Born risky or Being safe? - Channel Four at 31

Last year, this article which was written for the Portsmouth News. In which I set out a brief description of The Tube, but as Channel Four becomes thirty-one. What can we learn from this? First of all, the article as published.

On Guy Fawkes night 1982, Channel Four provided a rocket up the schedules with the introduction of The Tube. Irrevocable, indolent and interesting, it set out its pop manifesto right from the start, although the original presenters were to be Boy George and a pre-Big Breakfast Paula Yates, but when Boy George found chart success, a newly freed from Squeeze Jools Holland filled the gap left.

With it being broadcast live on early Friday evenings, the programme had a fresh edge over any other music show at the time which lead to many one-liners being made by both presenters which was all part of its appeal and leading to new acts and even comedians coming up to its Newcastle studios to play and get exposure to youth at home.

Part of the appeal of the programme was to see what they could get away with that week, not only pushing the boundaries but giving them a kick up the charts in the process, later on they helped Frankie Goes to Hollywood with early television exposure.

But as time went on and the one-liners became more obvious, Jools Holland's throw-away line too rude to print in a family paper led the show to be suspended for three weeks as it was rather unwisely broadcast during Children's ITV. Sometimes naughty, but always good it gave to television a relevance of music and while it lasted 'The Tube' was one great ride!

Channel Four has set itself out as saying they were born risky, but in at least the past five years when can it has been? Is this channel which wanted to shock, wanted to give something to the youth of Britain, provide a home to programmes fit anywhere? The channel set out programmes for the disabled, not only adults but youngsters. Cecil Korer who came from the BBC was a key part of this, he may have been seen as some what of the old school having been a programme purchaser and a commissioning editor for the Light Entertainment group.

Seemingly for this he purchased Cheers and The Paul Hogan Show for the fledgling channel and even in commissioning Countdown that the first production team christened the number picking computer C.E.C.I.L (standing for Countdown Electronic Computer In Leeds). Where as Countdown had come from Yorkshire Television, another of his successes was Treasure Hunt from the independent producer Chatsworth Television, with the team of ex-newsreader Kenneth Kendall, TV-AM weather presenter Wincey Willis and Anneka Rice at that time who had previous worked in Hong Kong as a newsreader. But these successes set up the channel as an alternative to the BBC and ITV, if Channel Four was conceived as the IBA's second commercial channel then it had done its job.

In setting up his own production company Gambit Enterprises, Korer's company made Hand in Hand, which introduced children both hearing and deaf to each other's worlds but also revivals of 'Where In The World?' and 'The Heritage Game'. 

Plus with the likes of Mike Bolland, bringing new approaches to youth and entertainment programming. They were bold times, stretching the channel to do what it could to be so different. But with Channel Four proclaiming they were born risky, it makes people think what they have become to offer like for like programming. Its true and maybe said to say that Channel Four has come into the 21st century, not as it should be but with a changed personality. It might have matured with age, but the rebellious spirit has gone and for British television it could be a significant move backwards.

"After the count down to a new channel ends.. A new countdown begins..." Channel Four at 30

So Channel Four is thirty, looking at its midriff pinching it and wondering why it has got larger in the past couple of years, granted there are some good shows still on the channel now such as Peep Show and the excellent Friday Night Dinner. But apart from that, its got a bit bland and a bit beige. From this young upstart wanting to rip down the conventions of television though its entertainment and music, focussing on programmes for different sections of society, breaking new ground as it went. Everyone has their memories of the channel and how its developed, both the good and the bad.

I can think of several shows which would stand out and would be the ones everyone thinks about when asked about Channel Four. But the gems in their schedules were just as good, for instance Superchamps, a mini We Are The Champions with quadbikes excited me enough to send loads of empty packets of Smiths Crisps to get a poster of the show. The power of television, eh? Chips Comic containing Andrew 'Son of Sir Harry' Secombe as a dog, a thought which might have sprung out a conversation saying 'Do we think this is mad enough to work?' They were the only channel in this country to show Worzel Gummage Down Under, to revive Quizball as an American Football game, introduced the country to wheelchair basketball long before the 2012 Paralympics.

