Channel 4: Has creativity been unleashed with privatisation off the menu?
Opinion
Stephen Arnell argues the latest slate of shows announced at yesterday’s Channel 4 Content Showcase are evidence of continued mediocrity at the broadcaster.
Yesterday, Channel 4 announced a “trailblazing slate of provocative new shows” at its 2023 Content Showcase.
With the threat of imminent privatisation withdrawn, many were hoping for a programming renaissance at the broadcaster, creative director Ian Katz and CEO Alex Mahon to be given hearty thanks for their role (whatever it was) in “saving” C4 and politely be bid adieu so fresh talent can take the helm.
After all, recent weeks have confirmed the staleness of C4’s current offering, with Traitors rip-off Rise & Fall, critically derided celeb challenge Scared of the Dark (“the stupidest reality show of all time”, according to the Guardian) and the predictably shit-stirring “body positive” spin-off Naked Education, which has led to accusations of paedophilia against the channel.
Even easy-going Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway commented that the Naked Education‘s pre-watershed depiction of the “physicality of a stranger being naked in front of a teenager” made her uncomfortable.
Were these shows the last dregs of the old regime?
No such luck.
With the Katz/Mahon team still resolutely in place, it appears from Tuesday’s showcase the controls of C4 are still very much set for the heart of mediocrity.
Play it again, Ian
Katz set the scene with the usual regurgitation of dated TV executive clichés, calling the new C4 slate, “purposeful, provocative but never predictable” programming. “Thinking, arguing and asking questions about the world in which we live, this is a slate of programmes that shows Channel 4 is as disruptive, original and purposeful as it has ever been,” he said.
A laudable aim although Katz has simply returned to his newspaper roots to rehash over-told headlines from the last few years, including Partygate: The True Story, Depp vs Heard, Gender Wars, Andrew: The Problem Prince, and (ironically given Naked Education), the charmingly titled A Paedophile In My Family: Surviving Dad.
A world of no imagination
And, as a fig leaf to cover C4’s former reputation for worthy-but-dull programming no one watches, we have a Climate Change Season, where “some of the channel’s most recognisable faces will be identifying the practical steps that governments and big business can take to eliminate our carbon emissions.” Sounds a (greenhouse) gas.
There’s also a documentary about The (contraceptive) Pill, because obviously Davina McCall needs something to do nowadays.
And the obligatory survival challenge, this time Alone, described in C4’s blurb as, “10 contestants dropped into the remote Northern Canadian wilderness, where each must survive entirely alone. Equipped with only a handful of basic tools, they must film their adventure themselves as they battle the elements, loneliness and wild animals including bears, moose, and wolverines, in a trial of skill, mental strength and resilience. Whoever lasts longest will win £100,000.”
Are they seriously telling us that contestants will be fighting “bears, moose, and wolverines”?
If so, I’m on the blower to Animal Rising. But seriously, what kind of PR operation are C4 running down in Horseferry Road, to imply (even by incompetence) that participants will be engaged in combat with wild animals?
Party on
At least Halcyons Heart’s Partygate documentary-drama promises to show us the bits that Sky Atlantic’s bone-headed Boris Johnson mini-series This England inexplicably missed out.
But it better deliver on the garden swing-smashing, furtive coupling, vase-breaking, projectile-vomiting and inebriated fisticuffs that we’ve all read about, rather than emulate Michael Winterbottom’s tepid Johnson-friendly snooze-fest.
Andrew: The Problem Prince appears to be merely a rehash of the tawdry Royal’s seedy life, a follow-up of sorts to last December’s tasteless Prince Andrew: The Musical, so lousy that it seemed contrived to generate sympathy for the oaf.
Ian Katz’s penchant for attention-grabbing programme titles continues, with Secrets of the Female Orgasm (a distinct swerve for Royal Family/luxury resorts specialists Spun Gold), Adam Hills: Grow Another Foot, Amputating Alice, and the five-klaxon alarm of Rosie Jones: Am I A Retard?
I suppose we should be grateful that Evacuation is a three-part documentary on the 2021 exodus from Kabul, rather than an in-depth hidden-camera exploration of chronic diarrhoea.
I can’t stand it anymore
Boris is a 4×60 profile of the profoundly tiresome former PM, promising unique insights into the man, his relationships and career.
The stuff of nightmares.
On the plus side, there’s the welcome return of sitcom The Windsors (plenty of new material there), but…that’s about it.
Stephen Arnell began his career at the BBC, moving to ITV where he launched and managed digital channels. He continues to consult for streamers and broadcasters on editorial strategy. He currently writes for The Spectator, The Independent, and The Guardian on film, TV and cultural issues. He is also a writer/producer (including Bob Fosse: It’s Showtime for Sky Arts) and novelist.