ridiculous

A brand new series of Channel 4’s The Jury started this week

The Jury viewers were left slamming the show after pointing out a major problem.

The Channel 4 programme returned for a new episode on Wednesday (September 2) following a group of ordinary people in a specially constructed jury room in a recreated murder trial.

This time, the jury is considering the case of two brothers who are accused of killing their stepfather. The brothers admit stabbing the man more than 69 times while he was asleep, with the jury having to decide whether the killing was an act of desperation or a calculated murder.

In the latest instalment, 14-year-old defendant Daniel took the stand and described the abusive home he grew up in. Meanwhile, CCTV and other evidence challenged key parts of the boys’ evidence, unsettling even the sympathetic jurors.

However, fans watching at home were left feeling disgruntled by one aspect of the show. They slammed how the jurors were able to break and talk about the case throughout the trial.

In real life though, jurors are not allowed to discuss the case this early in proceedings and can only share their thoughts once all the evidence has been presented from both prosecution and defence.

“I get that it’s a simulation but in my experience juries do not discuss the trial until the deliberation,” said one person on X. Someone else added: “This programme is utter rubbish!! It’s meant to be realistic, but you are not meant to discuss the case until the end.

“Certainly no talking while in court and the judge would have been right on to the juror talking.” A third chimed in: “Quite. It’s ridiculous and so annoying and I just can’t watch it.”

It comes after The Jury viewers were surprised to see such strong opinions emerging early on during the first episode this week. One viewer wrote on X: “Not seen any evidence yet and they already arguing #TheJuryC4.”

Another said: “Making up your mind before you’ve heard even a lick of evidence is insane but go off I guess.” A third questioned the make-up of the jury, asking: “Do they actually have level-headed people on the series this time? #TheJury.”

However, not everyone watching was critical of the programme. One viewer praised the return, writing: “I’m watching, it’s one of the best programmes on TV and with all the debate over jury trials, a fitting watch. #TheJury.”

The Jury airs at 9pm on Channel 4.

BBC Breakfast viewers were left distracted from the headlines by a major new format change.

BBC Breakfast viewers noticed a major change moments into the programme.

BBC Breakfast returned on Monday, August 24, with Ben Thompson joining Sally Nugent as he stepped in for Jon Kay.

Headlines of the day focused on the Middlesbrough crash on Saturday that left seven people, including two police officers, dead, as well as the return of the Premier League, with a tribute to Kevin Keegan during Newcastle’s match against Liverpool.

However, viewers were left distracted by a BBC Breakfast format change, with the graphics on screen given a major revamp.

Instead of the red timebox and headlines running at the bottom of the screen, the studio background graphics are in blue, while the taglines at the bottom of the screen are now also in a red to blue gradient, and highlighting what is coming up in the show.

“Can’t the producers decide on ONE colour for graphics?” one person fumed. Another said: “These captions are annoying, get rid, if I want captions I will turn the subtitles on.”

“Why have they tried to make the graphics look like a mobile phone? They look ridiculous,” a third seethed. Another replied: “That’s what I thought. And I don’t like it.”

Someone else said: “I can’t concentrate on two things at once so I’m either trying to read that extremely small text or watching the news report.”

“Someone been at the crayons.. what’s with the colour scheme?” yet another said, as someone else wrote: “So weird.”

Another viewer said they “hated” the change, as one person added: “Might just as well watch ITV now they’ve put this s**t on the screen and dumb down completely.”

Someone else called it “really rubbish”, as another fumed: “Ffs – get rid of these annoying captions! They are very distracting & totally unnecessary!”

One added: “#bbcbreakfast have obviously misjudged the demographic of their early morning viewers with this new format.”

This comes after the BBC Breakfast team celebrated National Television Award nominations, during an edition of the show last week.

As two nominations include heartfelt documentaries from the BBC Breakfast team, Jon shared how “honoured” they were.

Meanwhile, BBC Breakfast’s rivals Good Morning Britain have been nominated in the Daytime category alongside James Martin’s Saturday Morning, Loose Women, Scam Interceptors and This Morning.

BBC Breakfast airs daily from 6am on BBC One and iPlayer.