not a jazzy, funky or sexy topic, but it's been bugging me a while now so had to put it somewhere, and may spark a mini debate or disappear without trace...

my question is: are ITV normalising 'murder'.

i find ITV's scheduling intriguing and a little worrying. they seem to be positioning themselves as 'the murders channel', and it wouldn't feel so bad if it wasn't all the way through the daytime slots usually (and on ITV itself, previously) reserved as 'children's tv'.

weekday afternoons we have Murder She Wrote, Midsomer Murders, and Rosemary & Thyme! four hours of murders (happy Bank Holidays y'all!).

weekends we have more Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Lewis, more Midsomer Murders and the saturday afternoon film (yep, Death On The Nile; Murder On The Orient Express, The Mirror Cracked etc).

i've noticed it over the last year, and it just seems to be becoming stronger as a theme in the scheduling for this particular channel. i know there's a million channels now, and people have option to turn over etc, and to be fair, ITV has brought us the mighty Prime Suspect, Cracker and Scott & Bailey (yep, the mid-evening slot is also 'murders time'!

and what i'm not prescribing by alternative is what we have to look forward to from ITV in the name of 'early evening light entertainment' are programmes that could be best described as brash, void of any class or intelligence, immature - that shout at us for attention; patronise us and are scripted / edited / story-boarded in a way that would make Enid Blyton proud.

rant over - must go, Murder She Wrote has just started...

I used to like 'Hart to Hart'.

But that was about 'moider.'

Yeah, depressing trend in tv generally. I find it quite bizarre that a non stop stream of death in day time is perfectly acceptable but if you showed a hint of nudity there would presumably be howls of anguish from parents ( and The Daily Fail) saying "think of the children..!!" American tv is even worse in this hypocrisy.

I will never EVER understand that murder, guns, violence and gore are all absolutely fine on TV and considered normal daytime viewing but showing an erect penis, or a couple having sex is not.

I guess is that it is about the level of violence shown.

In "Rosemary & Midsomer Murder She Wrote" etc there tends to be very little actual violence & gore on screen but rather it is referred to.

I think Broadcasters would have a hard time if they tried to show more graphic scenes during the day.

Well at least the murderer is always found so showing crime doesn't pay. Always loved Hart to Hart when allowed to watch it as it was on late; bought seasons 1 and 2 but no more were released