TFI Friday doesn’t look like returning, as Chris Evans focuses on Top Gear

​There are apparently ‘no plans’ for TFI Friday to return again. Back in September, Chris Evans announced he was going to quit the Channel 4 show after this year’s comeback series to focus on his new-look ​Top Gear​ for the BBC. “This is the long goodbye,” he revealed at the time. 

However, it now looks like the latest 10 episodes are all you’re going to see of the popular show with any presenter for the foreseeable future. PA reports that despite some ‘preliminary conversations’ there are ‘timing difficulties’ preventing any more TFI. 

Top Gear returns to screens on May 5, 2016.​ Elsewhere, former hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond’s new motoring series will air on Amazon with a reported budget of £160 million.

Believe it or not, more than 9,000 households in the UK watched their telly this Christmas on black-and-white TVs. 

Although Britain completed the digital switchover a few years ago and most people now watch TV in HD or through tablets and smartphones, it’s been revealed that there are still 9,356 black-and-white licences across the UK. 

The amount of black-and-white licences issued is gradually declining year after year, though. 

There were as many as 212,000 in 2000, with that number shrinking to 93,000 in 2003 and 50,000 in 2006.  Jason Hill, spokesperson for TV Licensing, said: “It’s astounding that more than 9,000 households still watch on a black-and-white telly, especially now that over half of homes access TV content over the internet, on smart TVs.”  

Television and radio technology historian Jeffrey Borinsky explained that black-and-white viewers just aren’t ready to make the change to colour yet. “There are hundreds of collectors like myself who have many black-and-white TVs; some of them are purists who won’t have this new-fangled colour TV in the house,” he said. TOP 10: 1. London – 2,222. 2. Birmingham – 429. 3. Manchester – 313. 4. Glasgow – 193. 5. Leeds – 151. 6. Liverpool – 145. 7. Nottingham – 123. 8. Belfast – 100. 9. Sheffield – 89. 10. Bristol – 85.

Aside from the nostalgia factor, there is one major advantage to having a black-and-white TV: it’s cheaper. The ‘mono licence’ remains frozen at £49 until next year’s BBC Charter Review, while a colour licence costs £145.50.

If you would like me to answer any questions you may have on satellite TV or to expand on anything I have written about please call me on 678 332 815 or email richard@europa-digital.com I look forward to your comments and questions. 

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