Privatising channel 4: the elephant in the room | thearticle

Suddenly everyone’s an expert on Channel 4. Ruth Davidson tweeted about how Channel 4 is “one of the reasons we have such a thriving indy sector in places like Glasgow. This is the opposite

of levelling up”. She forgot to specify how many “places like Glasgow” there are in Britain, let alone in Scotland. Julian Knight MP, Chairman of the DCMS select committee, wrote how a newly

privatised Channel 4 “should be able to continue to innovate and crucially appeal to young audiences — a real USP in today’s broadcast landscape”, without going into any detail about how

many young people watch terrestrial TV with British content at all. Dorothy Byrne, one time Editor-at-Large at Channel 4 Television, where she previously served as Head of News and Current

Affairs, told the Today programme, Channel 4 “is there to provide a public service to the people of Britain with really important programmes like Channel 4 News or Unreported World, which

Netflix or Amazon would never make”. Two programmes, one of them a compulsory daily news programme, i.e. part of the Channel’s public service broadcasting remit, is not a very long list of

“really important programmes”. Let’s leave aside what “Steerpike” at the _Spectator_ called “Five hysterical reactions to Channel 4’s sell-off’’, most of which was pure anti-Dorries or

anti-Government bile. People like Claudia Webbe who tweeted, “The Government has just confirmed its intention to ‘privatise’ Channel 4. This is not freedom or independence – it’s the seedbed

of fascism”; Alastair Campbell, who said the Government’s decision was “right out of the Orban playbook and timed to make it blatant”; and the editor of the _Yorkshire Post_ who claimed the

“brilliance” of its news division is now “in the crosshairs of a sniper that is hellbent on fundamentalism”. Then there are those whose work has been produced by the old regime at Channel

4. The playwright James Graham called Ms. Dorries’s announcement, “A solution without a problem. Channel 4 was the best of all worlds: a public service, paid for by advertisers. Programming

for public good not private profit. We don’t need more US-style streamers — a bloated bubble soon to burst — but we’ll miss TV owned by & for us when its gone.” He forgot to mention that

he’s had two films produced by Channel 4 in recent years. Lisa McGee, author of Derry Girls, Indian Summers and many more, wrote, “Thinking of all the voices that might never be heard.

#channel4 #DerryGirls”, without explaining why a future privatised channel wouldn’t choose to commission her work. There was, of course, an elephant in the room. What does Channel 4 actually

produce? Alex Massie, Scotland editor for the _Spectator_, who writes a political column for the _Times_ and the _Sunday Times_, was the only person I follow on Twitter who actually

mentioned Channel 4’s output and wrote, “Of course C4 does some things very well. This, though, is primetime this week: Tonight: Celebrity Bake-off The Simpler Life (people living like the

Amish) Gogglebox Tomorrow: The Great Home Transformation The Simpler Life Naked Attraction’s Best…Naughty Bits.’ Or take the 115 nominations for the BAFTA TV Awards. Channel 4 programmes

received 27 of them, eleven of which were for Russell T. Davies’s Aids drama, “It’s A Sin”. Is this what James Graham means by “the best of all worlds”? I have recently started watching All

4, the on-demand channel from 4. There are some terrific films and dramas available, free of charge: Alan Bleasdale’s GBH, Shane Meadows’ This is England series, Traffik with Lindsay Duncan,

Bill Paterson and Julia Ormond, some of the best of Mike Leigh’s single dramas, and much more. What is striking about this list is that apart from Shane Meadows’s three-part series, from

2010-15, all these films and dramas are from the 1980s and ’90s, the first years of Channel 4. In those decades I, like many people, watched a huge amount of programmes on Channel 4. Along

with BBC2 and The South Bank Show and some ITV drama, Channel 4 produced many of the best programmes of the time, among the best programmes ever made on British television. They were what

journalists call water-cooler TV, the sorts of programmes people in offices stop and chat about. I can’t remember the last time anyone I know told me about an exciting programme they had

seen on Channel 4, except for the overrated It’s A Sin. A shakeup at Channel 4 was long overdue — and don’t let a small group of political headbangers, obscure backbenchers or people who

have done very well out of their involvement with Channel 4 tell you otherwise. Attacking Nadine Dorries and the Johnson Government has become a leading British spectator sport. That doesn’t

mean they are wrong on this. Next time someone appears on the Today programme or Newsnight saying how great Channel 4 has been over the past 25 years, the presenter should ask them to name

ten programmes (apart from “It’s a Sin”) and explain why they are so good and why only Channel 4 as it is currently constituted could have made them. Until then, I am off to wait for the

final series of “Better Call Saul”, the new series of “Russian Doll”, the first series of “Goliath” with the late William Hurt, “The Good Figh”t, the brilliant “Chernobyl”, the first three

series of “Berlin Babylon” — none of which is on Channel 4 — and some of the best of Mike Leigh and Alan Bleasdale from the 1980s. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication

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