Its July. So why is BBC2 showing good programmes?

If you were to embark on a race to the South Pole, in a team of three which included Olympic medal-winner James Cracknell who would suffer frost-bite and worse during the course of the race, you might expect to do rather well with the television programme about your adventure. But would you want it showing while the country was on its summer holiday?

The final part of On Thin Ice, on BBC2 Sunday 9pm, had an audience of 3.3 million/14% share, better than ITV1’s Whatever It Takes and Channel 4’s Big Brother. It was helped by the ever-popular Top Gear, but even so, it must be seen as a successful project.

Clearly the three men who undertook the challenge felt it was a success – and watching as finally dragged themselves to the South Pole, it was impossible not to appreciate the physical endurance it took for them to achieve this. But what was the programme doing in the schedule for the last Sunday night in July?

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what is going on with the two main BBC channels this summer. A couple of weeks ago BBC1 fast-burned five episodes of Torchwood in a single week. Last week's BBC2 schedules also featured the start of a lavish costume drama, Desperate Romantics – on Tuesday at 9pm, with 2.5 million/11% share. It in turn was following the new series of Coast - the coast of France, to be specific - which had 3.1 million/14% share.

Good for BBC2, you might say, but on reflection we might wonder whether these big projects shouldn't be unveiled during the darker nights when there would be more people to view. Perhaps there might be a concern that the autumn and winter brings increased competition from commercial networks, so gather the ratings now while the goings’ good. Besides 3 million is a good audience at any time of year.

So this is not a moan about the programmes on BBC2. Just a query about the rate at which it is using up its stock of quality shows. Is there a sense that it is behaving a bit like a council which engages in a lot of essential road-repairs in order to spend its budget before the year-end. OK, so On Thin Ice, Desperate Romantics and Coast are not exactly the same as pothole filling - but you get my point I hope.

Whatever the reason, I know that if I’d got frost-bite in order to make a TV show, I’d be a bit miffed that it was shown during the summer holidays.