1982
Compiled by Steve Williams, Ian Jones and Jack Kibble-White
First published November 2002
Debuts
November…
Countdown, Channel 4 News and Brookside formed the core of C4′s opening night, along with The Paul Hogan Show, the first ever Film on Four – Walter, starring Ian McKellan – and The Comic Strip Presents … “Five Go Mad In Dorset” … current affairs were tackled in Twenty-Twenty Vision … Union World and A Week in Politics focused on politics, while Face the Press profiled the print media … the weekend started in Newcastle with The Tube, while youth issues were explored in Whatever You Want … Black on Black and Asian Eye, made by LWT’s Minorities Unit, gave exposure to ethnic and racial issues … high profile sports coverage kicked off with American Football … Making The Most Of profiled opportunities in lifestyles and learning … David Stafford addressed consumer matters in For What It’s Worth … alternative documentaries and films were showcased in The Eleventh Hour … and Right to Reply gave viewers the chance hold the broadcasters to account.
December …
The Snowman premiered on 26 December … Treasure Hunt took the skies … and Citizen 2000 began tracing the fortunes of a group of infants born the same year as the station itself.
Finales
Family Choice
One of Jeremy Isaacs’ more fanciful ideas as founding boss of Channel 4 was to assume he could win family audiences to his channel at peak viewing times. Yet for all his bluster about how, “when ITV is at its most entertaining we shall offer news, and when it is showing its news, we shall run the most watchable film we can find,” all he came up with was the decidedly half-hearted Family Choice slot. Every Thursday at 8pm, so the publicity went, C4 would carefully screen an overtly populist and entertaining documentary with mass appeal – but also, crucially, one which the whole family could enjoy. It was hard to imagine just what could live up to such a grand promise; sure enough, this ostensibly high profile flagship strand opened with a flop in the shape of Max Boyce Meets The Dallas Cowboys. Hardly anybody, let alone families, tuned in; within a couple of weeks the Family Choice branding was dropped, and within a few months the entire idea was quietly put to bed.
Misc …
What The Papers Say moved to C4 from ITV … the channel’s first four Sunday nights on air were given over to an epic LWT production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby overseen by Michael Grade … a decade-long plundering of ITV archives began with a lengthy re-run of Upstairs Downstairs … and C4′s first ever “theme night” took place on 27 December in the shape of the four-hour Fifties to the Fore – a selection of archive ABC and ATV shows including Armchair Theatre and Oh Boy.
On Screen
Paul Hogan
“Our star comedian” was how Jeremy Isaacs ambitiously billed Paul Hogan in pre-launch publicity. More known in Britain as being the face of Foster’s lager, such was the exposure Isaacs and his staff heaped on Hogan that he quickly became more or less the station’s first proper “celebrity”. The Paul Hogan Show itself was actually a repackaging of material first screened on Network Nine in Australia in 1977. But given a regular slot in the schedules – usually Friday nights – throughout C4′s first 12 months, Hogan brought a bit of star quality to the otherwise somewhat anonymous channel, even though Isaacs personally considered his material “rude and chauvinistic … I thought his compatriot Norman Gunston funnier.”
Right to Reply
Up until the launch of Sunday morning kids strand T4 in 1998, Right to Reply was the only programme made by Channel 4 itself – everything else was bought in. Designed to be as far removed from Points of View as possible, the show’s first presenter was the brusque and hard-to-like Gus MacDonald, but it was arguably one of Jeremy Isaacs’ most imaginative creations. For those interested in the black arts of the TV industry, Right to Reply was a wonderful glimpse behind closed doors; for the casual viewer it offered a chance to see ordinary people talking back to the executives – something that became more pronounced with the introduction of the walk-in photo-booth style “Video Box” a few years later. The brainchild of future director of programmes Liz Forgan, this device was first erected at C4 HQ in Charlotte Street, London. A second followed in Glasgow, then others were quickly installed at various notable sites around the country. Never had it been so fun to watch members of the public sounding off on prime time TV.
Off Screen
• Channel 4 went on air slightly before 4.45pm on Tuesday 2 November, beginning with an impressive, imperial montage of clips set to the striding sounds of a special extended version of David Dundas’ Channel 4 theme titled Fourscore. 90% of the country was, in theory, able to tune in.
• A dispute between the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and Equity over whether actors should be paid lower repeat fees due to C4′s “minority” status meant that on the opening night, and for many months after (as with TV-am from February 1983), adverts often comprised dull businessmen desperately trying to sell their products in complete silence and an empty studio.
• The peak weekly swearword count for 1982, as monitored by The Sun, was 173.
• Having set an eventual target of a 10% audience share, Channel 4′s figure of 6.6% for the first week on air slumped to just 2.8% by Christmas – the lowest in the channel’s history.
Four-Words
“Channel 4 has been brought into being for one purpose only: to serve YOU by increasing your choice of entertainment and information. And a very choosing viewer you are too. Channel 4 has set out to give you an alternative, if you fancy it, to whatever ITV is showing at any time of the evening. Channel 4 is for you. Use it. Enjoy it. And, please, tell us what you think of it.”
- Jeremy Isaacs, Chief Executive, C4
“It looks, Mr Whiteley, as if yours will be the first face on Channel 4. Good luck to them.”
- John Fairley, Director of Programmes, Yorkshire Television
“It won’t be long before everyone’s playing it – and talking about it.”
- Jeremy Isaacs on Countdown
“On last night’s showing, I give them four out of ten for trying.”
- Charles Catchpole, The Sun, 03/11/82
“Lord Lucan is to get his own late show on Channel 4. He figures there is less chance of being spotted there than Paraguay. Judging by the first month’s ratings, there have been more people in the Queen’s bedroom.”
- The Daily Mail, 11/12/82
My Favourite Channel 4 Moment …
Start-Up (1982)
The ideal Channel 4 moment for me would probably be the blank screen that preceded its opening night’s delayed start, at which our family stared in utter fascination for about half an hour until Countdown eventually came on, and we switched over. In a sense this unscheduled empty space was the most profound and challenging Channel 4 show of them all!
- Daniel Stour
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