Four in its self could be said to be a slice of life, sometimes maybe the butt of other jokes as the wheelchair basketball on a Saturday morning didn't get enough viewers to register on the RAJAR ratings. But it was a place where it could be tried without people noticing at all, much like other output involving disability such as 'Boom' and 'Hand in Hand' were allowed to take place, some people would say it was worthy television all of this but if it wasn't for Channel Four would these programmes have even been commissioned. At one time Four was the goto place for minority groups such as the Gay and Lesbian community, even offering a programme for the trade unions on a weekly basis. The purpose was there to cater to these communities  but to the casual viewer, it offered something else like a window outwards to show what was happening in the real world apart from the one usually on television at the time. Channel Four offered social realism always and pushed it as reality with later on reality becoming entertainment.

Over the years, the channel can claim that it started off the careers of some performers and it can be said it finished off others as well. Saturday and Friday Night Live showcased so many different acts who went on to carve careers of their own and into the new millennium The Friday/Sunday Night Project launched Jimmy Carr and Alan Carr into the spotlight. But for that it also launched Justin Lee Collins too as well.. The clipshow started here, with its countdowns as well both with 'The 100 greatest..' series of programmes copied and copied over and over again by other channels as well the domain of the late Richard Whitlely. The first face on Four may not have been bombastic, but in the way the first controller Jeremy Isaacs put it " I wanted that first night schedule to be typical of what night to night the viewer could see on Channel Four." With a documentary of Max Boyce meeting the Dallas Cowboys, the television film premier of 'Network' and also the first Film Four production 'Walter' starring Sir Ian McKellen this was what Four would be about nightly including the news at 7pm as well.

This is the alternative that television needed, but for long time it was a yes and no situation with Four. In the 1960's the frequencies for the VHF transmitters were worked out with a spare slot for Channel Four to go into. Now, BBC 2 had launched in 1964 but the Conservative government of that time had promised the spare capacity to the then Independent Television Authority. Come election time the Tories lost power to Harold Wilson's Labour Party and with this the tune changed so the new government wanted the BBC to run the service instead, the problem was that the BBC presented their case by putting how much money it would cost to set up 'BBC3' and also to increase the licence fee as well to cover it. Either way they were stuck, so by not giving the frequency to either the BBC or the ITA, it laid dormant for many years as governments changed like the seasons. Though slowly after the second 1974 election discussions were held to see what type of form a fourth channel could be. What came of it was a television foundation much along the line of what PBS had done in America, but in 1977 when  the Annan Report was published and a white paper written that an 'Open Broadcasting Authority' would take over the control of the channel with a notional date of 1979 or 1980 for a launch.

With the Tory Goverment committed to the idea of Channel Four, they had to go through with it and handed responsibility to the IBA for the channel to be set up. Such as a lot of things have changed in the last thirty years, the channel itself has changed. For the better, maybe... But in the end if it wasn't Paul Coia welcoming us to Channel Four nearly thirty years ago this week, we wouldn't have had children saving up empty crisp packets to get a poster, eh?

"Thank you for watching.. Ceefax 1974-2012" Its influence and its legacy..

So there we have it then.. Pages from Ceefax has bowed in the UK after 38 years on the air, but without sounding Monty Python-ish but 'What has Ceefax ever done for us?' Since 1974 it was been the BBC's go to service for news, information, sport and weather. Though it was so much more then that, notice anyway and Ceefax would have had its influence in some way or the other.

Starting off with the internet, without Ceefax it wouldn't have been proved that graphical information could be passed through a system to allow the most number of people to receive it as once and be able to look up what they wanted when they wanted to, plus also social media too it gave viewers the chance to write in about opinions and other to reply back to them for them to be published for viewers to see them. Isn't Facebook, Twitter and many other social networks not just a bigger version of this? 

