Red triangle (Channel 4)

Last updated

A red triangle of this sort preceded broadcasts, warning viewers that special discretion was required. Channel4 red triangle.jpg
A red triangle of this sort preceded broadcasts, warning viewers that special discretion was required.

The red triangle was a content warning system employed by mainstream terrestrial British television broadcaster Channel 4 for a brief period from 1986 to 1987. A similar warning had been briefly used by ATV in the 1970s (a white rectangle) - to warn viewers of potentially disturbing material. [1]

Contents

The channel showed a number of mainly 18 certificate art films in the early hours of the morning as part of the "red triangle" series, gaining unexpectedly large audiences. After lobbying from newspapers and pressure groups this method of identifying such material was discontinued.

The red triangle broadcasts

The channel, launched in November 1982, hoped to gain a reputation as a relatively avant-garde alternative to the existing terrestrial stations. It compiled a list of provocative films, generally cult film or art-house and mostly in another language, and entered into negotiation with independent TV regulator the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) with an eye to showing them. The films, all of which had been theatrically exhibited under British Board of Film Censorship's 'X' (or later '18') certificates, had never been shown on British television before. Their content transcended that which had hitherto been permitted by the UK's TV censors.

The series began in September 1986 in a very late slot (with most films beginning after midnight). Broadcasts were preceded by a warning, saying "Special Discretion Required" and displaying a full-screen logo of a red triangle with a white centre (the standard scheme used for warning signs in the UK). To prevent viewers who missed the warning at the beginning from later being unwittingly exposed to the adult content of the film, a smaller red triangle was continually displayed in the top left corner of the screen throughout the broadcast. This quickly led to the broadcasts being informally known as the "red triangle films".

The broadcasts proved to be controversial even before they began. Several newspapers branded some of the films to be shown "video nasties", and once broadcasts began the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse became involved. her National Viewers' and Listeners' Association campaigned vociferously against the broadcasts and lobbied parliament and the IBA, calling for the broadcasts to be ended.

The outcry over the red triangle series had entirely the opposite effect than the objectors had intended; the opening film, the grisly surreal comedy Themroc , garnered over two million viewers. Later films (mostly those whose TVTimes synopses sounded racy) gained viewerships of over three million, figures which dwarfed those of the other channels still broadcasting that late (which carried fare of very limited appeal and educational programming from the Open University). Some critics contended that the whole series was a cynical attempt to wilfully stir controversy, and in practice many viewers discovered that "softcore" against which campaigners had railed was in fact genuine art cinema (and not the titillation for which they had stayed up late). With viewing figures latterly declining, and press opposition remaining strong, Channel 4 quietly discontinued the red triangle the year after it had been introduced.

The films

DateTitleyearCountry
of
origin		Language(s)DirectorWriterNotes
19 September 1986 Themroc 1973 FranceNo dialogue Claude Faraldo This surreal tale of a disgruntled labourer who degenerates into an urban caveman gained an 'X' certificate in 1973. [2] The film includes a cannibalism scene (although the corpse of the policeman who is eaten is quite clearly that of a pig, an obvious joke on the director's part).

Rated '15' by the BBFC (1994 - VHS; 1999 - DVD)

3 October 1986 Pastoral Hide and Seek 1974 JapanJapanese Shūji Terayama (寺山 修司)Also known as Death in the Country, original title: 田園に死す (Den-en ni shisu)
10 October 1986 Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets 1971 JapanJapanese Shūji Terayama (寺山 修司)Original title: 書を捨てよ町へ出よう (Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyo)
17 October 1986 Identification of a Woman 1982 Italy,
France		Italian,
English,
French		 Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni,
Gérard Brach 		Original title: Identificazione di una donna

The film centres on a Roman film director who falls in love with a strange noble woman during his research for a new film. She disappears, and he has an affair with an actress. '18' (1983 - theatrical; 1995 - video) [3]

