The Strange Early Days of Channel 4

[@user-trixtwin]

Channel Four's opening sequence, cut to Fourscore, was directed by Tim Simmonds. He was wonderfully creative and set a very high standard for Channel 4's on-air look. I worked at C4 and pressed the buttons in Presentation Control on the opening night Nov 2nd 1982. Very exciting!

[@UkeofCarl]

That’s so cool. What do you do nowadays?

[@user-trixtwin]

@@UkeofCarl I retired 15 years ago!

[@UkeofCarl]

@@user-trixtwin Nice one!

[@mrmeerkat1096]

The channel 4 headquarters are now in Leeds, which seems pointless.

[@Venmaylove]

Thank you for letting us know. When you retired, did you ever consider getting a fluffy cat?

[@adamlee3772]

We only had a black and white television until the week before Channel 4 went live. Dad organised a colour tv and video recorder rental so we could watch 4 go live. Thanks for the nostalgia trip in this well produced video.

[@argotsambience]

Its so comforting when channels say goodnight! Only the kids channels do now, but it would've been nice to experience that in the evening

[@SamuelBlack84]

I remember those days, too, when they played the National Anthem over the Channel ident, then hours of black with a repeating beep It made me feel as though I were the only person on earth still awake

[@tonywhite3620]

@@WFitzgerald Oh yeah, I remember!

[@soundman601]

What a vital video in the history of British television. Perfectly curated with iconic visual clips and audio. This video filled in the gaps of my own knowledge of Channel Four which were many, I discovered from seeing this. This definitive reference video should be preserved forever. For anyone studying British TV broadcasting, seeing this should be a vital part of the curriculum. Thanks Adam. Appreciated much.

[@puddle_puddle]

I bloody love Fourscore. And the fact the main motif is made of 4 notes is just perfection.

[@mickey4125]

Oh yeah! Nice one!

[@DiseaseShaker]

Four notes that made thousands for David Dundas!

[@johnwillis5789]

What I remember as being weird was the fact that in early ad breaks, they just used to play Four Score (both versions) instead of showing ads. One can only assumed they struggled to sell ad space at the very beginning….great vid

[@frankshailes3205]

Yes. I used to love watching the animated 4 and hearing music (they played some other tunes too), it became a bit of a cult thing.

[@electragaming4140]

The ITV companies sold Channel 4's advertising space, until 1993; hence why the regional companies used to promote the channel's programmes alongside their own.

[@robmortimer4150]

@@johnwillis5789 that’s right. Particularly if you were in a small ITV region, where getting ad time on a small new channel would have been tough. I think an equity strike may have had an impact early on too

[@tvaq6ch]

Until January 1st 1993, the ITV regions sold Ch4 advertisements. Many ITV companies could make decent profits selling Ch 4 ads space and subsidizing the channel, but other smaller companies often find it difficult to fill all the slots. The “follow shortly” caption soon became a prominent feature.

[@TheDinoKitteh]

SBS in Australia used to always play Sweet Lullaby by Deep Forest.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

Make Channel 4 WEIRD again!

[@DementedNun121]

What? Naked attraction isint weired enough for you

[@saturn1returns]

Weird not woke!

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

@saturn1returns you want Channel 4 to _support_ systemic prejudice and bigotry then? Because that’s what “not woke” means. Personally I think Channel 4 should continue to be woke, as it has strived to be for basically its entire existence. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had such classic shows as Brass Eye, or Brookside.

[@saturn1returns]

@@DissociatedWomenIncorporated we’d never see something like brasseye on C4 - it’s not innovative anymore it’s the same old agenda’d rubbish. Nothing thought provoking now. There’s so much it could do but it doesn’t. Chris Morris wouldn’t get near C4 or any other weirdos. I dont have a TV but I’ve watched C4 elsewhere throughout the years and honestly it’s fallen so far. It’s like watching kids TV for toddlers. BTW, why are you assuming I want anything or anyone to support systemic prejudice and bigotry? See - you are part of the reason I’d rather not watch it. Jeeze. Am I a racist and nazi as well? I’m incredibly liberal, very much a healthy one though.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

@ I don’t really watch live TV anymore either, but that’s because I don’t want to fund the BBC or Capita (who administer the TV licence). And the definition of woke is to be opposed to systemic prejudice and bigotry, so by saying you want things _not_ to be woke, that’s what you’re conveying. I don’t think you’re a racist or anything, I certainly hope you aren’t, but I do think you’re someone who doesn’t understand the meaning of “woke”, which seems to be frequently misused by right wingers to describe anything they don’t like, in yet another attempt to muddy the discourse. I’m not judging you for falling prey to the propaganda of a very polished worldwide propaganda machine, but I do think you should know the real definition of “woke”, a word coined in the African American community in the 1920s, but that didn’t really enter the larger mainstream until the late 2010s/early 2020s, which is when the backlash against it started.

[@BeefyWaltoon]

It's amazing how good Fourscore is, especially when it's main use is for something most casual TV viewers take for granted. I can tell David Dundas loved making it. Also, channels that aren't afraid to go off the rails & mess about are always the ones that get my attention.

[@qhairullahrusyaidy]

I'm not even British person but hearing the Channel 4 theme makes me appreciate the production music on Brits television. I love how grand and large how it felt.

