Channel 4 has become the whipping boy of British broadcasting since the Celebrity Big Brother racism row - does it deserve the flak, asks Róisín Ingle
What a difference a racism row makes. While Channel 4 has always come in for its fair share of criticism, whether for lesbian snogs on Brookside or dubious sexual shenanigans via Eurotrash, the Celebrity Big Brother debacle last January has left the broadcaster looking like the official whipping boy of British broadcasting.
This week the broadcaster came under fire from commentators who declared themselves appalled that an upcoming documentary on Princess Diana was thought to contain graphic images of the late princess in the Paris tunnel where the fatal crash took place.
The reports were wildly exaggerated as it turns out, but that hasn't prevented calls for the documentary to be pulled and for the station's chief executive, Andy Duncan, to stand down. Shipwrecked, another programme in the channel's reality stable, has also come under the spotlight after a contestant made what were construed to be racist comments. And a few nights ago, the Big Brother 8 launch party was emphatically pooped by the sombre and ponderous apology to viewers that broadcasting regulator Ofcom insisted be aired following the channel's cack-handed approach to the furore over the treatment of Shilpa Shetty in the Celebrity Big Brother house. It's enough to have Channel 4 bosses hankering after the good old days when they were dubbed "Channel Swore" by the tabloids and former boss Michael Grade was nicknamed "pornographer-in-chief".
"Channel 4 is in an uncomfortable position," says writer Maggie Brown, who is currently putting the finishing touches to a history of the broadcaster, Channel 4: The First 25 Years. "In the past, while they caused controversy, the channel was flying just below the radar and flourishing that way. It was seen as experimental and edgy and that was viewed as a good thing. But since the racism row they are being much more heavily scrutinised; it's not a comfortable place to be."
THE SHILPA SHETTY episode, a row that, it should be remembered, began over a stock cube, has put the spotlight on a channel that has become increasingly dependent on its wildly successful reality television show. Seven years ago, when the show first began, it was put on at the experimental hour of 11pm, because bosses were unsure as to whether the idea of a group of people under observation 24 hours a day would take off. Almost immediately, the audience, made up for the most part of advertising-friendly under-34 female viewers, embraced the show. Commissioned for just one series, it spawned seven more, including additions such as Big Brother's Little Brother, Big Brother's Big Mouth and the celebrity version, which may yet turn out to be the undoing of the ratings winner.
According to Brown, Channel 4 is in an addictive relationship with a format that many argue is way past its sell-by date. "And even if it hasn't gone past the sell-by date, the channel has allowed the series to become too excessive . . . advertisers pay top rates for the under-34 female audience and Channel 4 are locked into a crack cocaine habit, where Big Brother has become something it can't do without. They are in a position where an incredibly powerful commercial tool has come to overshadow a lot of other interesting programming. I think they know that this isn't actually very healthy."
The harshest critics, though, say interesting programming is something that has been thin on the ground at publicly owned Channel 4 in recent years. They point to the rash of reality television-based, lifestyle programming, where on any given day you can get advice on selling or doing up your house, on how to look good naked, or how to look 10 years younger.
There are programmes about people with embarrassing illnesses and documentaries about people seeking to lose their virginity. Channel 4's planned "Wank Week" was only taken out of the schedule to avoid further controversy in the wake of the recent row. Even before the barney over a stock cube, Jeremy Isaacs, the first chief executive of Channel 4, declared that the station had "lost its soul".
As with all terrestrial broadcasters, the station operates in a radically different competitive climate than it did back in 1982, when it was founded, with a remit that it be innovative and appeal to a culturally diverse society. There was cutting-edge programming and shrewd acquisitions from the US, from Cheers to Friends to Frasier. Back then, in what for the UK was four-channel land, the main homegrown crowd-pullers were Brookside and Countdown. These days, in 400-channel land, Brookside is gone, Countdown is the less successful cousin of Deal or No Deal and, with US imports spread across the channels, Big Brother is the show that provides financial ballast.
Channel 4 is still producing challenging and impressive programmes, which, despite costing more than the likes of Big Brother, do not result in anything approaching the same audience figures. Longford, the stunning drama about Lord Longford's dealings with Myra Hindley, pulled in less than two million viewers.
Jade Goody's eviction was watched by eight million. The station still pours money into factual programmes, including the critically acclaimed Dispatches and Unreported World, despite haemorrhaging viewers at these times. But, as Brown points out, "in the battle to be competitive, most of the people who are commissioning programmes and running the channel have their eye more on the ratings than on perhaps their remit. What they would love to do is find some big new wonderful hits that would change the face of television." And wean them off Big Brother.
It will happen, Brown believes, but it will be more softly-softly than cold turkey, because, at the moment, they can't afford to jettison the rather lucrative monkey on their back. "Channel 4 bosses will probably bite the bullet and decide they have to reduce their reliance on it. Celebrity Big Brother might be the first to go because they could have trouble casting the next one," she says. "I assume this current difficulty will pass, but the channel is definitely in for a long, sticky summer."