To think prime time TV is now worse than 1982?

[AirOff]

I was thinking in general about TV programmes earlier and how they’ve changed over the years and then I’ve just decided to directly compare the same week -

Monday - Friday only

for BBC1 TV programming

for EXACTLY the same week - (in this case it was week commencing the first Monday in September) - for both

2025 and 1982 between the whole 3 hours from 7pm - 10pm

in 2025 what I found was - the first hour until 8pm is taken up every day by One Show and Eastenders (apart from no EE on Friday),
then for the whole 5 days there was only 1 drama in that 3 hour period and one sitcom. Just FYI, both the drama and sitcom in this case were British. Apart from that, there was reality stuff of a domestic practical nature on EVERY night - Sewing Bee and Masterchef - BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was also Scam Interceptors and one reality dating type show.

Anyway, in 1982 - the picture was very different - far more sitcoms (British, overwhelmingly), British made dramas and entertainment programmes - Top of the Pops, It’s a Knockout, a Wildlife on One programme, and there was one American sitcom shown - Taxi. That’s the thing - we never have American sitcoms or dramas on prime time BBC1/ITV like we used to, do we? Also in 1982 was Points of View which I loved. Also ‘World’s Strongest Man’ - you’d never get that now, would you ?

The one constant in 1982 and 2025 is Panorama - 8pm - Mondays.

AIBU to think that in 2025 BBC1 has gone much more boring, and bland in the prime time slot? As if schedulers/TV execs can’t be arsed to bring more variety?

it seems that churning out One Show, Eastenders and these reality shows based on practical everyday stuff - cooking and sewing has taken the place of a much more varied, entertainment type program that may have required more effort to make

Anyone agree?

I want to go back to 1982 !

Ah thats the thing I don’t subscribe

I haven’t watched schedule tv for ages. Idk what’s on when even.

My hearing is quite normal for my age, thank you. I watch old and new TV shows, and those from before around 2000 are much easier to watch and hear. Something has definitely changed in TV production since then, alongside many actors simply being unable to speak as clearly as they used to. So, yes, I'm getting older ... but the briefest of online searches will show you that this is a problem experienced by many people.

I figured I’d rather just pay for a licence than be hounded by licence authorities!

I watch much less - very little appeals to me

Love Panorama

I'd agree with this. The quality of investigative journalism today is far poorer than it used to be. Also, documentaries, science programmes, etc., are very much dumbed down from how they used to be, with a lot of repetition too. Watch an old documentary on BBC4 and compare it with modern output.

Sorry I should really alter my comment to say I don't watch live TV🤦‍♀️

That's what I meant. But we do stream TV and films and that has its downsides too. Nothing worse than '5 days remaining on Prime' before its gone for good. This happens a lot. Thankfully we kept a lot of DVDs.

Sorry for digressing 👀🤣

Where do you listen to them? On the Sounds App?

Radio one is awful 😭😭

Although I do like Jack Saunders, on at 6pm weekdays

To be honest I watched it earlier this week and was good had James Corden and Ruth Jones on it - and Tamsin Grieg and Lorraine Ashbourne discussing a new drama

I sometimes listen to Jack Saunders chart show on Friday teatime - haven’t find it what no 1 is !

there is more to life than MN and social media you know

I’m enjoying science of the brain on bbc2 atm.

When my do were younger we would watch big bang, friends and Neighbours as well as Dr Who and Strictly. My dc still watch some of these.
I love that my parents through to my dc have all enjoyed Bruce Forsyth on tv. I dont know why but it feels like a shared experience maybe. A connection.

Weekend scheduling is all sports and it feels like schedulers believe all the young people are out so it’s not worth putting anything decent on. They should cater for families and older people.

🤣

Haha no worries I don’t do Prime, Netflix or anything like that !

Love Bruce on Play Your Cards Right

Get some Northern soul in your life ❤️ 👍😁.
Bricomalingo on YouTube..has a plethora of fantastic record's.
Even look up my username.

Totally agree

I mean - apart from Peppa Pig - I can’t name any children’s programmes now

There are no kids TV dramas now on the main channels like children’s ward . If there are kids drama series on another channel they get no publicity

I really miss the shared experience

I can remember when we all watched Diff’rent Strokes and would discuss it next day!

until the kids discover Stranger Things.. to name just one.

You might not know the most common ones, but kids know! (and so do their parents, whether they like it or not 😂)

But stranger things wasn’t in one of the main traditional TV channels as part of regular schedule TV?

There’s really not much to watch without streaming, I’d probably not bother

I can't remember it was that much better, it was stuff like Minder, Howards way, I think Eastenders started in 1984, Dallas was on I think. The same people probably won't like all of those programmes though. I liked Howards way and Dallas and DH liked Minder. I watched Eastenders since the start.

Some of its funny but a fair bit reeks of sexism