[@JimPatience]

I remember exactly where I was when Channel 4 started. I was watching it live in 82 at my grandparent's house. Thanks for re-igniting some very treasured memories. Keep up the good work Adam :)

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you very much! 😊

[@nickfensome8855]

First programme transmitted was brookside before that they ran ads on the launch night if remember correctly the tube was on afterwards I am pretty sure it was a Tuesday I was 7 then but dad who was a fruit machine service engineer was not on shift that night and we became brookside fans until it got stupid when Phil Redmond got bored of it and killed it off happy days

[@JimPatience]

@@nickfensome8855 First programme transmitted was Countdown. Can't remember if Brookside was on that day or not.

[@CuriousWorldProductions]

I remember the ticking clock as a child. I found the hand lining up with the white line satisfying.

[@mikepanchaud1]

Fun fact: The original colour logo was supplied to C4 on 35 mm film , which was the highest quality image format at the time. Transferred to 1 inch C format tape for transmission.

[@b3ans4eva]

Do you think that 35 mm print still exists and they’ll do a 4K transfer?

[@mikepanchaud1]

@b3ans4eva I don't know if it still exists, but it has since been recreated digitally, and the quality and resolution will exceed 35mm.

[@kaitlyn__L]

You probably know this Mike, but for anyone else reading, in the early 80s the only way to view CGI was to expose it line-by-line (or occasionally frame-by-frame) onto film! Good on them for using 35mm though, not just 16mm. But then, a lot of the optical printers near-enough to computers were set-up only for 35mm, so maybe they didn't actually have a choice. Honestly, I really like the atmosphere that being exposed onto film gives that early CGI. There was often not that much variation in colour, so film grain helped provide a bit of depth and extra dimension to the lights and shadows. (Though even C4's 84 and 85 CGI idents showed how quickly that progressed.) Early rasterisation/path-tracing noise was also a factor, and film grain helped to hide that too.

[@rattyfus8218]

We all left our Acoustics lecture early so we could watch the start of Channel 4. I saw it on my little black and white portable.

[@eightiesmusic1984]

I had a serious road accident on my push bike on December 21st 1985 in Southport and nearly lost my life. I was not to blame but had just popped to the local chip shop Papas Fritas ( still one of the best names I have heard for a chip shop) to buy tea in time for the omnibus edition of Brookside. I never got to see it due to spending the next couple of days in hospital. Thanks to the STV repeats of Brookside I finally saw it a mere thirty nine years later. I used to love Brookside for its gritty, superbly scripted storylines, left wing stance and the theme tune. At the age of 54 I still love it for all the same reasons. It really had a profound influence on me. Those opening and closing titles with the scenes of daily life and the sun shining on the close take me right back to precious moments in time.

[@wisteela]

And Brookside Close is now real. Yes, they are now lived in, and the name is the same.

[@mike18699-e]

I remember Brookside earning the strong disapproval of my parents - too edgy, too much "strong" language. Of course for the same reasons I really liked it. Also, I was living in Southport at the time you had your accident. But I wasn't driving then - so it definitely wasn't me who knocked you off your bike, if that's what happened!

[@kaitlyn__L]

Ooft. Glad yr alright pal. Good old STV eh! Honestly, aside from the opening episode shown on C4's launch I never watched any. I always respected it for the lesbian kiss but that's about that, since I don't tend to go for soaps. However, I have found some sitcoms I like (despite not generally enjoying the formula), so perhaps I should give Brookside a serious go as well :)

[@redlinetelevision]

I bet you love all the loony left soaps now

[@eightiesmusic1984]

@@redlinetelevision No, I don't watch current soap operas but I still believe in socialism and always will, thanks in part to Brookside.

[@simon_wolf_]

This is a great video, thank you. It brought back some wonderful memories of the brief 18 months I worked there from the summer of 2000 until early 2022 when I moved out of London. During that time I remember us all being given Freeview boxes to celebrate the launch of E4, getting free DVD from FilmFour and going home one evening to tell my wife that something big was going to happen on Big Brother… we’d spent the afternoon in the office watching the then internal-only live feed and seeing Nasty Nick being found out by the other housemates.

[@Venmaylove]

I loved Nasty Nick. They gave him his own short lived show

[@photolabguy]

American viewer here. Whenever I see the Channel 4 logo, I always remember the TV show The Secret Life Of Machines. That show was on here in the United States. There was an episode where Tim Hunkin was discussing how a VCR' works. He was recording over and over the Channel 4 indent. Brings back some childhood nostalgia as a kid in the 80's.

[@kumachan9311]

He's got a KZbin channel

[@64bakes]

Yes that's right, I think the exact same! I thought It reminds me of Tim Hunkin playing multiple VHS copies using a recording of the ident and forescore, to demonstrate how duplicate recordings deteriorate in quality. I think that's the same scene you remember.

[@StuartClary]

This was recorded on sellotape and rust...... this was recorded on sellotape and rust....

[@photolabguy]

@@StuartClary You absolutely nailed it! I thought he said sticky tape and rust, but yeah... You got it!

