1999
Compiled by Steve Williams, Ian Jones and Jack Kibble-White
First published November 2002
Debuts
January …
Cameras were allowed into watch the progress of Norland Nannies … and the dating show Dishes saw contestants attempt to impress the opposite sex through their culinary skills.
February …
The life of a boyband was the subject of sitcom Boyz Unlimited … Sex and the City arrived on British screens … the Pulp frontman met people experimenting with art in Journeys Into the Outside with Jarvis Cocker, while John Peel’s Sounds of the Suburbs saw one of his heroes examine music-making throughout the UK … chef Gordon Ramsey’s series Ramsey’s Boiling Point was not a cookery show, but a look at his antics in the kitchen … Queer As Folk began … and the Channel 4 Political Awards were televised for the first time.
March …
Michael Moore moved to Channel 4 with The Awful Truth … Smack the Pony was both unashamedly feminine and funny … while after one-off programmes on glam rock and disco, Top Ten began its first full series.
April …
Lyndon Johnson’s tenure as US President was relived in The White House Tapes … Antoine de Caunes fronted the unsatisfying comedy and chat hybrid Le Show … and Kevin McCloud followed those building their dream homes in Grand Designs.
May …
Tom Hanks’ series on the history of space exploration, From the Earth to the Moon, was screened at Saturday lunchtimes … Douglas Henshall starred in Psychos, the drama set in a psychiatric hospital … the teatime US chat show slot saw a British-made equivalent, Fay Ripley’s Sofa Melt … Unzipped saw Graham Norton looking for celebrity scandal … the US version of Whose Line is it Anyway? began, and apart from host Drew Carey, was virtually identical to the UK version … while David Blaine: Street Magic was the American’s first starring appearance on British TV.
June …
This is Modern Art was presented by Matthew Collings … Annie Griffin wrote and directed the sitcom about a hopeless theatre group, Coming Soon … Sean Rowley looked through celebrity record collections in All Back to Mine … Cricket Roadshow was a Saturday morning series that heralded C4′s latest sporting acquisition … and just four years on C4 thought we were ready for The Best of The Word.
July …
Ibiza Uncovered was the first show made by Sky One to get a terrestrial airing … The Staying in Show brought the Have I Got News For You format to the subject of sexuality … The Sopranos began … six writers contributed to the anthology Love in the 21st Century, while Love in Leeds followed lonely hearts in Yorkshire … and Late Night Poker was an unlikely cult series.
August …
Hidden Love looked at unusual sexual practices, including a notorious programme on bestiality … while the unofficial history of the police force was told in Coppers.
September …
There was a lunchtime look at stocks and shares in Show Me the Money … The Richard Blackwood Show showcased the unlikeable comedian … Denise Van Outen offered Something for the Weekend … The 1900 House saw a family live as Victorians … life in the Prime Minister’s constituency of Sedgefield was detailed in Tony’s People … Spaced began … and Tina Goes Shopping was a gritty drama with non-professional actors in all the roles.
October …
Underperforming restaurants were rescued in If You Can’t Stand the Heat … Pornography: The Secret History of Civilisation was a weighty documentary on a sensitive subject … while movie reviews were featured on The Johnny Vaughan Film Show.
November …
After a torturous birth, including two previous names, The Priory arrived on the screen … Lagos Airport was a counterpoint to other channels’ fly-on-the-cockpit-wall series … Embarrassing Illnesses got the documentary treatment … Small Potatoes was announced as “a British Seinfeld” … and Douglas Henshall appeared in his second C4 drama of the year, Tony Marchant’s Kid in the Corner.
December …
The National Theatre of Brent re-enacted Massive Landmarks of the Twentieth Century.
Finales
Babylon 5
C4 always had trouble with this science fiction epic. When it began in 1994 it was screened at teatime, but the dark nature of the show meant that it didn’t always fit easily there. Later series found it placed much later in the evening, around 11pm, but this meant that it couldn’t always be guaranteed a permanent slot, something its fans often demanded. The problem was that, as the nearest thing to a novel on television, it had a small but immensely loyal audience, and the complex storyline often prevented the casual viewer from getting into the show. This meant that scheduling was a huge problem, although C4 were sometimes asking for trouble. A Sunday lunchtime slot was not particularly appropriate, especially as the channel mistakenly billed some new episodes as repeats. However the scheduling of the final five episodes was perhaps the most bizarre – they were screened in the morning as part of The Bigger Breakfast throughout Christmas week, with the final episode aired at 11.30am on New Year’s Day 1999. What’s more, these episodes were screened with the huge Big Breakfast clock in the corner of the screen, the end credits were removed (much to the chagrin of fans, who were desperate to see them) and, obviously, they had to be heavily edited. C4 showed the final five again in uncut form late on Sunday nights soon after, but it was too late – over a thousand complaints were received.
