Category: Â鶹Éç
FOUR
Date: 04.04.2005
Printable version
Viewers vote the Seventies to be the best
TV decade
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The Quatermass Experiment, part of
Â鶹Éç FOUR's TV On Trial season, achieved the highest
viewing figures for an origination on the channel in the past 12 months
when it aired live on Saturday (2 April) with a peak of 524,000 viewers.
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It was the most watched programme in that time slot
across all the non-terrestrial channels and is the second highest performing
origination in the channel's history, beaten only by the acclaimed Alan
Clark Diaries starring John Hurt.
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And, in the live TV On Trial final on Sunday (3 April),
Â鶹Éç FOUR viewers proclaimed the Seventies to be the golden age of television.
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With 31 per cent of the vote, the decade that brought
us Fawlty Towers, The World At War, Ascent of Man and Upstairs Downstairs
claimed a clear victory.
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More than 12,500 viewers voted in total via email, text and
phone.
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TV On Trial invited the Great British public to vote
for their favourite decade of television.
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Throughout last week, Â鶹Éç FOUR broadcast some of the
outstanding programmes of the past six decades.
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Each night was introduced by two prominent broadcasting
figures - one a champion, the other a critic of the featured decade.
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A highlight of the week was a live two-hour adaptation
of classic Fifties series The Quatermass Experiment, starring Jason
Flemyng as the eponymous lead with Mark Gatiss
and David Tennant also featuring.
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On the Seventies winning, writer Alan Coren, who championed
the decade during the Trial, said: "It's great. It's all about lovability
- you simply can't vote against the likes of Fawlty Towers or Ronnie
Barker.
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"The Seventies was the Elizabethan age for sitcoms
and comedy and it's never been better.
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"The standard of writing in television comedy was
as good as it ever was and probably ever will be."
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Janice Hadlow, Controller of Â鶹Éç FOUR, said: "I'm delighted
that viewers engaged in TV On Trial. It was a departure for the channel
and combined with the fantastic live production of The Quatermass Experiment
was a true televisual treat."
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Visit bbc.co.uk/bbcfour for the full results and to
take a trip down memory lane by watching classic archive clips from
programmes including Dixon of Dock Green, Blackadder, Quatermass II,
Crackerjack, The Forsyte Saga, Are You Being Served?, The Fall and Rise
of Reginald Perrin and Our Friends In The North, to name but a few.
