2001
Compiled by Steve Williams, Ian Jones and Jack Kibble-White
First published November 2002
Debuts
January …
A willing family moved into The 1940s House … Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights followed life in a social club … produced by Jim Henson Productions, The Hoobs was C4′s new pre-school show … Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour was dramatised … the US version of Scrapheap Challenge, Junkyard Wars, was screened … and The West Wing was first shown.
February …
Boy Meets Girl saw members of the public live as members of the opposite sex … Sanjeev Bhaskar went in search of the Kama Sutra in Position Impossible … while Rikki Beadle-Blair wrote, directed and starred in the awful comedy drama Metrosexuality.
March …
Teachers was C4′s new flagship drama series … Celebrity Big Brother raised money for Comic Relief … and As If, having debuted on E4, arrived at teatimes.
April …
A change of name, location and host as Tania Strecker fronted Beachmate … while Jon Ronson met conspiracy theorists in The Secret Rulers of the World.
May …
The impending General Election was marked by a season of programmes arguing Politics isn’t Working.
June …
Men Only was a hard-hitting drama about a night out that spiralled out of control … E4 betting show Banzai made a terrestrial appearance … the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor was marked by Hell in the Pacific … and Beckett on Film televised some of his plays, ranging from two hours to two minutes.
July …
Australian drama The Secret Life of Us followed the adventures of a group of young people … Will and Grace arrived on C4 after many years on the Living channel … Matthew Collings followed up This is Modern Art with Hello Culture … while Sex Tips for Girls provided what the title promised.
August …
Celebrity mum Zoë Ball introduced The Real Birth Show … This Week Only was a comic look at the past seven days’ news with Joe Cornish … and The Armando Iannucci Shows saw the satirist musing on modern day life.
September …
The early-evening favourite received a late-night spin-off in Hollyoaks: Movin’ On … Perfect Match saw lonely hearts subjected to a panel of relationship experts … Ed Hall fronted action game show X-Fire … Model Behaviour searched for a new catwalk star … Bar Wars saw a battle of sexes in Ibiza … Los Dos Bros was a comedy series about two half-brothers … Going Critical tried to find the cause of disasters … while Extinct told the stories of creatures that no longer existed.
October …
Lost saw groups of young people attempting to find their way out of the middle of nowhere … Murder In Paradise investigated fatalities abroad … and 17th century life was documented in Plague, Fire, War and Treason.
November …
It’s a Girl Thing was a bizarre mix of sitcom and fashion tips … the new version of The Fugitive began … Hot Reels was an animation strand on Tuesday nights … the history of house music was documented in Pump Up the Volume … while Richard and Judy began.
December …
Tony Marchant’s latest drama, Swallow, told the story of a woman addicted to prescription drugs … and the latest American import was Smallville.
Finales
Right to Reply
After 19 years, one of C4′s longest-running programmes made its last appearance at Easter. It had already been moved in 2000 from its familiar Saturday night spot, where it had spent most of its life, to a new time on Friday nights after Channel 4 News – and, of course, opposite Coronation Street. It had remained one of the few programmes allowing the public to have their say on television. The BBC never managed to come up with a long-running equivalent, with neither Biteback, On Air nor The Viewing Room becoming a schedule staple. Right To Reply, perhaps mindful of this, had extended its brief to cover programmes on all channels. However the programme often felt a bit toothless, and correspondents often had to make their points in a pointless Watchdog-style report, which often just made them look a bit stupid. Nevertheless, it was a surprise when the axe fell – and it did so abruptly, simply disappearing from the schedules without the chance of a proper farewell show. C4 argued that with their website there were now more ways than ever for the public to have their say. Roger Bolton did, however, return to the slot a year or so later with Think TV – a one-off discussion on reality TV. Whether this was a pilot for a future series remains to be seen.
Misc …
Scandal in The Bins, a documentary on celebrity dirt-digger Benjamin Pell, was finally screened in January after being postponed on two previous occasions for legal reasons … Countdown celebrated its 3000th edition in May with a special documentary, and was then extended to 45 minutes from September … the Le Mans 24 Hour Race was shown live in June … the Brass Eye special was screened in July, and was accompanied by its first repeat run in four years, which included material excised from the original showing … the Perrier Awards were televised live for the first (and hopefully last) time … Gas Attack was a drama-documentary about the effects of an anthrax attack, on which production started before the September terrorist attacks, but it was screened after … and The Exorcist was shown on television for the first time.
