BBC 2 and its double are the last bastions of hope for a lot of viewers on a Saturday night who want something more than soma.
The fact that the schedule this particular Saturday night contains three and a half hours (that’s THREE AND A HALF HOURS) of sweating fat blokes throwing darts at a dart board in front a leery beery crowd of gormless monsters of both sexes fills me with despair.
Good job I have a movie lined up. How the freaking heck can the BBC justify this?
“We still have sport at the BBC.
OK, it’s sport that no-one else wants. And it’s not really sport.
But we’ve GOT IT. In your face, Rupert so-called Murdoch!!!”
There will be some darts fans absolutely glued to it, no doubt. Some of them will head to the pub afterwards, for a game of darts.
My TV has not been switched on today, yet.
Well I’m not even in the UK and I’m going to make a point not to watch it.
I had an evening alone so I watched the Grateful Dead documentary on Amazon Prime. Much better than darts.
Now if it had been 3 hrs of the “Duke Of Earl” hitmakers………
You’re thinking of the 1978 TOTP repeats, dude.
Three and a half hours of sweating fat blokes? Jeez, it’s not opera again? Let’s have some darts for heaven’s sake.
If only we lived in a multichannel world and have unlimited choice on a variety of streaming services. Then we can forever be rid of having to watch darts.
Have an Up, sir.
If only we were all ubanites with access to sufficient broadband to stream television programmes and movies.
If only we were all either prepared to pay Murdoch for satellite broadcasting or stump up for the kit to get Freesat.
If only we could get rid of all the annoying people who rely upon terrestrial broadcasting and pay for a Television Licence in order to fund the public service channels to which they subsequently feel some entitlement and to which they look for a balanced set of viewing options on a fucking Saturday night.
The slowest broadband in the U.K. is the Orkneys with average 6.3Mbps downstream. My mum and dad have friends in Orkney who watch Netflix. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sorry Bob, but that’s utterly wrong. There are oodles of places in the UK where the achievable speed is nowhere near that figure.
¬0({/_~V-
I’m a semi-urbanite, living 20 miles from the centre of London and I have no terrestrial TV signal whatsoever in my ground floor flat. The block is surrounded by other blocks and has no roof aerial. Individual external aerials are not permitted. Therefore no BT TV or Freeview. My TV options for the foreseeable future are paying Virgin Media (already cable-connected), paying Sky (communal dish on roof, not yet wired to my flat) and subscribing to online services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
I do have reliable and moderately fast fibre-optic broadband.
I have a very basic Virgin Media subscription and pay my TV license. Darts on TV at Saturday prime time does not annoy me at all. The very little TV I watch lately tends to be on the BBC iPlayer online. The nice TV I bought a few years ago is just gathering dust. The number of evenings it’s been switched on this year so far may well be a single figure.
Pathetic programming.
I am off to watch the Kate Bush doc on the iPlayer.
Still only 3 channels in the UK? That’s disappointing.
There are three channels now!?
Witchery!!!
Well, you all voted for Thatcher, Major, Cameron and May. Market forces have decided that BBC2 can only afford to show darts. Never mind, Abigail’s Party, the Singing Detective and Boys from the Black Stuff is probably available on You Tube.
This is the future predicted by Orwell. A world where language is mangled, where perpetual warfare is waged on distant, undefined enemies. The population is drugged into compliance via alcohol and antidepressants. I’m joking, of course. Or am I?
I didn’t vote for any of those cretins, and I still hate TV darts.
This is actually the golden age of television. There’s not enough time to watch all the good stuff.
Indeed it is. Embarrassment of riches. Those e celebrated programmes of the past were made over a period of decades. Look at a typical Radio Times listing for an evening of BBC fare in the 70s say, and you’ll usually find a schedule of tedium.
Most of the better programmes are on subscription services rather than free to air broadcasts.
Most of the great Scandinavian stuff is on FTA, I also give you Top of the Lake, Fri evenings music on BBC4, The Handmade’s Tale, Line of Duty etc. Plus world class darts!!
Back to the 80s?
A time when Michael Grade’s programming policy was to fill the schedule with 23 hours of snooker
Bloody love the darts. Used to enjoy darts chat with Patrick Crowther back in the day on The Word Blog (anyone know where he is these days?) It’s a hugely popular event enjoyed by thousands across Europe. Give it a go, you might even enjoy it. “Oh Michael Van Gerwen……”
You’re worse than Hitler.
At darts? Didn’t know he played
HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuundert-ACHT-zig!!
I wonder what his walk on music would be? Adolf “Mein Fuhrer” Hitler “Rule The World”?
or….
Suede’s Europe Is our Playground
The Fall’s Room To Live
Gang of Four’s Guns Before Butter
`Sweating fat blokes playing darts`, that`s the fault of the thin dry blokes who were not good enough to qualify. I wonder if the TV programming had scheduled the proms or ballet there would have been such howling and growling from you stuck-up SOBs.
It`s Phillip K. Dick for me at 21:15, I`m fast-reversing to catch up, now that sounds a bit Sci-Fi.