THE BIG CHANNEL 4-O

Neil Anthony was in at the start of the UK’s first new television channel for 18 years and recalls the heady and hectic times of producing new programmes

- Neil Anthony

Exactly 40 years ago this month, Channel 4 started broadcasting. It was a bold and exciting venture – the UK’s first new television channel since the launch of BBC Two in 1964. As one of the Channel 4’s original independent producers, I had an insider’s view of those exciting and chaotic early years.

My business partner, Bryan Izzard, and I had met while working together at the former ITV regional company Southern Television. Bryan had a long and successful track-record of making television and was responsible for such shows as Please Sir! and On the Buses. I had been a professional dancer and choreographer, working extensively in the UK and Australia. In 1981 we formed The Bright Thoughts Company (bright-thoughts.co.uk), and for the next few years made many of Channel 4’s light entertainment and arts programmes.

I remember our first visit to Channel 4 very vividly. We had a peculiar address to find opposite Harrods, which was serving as the channel’s temporary office. We thought we’d try to sell one of our ideas to Cecil Korer, Channel 4’s commissioning editor for entertainment. We were both very nervous but came out of that meeting with not one commission, but four, including a televised version of actor John Bardon’s one-man show about Max Miller, Here’s a Funny Thing. We were in a state of shock, to the extent of having to find the nearest bar, and it wasn’t even close to lunchtime.

Those were heady times. Channel 4 was expecting programmes to be made on very tight budgets and for our first year of business we operated from my flat above Goodge Street tube station. It was utter chaos cramming everyone in when we were actually in production, but somehow we managed.