On Screen
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan
At the start of 2001, Richard and Judy were fixtures on ITV having fronted This Morning for 13 years. Many would have predicted that they would stay fixed to their sofas for decades to come. But viewing figures were declining, and it was reported that there were disagreements between the pair and incoming ITV daytime controller Maureen Duffy. However it was still a huge shock when they announced that they weren’t going to sign a new contract with Granada, and instead move over to Channel 4. This new show, each weekday afternoon, was to be produced by Cactus Television, who had worked with Richard and Judy on The British Soap Awards, and a new purpose-built studio was built at, reportedly, great expense. The show finally began its 10-month run in November, with a breathless mix of showbiz gossip, consumer features and a deranged game (You Say, We Pay). However despite the fact that the viewing figures were higher than those of This Morning, The Weakest Link and Neighbours consistently beat them over on the BBC. The series continues, but many suggest that it’s not the sort of show that Mark Thompson wants to see on the channel, and there are regular rumours that their departure is imminent.
Celebrity Big Brother
Celebrity Big Brother was always going to be a success – a format that had got the nation talking the previous year, with the added attraction of seeing famous people get to grips with it. As OTT suggested, the major selling point appeared to be the chance to see how Anthea Turner tackled her laundry. What was unique about Celebrity Big Brother was that it was a co-production between C4 and BBC1. Updates were shown on both channels each evening, with the finale on BBC1 as part of Comic Relief, and a special edition the following night on C4 showing highlights from the whole week. The titular celebrities managed to produce a huge number of talked-about TV moments, and, presumably, helped the second series of Big Brother, which followed in May, to pick up even larger viewing figures than the previous year. The launch of E4 meant that the devoted could watch footage from the house almost 24 hours a day, and the Little Brother spin-off shows became essential viewing on their own. The embarrassing failure of ITV’s Survivor confirmed that Big Brother was the nation’s favourite reality show.
Off Screen
• Michael Jackson announced his departure in July, and left the channel to work for USA Networks on, appropriately, 2 November. Mark Thompson, BBC Director of Television, was announced as his successor in December, but didn’t arrive until March 2002 – leaving the channel without a chief executive for five months.
• Brass Eye generated complaints from Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, even though she hadn’t seen the programme, and who then announced plans to let the ITC deal with programme complaints more quickly. The ITC found the programme on the whole acceptable, but ruled that the pre-programme warning had been inadequate.
• E4 began on 18 January with the opening night consisting of new episodes of Friends and ER, E4 original Banzai and a compilation from Da Ali G Show.
Four-Words
“Channel 4 is changing radically. It drops Right to Reply and hires Richard and Judy to maximise ratings. It is forgetting its old remit, which is not being enforced by anyone at all.”
- Chris Dunkley, The Financial Times
“Men Only is a hateful, misogynistic piece of pointlessness which will disgust women and infuriate men.”
- Alison Graham, Radio Times
“The scheduling of the programme, well after the watershed and on a minority channel with a particular remit to broadcast programming of a challenging nature, had not exceeded acceptable boundaries.”
- Broadcasting Standards Commission ruling on Brass Eye
My Favourite Channel 4 Moment …
Lost (2001)
Of all the numerous reality game shows that enveloped British TV in the wake of Big Brother, Lost was one of the least publicised, low key, and most entertaining. The premise was ultra-simple. Three pairs of contestants were abandoned, blindfolded, somewhere in the world armed only with a meagre amount of possessions and a limited ration of local currency. They’d no idea where they’d been taken, and were deliberately deposited in as desolate, inhospitable and lonely environment as possible. They then had to get back to London as quickly as possible, and the first team home won a bottle of champagne – plus the chance to do it all again next week.
Various elements combined to make the participants’ respective journeys hugely enjoyable television. There was our sometimes gruesomely intimate insight into the relationships between team members, as they worked with but often against each other and squabbled constantly over how to make progress. The isolation aspect was intensely tangible. Aside from just one solitary cameraman – who themselves often became part of the drama – each pair were utterly alone, and you really felt it. Then there was the fact it was a desperately tense race against time. For every nonchalant easy-going contestant there was another absolutely determined to win at all costs. Finally Lost showcased a hilariously haphazard style of globetrotting, involving chaotic hitching and hiking across whole continents to the utter bemusement of their inhabitants. A potent mix of fly-on-the-wall showmanship and epic adventure, Lost was an exceptional show unfairly tucked away late at night that always managed to impress and excite.
- Ian Jones
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