How about television itself? For a start it gave channels another programme for free and rolling news service without the need for presenters, before a time of thousands of channel people would look to see if anything had actually happened since the last news bulletin, plus sports fans as well looking to see the latest football results on a Saturday afternoon, how about the cricket scorecards which would tick over all day during the summer.

Away from the actual information side, Ceefax provided the graphics need by shows for a easy solution with out going to the trouble of producing title sequences. Three of a Kind was a case in point, with this fast style which epitomised the early 80's lust for new technology as the faces of Tracey Ullman, Lenny Henry and David Copperfield were made into teletext art to introduce them plus also 'Gagfax' which pretty much like the jokes on the Fun and Games pages could supply a quickie joke without the need for filming it. Though Ceefax was also used to create the title sequence of the BBC's Formula One coverage, giving it almost an video game type of look adding to the excitement of what was going to follow during the race. 

Every noticed on a BBC game show like Bob's Full House or Every Second Counts when they give away a teletext television set as a prize there's always a Ceefax page of the show's title, they even though of that but of course this lead to secret Ceefax pages not advertised on the title page, they were like a welcome surprise to anyone who found them plus with the engineering page too. It may have been an Aladdin's cave at times, but its like the engineers wanted the pages to be found by the young presentation enthusiast. One marvel I always wondered at was the Advent Calender around Christmas time counting the days to the big day. The sheer detail of what the programmers were able to achieve with such simple technology amazed me, plus also by using the reveal key, a new surprise always waited each day.

If it wasn't for page 177, I wouldn't not have known what was on television that night and as a young child this was amazing to learn what other regions were watching plus also it taught me to read as well. Knowing what BBC North West would have instead of 'Hey Look That's Me!' also how would I know what Spotlight was in the South West and also why in London and the South East they didn't have any regional news before Play School. These small details were important to me, knowing that Ceefax could provide them daily was something of wonder.

The origins of Ceefax came from an idea cooked up in the late sixties, when it was talked about having a static page of information put up on screen during closedown to show Farmers Markets prices or the Financial news such as what the FT share index was doing. So engineer Geoff Larkby and technician Barry Pyatt, were its brainchildren to be able to come up with a text transmission system. Its brief from then director-general Hugh Carlton Greene, was it should be like one page of The Times. An early system called 'Beebfax', with Beeb being a popular nickname for the BBC. It was trialled internally at the BBC  by sending scans of Christmas cards throughout the BBC. But the system was unpopular owing to the sheer amount of noise the equipment made which operating, though Pyatt tried improved the system by using printed circuit boards, it was shelved with Larkby retiring and Pyatt leaving the BBC.

The announcement of the Ceefax system was in October 1972, as that time engineers were developing a subtitling system for deaf viewers. Test transmissions were trialled between 1972 and 1974, building upto its launch on the 23rd of September 1974 when thirty pages of information were broadcast to sets which could receive its signals. This made other broadcasters sit up and notice to develop their own systems such as the Independent Broadcasting Authority to create ORACLE, which started in 1975. But over times as more and more countries adopted teletext, a universal system was settled on in 1976 with them using it to create their own versions of Ceefax and ORACLE.

But now that technology has moved on, most teletext service have been adapted to a new digital television standard or been converted to something new such as the BBC's red button service trying to keep as many of the old Ceefax numbers as was physically possible. Ceefax bowed out at 6am on 22nd October 2012, nearly forty years to the day that the original was first announced. With a simple thank you from the duty announcer on BBC Two, it was gone from our shores. Some versions will be kept for BBC stations abroad such as BBC World. For what influence it had over all those thirty-eight years, it was our first port of call for breaking news, it gave us ideas of what to cook, it made us laugh with daft book titles and it revealed itself to the public as a part of everyone's lives...