It's 20 years since Channel 4 was launched with the promise of offering something different. But, with ground-breakers such as Brookside dying on its feet and the failure of the new breakfast show, there's very little to celebrate

THE television company that brought you The Big Breakfast and Big Brother now presents its latest production, Big Trouble. That's what Channel 4 is in. As the station reaches its 20th birthday on November 2, there is precious little to celebrate.

Falling audiences are only one of the headaches. The situation isn't helped by bad publicity surrounding the slow death of its once-popular soap Brookside, coupled with the failure of new breakfast show RI:SE to make its mark, and poor ratings for costly signings Richard and Judy. All that soon after the decision to axe the once-triumphant FilmFour, its independent film-making subsidiary, and recently-announced job losses.

This is one of those times when Channel 4 can do no right. It reached the point where officials found themselves in an unseemly slanging match with rival Channel 5, or five as it has rebranded itself. Perhaps Channel 4 was in a no-win position.

Even so, the handling of their announcement that Brookside was being shifted from its weekday peaktime slot to a lower profile Saturday afternoon screening was botched. Chief executive Mark Thompson clearly didn't want headlines screaming BROOKIE AXED the day after he announced the channel's plans for the coming year.

So news that the Scouse soap, a fixture since the channel began two decades ago, was being shunted from peaktime was made a week before Thompson revealed the channel would be spending a record £430m on programmes next year.

What he couldn't avoid coming out was that much of the extra cash gained would result from cutting £30m in overheads, including the loss of over 200 jobs. No amount of spinning could conceal that tough decisions were being made to put Channel 4 back on track.

He couldn't even bring himself to finish off Brookside properly. Like an executioner with a blunt axe, he left the head only partially severed. The soap faces a lingering death in the TV twilight zone that is Saturday afternoon. Presumably Channel 4 hopes audiences, already down to a million from a peak of eight million, will slump so low that no one will bother when the series disappears altogether.

The timing of the move was odd, coming just weeks before Brookside's own 20th birthday when an expensive revamp is planned to woo back viewers. A ground-breaking series, whose gritty storylines and willingness to tackle once-taboo issues led the way for a new breed of soaps like EastEnders, deserved a better end.

As a former Brookie fan - even I gave it up six months ago - I could only chortle when Thompson became embroiled in a war of words with five's director of programmes Kevin Lygo, the former head of entertainment at Channel 4. The channel's ratings slump has seen it slide down 14 per cent across all programmes compared with last year and as much as 20 per cent less for peaktime show. At times, the audience has slipped below five's.

Programmes, critics claim, have become bland and predictable. Lygo went further, accusing his old bosses of becoming like the old Channel 5 - obsessed with sex and cheap celebrity profiles. Channel 4 would find this difficult to rebut, considering recent programmes such as Liz Hurley's Brain and Sex Tips For Girls. Not that five is entirely innocent with titles including Bi-Curious Girls and Michael Jackson's Face, with The Cheryl Barrymore Story to come tomorrow.

Still, there's nothing like a good verbal scrap. Thompson had said the increased budget would provide a better service for viewers with more emphasis on drama. What got Lygo's goat was a comment that five avoided originality at all cost. Not only Channel 4 came in for his criticism. He reckoned you could take all five terrestrial channels, swap their programmes around and no one would tell the difference.

The thing is, he's right. Thompson had the grace to admit that his channel had lost its way. The fourth channel was set up in 1982 with a brief to serve minority interests and encourage innovation through programming supplied by independent producers.

The first chief executive, Jeremy Isaacs, propped up minority programmes with more mainstream US series such as Cheers. The channel has always had an eye for a superior imported series. Friends, ER, West Wing, The Sopranos, Sex And The City, and Ally McBeal are among other bought-in hits. Fears that such a remit wouldn't attract enough advertising proved wrong.

Money, of course, is at the root of the problems. Some say the channel has lost its way trying to please advertisers who want to reach the pockets of the all-important 16-34 age group.

But all is not gloom and doom. Graham Norton is 4's prize guy whose five-times-a-week chat show proved you can't get too much of a good thing. The poor ratings of the first in the new series, programmed against The Office and a Star Trek movie on Monday, will prove only a temporary blip, I'm sure.

Channel 4 was also responsible for one of TV's biggest success stories of recent years - Big Brother, a reality TV series that was sometimes as interesting as watching paint dry, but showed an unlimited capacity to generate publicity and attract viewers.

Unfortunately, you can't show Big Brother 24 hours a day. Some of the time Channel 4 has to show the once all-powerful Richard and Judy, and that's becoming an increasing problem. Switching from ITV's This Morning was always going to be a risky career move for the couple, although financially rewarding. For Channel 4, the signing was a coup - on paper, at least. Sadly, ratings for their five days-a-week teatime show aren't justifying the £1.5m contract.

Thompson, a former BBC Director of Television, fuelled rumours that he was planning to axe the show by refusing to comment about the future of the presenters after announcing the budget increase.

Whether his plan to go back to basics and reinvent Channel 4 works, only time will tell. Perhaps sex will help, it usually does on TV. Put sex in the title and ratings soar.

The channel is planning "the most complete audit of the UK's sexuality, relationships and sexual habits". This interactive event about people's sex lives, due for screening next month, will have experts looking at the science of sexual attraction and video diaries kept by volunteers about their bedroom habits.

If only Thompson could get Channel 4's stars such as Richard and Judy and Graham Norton to take part, he might be on to a winner

Published: ??/??/2002