Originally Posted by Steve Williams:
“Well, I would certainly defend Toast of London because I thought it was one of the best things on telly last years and the audience skew I'm sure was absolutely wonderful for C4 with ABC1s coming out of their ears. And I would argue it was no different to Vic Reeves Big Night Out twenty years ago which hardly did any better in relative terms (and was in a much better slot, too, remember Toast of London was after 10.30 on a Sunday which is pretty much a dead slot and one they've never used for comedy before) and of course as I've said before, Michael Grade said "If nobody is watching this, we should carry on doing it".
In fact you could argue in ratings terms that C4 sitcoms have often failed, The IT Crowd and Peep Show have definitely gone under a million, and I knows Spaced was almost always fifth out of five, but you can't argue those aren't hit shows because they sell loads of DVDs and have massive brand recognition, and they appeal to a specific audience that is hard to reach, one with lots of disposable income. It's a bit of a crap analogy but comparing Toast of London to Mrs Brown's Boys is like comparing Waitrose to Tesco, far fewer people shop at Waitrose because it's too expensive and the stuff is too esoteric but they're the "right" people. Lots of Sky's comedy gets very low ratings but they're doing it because it hits a certain demographic. It's like Ricky Gervais saying he would rather be a million people's favourite show than eight million people's eighth favourite show. I know it's a commercial channel but you don't expect everything in the supermarket to sell by the truckload.
But I would agree on other points. You could argue that their drama may be good, but is it any more challenging or higher quality than BBC2's? I don't think so, and BBC2's drama is consistently rating higher, and they put it in better slots too. And a lot of their entertainment is extremely lazy, I mentioned all those bloody panel shows and of the bankers you mention, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, while I enjoy it, is nearly a decade old* and Alan Carr's series has also produced over a hundred episodes. Where is the new talent and ideas? The only new comedy talent C4 seems to have nurtured in recent years is Alex Brooker. A far cry from the past when they would give people like Jack Dee, Sean Hughes, Jo Brand and Vic Reeves their own series for the first time. The fact much of their comedy output revolves around Jimmy Carr, Alan Carr, Ricky Gervais and Peter Kay - all of whom have been on screen for at least a decade - says it all”
Channel 4 need some drama hits. They have critical darlings but they need another Shameless breakthrough. Why can't they find hits now while BBC2 can with Line Of Duty, The Fall and Peaky Blinders?
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