If Danielle Nagler and her cohorts at BBC HD are intending to annoy viewers, then they're going about it the right way.  The channel's scheduling is a catastrophe and no amount of half-baked excuses can explain away what are often, completely nonsensical programming decisions.

Carols from Kings is for many, the start of their traditional Christmas celebrations and as a result, holds a prominent place in the BBC's schedules every Christmas Eve.

The only live broadcast from King's College Chapel on Christmas Eve, is at 3pm on BBC Radio 4, a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.  The service shown on BBC Two (at 6:30pm this year) is actually recorded, often some weeks in advance.

Having gone to the trouble of recording the service in HD, why then, wasn't it shown on BBC HD at the same time as the BBC Two broadcast?  Well, the channel was tied up with a simulcast of BBC One's Toy Story 2, and for a change, that's was a sensible choice.  However, clear thinking is only available in small measure at the BBC and they have a ridiculous rule of not showing anything in HD before the SD broadcast, so instead of shuffling the schedule around and avoiding yet more repeats - of Wind in the Willows, Jools Holland (not again?!), Shrek the Halls and The Electric Proms - anyone wanting to see the carols had to wait until 11:45pm or for the repeat at 3:10pm on Christmas Day... just when the channel should be showing Shark Tale, the BBC's big afternoon movie for Christmas Day.

At Christmas the schedules are full and it's difficult to combine the output of two SD channels – BBC One and BBC Two – into one HD channel, but come on, the endless repeats have to stop and some flexibility be introduced.  Carols from King's wasn't live, so who would have complained had it been shown in HD at 4:15pm and in SD at 6:30pm, other than the old farts at the BBC Trust?

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