Channel 4 Then and Now: 40th Anniversary of the Channel That Was Born Different

The British government seems intent to continue with proposals for the privatisation of Channel 4. How do the first ten years of the Channel indicate principles that may still be useful in the fast-changing field of broadcasting?

Relaying a brief presentation by the original commissioning editor Caroline Spry, there will be a presentation of Out on Tuesday (later, just Out) by Rod Stoneman. 

This is an example of early Channel 4 and the world’s first networked gay and lesbian series, it ran between 1989 and 1994 and set about giving new, often radical representation to diverse sexualities, cultures, experiences and histories. Many of these areas are still almost entirely absent from current television in Britain and elsewhere.