Proper telly
The choice tonight was simple: either to watch the launch of Virgin 1 which made its Freeview debut at 9pm tonight, or instead watch the first ever edition of Countdown that was repeated on More4 as part of Channel 4's 25th anniversary celebrations. It was an either/or situation since I could only watch and record one of them.
Virgin 1's slogan may be 'Proper telly' - and indeed it may well turn out to be more watchable than most of the digital-only channels out there (not that difficult, surely?), despite its modest programme lineup - but it has to prove itself first. And nothing beats a good vintage dose of Channel 4, so More4 it was.
A fair deal has changed in television over the last 25 years and this was readily apparent when seeing the first ever editions of Countdown and Brookside after all this time. It was a pity that the original Channel 4 continuity announcement wasn't used before Countdown but at least there was some nice retro-style continuity by way of compensation.
At the end of Countdown, the continuity announcer commented on how posh it was and in a sense he was right; nowadays broadcasters tend to be more 'inclusive' with regional accents and 'down to earth' presentation being commonplace, and this often also applies to the programmes just as much as the bits inbetween the programmes.
Sir Jeremy Issacs was also featured before each programme to explain the significance of the following programme, and Brookside was originally conceived as a soap to cater for younger people because the other channels were "too staid" in this regard. How times have changed.
The Brookside opening title sequence was a very simple affair with just a selection of video clips accompanied by the Brookside theme, culminating in a shot of Brookside Close with a simple superimposed "Brookside" caption. No producer credit, no pre-credit teaser sequence and no annoying sponsorship message - simple, straightforward and uncluttered.
At the end of Brookside, the fact that there was no rush to move to the next programme was readily apparent; indeed the end credits moved with all the haste of a snail on mogadon, though their simple nature ironically made that modern practice of credit squashing all the more easier.
Also shown tonight from Channel 4's opening night was the acclaimed film "Walter" and Five Go Mad In Dorset. And unlike most over channel launches, Channel 4 still maintained an impressive strike rate of innovation right up to the early 1990s when the channel gained the ability to sell its own advertising and the rot started to set in.
Over the next few weeks More4 is repeating other archive Channel 4 programmes including Father Ted, Porterhouse Blue and Eurotrash, so there should be something of interest for most people and is a useful reminder of Channel 4's past creativity - not all of it was classic by any means but often showed a degree of imagination that's missing in a world of makeover shows.
Now beat that for "proper telly", Virgin 1.
