2000
Compiled by Steve Williams, Ian Jones and Jack Kibble-White
First published November 2002
Debuts
January …
After pilots in the Comedy Lab strand, That Peter Kay Thing and Trigger Happy TV started their first full series … The Wilsons was a sitcom based around a dysfunctional family … Shipwrecked left a group of teenagers to fend for themselves … Michael Gambon and Jeremy Irons starred in prestige drama Longitude … and Private Parts, a series on sexual organs, was perhaps most notable for getting the word “clitoris” in the Radio Times.
March …
Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs examined turning points in musical history … Bernard Hill presented The Real History Show … there was new comedy from Da Ali G Show and jam…while The Big Brother Story invited viewers to take part in a new reality show.
April …
“Amusing” jpegs and mpegs were showcased in the dire Dotcomedy … Ewen Bremner starred in Paul Abbot’s The Secret World of Michael Fry … Futurecast was a season of “factually-based techno-thrillers” … and the David Irving libel case was dramatised in The Holocaust on Trial.
May …
Dr David Starkey told the story of Elizabeth … Location Location Location provided hints on buying property … Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina got the period drama treatment … Can You Live Without …Television was the first in a series depriving people of so-called “essential” items … Lock Stock was a dramatisation of the British film … while the industrial revolution’s impact was discussed in The Day the World Took Off.
June …
Football Stories was C4′s new soccer documentary strand … and extraordinary architectural feats from the past were studied in Mysteries of Lost Empires.
July …
Emma Kennedy fronted a new game show attempting to choose Flatmates … The E-Millionaire Show saw members of the public showcase their ideas … Alt TV was C4′s new strand for innovative film-making … while something called Big Brother started.
August …
Movie Virgins followed prospective film-makers as they attempted to make it in Hollywood … Anatomy of Disgust examined our human instincts … racism in the armed forces was the subject of New Model Army … Family Century told the story of the last 100 years through the lives of members of the same family … the acting profession was examined in Starstruck … Family Guy was the latest US animation import … and Nigella Bites began.
September …
Angel arrived in the teatime slot … daytime staple A Place in the Sun began finding holiday homes … an Oxbridge student became a bouncer in the first Faking It … Paul Tonkinson fronted student quiz Dicing With Debt … Meet Ricky Gervais span off from The 11 O’Clock Show … while Black Books and Futurama began, the latter as part of C4′s Animation Week.
October …
Stylish legal drama North Square was criticially-acclaimed but little-watched.
November …
John Simm starred as a debt collector in Tony Marchant’s Never Never … and The Windsors traced the history of the Royal Family.
December …
Big Brother’s Nick Bateman hosted the game show Trust Me … in The Gambler Jonathan Randell was given £12,000 and told to make a profit … while The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures moved over from the BBC, with one transmitted live for the first time.
Finales
TFI Friday
For the first year or so Chris Evans’ teatime music and chat miscellany was required viewing, helped no doubt by the presence of Danny Baker on the writing team. Regular features like Freak or Unique, Ugly Bloke and Fat Lookalikes really did get everyone talking in the student bar or common room after the show. But four years on, the show had become increasingly stale – the guest list always seemed to be three indie bands and three of Chris’ mates, and the regular features were increasingly dropped to make way for extended slots filled with Evans talking about himself. Research showed that the audience was getting older and the younger audience felt it was no longer fashionable, and the programme was regularly beaten by episodes of The Simpsons repeated for the umpteenth time on BBC2. At the start of 2000 the only real innovations were the depressing weekly Naked Parade – and the sight of Evans regularly appearing in the nude probably made even his loyal fans switch off – and two late-night live programmes (caused by cricket taking over its regular 6pm slot). It was then announced that the series would finish come the end of the year, with a final run broadcast in the autumn. However Evans decided to quit the show before this, presumably so as not to be associated with a dying format, so the final seven episodes were each fronted by guest presenters – including the Spice Girls, Big Brother contestants and, on the last show, Elton John. Evans couldn’t even be bothered showing up for the final episode. While most were pleased to see it end, the question was basically why it hadn’t happened a few years earlier.
Misc …
Victoria’s Secrets saw Mrs Beckham front a bizarre chat and documentary hybrid … a special late night episode of Hollyoaks was screened in March, leading to many more spin-offs including the 90-minute Hollyoaks: The Movie in December … Queer As Folk 2 rounded off the series with two final episodes … Apocalypse Tube saw Donna Air and Chris Moyles front a one-off revival at the Newcastle studios … Channel 4 News became a seven-day-a-week operation, with a new Sunday slot, although the Friday programme was cut to 30 minutes … a new performance of La Traviata was broadcast live over a weekend in association with Classic FM, while “youth opera” Zoe got a zero rating … and the Tour De France was covered for the last time.