[@mikepanchaud1]

@photolabguy yes, he is alive and well and has remastered all the episodes and does a new commentary at the end, all on KZbin. He's also done some new videos on different subjects, eg hinges , glue etc..

[@davidtoups4684]

Your videos make me feel nostalgic for older British television and I grew up and live in the US!

[@dave55uk]

First time I've heard Fourscore - it's good. Thanks for letting us hear it.

[@AdamMartyn]

My pleasure!

[@UKProgRock]

Same. Shocked me actually, it's kinda Electro-Orchestral Progressive Pop in nature.

[@ben-tendo]

It wasn't weird, it was wonderful 😊such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the competition, and different from day one, as it always has been. And I still think to this day their original graphics and idents are striking and stand out over any other. There's a reason so many producers and editors try and use the original stings whenever possible to make a show on the channel look retro or different. I also have the vinyl in storage because again I felt the music stood out just as much as the graphics compared to the competition. Just all amazing and changed television in its own way for the better.

[@lesterfrancis8284]

The sitcom "Desmond's" was the only show from Britain's Channel 4 that crossed the pond and aired in New York City on WNYE-TV Channel 25 from the late 90s to 2007, as part of their weekly (Sunday nights) Caribbean International Network block of sitcoms. My family would set around the TV and watch it. knowing that there was a show with folks of Caribbean heritage on TV. The show had a second airing on WNYE-TV during the pandemic. Every episode of "Desmond's" was aired on weekend. To this day I can still remember the them song of the show.

[@bobrew461]

Norman Beaton made the first British sitcom with an all black cast called The Fosters. It was based on a US series called Good Times. Back in 1976 it was made by LWT and shown on ITV, but according to him, it was never repeated. Only shown later on satellite channels in the UK.

[@annother3350]

@@bobrew461 There was another show before Desmonds, probably early 80s called No Problem and I heard black people would also shoud their family to gather round the TV as it was still rare to see shows about the black community

[@kaitlyn__L]

Oh, wow! I knew it was influential in British Black communities, but I had no idea it was imported over to the States! I assume from their assigned letters this was based in New York? Did they sell it onto any other regions, to your knowledge, or was it mainly kept in that state?

[@lesterfrancis8284]

​@@kaitlyn__L As far as I know WNYE-TV Channel 25 was the only station in the country that air Desmond's.

[@PaulA-sy1xl]

I remember for the week leading up to the opening day of Channel 4 they had a countdown clock on screen showing Days hours minutes seconds, which helped build the excitement for the start. I remember the first day watching, it's easy to forget thesedays how exciting it really was having a new TV Channel start up back then.

[@YorkshireTeaNiceNStrong]

It was brilliant. I was 8 and watched the launch and have fond memories of evenings when my Mother was working, snuggled up on the sofa with my big sister, illicitly watching The Tube.

[@UKProgRock]

I was born at the beginning of 1982, so effectively it's been part of my entire life, which is mad to me. I miss the Channel 4 film nights. Got introduced to several classic movies including The Big Lebowski, The Ring (Ringu) and La Haine, as well as many others.

[@craignewell-if1ov]

👍🏼ya great times for a young fella. I remember a lot of Clint Eastwood films screened as well, Magnum force, heartbreak ridge, any which way but loose.

[@UKProgRock]

@craignewell-if1ov yeah they were damn good with that side of things. I seem to recall it was the popularity of this that led to the creation of Film 4, but don't quote me on that.

[@psprog]

I've still got the cassette recording I made when I was little - the intro leading to Countdown. It was so exciting at the time - a new channel!.....and of course the Red Triangle symbol on potentially saucy French films in those early years. We'd all stop up for those ;-)

[@gmay8493]

I’m 40, so I remember the first decade of Channel 4 through the eyes of kids tv. Even then, you could tell that it seemed less stuffy and more cool than much of what was on the BBC at the time…Pob’s Programme being one of my favorites and a great example of something that would never have got onto the BBC at the time, alongside stuff like Kabaddi on a Saturday morning. Some truly interesting and niche programming there. I also remember some weird quirks like the ads being the exactly same as the ones on ITV. I’d also say that the 4 ident is an iconic piece of 80’s design. It reminds me of New Order’s Blue Monday record cover, which would have been created at around the same time. Very understated, but also colorful and had a way of attracting your attention without seeming too fussy, which seems to be a hallmark of design from that early 80’s era.

[@AlisonBryen]

I'm 40 next month. Pugwall ruled!

[@CricketEngland]

I once appeared on C4 version of Teletext during Easter. Well when I said I appeared it was an Easter drawing with my name underneath it that was show on the 4Tel kids pages. I still have a screen grab they sent me of the image.

[@gary.h.turner]

I did one of those too - mine was a very 'pixellated' version of Henry VIII's head!

[@JamesChatting]

Kick ass

[@ackerjawaka1966]

I once appeared in a documentary on ITV called Human Jigsaw that filmed me when I was in Hindley borstal, I used to show it to everyone just to p-ss my parents off that little bit more 🍺🍻😜

[@andrewnile]

Do you know approximately when it aired? Your drawing might have been recovered from a VHS teletext capture!

