Friday is the most closely watched day of the British week and the one most other countdowns are quietly measured against. It closes the standard working week, it is when schools break up for half term and for the holidays, and it is when the motorway network fills from the middle of the afternoon as a large part of the country travels at once.
It keeps habits of its own. Fish and chips on a Friday survives from an older religious custom and is still the busiest night of the week for chip shops. Dress-down Friday arrived in the 1990s and never left. Weekly-paid workers are paid today, and workplaces with flexible hours commonly let people finish early rather than take the time back elsewhere in the week.
Friday is also where the weekend starts in practice, which is why the countdown to the weekend elsewhere on this site ends on Friday evening rather than at midnight on Saturday. For anyone chasing a deadline the reverse applies: five o'clock on a Friday is the last moment a great many offices, helplines and council counters will answer a phone before Monday morning.
The counter on this page runs to the midnight that begins Friday and rolls forward to the following one the moment it passes.
Common questions
Why do British schools break up on a Friday?
Terms and half terms are set to end with the working week, so the last day is almost always a Friday and the return a Monday.
Does the countdown end at knocking-off time?
No. It runs to the midnight that begins Friday, not to five o'clock in the afternoon.
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