Channel 4: Back to the 90s, Into 22...

Last week, with the help of Vic Reeves, Channel 4 proved that nostalgia is very much more than it used to be as Vic took us back to the 90s!

'Back to the 90s' was brilliant.?Yes, it was the telly of my 20s but it brought back in tremendous late night loveliness just how much Channel 4 did in that decade: careers launched, ground breaking formats made and we learned that Vic, when he first turned up at the channel, was known as Chin! Jaw dropping!

First there was the word

How to summarize the 90s on 4??First, there was The Word.?Juxtapose Terry Christian and Amanda de Cadenet and you have one heck of a show on your hands.?No surprise that it took just two and a half months for the show to be moved from The Tube’s old six slot to late night and late night it was and more it got.?Stellar moments, Terry’s slap in the face, Oasis first ever TV appearance and the audience fully engaged, sometimes immersed.? Mention has to go to Jo Whiley, band booker on the show who gave Nirvana their first outing on TV.?Sidebar, so much respect to Jo Whiley for everything she did this last year for people with learning disabilities across the UK: Thank You.?The Word pushed the boundaries and I imagine everyone at Ofcom is pretty glad it is now no more.

The 11 O’clock show

I remember watching the first ever episode of this and knew it was something special.?There were all the usual pitfalls set for politicians and leading figures who, in the main, dutifully fell into them.??Just think though, this is a show, that aside from excellent presenter Ian Lee, also launched Ricky Gervais and Sacha Baron Cohen, terrific!?Footnote, random brilliance to have Tommy Vance in the mix, him of Radio 1’s Friday Night Rock Show.

Drop the dead donkey

Andy Hamilton brought us this brilliant comedy and it set the trend of so much that followed in the newsy sitcom world.?Running for almost all the 90s the programme pushed up to the minute news right up to the minute of transmission and congratulations and calmers go out to all colleagues who were in playout at that time, one episode only reaching the Channel minutes before the on air timing.?Ever been in one of those meetings where management speak is on the table? This show made it and exposed its banality right back then.?Gus Hedges exclaims, “Are we cooking on napalm?"?You bet they were.??

Big breakfast

As Philip Larkin might have had it:

Morning Television started in 1982

Though rather boring for me and you

It was breakthrough, BBC Breakfast Time and ITV’s TV AM but it was quickly dull, staid even, not least to young people. Then along came The Big Breakfast and that staid cereal bowl was broken.?We saw then just how good Chris Evans could be, at his best without compare in the TV space, the show itself made even better with Gabby Roslin working brilliantly alongside Evans: two great talents, one amazing morning show.

Don’t forget your Toothbrush

And then there was Toothbrush.?Format busting, audience electrifying stuff.?The show when the whole audience were surprised with the news they were all going on their hols, genius, rating busting

TFI Friday

The 3rd supreme show in the Evans stable, TFI.?No other show has had such energy, such guests, such bands.?Remember the man literally in a suitcase, the slide out of the studio window.?For me, when Bryan Adams and Mel C managed to convince Chris at the very last moment to get them on the show to do an acoustic version of baby when you’re gone.?No-one has shaken up TV like Chris Evans, the energy, the ideas, the presenting skill.?In his moment, he is the moment.?Thank you Chris Evans for everything you made happen in the 1990s, you made it all so much brighter.?You must have some more ideas up your sleeve ?

So Graham Norton

And in the Back to the 90s run down it was So Graham Norton that took the top spot.?Again, following Jonathan Ross and so many others, it was Channel 4 that discovered the tremendous talent that is Graham Norton, that gave him the space, the show, the time to tell the world what he was capable of, and still is.

Back to the future

And what of ’22.?Other than the small matter of the Channel’s 40th Birthday this coming November, there will be more, more sport, more drama, more ground breaking, attitude altering comedy, more, more: 4 all the UK.