[@RichieReportsUK_UKCNews]

@@gary.h.turner I used to love those heavily pixilated images on teletext, they did their best to display images of faces & other things, such as Weather maps, using a very basic computer system which was originally designed just to display pages of text!

[@kinolibby6580]

A research area of interest of mine is Channel 4's Independent Film and Video Department. They were responsible for commissioning the weirdest of T.V programmes in their 80s Eleveth Hour slot and 90s Midnight Underground

[@sglenny001]

100% agreed

[@pileofhazelnuts]

I've been on a binge of your videos recently and they're very well made! I'm drawn in by the fascinating information and how well you display everything being both informal and passionate. Thank you

[@andreamallon3062]

Oh my, that music and this video has brought back some memories of my teenage years. Love it ❤

[@ethzero]

5:10 Genuinely bought a big nostalgic smile to me face hearing this again, and had no idea it would ❤

[@mbvideoselection]

A lady came to make a corporate video of me at work a few years ago for a promotion of our healthcare provider, and it turned out she used to be a senior person in C4's Presentation Department and we had some nice long conversations about the various seasonal promotion sequences I remembered.

[@drewwhite6865]

That would make a wonderful podcast topic. Please do suggest if she might be interested as these perspectives are so important and few people would have her insight!

[@leebritnell2405]

Great stuff,very well researched.I'm an addict of this type of content,subscribed,looking forward to more goodies!

[@mickeydodds1]

With the limited (by today's standards) computing power available in 1982, that Channel 4 ident logo of the 3D blocks coming together took many many hours of computer time to generate.

[@Callum12]

Its thanks to Channel 4 I discovered what is def a Christmas classic The Snowman, from what I recall there was one year they didn't show it and people complained so it was brought back the following year. And I think thats how I discovered the iconic 4 ident and fourscore. My favourite one is where it looks like the camera turns to the left of the screen (space sqaud I think it was called) that drumroll still sounds dramatic now if you listen through earphones with the volume up.

[@paulbell3682]

Fun fact: Channel 4 made that.

[@kaitlyn__L]

For me the Channel 4 Christmas classic has to be Father Christmas, but either Raymond Briggs story is good in my book ;)

[@SamuelBlack84]

The wonderful days of awesome Christmas television with the whole family Good old days

[@dougbarnette8395]

I adore the early motion graphic design of channel 4 in its early days. Those blocks, so bold and simplistic, yet technically brilliant. And I love David Dandass,s Fourscore, a beautifully constructed soundtrack to a new channel. Channel 4 has always in the past conveyed a sort of quirky "weirdness", which I love, and want channel 4 to continue...

[@wutang6020]

I remember my dad’s friend programming the same thing on the spectrum 48k lol my mum & dad got me a Vic 20 that year for Christmas lol 👌

[@claresherman2278]

As someone who remembers the early days of Channel Four fondly, I really enjoyed that. I’m so glad you mentioned the irreverent continuity announcers, who would often comment on the bizarre programmes and some of the early problems the channel had. One thing you’ve missed out is C4’s struggle to get advertising in the early days. There was often periods in the advertising slots where they would just put a message on screen saying the scheduled programme will continue shortly. The advertising they did have was quite odd, if I remember correctly and for things like insurance companies, rather than mainstream products, Companies were clearly put off by the “controversial” nature of early C4.

[@claresherman2278]

And, thinking about this a bit more ( and obviously the memory plays tricks), but I do seem to remember them repeatedly playing an ad for timeshares!

[@JennyAnnTea]

And for those breaks where the were no adverts they used the “Fourscore II” music. I remember it well.

[@RichieReportsUK_UKCNews]

A bit like the unusual ads which GB News run, for things & companies I've never heard of, rather than well known names.

[@CaptainSiCo]

Another interesting thing about early Channel Four was the lack of adverts due partly to an industrial dispute involving Equity. Some regions tried to fill the slots with Public Information Films but many of them just showed Channel 4’s networked breakfillers such as the 4 symbol moving around in different ways and Quantel-produced graphics and transitions, various stock photos such as clouds and trees, and even short films like aerial views of London, views from train driver cabs and seagulls on a beach. I loved all of these and the music that accompanied them, which included - but was not limited to - both versions of Four Score edited to fit the varying lengths of the breaks.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I've thoroughly enjoyed some archives of the views of a train driver 😅 they're fascinating wee history pieces now, compared to today's similar fare (posted far more widely on KZbin!)

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

19:04 A great amount of research has obviously gone into this vid too, so thanks. Especially as I hadn't seen a load of the idents and was particularly pleased to see the take off of the number 4 from the model of the Ch. 4 building.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I hadn't seen a few of these as well, despite doing my best to search out versions of them every few year! That rocket ship one is fantastic.

[@j0hnf_uk]

I used to love the instrumental music that was used on Channel 4, particularly during it's ad-breaks that weren't ad-breaks, as they could find advertisers to fill in the breaks! The captions of, 'follows shortly...', and some groovy music, was something quite special, back then. I've even go out of my way to record some of it on audio cassette, whenever I could. Unsurprisingly, years later, I would go out of my way to find out what this music was, and so began my appreciation of all things library music!

[@JennyAnnTea]

Well done Adam. It was nice to see all those idents during the playing of the “Fourscore II” music.

