How C4 survived 2007

Getting back on track, It’s been a tough year for Channel 4, but it’s survived its annus horribilis.

Back in 2002, embarrassed C4 bosses tried to ignore their forthcoming 20th anniversary. C4 was a modern, original channel and didn’t want to do the BBC-style nostalgia thing.

Arrogantly rejecting any anniversary-related ideas, Tim Gardam decided the channel would wait for its 25th anniversary instead. It was typical C4 bravura - deliberately ignoring the obvious take while confidently assuming  we would be more interested five years on.

And 2007, C4’s 25th anniversary year, has been fascinating - but for all the wrong reasons. After years of being considered the best channel on TV, the whole network nearly collapsed, thanks to Jade Goody.

C4’s annus horribilis began in January with the racist bullying on Celebrity Big Brother. Suddenly, the channel that couldn’t put a foot wrong looked pathetic and weak. It was ironic that marketing geniuses Andy Duncan and Luke Johnson were in charge at the time of the crisis which almost destroyed C4’s hard-won brand values.

Talking to one of the commissioners at the height of the racism furore, I was amazed at the casual response inside C4. “It’ll all be forgotten soon,” she said, slightly annoyed at my questions. “It’s not such a big deal.”

Among this year’s financial and fakery scandals, allowing Jade, Danielle and Jo to gang up on a Bollywood star doesn’t seem that shocking now - but remember, this was C4. It was “our” special channel and its sudden attack of paralysis damaged its entire output.

There were signs of rot before CBB - the balancing act of an increasingly -desperate tabloid schedule with dreary public service docs in primetime meant C4 ended up with weeks of wank. And umpteen series of formulaic shows such as Wife Swap damaged its air of originality.

But we can’t just blame cosiness with the super-indies. Over the past few years, C4 commissioners were forced to stop risk-taking and encouraged to whore their slots for anything that would rate. Eventually, C4 all began to look a bit bland, samey and (gasp) boring.

Luckily, the management crisis in January shocked everyone who cared about C4. In a daring move, the prodigal son, Julian Bellamy, was snatched back from BBC3 and the entire industry breathed a sigh of relief.

Eight months on, C4’s annus is almost recovered. Inside Horseferry Road, the buzz is palpable and perfectly reflected by the sheer exuberance of the massive 4 logo bizarrely plonked in the middle of the entrance. It is slowly starting to feel like C4 again… thank God.

Of course, it still has a middle class and factual bias and it still surprises me when those at the channel claim C4 News is its most important programme, when that has almost certainly been Big Brother for the past seven years.

Oh well - I suppose it’s still better than the rest.

The Insider is a TV producer