The channel everyone thought was pants just got a bit of a tune-up! (BBC Three)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	BBC Three
Date:	04/06/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The recent relaunch has shaken things up a bit and schedules are less-filed with dross.

Disadvantages: Constant repeats can get tiresome and the same Family Guy episodes can be shown 4 times a week!

With the launch of the Digital age, The British Broadcasting Corporation has had to move with the times in order to keep up; especially with increasing concerns over how licence payers money is continually being spent. There are many, in fact, who believe the T.V licence as it stands should be altogether scrapped. With this in mind, The BBC have done their best to cater to their increasingly younger audience needs with the introduction of BBC3 and to their older more niche audience bracket with the slightly less mainstream channel, BBC4.

Recently, amidst steadily decreasing rating figures, the BBC have relaunched and rebranded BBC3 and this seems to have proved an moderate initial success. For too long, BBC3 had recently become something of a joke channel with little programming of any real substance; programmes seemed aimed at the lowest possible class of viewer with much emphasis on dumbing down and with only a few stand-out shows amongst constant repeats of Eastenders and crass comedy show, Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps which semed on a continual loop. With it's relaunch, The BBC have attempted, and at first glance succeeded to some extent, to make the channel more respectable and to closer resemble BBC2 as was- which is to say the home of experimental cult comedy which may not quite warrant a place on their main BBC1 channel due to it's very niche audience appeal. BBC2 still hosts cult comedy shows, last years Lab Rats being a very fine and excellent example, but BBC3 now shows a vaster majority and only those who do exceptionally well there, such as Ideal starring Johnny Vegas, then make the move to terrestial television for wider audiences who may not yet have embraced the modern Digital age. And believe it or not there are still some of them out there!

Of course, that is not to say that BBC3 doesn't still have more than it's fair share of lowest common denominator shows, posed as "proper" documentaries- shows such as Snog, Marry, Avoid, Bizarre E.R or Freaky Eaters spring to mind, the kind of shows you only watch after returning from the pub and which become compulsive viewing simply because they are sooo bad- but there also seems to be an attempt now to produce decent hard-hitting shows also. A recent documentary looking at Paul Gasgoine's daughter was a very fine example of BBC3 getting the balance just right. Given a mock autopsy to determine her body age after years of partying, getting drunk and general misbehaviour, Bianca Gasgoine was then given advice on how to alter her life-style in order to lessen the damage her wild nights were inflicting on her organs before following her around with a camera to watch her progress. What could have been a tacky show ended up being a very moving and interesting piece which also gave the viewing public a real insight into the girl behind the tabloid head-lines! Another recent show followed Radio One D.J Fearn Cotton as she looked at how easy it was to access anoxeria-support groups on-line which give sufferers worrying advice on how best to avoid eating meals. Once again, this was another documentary that actually managed to prove a quite high-level show highlighting a very serious message. And by being shown on Digital BBC3, it also managed to reach a target audience that may well have tuned it out on the Corporation's main broadcasting channel!

Of course, BBC3 is still best known however for it's comedy; recent Sketch show, The Wrong Door was a bit hit and miss at times but still entertained and Ideal has recently returned for what I believe is it's fifth season. Sunday nights see brand new episodes of Family Guy, always a winner in my household, with repeated episodes from all seasons every night during the week. Don't fancy that? Well there's always American Dad and, though it's not to my taste due mainly to it's increasingly more and more crude humour that has long lost any interest from me, Two Pints is still running with a new season currently being filmed as we speak. Actually Two Pints for me sums up everything that was and still is bad about this channel- it's jokes are just pure, constant smut with very little substance and the characters so paper-thin that I satruggle to see the appeal- but I know it has it's fans and it really does take all sorts to make up a demographic audience.

Overall, BBC3 isn't a bad channel that has certainly improved of late with it's sligtly higher level of programming. It's still best watched only if you miss Eastenders and don't have BBC I-Player or if you have just returened from a night out with mates and the constant repeats of programmes until the early hours of the morning can annoy though it does make the shows very difficult to miss so that is also an advantage! But a relaunch and rebranding was certainly long-needed and now watching the channel feels more like entering a room that smells fresh from a recent spring-cleaning rather than a musty old attic that is only visited when you remember you last left Grandma up there six months before!

If you've not watched it recently, give it another go.....

Summary: A not bad channel that has ever-so-slightly improved in recent months and is home to cult viewing