[@RVPMatt123]

I managed to get a copy of the Fourscore single from a local record shop not long ago! It's really cool to have!

[@AdamMartyn]

An excellent find! 👌

[@selenalongworth9354]

I was born in 82..this entire set up with fourscore and the full orchestra still sounds incredible ❤

[@TheImatube]

Would love if you could do a part 2 on how weird and risky channel 4 was with its content in the early days. Love this btw

[@jeffknott1975]

I remember everybody was sat infront of their tvs waiting for channel 4 to go live, it was a huge event! We'd only had 3 channels for decades then this came along!

[@RichieReportsUK_UKCNews]

Now there are hundreds of channels & no one really notices when a new one appears!

[@jeffknott1975]

​@@RichieReportsUK_UKCNews​ hundreds of channels and I dont watch any of them anymore lol I prefer picking my own content online and watching it when I want to watch it! 100x better than tv 🫠

[@tibsie]

I am the same age as Channel 4, and I vividly remember when Channel 5 started too. I find it so strange that there was so much debate about starting a new channel. I used to think it was just a technical problem of finding and allocating the bandwidth and then finding the cash to run it before it's financially viable. Looking back on it from our world of hundreds of channels and plenty of streaming services, it seems a bit ridiculous. It's hard to imagine what watching TV was like compared to today. If you wanted to watch something you only had four things to choose from unless you had the foresight to record something. You couldn't pause or rewind something you were watching, or start the program from the beginning if you missed the start. You had to arrange your schedule around things you wanted to watch. I have distinct childhood memories of my TV routine. When I got home from school I'd watch CITV then switch over to CBBC. I remember eating dinner to the Simpsons on BBC2, and watching robot wars before going to Scouts on Fridays. It's so much better now that you can watch whatever you want whenever you want, although it does take a considerable amount of effort to choose what to watch now.

[@kaitlyn__L]

The Simpsons followed by Robot Wars evenings!! What a way to eat a ridiculous number of hot dogs for dinner. :) (And, after a few years, if you were bored with books or Game Boy before The Simpsons came on you could always laugh at some of the contestants on Weakest Link.)

[@SamuelBlack84]

Back in the day, the tv schedules were gorged with really fun and interesting television, and you would have to decide which you wanted to watch live and which you wanted to record on video for later If there was a third programme you wanted, forget it Now, we're overwhelmed with channels and empty, tedious programming that barely anyone watches Take me back to the 80s-90s

[@perge_music]

Channel 4 brought us Minipops. They'd be happy if we all have forgotten about that.

[@Nick-xi9lm]

I remember we had a 12 inch portable Ferguson with, the old rotary channel tuning selector. I managed to get the IBA test card . I remember telling my friends, there looks like a new Television channel coming. I seem to remember them showing Basketball Matches on the evening.

[@StepsOfStPhilips]

Withnail & I, and how it’s all connected: David Dundas (of Four Score fame) also wrote the OST to Withnail & I. This was no coincidence. Dundas was a contemporary and housemate of Bruce Robinson (writer/director) when both were at Central School of Speech and Drama. They both knew Martin Lambie-Nairn who - quite apart from designing the logos of Channel 4 and BBC (1997-2022) - was also the creator of Spitting Image (credited as “based on an original lunch with Martin Lambie-Nairn”).

[@mike18699-e]

Ah, I was sure I knew the name David Dundas in some other context. Thanks for clearing it up what that was. Wonderful score to a wonderful movie.

[@williamk3702]

David 'Jeans On' Dundas?

[@pigknickers2975]

@@williamk3702 same man

[@mjp8648]

@@williamk3702 "Brutas Jeans" advert too!

[@loftlegacy]

As a 9 year old I sat there waiting for the opening of C4 with huge excitement. My excitement waned after a few hours as it wasn’t really for me. Hardly watched it but my favourite early C4 show was the science and technology documentary series “Equinox”.

[@CaptainSiCo]

Of course viewers in Wales didn’t officially get Channel 4 until sometime in the 2000s. Their fourth channel was S4C which showed BBC and HTV Welsh language programming (keeping this off the other channels, as it wasn’t popular with mainstream viewers). Many of Channel 4’s programmes were also shown, but often on different times and days. Because of the limited broadcasting hours, S4C couldn’t show the entire C4 schedule so Welsh viewers missed out on a few programmes.

[@SebastianParagraph]

We lived within range of the Mendip transmitter so we got all the West programmes and Channel 4 too. It felt amazing having that many channels in the 80s😂

[@furryanimal8776]

Yep…we used to get C4 programmes in the afternoon and after 9pm.Brookside was on at 5.30 ish I remember and we were always seeing Countdown and 15 to 1 a week later than the rest of the country.Annoyingly S4C delayed showing the 1983 Super Bowl which was live on C4 until the next night!But we did get Welsh wrestling-Wreslo!

[@SebastianParagraph]

@@furryanimal8776 I left the UK in 1999, but didn't HTV Wales and BBC wales do much the same? Like, half the programmes were the same and sometimes around 6 o'clock PM it switched to Welsh language programmes? Don't remember watching Wrestlo but Sgorio was always a favourite.

