'How TV Changed Britain' -- More Stupid TV from Channel 4

'How TV Changed Britain' is a new 6-part series on Sunday nights on Channel 4, looking at TV genres and how they have reflected and changed Britain. A mixture of clips and 30-second soundbites from various talking heads, it attempts a kind of cultural analysis. Tonight's (June 1) opening show was about the British police on television, from 'The Blue Lamp' and 'Dixon of Dock Green' in the 1950s to 'Life on Mars'.

It could hardly have been more pedestrian and predictable. All the old classics were there: George Dixon and 'Z Cars', 'The Sweeney' and 'The Bill', GF Newman's 'Law and Order' and Roger Graef's fly on the wall series, 'Police', and then a breathless rush through the last twenty years ('Silent Witness', 'Prime Suspect', 'Cracker' and 'Inspector Morse').



The talking heads consisted of one contemporary historian (Dominic Sandbrook), a few decent and articulate policemen and women and people involved in the series (mostly actors). The level of analysis was shameful -- a reminder that Channel 4 has long since ceased to be the smart channel.

There were no references to American cop films or TV shows and their influence on British TV or public perceptions of the police. Why did British TV in the 1980s fail to produce anything as innovative as 'Hill Street Blues'? What are the differences between 'Silent Witness' and the CSI series?

'How TV Changed Britain' reduced the history of the genre to cosy, reassuring series ('Dixon', 'The Bill') and 'dirty realism', exposing police violence and corruption ('The Sweeney', 'Law and Order'). There is no attempt to explore the differences between primetime shows on BBC 1 or ITV (which, amazingly, turn out to be more positive) and small one-off documentaries or drama series ('Law and Order') on BBC 2 which are more negative. Similarly, there is no attempt to distinguish between drama series or primetime factual entertainment (positive) and more critical documentaries ('World in Action' about the Birmingham bombers, Graef's 'Police', 'The Secret Policeman'). It's as if all kind sof TV are the same, just with different forms of content.

Most of the programme had a kind of bizarre dialectic -- good, avuncular cop vs bad corrupt/brutal policeman -- which ran from the 1950s to the 1980s. Once this clearly no longer worked, and British police shows started to get more complicated ('Cracker', 'Prime Suspect') the show just fell apart altogether.

At the end, the continuity announcer refers us to the programme website which is as uninformative as the programme but at least as some useful links to the BFI's website which offers the kind of clear, informed analysis Channel 4 couldn't.

Cheap, lazy and stupid... Welcome to the new Channel 4.