Channel 4 in its 11.15 Friday slot had well remembered shows like The Word and music show Wired, but there was also a less remembered youth documentary programme called Passengers. Each programme was made up of several different " stories ".
Speaking of late night Channel 4 there was a show they had called Little Friends, which was originally aired on E4 with minor issue, but Channel 4 decided to repeat it in 2004 and ran into trouble with it, apparently to the point where Ofcom forced it off the air, though no mention of this was in the Ofcom bulletin so pinch of salt I think.
In a nutshell, the show was like an adult version of something like Stitch Up or that Just Kidding show - only with child actors. It's ultimate undoing came courtesy of an actor who was 16 but looked about 12 asking Denise Robertson about fisting. That and quite a bit more (presumably scripted) swearing from the actor. Quite frankly the premise was asking for trouble and I think it only ran for six episodes.
So let's have some Australian children's dramas which were shown in the mid-90s. First, The Girl from Tomorrow, broadcast over here on CBBC and featuring not-the-Prime-Minister John Howard as the villain:
Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left, on CITV - holiday mornings, as I recall:
And Spellbinder, a joint production of Film Australia and the Polish public broadcaster Telewizja Polska, and filmed in both countries. Shown here on ITV.
I'd add into the mix most of the output of the Children's Film Foundation. I recall a lot of these were shown on Children's BBC in a Friday Film slot. Some of these were decidedly creepy as I recall, not least One Hour to Zero which concerned kids wandering around a Welsh village abandoned after a nuclear accident at a power station. Most seemed very dated even then.
I'd add into the mix most of the output of the Children's Film Foundation. I recall a lot of these were shown on Children's BBC in a Friday Film slot. Some of these were decidedly creepy as I recall, not least One Hour to Zero which concerned kids wandering around a Welsh village abandoned after a nuclear accident at a power station. Most seemed very dated even then.
Not in the Friday Film Special slot, but also a CFF production, I remember the BBC showing Professor Popper's Problems, which was made in the 70s, on Children's BBC in the mid 80s.
What about Zingalong, quite a forgotten show and aired on CBeebies from 2002-2004. The programme was presented by Marie-Claire MacManus as Zoe and featured her and Zing, an alien thing from space, searching for sounds, to make a song.
Here’s a *current* TV show that is a strong candidate for a future forgotten show: Channel 4’s version of Castaway 2000 for the 2010s, Eden. Aired one series last year and was supposed to continue with updates through the 12 month period, but ratings must have been poor so nothing more than four episodes were broadcast.
Despite this the participants continued to live on the island without any knowledge of the show basically being cancelled. Now Channel 4 are burning off the series with five new episodes stripped each weeknight during one week in the summer.
Despite this the participants continued to live on the island without any knowledge of the show basically being cancelled. Now Channel 4 are burning off the series with five new episodes stripped each weeknight during one week in the summer.
Yes, although it's not technically being "burnt off" because they just weren't making the programmes, so they didn't have to show anything. Broadcast points out these will take a rather different tack and look at why it all went wrong and everyone left and so on, a bit of a cake-and-eating-it scenario for C4.
It reminds me a bit of when they had to cancel a Cutting Edge about twenty years ago about dads and their daughters, when it turned out one of the subjects were not dad and daughter, but boyfriend and girlfriend. So they did a documentary about the documentary going wrong instead.
