Spring In At 4
Channel 4’s Spring schedule emerged into the media limelight yesterday; the mix of challenging documentaries, new comedy, in-depth dramas and soft-porn guarantees another provocative line-up.
The new package demonstrates that 4 remains committed to new, quality drama. Alan Bleasdale brings his unique voice to the genre of the mystery detective story in a five-part series Melissa. While, Helen Blaxendale has stopped playing doctors and nurses in Cardiac Arrest and has donned another uniform. She has taken on the role of a lesbian, army policewoman in The Investigator, a feature-length factual drama.
Channel 4 is set to get itself into a real Liverpudlian lather this season, adding Springhill to its soap dish. Springhill was purchased to strengthen the pre-7pm slot. This Granada Production was first shown on BSkyB; this is the first time that Channel 4 has had any involvement with the satellite broadcaster.
Over on the lighter side of entertainment, Channel 4 has devoted an entire weekend to sitcoms. Classic sitcoms will feature alongside spoofs and Has Anyone Seen My Pussy? presented by Julian Clary promises to romp through the back passages of British Sitcom – Ooo Er Missus!
Still out to get the laughs, stand-up style, Harry Hill takes-over a half-hour of 4’s Friday night schedule with It’s Harry Hill, and the 1994 British Comedy Award winner, Phil Kay, will be demonstrating his improvisational skills in Phil Kay Feels. Rory Bremner and The Two Johns are producing a couple of election day specials, while the popular Heroes of Comedy is returning to idolise another batch of dearly missed wits. Mark Lamarr is back on 4 with Pure Entertainment a new American showbiz series and Wanted returns to stage another live series of nationwide hide and seek games.
The channel is also now focusing more on its daytime schedule; alternative comedians Mel and Sue will be serving-up a Light Lunch, a fun, upbeat cookery and talk show. This will join the newly established Collector’s Lot and Pet Rescue, which are both growing in popularity.
4 can normally be relied on for excellent documentaries and this season has several bright hopes. Countryside Undercover looks at pig-rearing and puppy-farming among other topics and will, no doubt, recruit more people to the vegetarian movement. The Death of Childhood investigates how approaches to child-abuse have changed in the ten-years following the Cleveland scandal. In addition, Trial and Error returns with two new investigations and a new live programme, billing itself as Crimewatch in reverse; viewers are invited to help free the wrongly convicted.
Health Alert will be tackling health issues that the programme-makers claim are relatively unexplored. But, expect no innovative production values in The Surgery, another hackneyed fly-on-the-wall medical documentary.
Factual programming on 4 is not concentrated in Britain. The channel will be marking the end of British rule in Hong Kong with a four-part documentary soap Riding the Tiger; this follows a cross-section of Hong Kong’s residents as they prepare for the change. There are also two documentaries planned that will be looking at contemporary China.
The success of the advice programme Dosh has led to the programme’s return and the show is joined by a new personal finance programme, Mrs Cohen’s Money. Mrs Cohen, a well-known financial commentator, is the friendly accessible face taking on the big money-making institutions on behalf of the little people.
A number of new programmes slot neatly into the arts category. Henry V at the Globe comes from the opening night at the reconstructed Theatre, Dancing for Dollars looks at the crisis in soviet ballet, and, following the success of the previous four series, 4 Goes To Glyndebourne runs again. Music is of course not only a professional art, and 4 celebrates the amateur in the Best of British Brass, this will cover the All England Masters Brass Band Championship.
Continuing its commitment to gay programming, A Bill Called William will be looking at the decriminalisation of homosexual behaviour and A Bit of Scarlet analyses British lesbian and gay images in cinema.
Talking about cinema, 4 will be premiering a number of films this season. Brian Gibson’s What’s Love Got To Do With It, The Crow, Serial Mom and Romeo Bleeding are among some of the movies receiving their first network showing on 4.
This forthcoming season on Channel 4 represents the channels biggest ever budget spend, £74 million has been spent on the Spring menu. Despite the uncertainty at the channel, 4 is looking forward to a successful season and Grade could well leave on a high as the channel has no less than 7 Oscar nominations.
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