Putting it out at 11:20 is presumably the only way they could avoid them being cut to 30m. Which is undoubtedly more about laziness than comedy principles, but...

A pattern seems to have been set in the past year for digging out old BBC shows and stripping them across a week on BBC2, as though they will not develop a committed audience. This happened with 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' at Christmas and a selection of 'Strangeways' repeats in May.

I don't mind this per se, but why should terrestrial BBC have to do the job which UK Gold used to fulfill in the mid-Nineties, which was, lest we forget, its original remit? Why are stations so scared of scheduling not-that-small-a-minority archive programming these days? Take a look at Lars Von Trier's awesome TV serial 'The Kingdom' which went out in the old 'Late Show' slot in 1997. The second series *finally* arrives this Friday on BBC2, in the death slot of 1-2am.

I remember 1994 as a veritable bonanza of repeats, with Bravo buying up the entire ITC action series catalogue, UK Gold meeting viewer requests time and time again ('Doomwatch' and 'Survivors' in the same week!) and even C4's 'Late Licence' dug up a few treasures. And before anyone knocks this for being retro thinking, 1994 was also a great year for new programmes. It IS possible to have the best of both worlds.

Then what happened? Bravo turn into a horror & porn buy-out travesty and UK Gold preempts the BBC Choice policy of repeating recent terrestrial programming. Oh, and the whole industry goes to shit in the years that follow. Money making and rating-led thinking has given us zero variety.

>Still, who cares? We wouldn't want the BBC2 audience to be terrified of something new, now would we?

In what way is H2G2 considered "new"?

Douglas Who, didn't he write some episodes of Dr. Adams.

>>Still, who cares? We wouldn't want the BBC2 audience to be terrified of something new, now would we?
>
>In what way is H2G2 considered "new"?

I'd prefer the term "different" in that it's not a sitcom about three male and three female website designers who solve crimes.

And decorate houses.

That's brilliant. Make me ten.

I'd rather do twenty two, so that I can fail more spectacularly in America.

>Hitch-Hikers Guide is being repeated from next Monday (30th July) on BBC2. At 11.20pm on weeknights. It begins the same night as a Fast Show repeat (hopefully the knackered out tape won't snap) and a Have I Got News From You from about nine weeks ago or something. Oh, and The Office. The latter three are on in primetime.

Are they still calling it the "Comedy Zone" though? I don't know which of those two words I find more offensive. I notice they droped the "History Zone" idea after broadsheet braying about marginalisation - a glance through this week's schedules reveals that history progs are evenly scattered throughout the week on BBC2 - but not "Comedy Zone", after all, you can never patronise those comedy fans too much.

What I really don't understand is why they're touting it as a new idea - Friday night was comedy night on BBC2 for years, without anyone making a big song and dance out of the fact. The only difference now is the poor quality of the programmes and the number of repeats of repeats of repeats.

I wouldn't mind so much if there was actually any fucking COMEDY in there.
>
>Still, who cares? We wouldn't want the BBC2 audience to be terrified of something new, now would we?

This also doesn't make sense. The mythical demographic Jane Root has decided to pursue would surely be interested in HHGTTG repeats? This decision just seems so arbitrary and inexpicable. The only reason I can come up with is that she specifically wanted to piss Justin off.

Still, we'll all be staying up to watch it. So that's alright then. Meanwhile the rest of the schedule turns to shit.

>>Still, who cares? We wouldn't want the BBC2 audience to be terrified of something new, now would we?
>
>In what way is H2G2 considered "new"?

New to a whole new audience, perhaps?

I dunno; you moan like whores on overtime that certain things don't get repeated, and when something is repeated, you squeal like stuck pigs about the manner in which it is repeated, as if the very act of them doing what you want is calculated to insult you.

Get fucking lives; each and every one of you.

>Get fucking lives; each and every one of you.

Yeah, damn right! And there's a new series of Ally McBeal tonight on C4! What are we complaining about?

>I dunno; you moan like whores on overtime that certain things don't get repeated, and when something is repeated, you squeal like stuck pigs about the manner in which it is repeated, as if the very act of them doing what you want is calculated to insult you.
>
>Get fucking lives; each and every one of you.

Don't you have a name?

Hurray for Hitch-Hiker repeats. Any news on when the Douglas Adams documentary is going to be shown?