No wonder we need Netflix

Bluebell and Lucca. OK there is nothing for you for Friday but why does all TV have to be watched live? The play back sites offer so much more.

Take All4 for example
Documentaries 512 shows
Drama 230
Comedy 269
Lifestyle 211
World Drama 78
Films 60
News and Current Affairs 47
Sport 30 My DH watched an Extreme Sport programme tonight. He wishes he could be 20 again!

There could be something amongst all the above that you would like to watch on Friday.

For those that can afford monthly subscriptions for Netflix, Amazon, Sky etc then, yes, they do have a wide choice. Over half of UK households are signed up to at least one streaming service. Millions spend £100s/year on digital TV subscriptions.

I have enjoyed watching Netflix but I do find much of the content is pitched at the 20-50 age bracket. When my daughter has watched The Queen's Gambit, I'm cancelling my subscription. My daughter sends me the extra I pay for her to watch. I did use quite a lot from March - September but then hardly anything, except the new series of The Crown.

Dianamo makes a very good point about nearly all new programmes not being able to be recorded during this difficult year. There are two series, I am a huge fan of, currently being recorded to be released next year.

I very rarely make it to the end of any programme without nodding off. That’s why I’m quite happy with repeats.

I sympathise with the problems they are having with the virus, but the BBC and ITV both have a massive backlog of good drama to draw on, things we haven't seen for 20 years or more. There was a great deal of period drama too, Dickens, Thomas Hardy etc. People want some escapism in these gloomy days.
Remember 'The Riff Raff Element'? I so longed to see that again I had to buy it on DVD and it was just as brilliant as I remember.

Perhaps you are forgetting what's been going on this year.

No - how could we!
But DH now has to pay for a TV licence again for endless uninspiring repeats.
There must be something better in the archives.

Oh yes, we watched the Elizabethans. Well, most of it ???
(Not because it was boring)

Did anyone find Corrie a bit crazy last night. The long running domestic abuse story line reached its climax. It has been really well portrayed all this time and then in the climax they seemed to lose the plot.

The final scene on the roof was laughable. Especially when Aliyah popped up through the skylight window and joined them after her state of unconsciousness. The house must have been ablaze beneath them after scary Geoff’s antics with the lighter fuel and matches.

Great acting from Geoff, he was seriously intimidating and scary. I wonder if we’ve finally seen the last of him.

Andrew Marr’s new series The Elizabethans is very good. And I found a sweet little two part rom com on catchup the other night but can’t remember what it was called. I’m quite happy watching BBC4 most of them time and we keep coming across really good documentaries on Ch5.

Perhaps you are forgetting what's been going on this year. The UK terrestrial channels are trying hard to produce interesting programmes in the current crisis. It must be difficult to keep to the distancing rules and so on.

Tv tonight was awful, we couldn’t find anything decent, We have a free months trial with Amazon video and found a great film. Called Fisherman’s Friends. Absolutely brilliant with wonderful scenes in Port Isaac,
We also share Netflix thankfully. Queens Gambit , The Crown , Emily in Paris have all kept us entertained,
Christmas Day tv looks abysmal ,

Try looking at BBC IPlayer. I like legal and crime dramas and there are dozens which are accessible for a year. Many of them have gone on to Netflix, such as Luther.

BBC 4regularly has good music programmes.

Sky Arts is now free. A lot of it is biogs of actors and singers but there is an interesting series about contemporary architecture and broadcasts of opera, dance and drama sometimes. PBS America has interesting history programmes. A good series about the Plantagenets recently.

We have Netflix too but I am often hard pushed to find anything interesting. There seems to be a lot of series about young people and the supernatural both of which don't appeal to me.

Lucca I think your post was spot on and it’s the first year I have resented paying my licence fee

Yes, I said that too.

We're paying good money for someone to sit in a darkened room and broadcast us old videos from the BBC basement.

Yes, I said Netflix very loudly a couple of times this evening as Kevin McLoud revisited another grand design for the sixth time.

I did have a new pattern to work out and fell asleep

I agree, there was nothing that appealed; then I found the film 'Gifted' on Film 4.
I enjoyed it and so did DH, I think.
Lindsey Duncan was in it, but it took me a while to fathom who it was.
Nice, easy, watching.

There is zilch to watch on the tv channels tonight woodmouse and tomorrow night apart from good old Corrie which is totally daft but I keep watching
There was simply nothing on tonight that remotely appeals to me I have seen all the dramas you mention apart from two which don’t appeal I don’t like cookery programmes
Most programmes on there are repeats, reality or cookery and yes they are dire for me I m glad they are not for you but Lucca I think your post was spot on and it’s the first year I have resented paying my licence fee

Woodmouse. I’m glad for you ! I just looked tonight and there was so much about food and the same faces ...how many programmes with greg wallace? !
I sometimes watch repair shop but fund it a bit tear jerky...”how do you feel etc etc.
Anyway each to his own eh

Now I'm watching " The Nanny "---Bette Davis. I don't think I should be watching it so close to my bedtime

We’ve stopped paying our license fee.
90% of our viewing is Netflix, Sky or Amazon.

I've got Poirot on ITV3.

Sorry but I do disagree. Even though my daughter and granddaughter share my Netflix, I watched quite a lot when I first had it (March 2020) but far less these days.

Bluebell You say there's zilch to watch. You can access all the free channels and play back ones.

There's so much on iPlayer, ITV Hub, On Demand 4 and My5. I'm spoilt for choice. I don't watch any soaps or game shows on terrestrial TV but do watch most cooking and gardening programmes.

Recent viewings I have loved:
Grayson's Art Club, Bake Off, Gogglebox, Yorkshire Vet, The Repair Shop and great dramas such as Liar, Flesh and Blood, Roadkill, Us, His Dark Materials and Des. Need to know more?

I don't call any of these dire "Lucca*

My family quit cable 5 years ago.

Streaming services are the way to go.

Best decision ever.

I do agree! We have Netflix courtesy of our son.

I took up the offer of one month's free deliveries from Amazon at the beginning of lockdown and then carried on with it subscribing monthly once I found out what Prime had to offer in the way of viewing.

It's all pretty dire over on mainstream, although I do watch some stuff on BBC I Player from time to time.

we got netflix at the beginning of lockdown as an add on to our sky package it only costs us £2 extra & I'm so glad we did .I can always find something to watch now

We don't have anyone to share ours with, and it's still a bargain.

We share our Netflix account with 2DD’s.
It’s a bargain.

Yes it’s very very dire isn’t it
Ages ago my daughter told me I could share her Netflix and I didn’t bother but I think I might just say yes now every night gives me complete zilch