BBC One's autumn schedule launch must have been the only time it got more news coverage for what it was not going to show.

Spielberg is certainly involved, you just have to read the very long opening credits for quite a while before you see him - and notice how he is neither directing nor writing it.

And BBC One's launch of its autumn schedule must have been the only time in the Corporation's history where it got more news coverage for what it was not going to show.

For Band of Brothers (Friday 5 October, 2030 BST) has been moved to the more minority channel BBC Two.

Tom Hanks co-wrote Band of Brothers

"It was decided to move it to BBC Two because we would be able to give it an uninterrupted 10-week run on the channel, which may not have been possible on BBC One," said a BBC spokesman at the time.

Straw

Given how so many US programmes such as the actually excellently-written Buffy the Vampire Slayer are bumped and jostled in and out of their slots, this is a laudable if clutching at straws aim.

The straw broke.

This is week 1 of the 10-week run and the plan has failed already because BBC Two is screening the first two episodes in a double bill.

But so it should.

Even if Band of Brothers scheduling is a bit of a mess, BBC Two has handled this hot potato well.

For Band of Brothers has a glacial start that in retrospect is building you up to the events of the whole saga but on first viewing is just plain slow.

It is really the second episode where things get going and you are likely to be hooked so even if the scheduling is a bit of a mess, BBC Two has handled this hot potato well.

It used to be that people said the ads on TV were better than the programmes - though they have shut up since we started getting four ad breaks an hour in primetime - but the really anorak-like fun is in when things are shown rather than what they are.

You cannot look at what has happened to Band of Brothers without suspecting that BBC One thinks it's a turkey and this week the schedules are crammed with shows in odd spots.

Timothy Spall, here getting an OBE for his acting skill, is extremely good in this week's new drama

The most notable one is this Sunday 30 September from 2100 BST when three major dramas compete: Armadillo (2100 BST BBC One), Goodbye Mr Steadman (2120 BST ITV1) and Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2200 BST BBC Two).

Pardon? Vacuuming is a fairly familiar tale of a salesman looking for that big sale but it's very good and Timothy Spall is superb as the stereotypical salesman, always driving so fast that you think he'll lurch out of the screen at you.

Spall makes the man appear to be bursting all the time with his dialogue just the bits that manage to get out before he's thinking of the next thing.

So it's a shame that you will not watch it.

Video

If you are not already glued to Armadillo - and the ratings have been falling for that, good as it is, so you may well not be - think about taping Vacuuming and watching Goodbye Mr Steadman.

Steadman - it was launched a few weeks ago under the title Dead but understandably that has been changed - has the advantage that it has more of a story to it than Vacuuming, which is really a character study, and that unlike Armadillo, if you try it tonight you have not already missed two episodes.

But get your video serviced if you can because after Sunday's three-way split there is the regular hunt-the-Seinfeld episode around midnights on BBC Two Monday to Friday.

And after the fuss over the finale to Star Trek: Voyager, the more dramatically satisfying Deep Space Nine reaches its oddly unregarded end this Wednesday 3 October at 1845 BST on BBC Two.