Nevertheless, provocation became one of the channel's hallmarks, from the moralist-baiting Red Light Zone ; a season of documentaries which mostly took a notably serious look at issues of sexuality to The Word , whose post-pub shock tactics were further pursued on Eurotrash and the shortlived The Girlie Show It was this menu in the late s and early 90s that saw second chief executive Michael Grade reviled as 'Britain's Pornographer-in-Chief' by the Daily Mail.
At the other end of the schedule, the brash, exuberant Chris Evans helped make The Big Breakfast a hit, and his departure nearly killed the show until producers happened upon the magic formula of Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen. Evans , meanwhile, returned with hyperactive game show Don't Forget Your Toothbrush , and the on-the-edge chat and entertainment show TFI Friday , which fell foul of the regulators for its pre-watershed bad language.
Channel 4 had already reinvigorated the chat show format with The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross , which reworked the slick, irreverent style of American hosts like David Letterman for a British context. Channel 4's engagement with a younger audience has often expressed itself in controversy, but it also lies behind its investment in comedy.
In later years, a host of Channel 4 programmes made a disproportionate contribution to the cause of developing TV comedy: the insane vaudeville that was Vic Reeves' Big Night Out ; newsroom satire Drop the Dead Donkey ; Desmond's , Britain's first truly successful black sitcom; off-centre female sketch show Smack the Pony ; Candid Camera update Trigger-Happy TV ; the New Labour-baiting Bremner, Bird and Fortune ; the deceptively traditional Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights ; the surreal lunacy of Father Ted , Black Books and Spaced ; the misanthropic Peep Show Again, such programming occasionally made enemies.
But the channel's most confrontational comedy came from Chris Morris , who delighted in causing widespread offence with his savage, 'irresponsible' satire Brass Eye ; , which duped celebrities and politicians into endorsing a variety of absurd, hoaxed 'campaigns', and managed to get questions asked in parliament about a 'made-up' drug called 'cake'.
One sketch fell foul of Michael Grade , leading Morris to get himself into more hot water by editing subliminal abuse against Grade into another edition. Nevertheless, Channel 4 stuck with Morris , giving a home to his next darkly surreal venture, Jam , and even offering extra space for a late-night 'remix' version, Jaaaaam. In drama, the channel made room for both relatively mainstream offerings - The Far Pavilions ; Mapp and Lucia ; A Woman of Substance ; The Camomile Lawn - and more confrontational fare such as heroin trafficking saga Traffik , conspiracy thriller A Very British Coup , Alan Bleasdale 's politically complex G.
These releases helped fuel a spin-off film channel, also called Film Four ; it was later joined by E4 and More 4 , which premiered programmes later to appear on Channel 4. It sponsored smaller works too: the blossoming of British animation in s and 90s was thanks in large part to Channel 4's investment; British animators featured heavily in the regular Four-Mations More avant-garde and political work from the independent and co-operative filmmaking community was given a home in the Eleventh Hour slot and elsewhere in the schedule.
The British broadcasting environment has changed beyond recognition since Just two programmes from that first evening's schedule survive Countdown and Channel 4 News , and the channel has had to accommodate the proliferation of rivals while, after it took over responsibility for the sale of advertising in , being forced to adapt to the demands of the market. For many critics, including Jeremy Isaacs , this has meant an unforgivable dilution of its original cutting edge remit, although the channel can point to recent hits like Shameless and Peep Show as evidence that it can still produce innovative programming while satisfying audiences.
Often, though, one man's innovation is another man's sell-out. Channel 4 was a leading player in the late 90s 'reality TV boom', contributing formats - including Faking It and Wife Swap - that were acclaimed by some, but hated by others. Particularly problematic has been the phenomenal success of Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother , which by were between them accounting for an astonishing 15 per cent of the channel's annual income.
In this context, the storm of controversy that greeted 's Celebrity Big Brother was unwelcome, to say the least - particularly when the channel was simultaneously campaigning for an injection of public funding.
The racist abuse suffered by contestant Shilpa Shetty the eventual winner caused a political incident that spread from the UK to her native India, and exposed an apparent naivety in Channel 4's bosses, who seemed at first to be in hiding, forlornly hoping for the storm to pass over. The events took their toll on that summer's Big Brother 8 , which saw an 18 per cent drop in audience and markedly cooler press coverage. By no means for the first time in Channel's history, there were calls for privatisation.
Channel 4 celebrates its first quarter-century at another turning point in its history. Like other broadcasters, it has seen its younger audiences begin to ebb away, bound for the attractions of online rivals like YouTube. The American imports on which it has relied so heavily are increasingly beyond its means. The immediate future will see it investing heavily in enhancing its web profile, as well as, controversially, a move into radio and a half-stake in three music television channels.
The longer term is more uncertain, although there are signs that communications regulator Ofcom is keen to push the channel towards a renewal of its public service commitment, possibly with public investment, and that Channel 4 is already beginning to re-evaluate its programming. It would be a very rash individual who offered predictions about where the Channel will find itself in another 25 years.
Black Books Bremner, Bird and Fortune Comic Strip Presents Countdown Da Ali G Show Deal, The Desmond's Richard Whiteley was the first man to appear on screen on Countdown. The two contestants came up with two seven-letter words, "raiment" and "minaret". Whiteley died in June , but co-host Carol Vorderman remains with the programme, alongside current presenter Des O'Connor.
Offshoot digital channels Film4, E4 and More 4 were launched in November , January and October respectively. S4C, a separate service for Wales with its own Welsh-language programming alongside shows from Channel 4, launched the previous day.
Channel 4 will only become fully available in Wales when its switch to digital TV is complete in Music show The Tube made its debut in and ran for five series, featuring live bands and interviews. In host Jools Holland was rapped for swearing during a live trailer for the programme. Max Headroom, who made his debut in , was ground-breaking in his portrayal of a futuristic computer-generated TV host. Best known for his jerky techno-stuttering speech, he landed a US series in It was an instant hit and launch presenters Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin became household names.
It was dropped in , and the show's base - a few hundred metres from London's Olympic Stadium site - is now used as a private home. Reality series Big Brother made its debut in In recent years it has provided the channel with its biggest ratings - but a fortnight after the end of the series, Channel 4's share of TV viewing fell to its lowest level for 15 years. In , he succeeded in getting the government to spend more money on them in England. Liverpool soap Brookside was a fixture of the network for its first 21 years, reaching its peak with the early s murder of wife-beater and child abuser Trevor Jordache, played by Bryan Murray, and his subsequent burial under the patio.
Actress Anna Friel, who played his daughter Beth, became a household name thanks to this story line, and her character's affair with nanny Margaret Clemence Nicola Stephenson. The soap screened the first lesbian kiss to be shown on primetime British TV between the pair in Beth Jordache's kiss was dropped from the teatime omnibus edition The final episode of Brookside featured the killing of drug dealer Jack Michaelson played by Paul Duckworth. The character's name is said to be a play on that of the Channel 4 controller who axed the show, Michael Jackson.
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