09 March 2007
FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, NUMB
Well, five have released details of their 10th anniversary week schedules, and underwhelming reading it is. The channel is embracing the whole 10-year thing in the most uninteresting way possible, by sallying forth with a suite of shows all themed around that double-digit.
So, we've got Britain's Extraordinary Ten-Year-Olds ("Three amazing children who've triumphed over adversity"); a special edition of The Wright Stuff celebrating the channel (that's a bit more like it!); Gordon Brown Meets the Ten-Year-Olds (the Chancellor of the Exchequer quizzed by kids); The Ten Demandments (10-year-old Abby swaps places with her parents in a one-off reality-type thing) and I Blame the Spice Girls (Liza Tarbuck chairing a one-off comedy panel show, looking back over the last decade).
I'm not sure what's happened to five, from the modern and mainstream, to the football and fucking, to awards at the Edinburgh Television Festival, to ... irrelevance. In the last few years, it feels like the channel's just given up, particularly now none of its programmes are aggressively promoted (even something like the Eddie Izzard drama Kitchen was allowed to slip quietly into the schedules).
So, what would be the essential five programmes from its first decade? Family Affairs, The Mole, Bring Me The Head of Light Entertainment, How Not to Decorate, The House Doctor, Jail Break and, er, Touch the Truck. Am I missing anything?
So, we've got Britain's Extraordinary Ten-Year-Olds ("Three amazing children who've triumphed over adversity"); a special edition of The Wright Stuff celebrating the channel (that's a bit more like it!); Gordon Brown Meets the Ten-Year-Olds (the Chancellor of the Exchequer quizzed by kids); The Ten Demandments (10-year-old Abby swaps places with her parents in a one-off reality-type thing) and I Blame the Spice Girls (Liza Tarbuck chairing a one-off comedy panel show, looking back over the last decade).
I'm not sure what's happened to five, from the modern and mainstream, to the football and fucking, to awards at the Edinburgh Television Festival, to ... irrelevance. In the last few years, it feels like the channel's just given up, particularly now none of its programmes are aggressively promoted (even something like the Eddie Izzard drama Kitchen was allowed to slip quietly into the schedules).
So, what would be the essential five programmes from its first decade? Family Affairs, The Mole, Bring Me The Head of Light Entertainment, How Not to Decorate, The House Doctor, Jail Break and, er, Touch the Truck. Am I missing anything?
Comments:
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I think that's really it, unless you count The Jack Doherty Show and Fort Boyard.
Do they actually have a publicity dept? You'd be forgiven for thinking they don't. When was the last time anyone called you? I can't recall it in living memory.
I was at the launch, then the 5th birthday, now the the 10th birthday bash is coming up. One thing five do know how to do properly is throw a good bash.
Do they actually have a publicity dept? You'd be forgiven for thinking they don't. When was the last time anyone called you? I can't recall it in living memory.
I was at the launch, then the 5th birthday, now the the 10th birthday bash is coming up. One thing five do know how to do properly is throw a good bash.
What about Night Fever and Sunset Beach ? 2 Student friendly shows - NF being the almost perfect saturday night starter for the Student before going binge drinking .
Sunset Beach , a US soap so cheap that it had 1 set and streams of characters would come on to the one set speak their intense overwrought dialogue and shuffle off only to be replaced by the next character in a soap tag team effort to take up airtime . Totally addictive as nothing actually happened but everyone had lots to emote about .
Sunset Beach , a US soap so cheap that it had 1 set and streams of characters would come on to the one set speak their intense overwrought dialogue and shuffle off only to be replaced by the next character in a soap tag team effort to take up airtime . Totally addictive as nothing actually happened but everyone had lots to emote about .
# posted by 
: 7:31 PM
: 7:31 PM
Tim Marlowe's arts coverage would be high up on my list of Five programmes (along with The Mole - hugely underrated, and starring one of my former students); and Five News which has proved influential on the increasing informality (and increasing Chris Morris influence) in contemporary news broadcasts.
Marlowe has brought back the enthusiastic talking head to the screen, and I think that these authored documentaries (by an expert as opposed to a random celebrity) is the best of Channel 5's programming (and I hope will be the most influential).
Marlowe has brought back the enthusiastic talking head to the screen, and I think that these authored documentaries (by an expert as opposed to a random celebrity) is the best of Channel 5's programming (and I hope will be the most influential).
Talking about former Mole contestants, one of them - Sara from the first series - is now a publicists on The X Factor.
You've not mentioned the mainstay of Five's drama - its American imports. Five it is that has brought all the incarnations of CSI and Law an Dorder to the terrestrial screen, along with Prison Break, The Shield and House (and others).
# posted by : 9:10 PM
: 9:10 PM
"Five it is that has brought all the incarnations of CSI and Law and Oorder to the terrestrial screen, along with Prison Break, The Shield and House (and others)"
Grey's Anatomy, for instance. Reason enough to watch a regular slice of five, more than most other channels, C4 certainly included.
I was at their launch and they always knew they'd struggle, putting big football and big films into their manifesto, so they're still pulling out strong hitters and chipping away with the smaller stuff. Fair play to them.
Grey's Anatomy, for instance. Reason enough to watch a regular slice of five, more than most other channels, C4 certainly included.
I was at their launch and they always knew they'd struggle, putting big football and big films into their manifesto, so they're still pulling out strong hitters and chipping away with the smaller stuff. Fair play to them.
# posted by : 5:22 PM
: 5:22 PM
Oh, and how many channels would give you THREE proper football matches in one evening?
# posted by : 5:23 PM
: 5:23 PM
The Mole has been the programme of decade so far all channels as far as I'm concered. It was joyous to be treated to something that was difficult to second-guess and didnt treat its viewers as 7-year olds.
# posted by : 6:31 PM
: 6:31 PM
Agreed. I watch The Mole for the first time just a few months ago and it was fantastic. And I had no idea who The Mole was right until the final show.
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# posted by : 10:17 AM
: 10:17 AM<< Home