Channel 4 30th Birthday

Believe it or not, today is Channel 4's 30th birthday. Or to put it another way, today Channel 4 is 3 with a 0 on its back!

Thirty years ago today, Tuesday 2 November 1982, Channel 4 launched. I remember watching the opening at 4:45pm and first two programmes: Countdown (presented by Richard Whitely) followed by Preview 4 - in black and white on my family's 12 inch Ferguson Courier portable.

Is Channel 4 doing anything today to mark its 30th birthday? By that I mean is it showing a programme looking back at the last 30 years of Channel 4, and/or using idents / jingles from its early days? It would be great to see the coloured block 4 from 1982 again.

What?

Nice to have you back.

Well you're half right.

Thanks for your replies. What I'd like to know is this: is Channel 4 doing anything today / tonight to mark its 30th anniversary, e.g. a look back programme, using old presentation of different eras (coloured blocks from the beginning, circles from the 90s, squares from the early to mid 00s etc)?

Tumble Tower famously dubbed himself '4 with an 0 on his back' when he turned 40, it was a hilarious callback to that, and I'm surprised by a man of your intelligence not picking up on that.

Welcome back Tumble Tower, TV Forum has been a poorer place without you.

Channel 4 News showed a very brief montage of clips of 4C (AKA Channel 4) programmes, introduced by Paul Coia of Spellbound fame. This was followed by an interview with the creator of Grange Hill, Phil Redmond and a guy called Peter Bazalgette.

No I still don't get it.

Correct. I had the following T-shirt printed for my 40th birthday which fell on 30 Sep 2011:
Front view and back view.

As you can see the complete slogan is "I am 4 with a 0 on my back!".

This year I could have gone for "I am 4 with a 1 on my back!", but after some thought came up with something else:
Front view and back view.

As you can see, the slogan is "I am 14 backwards".

Anyway, let's use this thread to discuss the 30th anniversary of Channel 4. Baggage is currently on. The next programme Derren Bow: Apocalypse starts at 9pm. Will it be preceded by an old ident to mark the 30th anniversary, e.g. the coloured block ident of the early days?

I don't know. I'll record it anyway and alert you if it has.

Spellbound ? Never heard of it. Surely he's Paul Coia of C4's first on air voice, and first CA fame ? (As well as being Mr Debbie Greenwood)



'a guy called Peter Bazalgette' ? You seriously don't know his credentials ?

A 41 year old pretending to be 4 is all a bit Jimmy Saville.

If you actually read the C4 thread or tuned into to C4 itself you'd know they're doing **** all to mark their 30th in comparison to what they did five years ago.