Barcroft (TV series)

Barcroft is a Euro Republican soap opera set in Belton, Euro Republics. The series began on the launch night of TV3 on 15 April 1989 and ran for 30 years until 23 October 2020. It is based on Brookside & EastEnders.

Barcroft became very successful and was often TV3's highest rated programme for a number of years in the mid-1990s, with audiences regularly in excess of eleven million viewers. It is notable for its realistic and socially challenging storylines as well as raising more controversial subjects than it’s ETV rival River Road. It is especially well known for broadcasting the first daytime show to include lesbian kiss on ER television in 1994, as well as a powerful domestic abuse storyline resulting in murder.

Scheduling
At its launch in 1989, Barcroft was broadcast at 7:30pm, although some episodes would occasionally be shown at 8 pm or after for scheduling reasons. This included the first episode, a one hour special, which aired at 9pm.

During weekdays, Barcroft was always broadcast from 7:30 pm, originally on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with a few special five-nighters, with these episodes always airing Monday to Friday.

On 1 July 1990, as ratings increased, Barcroft gained a fourth weekly episode, which saw a regular broadcast pattern of Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 7:30 pm. The serial's timeslot was far more consistent in the early 1990s, however, from the mid-1990s, the schedules did keep changing. In 1994, when ETV’s Highway To Haven Road started broadcasting four nights a week, the third weekly episodes was broadcast every Monday at 7:30 pm, which clashed with Barcroft. This forced TV3 to move Barcroft to Wednesdays at 7:30 pm (initially up against Prime's Family Lives until it’s cancellation in 1995). It stayed this way for many years.

In 2005, as part of a schedule reshuffle that saw extended youth programmes until 8 pm, Barcroft was moved to a 1:30 pm time slot, 2 days a week, Tuesday & Thursday, alternating with Coronation Street.

In 2019, when it was announced the show was being cancelled, it’s producers chose to move the show to a late-night time slot to allow swearing, sex and violent scenes on the show.

United Kingdom
In the UK, the series was originally screened on various regions of the ITV network from 1992 to 2008, with many regions airing it to replace the lunchtime showing of Home and Away. From 5 January 1992, Granada were the first ITV region to screen the soap, beginning in an afternoon timeslot, 15:20–15:50 as a lead-in to children's programmes. However, in September 1993, CITV was moved to 3:30pm, so Barcroft was moved to an hour earlier at 14:25.

TSW briefly aired Barcroft from September to December 1992, with Westcountry opting to not show Barcroft.

Granada was joined by newcomers Carlton Television in January 1993, who initially aired it at the same time as Granada. Central become the third region to start the series in March 1993 at 14:50-15:20, followed by Shortland Street. Carlton dropped the show in 1996, citing low ratings.

Scottish began to broadcast Barcroft in an early evening slot in February 1994 but moved it to a pre-CITV slot in September 1994, due to low ratings.

From May 1994, Border started showing the series as a replacement for A Country Practice, broadcast in the afternoons at their own pace in various daytime slots. In January 1995, Tyne Tees and Yorkshire started the series in a 2:20pm timeslot. In 2000, Granada, Yorkshire and Tyne Tees moved Barcroft to an early evening slot to replace Home and Away. A few months later, this moved to a networked 17:30 timeslot.

Grampian also started the series in 1994 but it was dropped by 2002. HTV started the series in September 1995, mostly in an afternoon slot but also in an early evening slot for a short time.

From January 2003, the Carlton-owned ITV franchises including Central Television, Westcountry, HTV and Carlton-London networked Shortland Street in an afternoon slot, 14:30–15:00, Monday to Wednesday, with a Thursday episode added a few months later. A special programme was aired (presented by stalwart Shortland Street cast members Michael Galvin (Chris Warner) and Angela Bloomfield (Rachel McKenna)) re-introducing viewers from Westcountry and Carlton-London to the show.

In September 2004, Barcroft aired in a networked 20:30 slot on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, before ITV axed the show in January 2008 to make room for 3 extra episodes of Coronation Street. ITV broadcast Barcroft for the last time on 11 January 2008.

ITV brought Barcroft back to schedules in 2012, but now airing on ITV2, weeknights at 6:00pm.