So, “Dave”, Then.

I think we can be fairly certain that naming their new digital TV station “Dave” has earned UKTV some valuable publicity, but… “Dave”? I’m not sold that this is a wise decision. Once you get over the novelty factor, it just feels a little irritating to have the name staring out at you from the top left-hand corner of the screen. Creepy, even. So, what’s going on here, then? The UKTV stable has been one of the mainstays of the Freeview era since the government decided to do away with the analogue signal. UKTV History, on Channel 12, was one of its longest-serving residents.

Initially, it did very much as it said on the tin – all day historical documentaries. It wasn’t afraid to be highbrow – Jeremy Isaacs’ seminal “The World At War” and his criminally overlooked follow-up, “Cold War” were both shown in their entirety – but, as time wore on, it’s scheduling became more and more fractured. Dramas such as “Sharpe” started appearing in the evening schedules, along with the likes of Tony Robinson’s twee archaeological series “Time Team”. The documentaries that they were showing seemed to be limited to one subject: “World War II”. When a friend of mine was forced out of work for a year by a spinal injury, his first comment to me upon finally coming back to work was that he was now one of the world’s leading authorities on “Nazis and dolphins” – a comment on the output of daytime television.

So, UKTV History bit the dust, and Dave has come along to take its place. It describes itself as “the home of witty banter” and, whilst “banter” is one of those words that I really, really dislike,  the roster of programmes that they have managed to get the rights to isn’t that bad, featuring old episodes of “Top Gear” (a programme which is, let’s face it, Britain’s secret guilty pleasure), very old episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, and other BBC panel shows of yesteryear, such as “Have I Got News For You?”, “Never Mind The Buzzcocks”, “QI” and “A Question Of Sport”, as well as mainstream comedies such as “Little Britain” and “The Catherine Tate Show”. I was a little irked by their announcer recently confirming that they will be holding a “Catherine Tate Weekend” this weekend – I’m not a fan of Tate and the idea of entire weekends of themed programmes seems to me to be one that will only drive audiences down, as all but the most hardcore of fans (who, one would assume, already own all of Ms Tate’s work on DVD and therefore have the option to watch it at their leisure without commercial breaks) – but the early signs are encouraging. A television station for people that don’t want to watch trash is a novel concept in the modern televisual environment.

Having said that, though, the jury is still out on Dave. Firstly, that name has to go. Secondly, only time will tell whether their budget will support a decent breadth of programming. It’s all very well throwing these treats at us for the first few weeks on air, but will they have the courage of their convictions if the audience figures are sluggish, or will the definition of “witty banter” be stretched to breaking point in the same way as the definition of “historical programming” was on UKTV History when ratings started to fall there. I shall watch with considerable interest.