26 October, 2007

Four score

To continue the theme, back when Channel 4 turned 10 in 1992, Broadcast magazine drew up a list of what it believed to be the station's 50 most significant programmes to date.

They were the ones that supposedly "defined" the channel and most typified its achievements during that first decade.

Given C4 was supposedly at its most groundbreaking during its, ahem, formative years, it's doubtful even a half of this list would - or should - make it into a similar inventory to mark C4's 25th birthday. But anyway, here's the 50, together with a few pithy observations from Broadcast. Any takers for The Big Company? Or What If It's Raining? Or Centrepoint?

After Dark
Alter Image
As It Happens
Ask Dr Ruth
The Bandung File
Behaving Badly ("Dame Judi Dench plays a devoted wife ditched over the turbot for a bit of young stuff")
Berlin Alexanderplatz
The Big Company
Black On Black
Brookside ("Had to resort to sensationalism of late to cling on to its dwindling audience")
The Camomile Lawn
Centrepoint
Chateauvallon
Club X
Countdown
Diverse Reports
Don't Miss Wax
Drop The Dead Donkey
Eurocops
The Far Pavilions
Fifteen-To-One
GBH
The Last Resort
The Manageress
Manhattan Cable
Mapp And Lucia
Max Headroom
The Media Show
The Nation's Health
Network 7
One Summer
Out On Tuesday
Pallas
Porterhouse Blue
The Price ("Peter Barkworth played the businessman whose greed cost his wife a finger, if not an arm and a leg")
Rear Window
Saturday Night Live
Tandoori Nights
Traffik
Treasure Hunt
The Tube
A TV Dante ("TV designed to be watched over and over again. If only you could be bothered")
A Very British Coup
Watching The Detectives
Watch The Woman ("Cosmo for couch potatoes with Tina Baker")
What If It's Raining?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
The Wine Programme
Zastrozzi, A Romance ("Shelley's unreadable novel transmogrified into unwatchable TV")

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

After Dark
Brookside
Countdown
Drop The Dead Donkey
Fifteen-To-One
GBH
The Last Resort
Max Headroom
Porterhouse Blue
Saturday Night Live
Traffik
The Tube
A Very British Coup
Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Would probably make today's list. But what programmes since 1992 would the list I wonder?

Suggest an article on Ch4 perhaps?