$}
@nospam.demon.co.uk says...
In , "Paul D.Smith"
wrote:

My favourite was that they effectively showed episode 1 once, and episode 2
twice (before last night of course) - guess which one I was unable to
record! What is the point of scheduling BBC4 to show episodes 2,3,... but
not 1?

Indeed. This is the pattern with every series that has its "premieres"
on BBC4 or BBC3.

First episode on BBC1 or 2. Never shown on BBC3 or 4.
Next episode immediately after it on BBC3 or 4, repeated a week later on
BBC1 or 2.
Same for all the rest of the episodes except...
...final episode on BBC1 or 2. Never shown on BBC3 or 4. People who were
watching on BBC3 or 4 gain nothing, and have to wait a fortnight for the
finale as well as suffer the DOGs.

The real point is, that in the BBC's application for a licence for BBC3
(at least - if not BBC4 too), they had to commit to a certain percentage
of "first runs" on that channel. The above trick lets them fulfil their
quota.

Normally I wouldn't have bothered had it not been a show like Life on Mars
where I really wanted to see new episodes. Most of the time I can happily wait
a week for the next one.

BBC4 had no DOGs on during Life on Mars when they screened new eps (or the
repeats, so far). They're a bit selective with that, sometimes not having them
at all like with LoM, sometimes always having them (*******s) and then
sometimes having them and sometimes not (eg. the last series of Charlie
Brooker's Screenwipe where eps 1-3 were unDOGged but ep.4 was)
--

Dom Robinson Gamertag: DVDfever email: dom at dvdfever dot co dot uk
/* http://DVDfever.co.uk (editor)
/* 1132 DVDs, 347 games, 314 CDs, 110 cinema films, 42 concerts, videos & news
/* antibodies, steve hillage, burning crusade, sega psp, norah jones, kylie
New music charts - http://dvdfever.co.uk/music.shtml
Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DVDfeverDom