BBC pledges fewer Christmas TV repeats

It’s an accusation aired as regularly as the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Specials – the BBC is filling its seasonal schedules with a record number of repeats.

So this year the corporation has issued a pre-emptive attack by claiming that it will screen fewer repeats this Christmas and deliver more original programming than rival channels.

Last year the BBC engaged in a furious row with tabloid newspapers when it denied claims that 63 per cent of the programmes aired last Christmas were repeats.

Ahead of this year’s “repeats story”, due tomorrow, Mark Linsey, Acting Director of Television, said at the BBC’s Christmas drinks: “We are still finalising our schedules, but I can promise you that in BBC One peak time more than 90 per cent of programmes will be brand new.”

BBC sources indicated that this year BBC One will have fewer repeats in the peak hours between 6pm and 10.30pm. “That’s the place where people traditionally come together and where we unashamedly focus our resources. We will have fewer repeats than previous years and fewer than other channels,” the source said.

Mr Linsey, head of Entertainment Commissioning, who is performing the Director of Television role following the departure of Danny Cohen, said “no-one invests as much in original programming over Christmas as the BBC. I think this is an impressive commitment, not least given the BBC is facing unprecedented financial pressure and is in the process of saving £1.6 bn. These cuts will make the challenge even more difficult in future, but we will always try to offer our best shows in Christmas peak time.”

However Mr Linsey’s claim that “more than 90% of programmes will be brand new” over Christmas was itself a repeat of the same statistic issued by the BBC in 2014.

The executive defended the significant number of repeats the BBC will show over the holiday period. “Many people appreciate - or even expect - a chance to watch old favourites again,” Mr Linsey said. “Five million tuned in to a repeat of Mrs Brown’s Boys last year and we shouldn’t forget that online video streaming services that are growing so rapidly right now mainly offer programmes from the archive. So we should make no apology for giving viewers another chance to watch some classic BBC programmes and modern family favourites again, as long as they are used carefully and offered alongside a distinctive mix of new programmes, like we have this Christmas. I’m sure we all agree that no one minds seeing some things again, given that the same headlines about Christmas repeats on TV appear in the press every year.”

Mr Linsey defended the BBC’s entertainment output from critics, including the Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, who has called for more “distinctiveness” and fewer shows which ape rival commercial formats. “The truth is that some of the claims made against us during Charter Review are, like the Christmas board game, Balderdash,” Mr Linsey said.

“They are sometimes motivated by commercial imperatives, rather than the interest of viewers. They sometimes deliberately overlook that our mission has always been to entertain, as well as inform and educate. Our channels are hugely distinctive and that is an all-year-round commitment – not just for Christmas.”

Mr Linsey cited Dickensian, a 20-part drama “mash-up”, uniting Dickens’ most popular characters on one cobbled street, which will be the highlight of the BBC1 festive schedule as well as a new David Attenborough natural history series on the Great Barrier Reef.