Misc …
Cutting Edge turned a tricky situation to their advantage, as Who’s Been Framed? interviewed the pair behind the previous year’s Daddy’s Girl farrago … Friends was broadcast at 9pm on Friday every week of the year, with repeats filling the gap between new series … Channel 4 News got a new look, and a regular half-hour slot on Saturdays from January … Geri followed the ex-Spice Girl around … US satire show Politically Incorrect came to London in May for a week of shows simulcast on both sides of the Atlantic … South Park was the subject of an evening of programmes in May, as was Starsky and Hutch … July’s Dockers was written by Jimmy McGovern, Irvine Welsh and 14 sacked Liverpool dockers … 100 Greatest TV Moments was the first of many list-based shows for a Saturday night … Film Four celebrated its first birthday with another night of simulcast programmes including the premiere of Caligula … Richard Blackwood and Jo Whiley counted down the Music of the Millennium … and the channel saw in 2000 with FY2K: Graham Norton Live followed by an eight and a half hour Biggest Breakfast Ever.
On Screen
Denise van Outen
Another blonde leaves The Big Breakfast and sees the programme, and her career, falter afterwards. Van Outen departed the show on New Year’s Day and was replaced by Kelly Brook in February (although she in turn resigned in July after it was suggested she was about to be fired). Meanwhile Van Outen was given her own C4 show, and like Roslin, she co-produced it through her own company, the tastefully-named Whack ‘Em Out Productions. Something For the Weekend went out on Friday nights and consisted of a series of games based around sex and relationships. The most famous (read notorious) was “Privates on Parade”, where a contestant was asked to identify her boyfriend from a line-up of penises. Most of the show carried on in this form, and while it may have courted controversy, most people simply complained that it was pretty boring. A second series followed in 2000, but then it was axed. Denise later described the show as the lowest point of her career, and she was back on The Big Breakfast in September 2000.
The 11 O’clock Show
This notorious series was a recurring staple of Channel 4 for nearly three years. A topical look at the day’s events, broadcast three nights a week, it began in September 1998 with a two-week trial run introduced by comedians Fred Macaulay and Brendan Burns, with assistance from Iain Lee. The most notable aspect of these editions were the appearances of Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G, who’d “interview” an academic or celebrity in as ill-informed a manner as possible. While not setting the word alight, this first series was sort of fun. The second series started in March 1999, now for an eight-week run and with Iain Lee in sole charge, accompanied by Daisy Donovan and Mackenzie Crook. Ali G was still the star of the show, and throughout the series word-of-mouth meant that most people were tuning in for him. The rest of the show, though, was not that great, basically consisting of Lee, Donovan and Crook flatly delivering hastily-written jokes. The third series in October saw Ali G’s appearances strictly rationed, with the rest of the programme consisting of crappy news parodies which didn’t care whether they were funny as long as they were vaguely topical, and a D-list celebrity charmlessly interviewed by Lee and Donovan. Two more series followed – the last with an all-new presenting team – but without Ali G, the only reason anybody watched it, it was even more pointless than usual. A desperate attempt to “shock” with constant swearing and “ironic” homophobia moved it beyond the level of easily ignorable and into actively dislikeable.
Off Screen
• C4′s new deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board gave them exclusive live rights to all but one of England’s Test Matches (the other was live on Sky with highlights on 4), the first time they hadn’t been screened on the BBC since the 1930s.
• The channel’s on-screen identity was changed again on Friday 2 April with a look based on vertical lines and the “4″ enclosed in a square.
Four-Words
“It’s going to be pretty different. We’d like it to be fresher and livelier, without being too gimmicky. An awful lot of cricket jargon needs breaking down – the aim will be to entertain and explain.”
- Mark Nicholas, C4 cricket presenter
“It’s going to be very hard for the first few months. The run-throughs have been really useful, but doing live television is going to be a different thing. I’m going to have to get into my stride and they’re going to have to get used to me. Let’s just hope it works.”
- Kelly Brook on The Big Breakfast
My Favourite Channel 4 Moment …
Peter Kay (1998)
Channel 4 was the first place I saw Peter Kay, delivering his stand-up routine on the long-forgotten stand-up showcase Gas in 1997 – this was at a very early stage of his career, a few months before he appeared at the BBC New Comedy Awards (where he came second). It took less than a year, though, for Kay to get his own show, and The Services was the very first episode of C4′s Comedy Lab, a series that has often veered wildly between inspired (this) and absolutely awful (most of the rest). The Services led on to the full series of That Peter Kay Thing, and it’s really the same show, only much cheaper. Indeed, it could be said that this makes it seem that little bit more realistic, as it’s shot on videotape and Peter provides the voice-over himself. It’s certainly one of the most accomplished pilot shows of all time – the acting, writing and direction are superb for someone making his television debut. Best of all, of course, is the appearance of Paul LeRoy, the hapless Chorley FM DJ, who for my money is the finest of all of Kay’s characters. A spot-on characterisation, right down to the glasses, it’s a shame that he only made a few cameo appearances in the resulting series.
Most of the Comedy Lab programmes seemed to suggest that the participants had been given a television camera and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. The Services, though, showcases a man who has a clear idea with what he wants to do on television, and carries it off brilliantly. Yeah, Phoenix Nights has some fantastic moments, but nothing Kay’s done on telly has yet topped drama student Matthew Kelly running around a service station with a red carpet trying to find Bob Carolgees.
- Steve Williams
| <1998 |
