Television will archive itself: Channel 4’s role in revalorising ‘old’ TV

Abstract

A notable feature of Channel 4’s scheduling in the 1980s was the extent to which it drew upon repeats of archive television, long-unseen US and UK sitcoms and cult dramas either providing a nostalgic reminder of yesteryear or being discovered afresh by new generations. In addition, the themed archive evenings that began at Christmas 1982, culminating in 1992's extensive TV Heaven season, now seem prescient in an era when digital channels such as GOLD, Yesterday, Dave and Talking Pictures TV draw extensively upon the archive to compile their schedules. Channel 4’s use of archive programming receives little attention in academic histories, aside of Maggie Brown’s dismissal of its repeats as ‘tellyfilla’. This article redresses the balance, drawing upon publicity material from Channel 4’s press packs, research into patterns of repeats and original interviews with those involved in the curatorial process to investigate the extent to which Channel 4’s decision to revisit the archives was born of economic pragmatism, or was in fact a conscious act of contextualisation, re-evaluation and revalorisation.