Channel 4

Programming

One of the channel's strengths is its comedy mostly shown on a Friday night. In the early days they screened The Comic Strip Presents, a highly innovative series of hour-long one-off comedies produced by a rotating line-up of alternative comedians such as Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Cook, Peter Richardson, and Alexei Sayle. The Tube and Friday Night Live also launched the careers of a number alternative comedians. Latterly they have aired cutting-edge comedy shows such as Brass Eye, The Mark Thomas Product, Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, Drop the Dead Donkey, Desmond's and arguably its biggest mainstream hit Father Ted.

Related Topics:
Comedy - Friday night - The Comic Strip Presents - Rik Mayall - Adrian Edmondson - Dawn French - Jennifer Saunders - Peter Cook - Peter Richardson - Alexei Sayle - The Tube - Friday Night Live - Brass Eye - The Mark Thomas Product - Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights - Drop the Dead Donkey - Desmond's - Father Ted

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The first voice ever heard on Channel 4 was that of continuity announcer Paul Coia, who intoned, "Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be able to say to you: Welcome to Channel Four", before heading into a montage of clips from its programmes (link to video clip) set to the station's David Dundas-penned signature tune, Fourscore, which would form the basis of the station's jingles for its first decade. The first programme to air on the channel was the teatime game show Countdown, produced by Yorkshire Television and fronted by Richard Whiteley; it is still running as of 2005 and is contracted until 2009; however Whiteley died after a heart operation on 26 June 2005. In September 2005 it was announced that Des Lynam will host the new series.

Related Topics:
Continuity announcer - Paul Coia - David Dundas - Game show - Countdown - Yorkshire Television - Richard Whiteley - 26 June - Des Lynam

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In contrast to the other terrestrial TV channels, Channel 4 makes none of the programmes it broadcasts, because it is known as a publishing only television channel and partly as a result of the terms under which it was founded. Its critically acclaimed news service, Channel 4 News, is supplied by ITN, and the channel commissions all of its programmes from outside companies.

Related Topics:
Channel 4 News - ITN

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The channel has established a tradition of broadcasting the animated film of Raymond Briggs's picture book The Snowman, which in 1982 was the new channel's first major animated commission, every Christmas. From 2002, the film was controversially cropped from its original 4:3 picture format to the current widescreen standard of 16:9.

Related Topics:
Animated film - Raymond Briggs - The Snowman - 1982 - Christmas - 2002

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Channel 4 was the first UK broadcaster to use stranded programming with slots such as 4 Mation showing innovative animation. Under Isaacs the channel also presented serious programmes on contemporary visual art such as State of the Art.

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Channel 4 pioneered the concept of 'after the pub' television, with series such as Who Dares Wins, Tonight with Jonathan Ross, Friday Night Live and The Word broadcast in the 10 – 11pm slot.

Related Topics:
Who Dares Wins - Tonight with Jonathan Ross - Friday Night Live - The Word

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In 1989 the Channel launched a Breakfast Television slot produced by Mentorn Films, called the Channel 4 Daily. In 1992 this was replaced by The Big Breakfast. After the massive failure of ' the channel has quit original programming for the breakfast TV slot in favour of repeats. Now T4 runs the early morning slots on weekdays to replace ' with popular shows like Friends showing every weekday morning.

Related Topics:
Breakfast Television - Mentorn Films - Channel 4 Daily - The Big Breakfast - Friends

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On November 4, 2003, Channel 4 screened its final episode of Brookside, a soap opera which had run for 21 years, since the channel started.

Related Topics:
November 4 - 2003 - Brookside - Soap opera

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For years, Channel 4 has broadcast episodes of the most popular situation comedies from the United States on Friday nights. In 2004, Friday-night sitcoms on Channel 4 included Friends, Sex and the City and Will & Grace. American drama is also a key part of Channel 4's portfolio, including ER, Without a Trace, The West Wing and Six Feet Under.

Related Topics:
Situation comedies - United States - Friends - Sex and the City - Will & Grace - ER - Without a Trace - The West Wing - Six Feet Under

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Many of these programmes are shown (and notably edited) for their Sunday morning T4 slot.

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Channel 4 is also noted for the screening of Big Brother. Based on the original Dutch format, the UK version has attracted massive press attention for each of its six series from 2000 to date.

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Channel 4 also has a strong reputation for history programmes and real-life documentaries. It has also courted controversy, for example by broadcasting live the first public autopsy to be carried out in the UK for 170 years, carried out by Gunther von Hagens in 2002, or the 2003 one-off stunt Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live.

Related Topics:
Autopsy - Gunther von Hagens - 2002 - 2003 - Derren Brown

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The television chef Jamie Oliver could not reach a deal with the BBC after his contract with them expired in December, 2002. Channel 4 took him up. Since this happened, Jamie Oliver has created a number of documentaries such as Jamie's Kitchen. Most recently, Jamie's School Dinners has been broadcast to coincide with his campaign to improve the quality of school dinners.

Related Topics:
Jamie Oliver - December - 2002 - Jamie's Kitchen - Jamie's School Dinners

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Starting in 2004, Channel 4 began a promotion of its channel consisting of the broadcast of short clips between programs of British or American actors answering more or less personal questions, such as "What animal do you feel most compatible with?", "What would you be doing if you weren't an actor?". One such clip, never shown on television apart from in a documentary, featured actors saying their favourite swear words.

Related Topics:
2004 - Swear word

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Since 5 November 2004, Channel 4 has had the British terrestrial rights to show new-to-terrestrial episodes of The Simpsons, in addition to several of the classic seasons, rights that had previously been held by the BBC since the show started airing on British terrestrial (1996). This was considered a major scoop for Channel 4, which began promoting The Simpsons nearly a month in advance, using 18-frame teasers for the show (made up of various characters' faces being created using different-coloured Channel 4 logos) to lead into commercial breaks from October 8th onward. Classic episodes (usually from seasons 2 to 5) now show on C4 at 6pm on weekdays. A new series was also broadcast on Fridays at 9pm during November and December 2004.

Related Topics:
5 November - 2004 - The Simpsons - BBC

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In January 2005, Channel 4 gained the rights to show the hugely popular US Comedy: Desperate Housewives. It became a ratings landslide, having received 6 million viewers and getting 3rd place in the ratings.

Related Topics:
January - 2005 - Desperate Housewives

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In August 2005, Channel 4 started showing the US TV show Lost after a lengthy advertising campaign that included a 60-second commercial, shot by David LaChapelle, that featured the cast and cost over £1 million, becoming the most expensive advertisement produced in the UK. This gamble seems to have paid off, however; the pilot episode was watched by over 6 million viewers, placing it second in the overall ratings for the channel this year, Big Brother securing that spot.

Related Topics:
August - 2005 - US - Lost - David LaChapelle - The pilot episode

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Channel 4 and its associated channels do not cut programmes or movies for commercial timing purposes.

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