Channel 4 and British Film Culture

Duration: 2010 – 2014 

Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

Partner(s): University of Portsmouth and Channel 4 Archive

Key objectives:

• Creation of contextualized online resource of digitized Channel 4 press packs (1982-2002).
• Map programme listings onto TRILT.

BUFVC involvement / Project outcomes:

The broad aim of this AHRC research project will be to assess the impact of Channel 4 on the UK cinema industry, and more generally British film culture, since its inception in the early 1980s.

BUFVC’s specific role, working in collaboration with Channel 4 Archive, is to create a fully searchable database of the weekly press information packs that were produced from 1982 to 2002. These packs were innovative in their design and the wealth of detailed information they provided, particularly their critical analysis of films. These will not only add context to the programme listings but help to shed light on how the channel wished to be perceived and its relationship with the press.

By the end of the project we hope not only to create a fully contextualised resource around the packs but also to map the programme listings information onto the BUFVC TV & radio listings database TRILT.

Staff contact: Linda Kaye, Research Executive, e-mail, tel: +44 (0)20 7393 1518

Related links:

Channel 4 and British Film Culture – University of Portsmouth project website featuring articles, interviews and conference information

A conference celebrating 30 years of film on Channel 4 took place on 1st and 2nd November, at the BFI Southbank, London. The conference, timed to coincide with Channel 4’s 30th birthday, showcased the four-year Channel 4 project and saw the launch of the new digital Press Information Pack resource.