Channel 4 headquarters in Horseferry Road, London. Philip Toscano / PA Wire/Press Association Images. All rights reservedChannel 4’s new drama series, National Treasure, strikes familiar notes: politically engaged, contemporary, challenging. An ageing comedian, played by Robbie Coltrane, now reduced to presenting a daytime show on Channel 4 (where else?), is accused of sexual crimes in the distant past. A pair of odiously fashionable commissioning editors at Horseferry Road tells him his hosting duties will not be needed for the time being.
Meanwhile, Channel 4’s own transition from national institution to national treasure was reinforced by the TV industry’s accolade of Channel of the Year, bestowed at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August. That vote may have been influenced by the industry’s instinctive support for any of its key players seen to be under threat, which has been the perception of Channel 4 ever since a civil servant was photographed last September carrying a document referring to possible privatisation of the channel.
The EU referendum seemingly put paid to that risk, as the Secretary of State who had initiated the process, John Whittingdale, was unceremoniously booted out of his job by Theresa May. His successor, Karen Bradley, is an unknown quantity in terms of media policy, but most commentators doubt her interest in the issue, not least because Channel 4 has nearly always enjoyed a remarkably wide level of political and public support. Its editorial stance has long appealed to Guardian readers and parties of the left, whereas its championing of independent television production resonates with Conservative free marketers.
