Channel Four Unveils “Diverse And Intelligent” Winter Schedule
Is Tim Gardam, Channel 4’s director of programmes, still giddy with the success of summer sensation Big Brother? It seems likely, given the fighting talk with which he introduced his channel’s winter offerings: “Channel 4’s schedule this winter is proof, I hope, that the future of quality television does not have to be two episodes of EastEnders sandwiching The Weakest Link. It is a source of justifiable pride to everyone at Channel 4 that despite the suffocating competition of today’s TV market, we are still able to offer a more diverse and intelligent mix of programming than any commercial broadcaster in the world.” This from the channel which counts amongst its biggest recent successes a programme whose main attraction was the chance of seeing people in the shower…
Shaky moral high ground aside, C4’s winter schedule appears on the face of it to contain a happy marriage of the popular and the high brow. Something old – the return of popular comedy offerings Trigger Happy TV and Spaced for second series. More of the 100 Greatest… strand and a follow up to the docusoap history lesson The 1900 House, in the form of The 1940 House.
Something new – a drama called Teachers, which “portrays a group of young secondary school teachers whose unruly lives and loves are not noticeably dissimilar from those of their adolescent charges.” Another drama series looks set to maintain C4’s reputation for less mainstream programming. Metrosexuality was written and directed by its star, Rikki Beadle-Blair, who also composed the soundtrack, while As If, a drama about six 18-year-old friends, apparently has the “feel of a real-life documentary”.
It is more than possible that a couple more of the new offerings will be documentaries with the feel of a drama, as Boy Meets Girl follows the exploits of volunteers living as the opposite sex for three months, while Living by the Book follows more volunteers, living according to popular self-help book rules for a month. Essential viewing for the Bridget Jones generation…
Something borrowed, as ever with Channel 4, is sourced Stateside, as American heroes Frasier and Sex and the City return, and are joined by The West Wing. If the latest real-life saga about the US presidency hasn’t put you right off, this award-winning drama series stars Martin Sheen as the man in charge of the big red button.
More borrowings, this time from author Evelyn Waugh, come as C4 steps into classic series territory with a two part epic adaptation of WWII trilogy Sword of Honour.
Which leaves something blue. Teachers, As If and Metrosexuality are more or less guaranteed to up the adult factor on the channel this winter, along with Position Impossible, in which actor and comedian Sanjeev Baskhar looks at the mysteries surrounding possibly the world’s most famous love manual, the Kama Sutra. In the course of the programme Baskhar tries to discover if the book is still relevant to lifestyles 1500 years after it was written. Presumably this isn’t one of the titles covered in Living by the Book…
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