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. Barcroft was moved to 8pm in 1991 when Three National News was extended to an hour-long broadcast, with afternoon repeats on the same days at 2:00 pm, and a Sunday afternoon omnibus from 3:00 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 in primetime, it aired every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:00 pm, which clashed twice with Barcroft. This forced TV3 to reduce Barcroft to two weekly episodes on Tuesdays and Thursday at 8:00 pm. It stayed this way for many years.

In 2005, to free more time for main primetime programmes and as part of a shakeup of the early evening news and it's surrounding programmes on TV3, Barcroft was moved from 8pm to it's original timeslot of 7.30pm following the evening news, remaining on Tuesday and Thursday, alternating with Coronation Street, alongside Neighbours at 6pm and EastEnders at 6.30pm.

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 25 December 1991, Granada were the first ITV region to screen the soap, beginning with the first hour-long episode billed as a "Christmas introduction" with the regular episodes beginning in an afternoon timeslot from 5 January 1992 at 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, but was dropped in September. Carlton dropped the show in 1996, citing low ratings.

Scottish began to broadcast Barcroft in an early evening slot in September 1993 but moved it to the 14:50 slot in September 1994 until March 1999.

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. Central brought it back at 14:50 from 5 June 1995 to 16 January 1998.

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, which got low ratings opposite Australian soap Neighbours on BBC One.

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 Barcroft in an afternoon slot, 14:30–15:00, Monday to Wednesday, with a Thursday episode added a few months later.

In September 2004, Barcroft aired in a networked afternoon slot on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, before ITV axed the show in December 2007, replaced by Heartbeat spin-off The Royal Today.