26/12/2012

From the Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise to the Royle Family and the battle of the soaps, Steve Hewlett unpicks the dark arts of festive TV scheduling. From the executives who make up programme titles to fool their rivals to the search for the perfect sitcom to suit all the family on Christmas night, he asks industry experts to reveal the tricks of the trade. His guests include David Liddiment, independent producer, former director of ITV Programmes and now a BBC Trustee; former scheduler Stephen Price and Lisa Campbell, editor of Broadcast magazine. He is also joined by Sir David Jason the star of one of the most successful and long-running sitcoms, Only Fools and Horses. Sir David describes working on the Christmas editions and how his inspiration for Del Boy Trotter was a man from London's Eastend who he met while working as an electrician.