[@furryanimal8776]

@ Well,yes.And S4C was supposed to solve that .The BBC 1 schedule in Wales often bore little resemblance to the rest of the country.Popular shows that went out at 6.50 pm we either got at different times or not at all!HTV wasn’t quite as bad. But even now BBC Wales can put a different English language show in a prime slot!But as most of us can other versions of BBC or go to the iPlayer it doesn’t matter.

[@gary.h.turner]

I loved the early Channel 4 test card music (some of which is still available on KZbin if you search for it). It was so much better than the test card music on the other channels!

[@knigweenis7092]

Lord Davey Dundas played a blinder with those four notes. Paid every time they were played. Probably got a grand a week out of it. Which is massive money in the 1980s. His very own Noddy Holder royalty "never have to work again" moment.

[@DiseaseShaker]

£3.50 a time, to be precise. Considering all the idents and the early days where the long Fourscore and Fourscore II had to be played to fill space, it added up!

[@kitsworld]

Actually it's only three notes, but point taken. I imagine he was probably on a buyout deal, so unlikely that he got paid each time it was used. I used to supply archive footage to C4 at £1000 per second, which I would license them for 2 uses, so it's possible Dundas had a time limit or number-of-uses built into his deal, and almost certainly separate deals for different international territories, as I did too with the archive. But, as he was commissioned to create the piece specifically for C4, rather than license a pre-existing work, I'd say a general buy-out is much more likely.

[@knigweenis7092]

@@kitsworld As I understand it he got paid per use, which is why it changed in the mid 90s to a similar tune with a different ambient feel. That was probably a one off payment.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@knigweenis7092 yeah I always figured he got an exceptionally good deal in his contract. Whether it be lawyer savvy after his previous hit single, or Channel 4's desperation being a new channel, I never got the impression it was a standard deal.

[@DiseaseShaker]

​@@kitsworldYes - A-G-C-A (though the root note is actually F!).

[@FrankJCarver]

I remember watching the launch of this channel. I had a 1977 Hitachi, CTP-210, Instaview (one second to start up) TV with soft touch buttons to watch it. The TV was very modern, but it wasn't remote control.

[@nickfensome8855]

My mum and dad had the model after that which did a remote control came on a stand with chrome legs which soon got binned but I remember launch night well first programme transmitted was brookside followed by the tube

[@DavidEsp1]

18:54 Kettle-drum-roll intro (of Ch.4 closedown theme) subliminally triggers rousing memories/feelings of the national anthem close-downs of previous (non-24-hour) channels (for those brought up with that, at least). A deliberate composition element?

[@pjuk]

Whenever i see those idents I just think the Brookside theme is about to start with rooftops of Liverpool!

[@robmortimer4150]

I’m sure you know - but I remember my grandparents had an early 80’s set with an ITV2 button. Also - the original four 3D animation had to be made in the US as hardware to make it didn’t exist in the UK

[@Millay2006]

One of my first memories is the Man from Granada delivering a new tv to my parents and tuning in the test transmission for channel 4.. It obviously had an impact on me. I would have been 4.

[@ebismusic8813]

Don’t stop! Your content is absolutely fantastic ❤

[@AdamMartyn]

That's very kind thank you! I'll do my best!

[@dantemedici8179]

Unlike channel 4 anymore sad,y

[@locutus155]

The council housing estate (more like single road) I grew up in was the first place in my village in North Devon to get Channel 4. This because the communal aerial was pointing towards Caradon Hill transmitter rather than Huntshaw Cross, which was the normal one for us.

[@FloweredUp-n4t]

Who else legged it off to Discogs to snap up a copy of that David Dundas record only to see the price tag and immediately change their mind?

[@rimbaud0000]

Really miss the mad stuff they used to have like Sumo and Kabaddi

[@videonut1988]

The English Version of Four started a day after the Welsh version, S4C, started. Strange...

[@mjp8648]

Pronounced in Welsh "S pedwar eck"!

[@cheeks6738]

I remember launch day me and my mum sat waiting for it to start. Rember when they used to show american football and they changed the ident. I never missed an episode of Brookside at eight o'clock and then kate and allie. Also never missed St Elsewhere i always wanted to live in Boston and work at that hospital.

[@bradbel]

Fantastic Bit of history. Great job Adam.

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you!

[@silvera4352]

Anything to do with early channel 4 I’m in. Thanks Adam!

[@AdamMartyn]

My pleasure!

[@TheHeadCell]

I was given a copy of the single when doing a stint at LWT in 1990. And I still have it in my record collection. Fourscore II is a lovely composition IMHO.

[@deejayC]

Other strange things looking back now are: - very few ads between programmes because of industrial action, resulting in ‘this programme continues shortly’ slides and music during ad breaks - regional adverts - because the local ITV station owned the airtime for the first few years - cross promotions from ITV to Channel 4 as a result - ITV Schools programmes being shown (and branded as such) on Channel 4 - an extended interval until 0925 for the first programme because TVam technically owned that airtime as well

[@kaitlyn__L]

I always thought the cross-promotion was such a good idea. It basically brought the situation on-par with BBC1 cross-promoting BBC2 and vice versa. (Even though it ended just slightly before my time, we had plenty of tapes of the right age in the house for me to feel like I grew up with it!)

