Friday 12 February 2010

With Friends like these...

So, after fifteen years of what seems to have been pretty much non-stop coverage, Channel 4 are to finally stop repeating Friends. Hallelujah. Never thought I'd see the day, etc.

But fear not, fans of Joey, Phoebe, Glynis, Chip, Bob and Pat (note to self: check those names before publishing), as the broadcaster aren't planning to stop the daily repeats just yet. No, they're going to plough on with them until autumn 2011! So that gives you what, another twenty months or so to prepare yourself for the sad day and to bask in the 85th showing of The One Where Joey Gets Busted For Kerb-Crawling or The One Where Glynis Has An Enema, or whatever.

It'll be tough to say goodbye to this staple of the Channel 4/E4 schedules, I know, but we all have to learn to cope with loss sooner or later in our lives. I know I have. (I've never been the same since BBC One pulled the plug on Terry & June.)

And I know what you're thinking: if only someone, somewhere, had thought of releasing Friends on VHS or DVD at some stage, it would have saved us all this angst and preserved the show for future generations. But these things are so easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, and I'm sure if it would have been at all financially viable then some plucky distributor or other would have tried just such an audacious gamble.

What with Friends and Big Brother both being on their way out, this does all rather beg the question as to what exactly Channel 4 are planning to fill their schedules with for the next however many years. I can't say for sure, but I reckon an average of, ooh, approximately twenty one and a half hours per day of the station's programming output over the past decade will have been dedicated to these two programmes, so their twin absence is going to leave a hell of a hole to fill. I do, however, have a few suggestions which might help.

Perhaps they could extend Hollyoaks to seven nights a week, or drag Deal Or No Deal out to two hours per show by making the contestants open the boxes while wearing boxing gloves or something; or how about shoving a couple more ad breaks in during each episode of The Simpsons or How Clean Is Your Banjo? I'm sure no one could possibly object to that.

Alternatively, they could always ask that nice Gordon Ramsay to swear a bit more during his cookery shows; or give the Countdown contestants flick knives and a crate of Special Brew and make that programme a battle to the death. It might not sound like much, but the cumulative effect of all these suggestions would indubitably use up some invaluable airtime for the corporation.

Then again I suppose they could just stick on yet more repeats of Come Dine With Me and Everybody Loves Raymond. Ho hum.

In other news, I'm still not finished in court. Nearly there, though, honest!

Aaaaaand finally, the winner of today's award for Most Tenuously Linked to Song on a Blog Post goes to the following, for being almost the same as the title of a Channel 4 comedy series (albeit not Friends. There are millions of songs with "friends" in the title though, right?).

Sleeper - Inbetweener mp3

9 comments:

Mick said...

Apparently Channel 4 is “undergoing a period of creative renewal” but if you dig a little deeper in turns out they were outbid for Friends by Comedy Central.

dickvandyke said...

Does anyone recall enjoying Brookside at its very best in the 80s?

Oh, and is the judge about to don the black cap as he passes the sentence of death?

Kippers said...

Ahh, outbid by Comedy Central eh? I might have known.

I loved Brookside in the 80s. Barry, Terry, Pat and the nurses, Bobby & Sheila Grant, Damon & Debbie, Paul and Annabel Collins. Billy Corkhill, Rod the Plod. Happy days (wait, that was another show entirely). I'd certainly watch that if they repeated it from the start.

The judge'll just have to wait and see what decision we come to first! We should be deliberating any day now.

adam said...

'From Friday October 12th, life on Brookside Close will never be the same again'. That was Barry meeting Sue + baby on top of the scaffolding, for the last time. Wasn't Brookie great? I think things went south when Barry walked off, and they gave Max and Bob that ridiculous shop to run, and then ther were lots more deaths...

I was watching some of GBH this week (it's all on 4OD, y'know) and with the amount of serious quality stuff online (like, properly online) I'm amazed anyone gets around to actually watching the telly anymore.

Is there a crown court in Sarfend or are you having to travel to somewhere like Colchester? Have I got my Kippers geography right? I was in s on sea in december, that day when the snow went crazy and it took us two hours to do the first hundred miles and then another two and a half to do the last ten miles to the crematorium (it was one of 'those' days). I used to work in a court an hour or two north of you and spent many a happy lunchhour using a space jury room as a staff canteen.

Quality song, btw.

adam said...

That's 'spare' jury room. A 'space' jury room is something I have yet to experience.

Word veri is 'bolitedd', a phrase that may have passed between Barry and Terry in that episode on the beach...

Kippers said...

I watched GBH for the first time a couple of years ago. Brilliant stuff. I wonder what Degsy Hatton made of it all?

I think it must've been about 1994 when I stopped watching Brookside. It had had a good run though. Remember Little Jimmy Corkhill? One of my longest-standing internet friends, the bloke who played him.

I'm not in Sarfend or Colchester. You're not a million miles off though adam!

adam said...

Little Jimmy Corkhill? You mean Ziggy from Grange Hill, surely?

I think degsy just liked the publicity - there is a quote from him about it somewhere - he doesn't mind as long as the actor playing 'him' is handsome

Kippers said...

Quite right - he'll always be Ziggy to those of us of a certain age! He's a regular in our Group of Death Fantasy football league too, by the way.

Ross said...

Did you know that The Simpsons has never been off the air since it started here in 1990? It's now on pretty much every night of the week.