Though covering a wide range of programming (from one-offs to series, sketch
shows to sitcoms, new talent to big names, experimentation to ratings winners
and marketable brands), Channel 4's comedy output has altered the broadcasting
landscape, while at its inventive, provocative or controversial best, comedy has
in turn helped to define the channel's identity.
Associations with 'alternative' comedy began with the opening night's
screening of 'Five Go Mad in Dorset' (tx. 2/11/1982). This was the first
production from The Comic Strip Presents... (C4/BBC2, 1982-2005), a strand of
self-contained films from 'alternative' figures including Adrian Edmonson, Rik
Mayall, Peter Richardson, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. The BBC debuted Strip regulars
on Boom Boom... Out Go the Lights (BBC, 1980-81) and initiated The Young Ones
(BBC, 1982-84), but were hastened by the Strip. Widely variant in genre and
style, The Comic Strip Presents' classics included 'The Strike' (tx. 20/1/1988),
the satirical tale of Hollywood appropriating British history, and 'Mr Jolly
Lives Next Door' (tx. 5/3/1988), a relentlessly violent, grubby distillation of
the Mayall/Edmonson double-act.
Another high-profile 'alternative' platform was Saturday Live/Friday Night
Live (1985-88). Stand-up, character monologues and sketches combined to break
stars including Jo Brand, Julian Clary, Ben Elton, Harry Enfield, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. New talent emerged in The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross (1987-90) and Saturday Zoo (1993), not least host Ross, while less-remembered platforms included Anglo-American sketch show Assaulted Nuts (1985), stand-up vehicle The Entertainers (1983), and Packet of Three/Packing Them In (1991-92)
featuring Frank Skinner. Who Dares Wins (1983-88) was a vital late-night sketch
show from a team including Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville and Tony Robinson. Combining topicality with provocative breaches of taste, the series was censured
by the channel after an advert parody of Christ on the cross accepting a certain brand of cigar. Controversy has followed many major Channel 4 comedies.
However, the channel has never just been an 'alternative' platform. Older
comics appeared alongside newer ones, from Frankie Howerd on Saturday Live to
Spike Milligan on The Last Laugh Before TV-am (tx. 2/12/1985). Mainstream
sitcoms included Relative Strangers (1984-85), Father's Day (1983-84) and the
escalating chaos of Chance in a Million (1984-86). 'Traditional' sitcom still
broke ground: the women's refuge experiences woven into The Refuge (1987-88), or
the mainstream multiculturalism of No Problem! (1983-85), Tandoori Nights
(1985-87) and the vibrant Desmond's (1988-94).
Overseas comedy plays a vital role. American comedians including Emo
Phillips, Rita Rudner and Steven Wright illuminated Saturday Live; Channel 4
filmed Bill Hicks and commissioned home-grown series such as The Unpleasant
World of Penn and Teller (1994). Bought-in comedies in the channel's early days
included the controversial broadcast of the 1979 Richard Pryor Live in Concert
(tx. 5/11/1983) and, less fashionably but successfully, Australian archival
imports such as The Paul Hogan Show (1973-82) and The Norman Gunston Show
(1975-79) whose inept (in-character) interviews with major figures pre-empt Ali
G and Borat. Hugely successful imported sitcoms included Cheers (US, 1982-93),
Frasier (US, 1993-2004), The Golden Girls (US, 1985-92), The Cosby Show (US,
1984-92) and Roseanne (US, 1988-97). More conventional offerings such as Friends
(US, 1994-2004) and Will and Grace (US, 1998-2006) were balanced by the less
mainstream Dream On (US, 1990-96) and South Park (US, 1997-), and the cost of
acquiring The Simpsons (US, 1989-) demonstrated the importance of big
imports.
Home-grown and overseas talent united in Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988-98),
which reflected the growth of improvisational comedy and spawned an American
version. A channel-defining hit brand, elements of its format were re-used by
creators Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson in Mock the Week (BBC, 2005-). The
makers of Whose Line..., Hat Trick (set up by Who Dares Wins cast members Jimmy Mulville and Rory McGrath with Denise O'Donoghue) showed the impact of
Channel 4's 'publisher' remit, becoming a major independent production company.
Their output included Roman Britain-set sitcom Chelmsford 123 (1988-90),
inventive sketch show Paul Merton - The Series (1991-93), journalism parody This
Is David Lander/This Is David Harper (1988-90) and the hit newsroom sitcom Drop
the Dead Donkey (1990-98). Idiosyncratic classics from the turn of the 1990s
included Absolutely (1989-93), Vic Reeves' Big Night Out (1990-91) and Paul
Makin's undervalued Nightingales (1990-93).
Despite the risqué success of So Graham Norton (1998-2002) today's Channel 4
lacks an entertainment format akin to Saturday Live: there is instead the
predictable Friday Night Project (2005-) or the restriction of stand-ups in
ubiquitous panel shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats (2005-). Topical, political satire
has varied from the consistently tough Bremner, Bird and Fortune (1999-) and The
Mark Thomas Comedy Product (1996-2002) through Armando Iannucci's muted Gash
(2003) to the critically hated 11 O' Clock Show (1998-2000), although that
produced the headline-grabbing Da Ali G Show (2000). Comedy-drama landmarks
include Green Wing (2004-06) and Teachers (2001-04). Pilot strands remain
crucial in developing new shows: where A Bunch of Five (1992) produced Frank
Skinner's agreeably filthy 'Blue Heaven' (tx. 10/6/1992) and Comedy Lab (1998-)
the start of That Peter Kay Thing (1999-2000), the recent Comedy Showcase
(2007-) has already yielded commissions for series of Plus One and The Kevin
Bishop Show.
C4 remains a source of inventive sketch comedy, including The Armando
Iannucci Shows (2001), The Adam and Joe Show (1996-2001), Smack the Pony
(1999-2003) and Chris Morris's work: the acidic, ultra-controversial media
satire Brass Eye (1997, 2001) and hallucinogenic Jaaaaam (2000), a remix of Jam
(2000). Sitcom has been invigorated by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews' Father
Ted, Black Books (2000-04), Spaced (1999-2001), Peep Show (2003-) and Peter
Kay's phenomenon Phoenix Nights (2001-02), which spawned the spin-off Max and
Paddy's Road to Nowhere (2004). Linehan's The I.T. Crowd (2006-) is a welcome
addition, rejecting the post-Office tendency for docu-embarrassment-sitcom in
favour of a traditional (though neatly skewed) approach.
Channel 4's restatement of its remit in 2007 included renewed investment in
comedy. This reflects the degree to which its comedy output helps the channel to
deliver the combination of experimentation, subversion and commercial success
that are signposted by its difficult remit and critical
reputation.
Dave Rolinson
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