[@greenmoose_]

I was born in '77 and do vaguely remember Channel 4 starting up ... this whole video gave me nostalgia I never knew I had! Good stuff!!

[@mercuryvapoury]

I managed to pick up a copy of Fourscore from a local record fair for 50 of your finest British pennies. Probably the greatest purchase I've made, except for the Interceptor theme 7''.

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

You're putting out documentary after documentary these days Adam, well done, this is the kind of content I subscribed for and I LOVE IT!

[@AdamMartyn]

Try my best to give the people what they want! ✨️

[@rogerdarthwell5393]

@@AdamMartyn Good!

[@WRCSeb]

Great video again! Well done Adam!

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you very much!

[@KeithC77-zzz]

I was just a child in those days. There used to be a children’s show called POB. He would spit and write graffiti in the condensation of his breath. In my memory, that one show sums up the weirdness of C4 in the 80’s 😊

[@YorkshireTeaNiceNStrong]

Pob was so bloody weird, I initially found it disturbing. But me and my mate used to watch VHS recordings of it when we were stoned, in our teenage years in the early 90's. Under the influence, it was great 😄

[@dav1dbone]

Remember next door neighbour coming in talking about it, adjusting the tele, "what kind of sorcery is this?", twenty odd years later ch5 arrived, that was basically the uhf rf spectrum as far as it could take,

[@stephenholland5930]

Less than 15 years later, actually. Channel 5 started on 30/3/97.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@stephenholland5930 but took a while to roll-out if you lived in various corners of the isles, so I'm assuming David is saying he and his neighbour didn't get it for almost 20.

[@stormhammerfirebrand5820]

Brilliant post. Cheers mate.

[@AdamMartyn]

You're welcome!

[@assistantto007]

Ch4 used to inject random still images into broadcasts , thanks to my vhs machine, I was able to freeze frame playback to see them properly

[@DavidEsp1]

Cheeky mischief at the expense of paranoiac trendy conspiracy theorists of that era? (Or is that what we were supposed to think? 😅). The topic of subliminally-programming flash images was all the rage at the time. I once experimented with it at work within video clips in powerpoint presentations. I tried it out on about 5 colleagues, individually, but it had no effect. Ultimately became a joke of the time, also featured (in amusingly less subtle ways) in some new-wave comedy shows.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@DavidEsp1 haha yep. Featured heavily in the plot of the first Demon Headmaster book as well if I recall, then his schemes became a lot more elaborate after that.

[@wisteela]

Superb. I was only 5 at the time so only have vague recollections of the channel starting, but witnessed the start of the channel and remember there being test transmissions before launch.

[@Robslondon]

Brilliant video Adam.

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you!

[@neilmassey2932]

Brilliant documentary as always

[@AdamMartyn]

Thank you!

[@kirishima638]

For a long time C4 was a relief from the nanny-state censorship of the BBC and ITV. C4 was the only broadcaster of anime (which was considered risqué by the others) in the mid 90s, albeit very late, as well as cult US sci-fi shows like Babylon 5, which the BBC and ITV scoffed at.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

It often slipped out uncensored cuts of films late at night, daring to push the barriers of acceptability which was good.

[@jacharv]

The only thing I watch about the channel was its closedowns back in the 80s. Sure, I’m a 2000s person, but I think there’s a certain charm to how 4 and other channels signed off back in the day; programming back then also seemed interesting. Mostly boring nowadays imo - oh, and the Fourscore screams iconic! :)

[@kerbal666]

I was born 2 months before the release of Channel 4 but I still remember "4 score" well and the 4 score II segment with all the crazy art set pieces is really in the realms of the vapour wave and retro wave music scene nowadays. The nostalgia hit like a hammer :)

[@indigohammer5732]

I remember that Channel 4 teased with trailers for a few weeks and on that November day was pleased that the first voice was a fellow Scot, Paul Coia. I remember that "Four Score" was set to a prolonged video of highlights.

[@DiseaseShaker]

"Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be able to say to you, welcome to Channel 4."

[@olliethechef3237]

I watched this happen live! Weirdly, i was talking about this yesterday, and today it shows up in my feed...

[@kris4247]

Look at all these memories a tb channel can ignite, we truly are an incredible species

[@jameswarner3599]

I remember sitting in the front room with my mum, her best friend and her kids. All of us looking at this 4 logo. I remember being really excited when it started, long intro, then countdown. I was about 7 at the time and just thought this is boring, it's about words. I think I was expecting some new cartoon or something. Funny looking back, especially as C4 was one of the best channels by the late 80s, programmes like The Tube, Cheers, Hill St Blues to name a few. It's all bit same old now like all the other channels, 400 channels of tosh.

[@Saint_Dan132]

i loved the 90s era was so good, i was 10 and could wtch so graham norton it was rafunchy tv back then you wouldn't get that now they have always been innovators

[@pulsecodemodulated]

@8:41 Aussie here, I had no idea Norman Gunston was broadcast in the UK.

[@CaptainSiCo]

Yes, Channel 4 showed all 8 episodes of Gunston’s Australia in early 1983. Most of the Aussie Channel 7 stations cancelled it after about 4 episodes as it was performing so poorly. Not sure if this series was ever shown in full down under.

