Twenty years since its launch, Chris Harvey asks if BBC Four is to blame for the decline in TV arts programming.
It began broadcasting at 7pm on 2nd March 2002 with the slogan: “Everybody needs a place to think.” Among BBC Four’s opening-night offerings was a documentary on the artist Michael Landy’s work Break Down, in which the artist destroyed all 7,227 of his possessions. Twenty years on, it seems the BBC has entered its own breakdown, with BBC Four reduced to a home for repeats and occasional filmed performances: a place primarily to think about the past.
In its heyday, BBC Four originated groundbreaking comedy such as The Thick of It, Twenty Twelve and Detectorists, quiz shows like Only Connect, along with admired biopics like The Curse of Steptoe and the Margaret Thatcher drama The Long Walk to Finchley. It became home to the respected Storyville documentary strand and pioneered the showing of European dramas, including Borgen and The Bridge...Keep reading on Prospect Magazine.
It began broadcasting at 7pm on 2nd March 2002 with the slogan: “Everybody needs a place to think.” Among BBC Four’s opening-night offerings was a documentary on the artist Michael Landy’s work Break Down, in which the artist destroyed all 7,227 of his possessions. Twenty years on, it seems the BBC has entered its own breakdown, with BBC Four reduced to a home for repeats and occasional filmed performances: a place primarily to think about the past.
In its heyday, BBC Four originated groundbreaking comedy such as The Thick of It, Twenty Twelve and Detectorists, quiz shows like Only Connect, along with admired biopics like The Curse of Steptoe and the Margaret Thatcher drama The Long Walk to Finchley. It became home to the respected Storyville documentary strand and pioneered the showing of European dramas, including Borgen and The Bridge...Keep reading on Prospect Magazine.