Today is the first day of the summer of discontent, as the viewing habits of regular TV watchers are disrupted with bosses concentrating on saturation coverage of Euro 2004.

You'll be hard pushed to escape coverage of the matches as BBC1 and ITV1 broadcast games over the next three weeks.

And it's not all over when the last ball has been kicked in the European football championship. Still to come are Wimbledon and the Olympics.

This weekend you've no sporting chance of avoiding sportsmen and women with - take a deep breath - cricket, racing, the F1 Canadian Grand Prix, International Rugby, Major League Baseball, British Superbikes and three hours of C4 counting down The 100 Greatest World Cup Moments.

The best you can hope for is repeats of detective dramas A Touch Of Frost and Dalziel and Pascoe as viewing highlights.

Of course, there's always Big Brother, set to run for several months on C4, and that does at least promise some unusual forms of sport - such as the introduction of topless mud wrestling the other night.

Normal service will not be resumed until September at the earliest. Surviving the Euro 2004 season won't be easy for non-sports viewers, with careful scanning of the TV listings needed to find a viable alternative.

Long-running drama favourites, including Casualty and Holby City, have disappeared from the schedules. There will be fewer episodes of other series, such as The Bill.

A new drama will be as rare as a laugh in an ITV comedy, although July does promise to bring a new filmed-in-Newcastle police series, 55 Degrees North on BBC1.

The worst victims are the soaps. Even these, the backbone of schedules on both mainstream channels, are being sacrificed for football. Coronation Street goes from a bumper five or six episodes a week to just two next week. Even those aren't on at the usual time, but tagged on to the end of the evening's coverage of Euro 2004 around 10pm.

Over on the BBC, EastEnders will be showing for the usual four episodes next week but, again, you'll miss them unless you're on your toes. Monday's episode is in the usual slot, but Friday's is a double episode and the midweek one plays on Wednesday not Tuesday. It's all as confusing as a train timetable.

Even BBC1's daytime soap, Doctors, disappears to make way for coverage of Royal Ascot from Tuesday, while the lunchtime edition of Neighbours is shunted from BBC1 to BBC2 to give the horses a clear run.

Going out to the cinema won't be a viable alternative. Unusually, distributors released four major movies - the new Harry Potter, The Day After Tomorrow, Troy and Van Helsing - in May, signalling an early start to the lucrative summer blockbuster season. The plan was to open them before football fever consumed Europe. The next bunch won't be along until Shrek 2 and Spider-Man open in July.

Those viewers who don't want to join in the Euro 2004 celebrations will have to learn how to programme the VCR in order to tape potentially interesting and unusual programmes for replaying while the footie's on. Such shows are usually to be found during the daytime or early hours of the morning. Here's ten taping suggestions for the coming week:

Loose Women (ITV1, Monday to Friday, 1pm): Lively, girlie chat with Kaye Adams, Kerry McFadden, Carol McGiffen and Sherrie Hewson.

Eurotrash (C4, Tuesday, 11.55pm) Repeated smut which, unfortunately, doesn't escape a soccer connection - David Ginola "plays footsie" with presenter Antoine De Caunes alongside the usual nakedness and naughtiness.

Tasteful TV (five, Wednesday, 12.05am): Perhaps a better title would be Tasteless TV as the "shocking clips" include an Indian man who can pull buses with his ears. This seems a painful way to save money on petrol.

Call My Bluff (BBC1, Monday to Friday, 12.30pm): Notable mainly for the eclectic mix of word-perfect guests including the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, Patsy Kensit, Penelope Keith and June Whitfield.

Porn: A Family Business (C4, Thursday, 11.55pm): Under the covers in the adult entertainment industry with Adam Glasser, known professionally as the wonderfully-named Seymour Butts.

NYPD Blue (C4, Thursday, 12.30am): The fine New York detective series has been relegated to a constantly moving late night slot. Now is a good time to renew acquaintance with it

Punk'd (C4, Friday, 11.35pm): Actor Ashton Kutcher, who's been walking out with older woman Demi Moore, pulls pranks on celebrities. This time, he frames a Buffy star for shoplifting.

The Spy In Black (C4, Wednesday, 1.15pm). The afternoon schedules on C4 and five often hide little-seen-on-TV movies like this 1939 First World War spy drama starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson, and directed by Michael Powell.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (BBC2, Friday, 12.35am): Uncut repeats of the now-finished cult series.

Hollyoaks (C4, Monday to Friday, 6.30pm). Those suffering from soap deprivation can get a fix by switching to the Chester-based teen drama.