1994
Compiled by Steve Williams, Ian Jones and Jack Kibble-White
First published November 2002
Debuts
January …
Friday nights were spent in The Unpleasant World of Penn and Teller … Karachi Kops followed the police force in Pakistan … intrepid reporters discovered Undercover Britain … the “youth culture other youth shows ignore” was featured in Walk on the Wild Side … after controversy in the USA, NYPD Blue made its debut in the UK … and Time Team began.
February …
Hairclips were to be won in women-only daytime quiz Sabotage … Laura Kightlinger examined the United States of Television … director Phil Agland examined life in China in Beyond The Clouds … Oliver Reed was the first subject of The Obituary Show in Without Walls … the hit US comedy Home Improvement came to Friday nights … while after numerous pilots, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush finally made it onto the screen.
March …
Joanna Trollope’s The Rector’s Wife starred Lindsey Duncan … a sort of Why Don’t You? for adults, The Great Outdoors encouraged viewers to take up leisure activities … A French Affair launced C4′s French Connection season, following people travelling to the Dordogne … David Jessel looked at the legal system in The Brief … and the rotten Running the Halls almost managed to be worse than Saved By the Bell.
April …
Max Beesley and Dani Behr fronted bizarre Sunday lunchtime TV review Surf Potatoes … Frasier and Kids in the Hall began … while Champions looked behind the scenes of sport.
May …
Babylon 5 began its epic run … Men Only saw women examine traditional masculine pursuits, while Men’s Rooms visited male sanctuaries such as a working men’s club and a gents toilets … young writers and directors were given airtime in the Lloyds Bank Film Challenge … Baby It’s You followed child development up to the age of three … and broadcasts from the restored opera house began in Four Goes to Glyndebourne, with The Marraige of Figaro shown live on Saturday night.
June …
Palin’s Column saw the erstwhile globetrotter write a weekly column for a local paper in the Isle of Wight … Saeed Jaffrey and Norman Beaton starred in the local government comedy-drama Little Napoleons … a night of programmes devoted to reggae included the pilot of The White Room … while Boy Meets World was a less grisly pre-homework import.
July …
The latest Friday night Word replacement was the “international youth magazine” Passengers … The Best Intentions started a season of films by Ingamer Bergman … topical issues were debated in The People’s Parliament … Sheena McDonald interviewed people with big ideas in The Vision Thing … and after an outing in the Bunch of Five pilot strand, Frank Skinner’s Blue Heaven graduated to a full series.
September …
Based on the best-selling books, Lonely Planet offered advice for independent travellers … The Lost Betjemans showcased recently discovered films made in 1962 … while the history of the FBI was detailed in The Bureau.
October …
Ray Brooks offered advice on saving money in Scrimpers … Alexei Sayle and Neil Morrissey starred in Paris, the first sitcom by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews … Alan Bleasdale Presents saw the playwright showcase the work of four new writers … Muriel Gray presented the transport magazine Ride On … and Ellen arrived.
November …
Richard Vranch set scientific challenges in Beat That Einstein … while Ryan Giggs’ Soccer Skills saw the Man United star pass on football hints in a series first shown on Granada.
December …
Get Up Stand Up showcased new black comedians … and the horror continued with Saved By The Bell: The College Years.
Finales
Desmond’s
Trix Worrell’s sitcom set in a barber shop was a Monday night staple for many years in the early 1990s. Never the funniest of series, it was at least performed with a real energy that made it hard to dislike. It was always decided that the series would end in 1994, and as such the final episode was a special 60-minute edition scheduled as a centrepiece of C4′s Black Christmas season. However a few days before its transmission, the star Norman Beaton sadly died. The show went out as scheduled as a tribute to Beaton, and was followed by Beaton But Unbowed, a special programme where many friends and colleagues contributed to a portrait of one of the leading black actors in the UK.
Misc …
Cutting Edge‘s “Shops and Robbers” documentary got one of C4′s highest ever audiences, while “Graham Taylor: The Impossible Job” was among its most talked-about programmes … Without Walls got a late-night slot in March for two programmes on swearing, including Jerry Sadowitz’s game show The Greatest Fucking Show on Television … The BAFTA Production Awards appeared on C4 for the first time, as did live coverage of Glastonbury … Bill Hicks: It’s Just a Ride paid tribute to the comedian after his death … the Look Who’s Talking season on children included debate show Don’t Forget Your Soapbox, BAFTA-winning sketch show Coping With Parents and a Brookside Special – Beth Jordache’s “video diary” … films screened on the day of the first National Lottery draw were Dollar Mambo, Easy Money, The Love Lottery and How To Marry a Millionaire … and C4′s Black Christmas ran throughout the festive season.
