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Bristol Post
Bristol Post
Entertainment
William Morgan

BBC TV line-up turns Christmas day into groundhog day with the same shows as last year

The BBC has come under fire after releasing their Christmas day TV schedule - and it's identical to last year's.

Relatives falling into a sherry-induced sleep may wake up and think the past year was just a dream when they see a Strictly Come Dancing special followed by Michael McIntyre's Christmas Wheel and Blankety Blank.

In fact, from 5pm to midnight, the only sign on BBC One that a year has passed would be that Vicar of Dibley is on 15 minutes earlier than the previous year.

Read more: Huge 999 response after van with gas cylinders bursts into flames - residents evacuated

It is not just the schedule either, across all terrestrial channels, it is estimated that a third of television being broadcast between December 18 and New Year's Eve will be a repeat from a previous year.

On BBC Two, that number jumps to a whopping 75 per cent of programming being rehashed from another year.

Some of the other perennial TV classics being broadcast by the BBC include: The Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise and Dad's Army.

The films it will show over the festive period include Frozen, Paddington and Finding Dory.

Over on ITV, there will be Santa Claus: The Movie, Love Actually, and Bond movie Spectre.

This has prompted television critics to re-dub Christmas day as Groundhog Day, after the film where the protagonist has to relive the same day over and over.

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