Topic: Vicar of Dibley tops (UK) Christmas TV

[Simon]

Vicar of Dibley tops Christmas TV

Dawn French's sitcom The Vicar of Dibley scored the highest ratings of any TV programme in the UK on Christmas Day, according to overnight estimates.

The BBC One show was seen by 11.4m viewers, compared to 10.7m for the last episode of an EastEnders double bill.

Coronation Street was third, followed by the first half of EastEnders.

The BBC's Doctor Who and Little Britain Abroad were next, but ITV1's main drama - Doc Martin - attracted only 5.3m viewers and failed to make the top 10.

CHRISTMAS DAY FIGURES
1. The Vicar of Dibley (11.4m)
2. EastEnders part two (10.7m, pictured)
3. Coronation Street (9.6m)
4. EastEnders part one (9.2m)
5. Doctor Who (8.7m)
6. Little Britain Abroad (8.4m)
7. The Queen's Christmas Message (7.6m*)
8. Strictly Come Dancing Special (7.3m)
9. Emmerdale (7.2m)
10. Strictly Come Dancing Preview (6.8m)
* BBC One and ITV1 combined
Source: BARB

These initial figures do not include viewers who recorded the programmes to watch at a later date, meaning the actual audiences are likely to be higher when the final totals are released.

The Vicar of Dibley, screened at 2130 GMT, saw romance in the air for French's chocoholic character, Geraldine Granger.

And her colleague Alice - played by Emma Chambers - became convinced she was the last living descendant of Jesus after supposedly deciphering the clues in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code.

EastEnders concluded with the departure of actress Wendy Richard, who had played Pauline Fowler since the soap began in 1985.

The double bill was spread across the evening, with the first half at 1830 GMT and the concluding half-hour from 2100 GMT.

It beat an hour-long edition ITV1 soap Coronation Street, which saw a highly-charged Christmas lunch in the Platt household.

The highest-rated non-terrestrial programme was BBC Three's late-night sketch show Chrissytittybangbang, with 626,000 viewers.

However, it was only 1,000 viewers ahead of the main afternoon film on Sky Movies 1, The Chronicles of Narnia.

Last year's top Christmas Day programme was EastEnders, which achieved an average audience of 10.1m.

Doctor Who and Coronation Street tied for second place in 2005, each scoring 9.8m.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/6209697.stm

[Camstop]

I enjoyed strictly come dancing and the vicar of Dibley best 

[mistybear]

For a number of years The Vicar of Dibley was shown here around christmas, either on the ABC or Pay TV.
I became used to it being on that now it doesn't feel like christmas if it's not. We had Ad Fab. instead, no where near as funny.

[Sandra]

Looks like they are all crap to me 

I did record Dr. Who to watch later but so far theres been nothing really that I thought was good TV over the last week.
Shawshank Redemption is on Film 4 tonight at 9pm and Pirates of the Caribbean on BBC 1 at 7-30pm but I have seen both of those too many times to watch them again.

The only thing that may be worth watching for me is on C5 at 7-15pm and thats really a kids show, The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
They are usually very well presented but sometimes oversimplified, afterall it is really for children, but I sometimes learn something interesting that I didnt know 

Looks like its either something I have recorded or browse the satellites for tonights viewing for me.

[Clive]

For the first year ever, I didn't watch a single programme on TV in Christmas Day.  I looked at the listings and there was absolutely nothing of interest.  I like the Vicar of Dibley and it will be shown on satellite dozens of times during the next few months so I should get a chance to see it then.  Christmas is without doubt the time of year when the TV companies throw in the towel and don't bother to come up with any new ideas.