The Channel 4 headquarters, London. Image: Philip Toscano. Press Association. All rights reserved
It is easy for me to remember when Channel 4 went on air, because it was the very night our first son, Sam, was born. So instead of being underwhelmed by the first night schedule of Book 4, Walter and In the Pink, I was at the Royal Berks Hospital in Reading being overwhelmed by a very different kind of birth. That odd coincidence has meant I have always known exactly how old Channel 4 is. Right now, thirty-three and half; and if Sam’s experience of life is anything to go by, it’s well-adjusted, happily settled down in multicultural Britain, financially stable, ambitious, liberal with a small ‘l’ – and always having to protect its independence, especially from the perpetual nonsense of outside interference.
From the early 1980s, my journey as an independent producer reflects Sam’s journey of growing into an adult, as my fledgling company has built from the tiniest baby into a large and complex global entity, with a turnover of nearly £10 million, and more than a hundred staff handling thousands of hours of programming. Although being an indy has a precarious harshness that superannuated corporate staff would not abide, it has been an exhilarating, hugely creative, if perilous, 30 year expedition through every high and low that a life in television can offer, with some wonderful, crazy characters, and great programmes to boot – most of which would never have happened without Channel 4.