[@plan7a]

Even on Day 1 the cheeky nod to BBC 2's start (or fail to start) was referenced, which (while may have only appealed to those who witnessed the BBC 2 start(s) at the time) while a cheeky dig was also a nod to day passed (looking back) as well as looking to the present/future (and forwards also). Part of the problem for 'Four Score' was that a lot of stations (radio) probably wouldn't play it (not just because of the length of it), but because it was 'free advertising'; to some extent. While of its day a better channel beginning and iconic 'new' theme couldn't happen today. It was a major event; never to be redone, a new NATIONAL channel. Something Channel Five couldn't do when it began for a variety of reasons.

[@alzyerpal-TV]

I remember the launch well, after months of watching their teaser trail on the tv. We all rushed home from school to tune in... Best things for me back then aged 11, were The Tube, Brookside and how they introduced us to US classic sitcoms, like Cheers, St Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues. You can still watch Cheers now if up early enough. The Fourscore signature theme was awesome in all of its unfettered glory, but the Fourscore 2 electronic edition never sounded in any way contemporary or fitting in with chart electronic acts of the day like Depeche Mode or Yazoo. No wonder it failed to make any chart impact.

[@MikayelBousseksou-cl8ew]

Really starting to like this channel, very interesting stuff.

[@AdamMartyn]

Glad you're enjoying the videos!

[@declanclark5316]

Fourscore Two was heard often in Channel 4's early days, during the breaks between programmes where the adverts should have been (they were a bit slow in selling the advertising time). Watching this reminds me just how edgy, creative and innovative Channel 4 was. It still has its moments, but it's now largely slipped into the bland, corporate, non-risk taking beigeness of the other channels. Which is sad. Times have changed, I guess.

[@CricketEngland]

What strange about it, Channel 4 was so much better in the olden days after all they brought us The Comic Strip,Presents and during their ‘Banned season’ were the first terrestrial channel to show “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” C4 also brought us great shows like The Tube, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Don’t Forget your Toothbrush, TFI Friday, Friday & Saturday night Live, Chelmsford 123, Who Dares Wins, Father Ted, The IT Crowd, Peep Show, Frasier, Cheers, The Golden Girls, Derry Girls, The Simpsons (which they stole from the BBC along with The Great British Bake off), The Big Breakfast, Black Books & Desmond’s They also brought Zig & Zag to the British public

[@mgthestrange9098]

Don’t forget Eurotrash! 😄 I also liked the Fourmationslots with weird little animations and the Late Licence slot where comedians did bits between shows, it was quite often Lily Savage and Gail Tuesday.

[@cosmicwartoad2587]

You forgot to mentioin One Summer, Beavis and Butthead, South Park, The Girlie Show, Max headroom

[@KnowYoutheDukeofArgyll1841]

Eerie Indiana, American Gothic, Family Ties, Mama Malone.

[@BackToTheBlues]

You all forgot to mention Dream Stuffing, but that's probably because I'm one of the few who remembers it - a comedy show about flatmates Jude, an unemployed punk and Mo, who works in a glass eye factory. They had a three legged cat called Tripod, and the wonderful Maria Charles played Mo's dotty mum. The theme tune was written and performed by Kirsty MacColl. I really liked it, but I don't think many other people did as it only lasted one series. Last time I looked there were a couple of episodes on KZbin.

[@CricketEngland]

@@BackToTheBlues no few remember it because it was probably rubbish!

[@hayleywaalen2612]

That 4score is very action packed.

[@DW-indeed]

Cracking tune. Wow I'd never heard of Bill Bingham before he did the weather on Channel 4 daily, but clearly he did continuity!

[@keironhiggspoet]

I used to love "4: later" that was on around the early 2000s on the channel. it had a perfect mix of bizarre programs that no other channel would dare show. its so dull these days that I think I catch the simpsons these days on there.

[@dancedecker]

Excellent video. Many thanks. Love "FourScore". I do remember once them having a Caribbean Week, or something like that and one continuity announcement went... "DIS AM....CHANNEL FOUR". Awesome!!

[@TheRecordSleeve]

Really enjoyed this! Made me very nostalgic… Managed to get a copy of the ‘fourscore’ 7” back in 2020

[@rocon86]

I love listening to Fourscore and didn't know it came on Vinyl!!! Just ordered a copy there now. 👍

[@stephenhall6595]

Remember I helped my Parents tune in Channel 4 on the spare push button of their Colour TV and I retuning of my Monochrome Portable TV in my bedroom to Channel 4 in 1982 .

[@stephenjerome4135]

I was 6 years old in 1982 when ch4 first launched with that first show Countdown, I can remember to this day thinking at the time how clever that was how those coloured blocks all came together to form the ident logo. It must have taken quite a bit of computer time to do it. I didn't even know the Fourscore music had been released as a 7" single though, that's very interesting. I shall be looking out for that one now, would be an interesting one to have in my collection. Great video and another great childhood memory brought back to me, loved it ❤

[@DraigBlackCat]

I wonder how many remember the Hamlet cigar advert that was a spoof of the Chanel 4 ident logo where the colour blocks never quite assembled properly and eventually gave up and had a cigar?