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The TV Cream (Easter) Egg Scheduling Challenge!

Think yourself into the battered shoes of a BBC1 controller.

The Beeb needs some positive publicity.

It must be seen to have a “good” Easter.

But there’s not that much by way of new programming – and there’s only the budget for one new commission.

Can you piece together the perfect BBC1 Easter Monday prime-time line-up?

Here are the rules.

1. You need to construct a schedule that runs from 5.30pm to 1am.

2. Your schedule must contain:
EastEnders (30 minutes)
News (15 minutes)
Match of the Day (60-75 minutes as necessary)

3. Your schedule must also contain at least one programme from each of the following categories:

DRAMA
New Tricks (repeat, 60 minutes)
Lark Rise to Candleford (repeat, 60 minutes)

COMEDY
My Family (repeat, 30 minutes)
The Vicar of Dibley (repeat, 30 minutes)
One Foot in the Grave (repeat, 30 minutes)

SOMETHING WORTHY
Sport Relief: The Big Big Update (25 minutes)

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Steps (30 minutes)
Graham Norton’s Easter Hamper (45 minutes)
Michael McIntrye’s Easter Comedy Roadshow (45 minutes)

FILM
Catch-22 (120 minutes)
Empire of the Sun (155 minutes)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (105 minutes)
Shirley Valentine (110 minutes)

4. You also have the money for one brand new commission, of between 30 and 60 minutes in length.

And that’s it.

Post your suggested schedules below.

The winner (as chosen by a panel of experts*) will get their schedule made up to look like a continuity slide from the 1980s!

*Experts in the field of rating the efforts and niceness of TV Cream readers

Meantime here’s the kind of line-up we all want to avoid:

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Adrian

    March 15, 2010 at 9:57 am

    Nice screengrab. It’s just occurred to me that TV channel’s don’t display ‘what’s on this evening’ slides anymore – presumably EPGs have rendered them obsolete..

  2. gerard_wiley

    March 15, 2010 at 10:56 pm

    530 News
    545 My Family (r)
    615 Sport Relief: The Big Big Update
    640 So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Steps

    710 Come on Arlene! A special Easter Monday evening of song and dance as BBC1’s most popular stars- and Aleisha Dixon- pay tribute to everyone’s favourite Hot Gossip choreographer, Arlene Phillips. BBC1 controller Jay Hunt promises a ‘thrilling finale’ to see out the show (and any potential employment tribunal).

    800 EastEnders
    830 Lark Rise to Candleford (r)
    930 Shirley Valentine
    1120 News
    1130 Match of the Day
    0020 Weatherman
    0022 Pages from Ceefax

  3. John Connolly

    March 17, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    How’s about this:

    5:30 – The Vicar of Dibley (r)
    6:00 – News
    6:15 – Sport Relief – The Big Big Update
    6:45 – Lark Rise to Candleford (r)
    7:45 – Eastenders
    8:15 – Doctor Who Easter Special
    9:15 – Michael McIntyre’s Easter Comedy Roadshow
    10:00 – Match of the Day
    11:15 – Film: Catch 22
    1:15 am – Weatherman

  4. televisualcabbage

    March 18, 2010 at 10:41 pm

    Programmes for Easter Monday on BBC1….

    5.30pm My Family
    6.00pm Sport Relief: The Big Big Update
    6.25pm Film: Gremlins 2 – The New Batch
    8.10pm EastEnders
    8.40pm New Tricks
    9.40pm News
    9.55pm Michael McIntyre’s Easter Roadshow
    10.40pm Match of the Day
    11.40pm Viva Batley! – Sitcom starring Dean Lennox Kelly as the owner of a

  5. televisualcabbage

    March 18, 2010 at 10:46 pm

    sorry got cut off but I continue!

    11.40pm Viva Batley! – Sitcom starring Dean Lennox Kelly as the owner of a run-down bar
    12.20am Film: Shirley Valentine
    2.10am Joins BBC News Channel

    And that’s Easter Monday, here on BBC1!

  6. Neil Stacey

    March 18, 2010 at 10:55 pm

    5.30 Sport Relief: The Big Big Update
    5.55 News
    6.10 It’s A Knockout….Again !. A tantalising look back to BBCTV’s best loved International Game Show. With the help of Knockout’s mad-cap presenter Stuart Hall, there will be interviews with the people whom made, played & watched Knockout. Plus classic clips & special tribute to our Je Sans Frontieres Trophy winners Shrewsbury, Blackpool & Ely.
    7.00 EastEnders
    7.30 Film: Catch 22
    9.30 The Vicar of Dibley(r)
    10.00 Match of The Day
    11.00 Graham Norton’s Easter Hamper
    12.00 New Tricks(r)
    1.00am The National Anthem followed by Closedown

  7. David Smith

    April 15, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    Do we have a winner yet, gents?

  8. Jethro Qwalrusatitty

    June 7, 2010 at 4:25 pm

    5.30 The Best Of ‘Wogan’
    6.00 Graham Norton Meets ‘The Mighty Boosh’
    7.00 Tribute To Fame Academy
    7.30 Peter Kay’s Easter Egg
    8.00 Around The World With Chris Moyles
    9.30 Film: ‘The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse’
    11.00 Question Time Easter Special Starring David Cameron & Nick Clegg
    12.00 Suicide At Easter

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