On Screen
Dennis Potter
While the playwright was perhaps best known for his work on the BBC, Potter also had a close relationship with Channel 4. In April, a few months before his death, he was interviewed by Melvyn Bragg in a Without Walls Special, later chosen by Michael Grade as the best programme transmitted by the channel during his tenure. In it he said that he wanted his final two series, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus to be screened by both the BBC and Channel 4 simultaneously. These made it to the screen in 1994. After his death in July, C4 paid tribute with a repeat run of Lipstick on Your Collar and a first screening for his MacTaggart Lecture, given the previous year at the Edinburgh Television Festival. The year also saw the death of Derek Jarman, marked with an evening of programmes on 16 July, including screenings of Blue, The Tempest and Sebastiane.
Time Team
Archaeology was never the easiest of subjects to translate to television, but Time Team hit upon a strong format that turned the unassuming Sunday teatime show into a long-running season. The programme involved an archaeological dig taking place over a weekend, with Tony Robinson employed as “all-purpose irritant” to badger the diggers into explaining what they were doing, what they found, and what it all meant. One of the first shows to mix education within a light entertainment framework, the show was a template for future C4 success like Scrapheap Challenge and Crime Team, as well as, perhaps, series like Changing Rooms and Ground Force on the BBC. A long-runner, in 1997 the series began regular live transmissions, eating up a whole chunk of a weekend’s schedules for archaeology as it happened.
Off Screen
• The Brookside Special broadcast as part of the Look Who’s Talking season caused controversy thanks to its early transmission time of 6pm. This was after the famous lesbian kiss had been excised from the regular omnibus screening of the soap on Saturday afternoon.
• The Broadcasting Standards Council upheld a complaint after Chris Evans opened Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush on Easter Saturday with the words: “It’s that time of the year again when we remembered Jesus was crucified – and it’s that time of the week when we remember that Spurs probably have been too.”
• GMTV overtook The Big Breakfast in the ratings, a decline hastened by Chris Evans’ less frequent appearances and, eventually, his departure in September.
Four-Words
“Ranting Taylor cast as Compo the Clown.”
- The Daily Telegraph on “Graham Taylor: The Impossible Job”
“My superhint is how to turn your hair grey like mine. All the way through the show, be as horrible as possible to as many nice people as you can – people who are there to help you and allow you to do your job well. Then you become really unpopular and regret your behaviour for the rest of the day.”
- Chris Evans during his final Big Breakfast
My Favourite Channel 4 Moment …
The Word (1993)
Although it frequently made for entertaining viewing, The Word was a deeply flawed programme in many respects. Needless to say, it attracted plenty of criticism, but very little of this criticism was grounded in any kind of considered assessment of its weaknesses. Instead, critics and tabloid journalists were given to spouting identikit dismissals of the series (“no-one says anything with more than two syllables!”, “it’s the worst TV programme ever!” and the like) without expressing any argument or reason to back them up, picking on an easy target without pausing to express any opinion on what had made it such an easy target in the first place.
Sniping at The Word quickly became the easiest and laziest trick in the journalistic book, and as the series surpassed all expectations and stretched out into its third year on air, the attacks became ever more nasty, sneering and generally groundless. One week, having read one particular columnist opining that the presenters were so bad that the show could only benefit from having no presenters at all, anchorman Terry Christian decided to test the validity of this statement by simply walking off-set in the middle of a programme. Cue a long procession filmed inserts linked by static shots of bewildered guests left alone on the couch, and growing audience unease which resulted in a couple of them eventually clambering into the presentation area to have a go at providing the links themselves. In Christian’s absence, the programme was chaotic, disorganised, directionless and overall not very interesting – in other words, exactly what the lazier critics liked to pretend that The Word was on a weekly basis. It may not have taken place in one of Channel 4′s more acclaimed works, but this was a potent and memorable moment all the same. Not only did it disprove a couple of smug myths, but it also reflected everything that Channel 4 should be – edgy, provocative, confrontational, impulsive and defiant.
If only The Word could have been that good every week.
- TJ Worthington
| <1993 |