On Screen
Davina McCall
McCall’s first association with Channel 4 came almost a decade previously when she narrowly missed out on becoming a presenter of The Word. Instead she began working for MTV, and via a range of regional and off-peak shows gradually became a familiar face on television. By 2000 she was already fronting Don’t Try This at Home on Saturday night ITV, but it was as host of Big Brother that she really became a household name. Every Friday she’d hold the fort amidst hundreds of rabid fans while another housemate was evicted, and these noisy, chaotic shows gradually picked up healthy ratings. C4′s biggest audience of the year was watching on September 15 when Craig Phillips was unveiled as the winner. Davina could often forget her lines, corpse at her own jokes and come out with some hideously embarrassing TV moments, but as the face of C4′s biggest hit of the year, her profile increased immeasurably. There was something about Big Brother that meant it found, and sustained, success while other reality shows fell by the wayside. Maybe it was Davina’s “unique” presentational style that did it.
Jam
Chris Morris’ previous appearance on Channel 4 was, most media pundits reckoned, likely to be his very last on the channel. Three years on, though, Michael Jackson was eager to point out that there was a new regime in charge, one that welcomed maverick talents however difficult they might be. jam was a television version of Radio 1′s late night series Blue Jam which mixed ambient music with sketches, monologues and re-edited speeches (one such moment, which altered the Archbishop of Canterbury’s address at Diana’s funeral, saw the episode pulled off the air halfway through). Much of the radio material was transferred to the television, with snazzy graphics used to try and ensure it made sense (or maybe no sense) in a visual format. Indeed, there was even a spin-off show late on Saturday nights, Jaaam, which added extra graphics and sound effects to make it even more unusual and unsettling. C4 also ensured that the programme was screened without a commercial break and minus a credit sequence (the production team named on a website). However the series itself seemed to disappoint many viewers, and while exciting and clever for the first few shows, by the end it seemed to be getting incredibly repetitive and dull. While it was interesting to see Morris try something completely different to his previous work, this wasn’t an unqualified success.
Off Screen
• C4 were said to have invested £10 million in their websites, while 4 Ventures announced the launch of E4, an entertainment-based pay channel to start in 2001.
• Countdown and Brookside both celebrated their eighteenth birthdays with special shows in November.
• C4 had to apologise after the live coverage of Party in the Park on a Sunday afternoon in July featured a stagehand swearing profusely.
Four-Words
“Channel 4 has constantly to rethink how to achieve its ambitions. It must remain a broadcaster, offering practically everyone something they would like to watch at some stage in the week. It is there to show that the popular and the entertaining are not the enemy of the creatively ambitious and the good. Our programmes are at their best when they recognise the creative freedom of viewer and programme maker alike. They seek out the dangerous, the intelligent, the provoking and the independently bloody minded.”
- Tim Gardam, Director of Programmes, C4
“Over the past 10 years there have been some extremely intimate documentaries about people’s love affairs and marriages. I don’t think Big Brother is different, but its format is revolutionary. It’s up close and personal as we’ve never seen before. It’s pore-close TV and it will raise the stakes.”
- Peter Bazalgette
My Favourite Channel 4 Moment …
The Anatomy of Disgust (2000)
The Anatomy of Disgust was a three-part documentary series, which explored the most neglected and under-researched of all human emotions; examining not just the science of this most fundamental and powerful self-preservation response, but also it’s role in politics and the arts.
The series touched upon the significance of disgust in Hitler’s propaganda campaign against the Jews, justifying the anti-Semitism of the third Reich by portraying the Jewish population as unclean carriers of disease living in rat infested ghettos. Nazism also formed the basis of an experiment in which volunteers were invited to touch a soldier’s hat bearing the insignia of the SS. While most reluctantly did so on the understanding that it was a replica, almost all refused when informed that it was in fact the genuine article. What amazed and informed me was that most of the participants found it extremely hard – if not impossible – to articulate why they found themselves so repulsed at the thought of mere fingertip contact with a simple piece of militaria. Most understood that the terrible historical connotations of the item formed the basis of their reluctance, but were equally aware that to touch it would not be physically harmful or symbolic of condoning fascism.
There were some lighter moments, such as an experiment involving a bunch of toddlers and some chocolate made to look like dog poo, and a U.S government crowd control experiment where hard-up college students received considerable financial enticement to inhale scientifically formulated noxious odours through a mask (The longest anyone lasted without vomiting was a brave 90 seconds).
When we are disgusted by something our physical and mental responses clearly display this, causing us to flee from the source of our discomfort. However, most of us would be hard pressed to put the cause of this violent and primal reaction into words. The Anatomy of Disgust addressed exactly this issue, as well as explaining how those in power use our most fundamental instincts against us, and how those in the art world manipulate us in the same way, ensuring maximum emotional impact for their work.
- Rose Ruane
| <1999 |
