Channel 4 at 25

[Milky Tears]

It's Channel 4's 25th Anniversary on November 2nd and there's a shedload of stuff on More4 over the next few weeks.

Sunday 30 September 2007
10:00pm
CHANNEL 4 AT 25

This November, Channel 4 Television reaches 25. Told by the people who have shaped Channel 4's identity over the years - including Jon Snow, Michael Grade, Alan Bleasdale and Jamie Oliver - Channel 4 at 25 is a witty, fast-paced, and at times unorthodox two-hour journey through one of the most exciting periods of British broadcasting and contemporary history.

An intelligent and occasionally irreverent look at the highs - and lows - of the channel's 25-year output, Channel 4 at 25 explores how the fourth button on the remote control altered the broadcasting landscape beyond recognition.

Born in Thatcherism and having outlived Blairism, the film examines how Channel 4 has reflected and, on occasions, helped to shape the cultural, social and political landscape of our times.

From the first, and only, prime time sitcom with an all black cast in Desmond's, to the first pre-watershed lesbian kiss in Brookside , the film shows how the channel has broken boundaries and challenged social taboos.

Unlike traditional anniversary programmes, Channel 4 at 25 is a quietly celebratory, but not uncritical look at the broadcaster's defining moments, tackling the controversy that it has courted, or inadvertently created, head on.

Channel 4 at 25

A repeat of Channel 4's opening night:

More4 - Monday 1st October
9.00pm Countdown
9.30pm Brookside
10.05pm Walter
11.25pm The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go Mad In Dorest

Other More4 highlights include repeats of Porterhouse Blue, Father Ted, Vic Reeves' Big Night Out, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Dispatches, Cutting Edge, Friends, Brass Eye, The Secret Cabaret with Simon Drake, Eurotrash, The Word, The Tube, Without Walls and Kabaddi (including a full match ).

It's worth checking the More4 schedules during October. Most of the archive repeats seem to be on between 9pm-1am.

[Perry Vale]

Watched the documentary last night, it doesn't seem like five years since the last one!

[Si Hunt]

Channel 4 was indeed groundbreaking - it marked the first time we had a whole station you never needed to watch.

Si.

[Stephen Morgan]

Channel 4 was indeed groundbreaking - it marked the first time we had a whole station you never needed to watch.

Si.

We used to think like that about Sianel Padwarec (S4C). But at least it got the Welsh language programmes off the main channels of ITV and BBC1 Wales here in the south.
Some parts of South Wales never got the full service of Channel 4 until it became available on satellite, not that the channel ever bothered me though. I think the only programmes I ever watched on 4 were archive stuff, I seem to recall The Prisoner on there in the early days, and a little later Lost In Space, hardly groundbreaking programming. My favourites though were Treasure Hunt and the odd wildlife show, Kingdom of the Ice Bear springs to mind.

[Si Hunt]

"Channel 4" always seemed so wholly irrelevent; like a channel you watched when you were ill. "Brookside" reminds me of evenings staying over at my Nan's.

Si.

[Stephen Morgan]

[QUOTE=Si Hunt;68017... "Brookside" reminds me of evenings staying over at my Nan's.

Si.[/QUOTE]

Come to think of it, and I'd forgotten all about this, I followed Brookside for the first two or three years of its run, couldn't tell you the names of any of the characters or plot details now though. I think I stopped watching it around the time that the BBC launched Eastenders.

[Pip Madeley]

"Channel 4" always seemed so wholly irrelevent; like a channel you watched when you were ill.

Do you still think that, though?

[Si Hunt]

No, now I don't even watch it when I'm ill.

Seriously, not watched anything on C4 since the original run of "Friends" finished about 5years ago.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

Seriously, not watched anything on C4 since the original run of "Friends" finished about 5years ago.

We watched The Friday Night Project on Channel 4 last time I stayed.

[Si Hunt]

That was under endurance.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

I never touched you

[Andrew Curnow]

Oddly enough, when it first started we used to watch Channel 4 a lot. They re-ran most (if not all) of Upstairs Downstairs, and it was also on Channel 4 that I also first watched The Avengers - for a while, it was a sort of ritual for me, bruv & Dad to watch it together. Dad and Mum always used to wonder, each week, whether this time it would be the episode with Roy Kinnear as Bagpipe Happychaps... Of course, we eventually realised that he appeared in the very last episode of all, so it was some time before we saw him!!

We used to watch The Golden Girls too - in fact, when me and bruv moved into a flat in the early 90s, I remember TGG being one of the highlights of the viewing week for me, along with Cheers (and then later, Frasier). We also used to regularly watch the Brookie omnibus of a Saturday for a few years at least. Plus it was the channel that gave us Whose Line Is It Anyway? which the whole family used to watch of a Friday night, and then, spawned from that, the Jo Brand show (not very good), the Josie Lawrence show (good in places) and the Paul Merton show (hugely under-rated, brilliantly funny show in parts: "I've been reading the London A-Z, there's not much plot but the places, they seem to real").

And it did of course give the world (or at least the UK) Countdown, and made Richard Whiteley into an icon. And the original C4 ident... peerless.

[Dirk Gently]

I'm with Andrew. I used to watch it a lot. Not only for 'Who's Line is it Anyway' but also for 'Who Dares Wins ...' which started in May 1984 & finished November 1986 & I loved it!

[Nathan]

Channel 4 was great back then. The Prisoner, Callan, Budgie, etc

The More 4 documentary started well but got a bit selective by the end. They could have at least covered the end of Brookside and the "Jack Michaelson" character.

Still can't believe they showed a clip of Kiddy Stare... oooops, I mean Mini Pops

[Ralph]

I loved all the 3 minute musical interludes they used to do every 20 minutes or so in it's initial year

[Captain Tancredi]

I used to like the really strong Friday night schedules they used to have, probably two hours of American and home-grown comedy followed by a B-movie or two. When I think about it, over the years I used to love stuff like Cheers, Roseanne, Frasier, Friends, Whose Line is it Anyway, Absolutely and so on.

Also quite used to like Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on a Sunday lunchtime.

[stuartdg]

Brookside episode 1 proved fascinating aside from young Ricky Tomlinson,Sue Johnstone and Amanda Burton,the usage of language(how many soaps use the word bollocks today?) and the pacing-enjoyable stuff

[Andrew Curnow]

Crikey, yes, how could I forget Lost in Space (thanks Ian) and Roseanne!

[Dirk Gently]

Speaking of 'Who Dares Win...', well I was.

This is a little taster.

It has a Doctor Who link...

[Rob McCow]

We watched the original Countdown last night. Anyone who could still remember the very first Countdown Conundurum would have had a huge advantage in that round (the answer was a 'Highlight'.) Loved Carol's brown dress, hair and lipstick, which showed up very well against the brown studio wall. Voorderman wasn't glam enough to do the letters in those days, though and they had some other woman

[Andrew Curnow]

Plus, plus (how could I forget) Channel 4 also gave us Desmonds ("Pork Pie") and "Drop the Dead Donkey" which became essential viewing for a few years back in the 90s.