24 October 1986 Pixote 1980 BrazilBrazilian Portuguese Héctor Babenco Héctor Babenco,
Jorge Durán		A chilling account of the lives of street children in São Paulo, including harrowing scenes of torture and sexual assault. Original title: Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco '18' (1982 - theatrical; 1988 - video) [4]
31 October 1986 The Clinic 1982 AustraliaEnglish David Stevens Greg Millin Rated '15' by the BBFC in 1983; '18' on video in 1988. [5]
14 November 1986 Montenegro, or: Pigs and Pearls 1981 Sweden,
UK		English,
Swedish		 Dušan Makavejev Dušan Makavejev,
Branko Vučićević
28 November 1986 Die Berührte 1981 West GermanyGerman Helma Sanders-Brahms Rita G,
Helma Sanders-Brahms 		Based on a letter received from a schizophrenic woman as she writes about her life, giving herself to the castoffs of Berlin
10 January 1987 Out of the Blue 1980 CanadaEnglish Dennis Hopper Leonard Yakir,
Brenda Nielson
17 January 1987 The Wall 1983 Turkey,
France		Turkish,
French		 Yılmaz Güney Original title: Duvar

Legacy

Several years later around 1995, Channel 4 instituted a late-night programming slot (entitled "The Red Light Zone") in which it showed a variety of adult-oriented programmes with more overt sexual content, mixing avant-garde material such as the works of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe with more unabashedly salacious content. By this time Whitehouse's influence had declined, and the general moral panic over "smut" and "video nasties" had largely subsided, such that the Red Light Zone proceeded without great controversy.

More generally, the experiment showed there was a considerable appetite in the British viewing public for adult, sexually themed programming, and the following decade saw Channel 4 increasingly resorting to more blatantly sexual programmes to attract viewers. By showing that it was possible for TV to get viewership of several millions after midnight, the red triangle experiment (along with late-night comedy programme Who Dares Wins , which notably parodied the red triangle films) went some way to establishing a late-night "after the pub" slot. This continues (particularly on Channel 4 and its competitor Channel 5), although the content is more inclined toward the bawdy and laddish than to the red-triangle series' art house films.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel 4</span> British free-to-air television channel

Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.

Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed.

<i>Tiswas</i> British childrens TV series (1974–1982)

Tiswas was a British children's television series that originally aired on Saturday mornings from 5 January 1974 to 3 April 1982 and was produced for the ITV network by ATV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thames Television</span> Former ITV weekday service for London

Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broadcast from 09:25 Monday morning to 17:15 Friday afternoon at which time it would hand over to London Weekend Television (LWT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Whitehouse</span> British conservative activist (1910–2001)

Constance Mary Whitehouse was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. A hard-line social conservative, she was termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s, and her work as a teacher of sex education.

In broadcasting, the watershed is the time of day after which programming with content deemed suitable only for mature or adult audiences is permitted. In the same way that a geological watershed divides two drainage basins, a broadcasting watershed serves as a dividing line in a schedule between family-friendly content, and content deemed suitable only for a more mature audience, such as programs containing objectionable content; this can include graphic violence, strong language, and sexual content, or strong references to those themes, even if they are not shown explicitly. The transition to more adult material must not be unduly abrupt and the strongest material should appear later in the evening.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ITV Anglia</span> East of England branch for ITV

ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licence name of ITV Broadcasting Limited.

<i>Jam</i> (TV series) British experimental black comedy sketch show

Jam is a British experimental black comedy sketch show, created, co-written, produced and directed by Chris Morris. It was broadcast on Channel 4 between 23 March and 27 April 2000. It was based on the earlier BBC Radio 1 show, Blue Jam, and consists of an unconnected series of disturbing and surreal sketches, unfolding over an ambient soundtrack. Many of the sketches re-used the original radio soundtracks with the actors lip-synching their lines, an unusual technique which added to the programme's unsettling atmosphere, and featured unorthodox use of visual effects and sound manipulation.

Television content rating systems are systems for evaluating the content and reporting the suitability of television programmes for minors. Many countries have their own television rating system and countries' rating processes vary by local priorities. Programmes are rated by the organization that manages the system, the broadcaster, or the content producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Television X</span> British pornographic television channel

Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by Aylo Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing company Northern & Shell until 2016. All of the programmes on the main Television X channel are filmed and produced in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel 5 (Singaporean TV channel)</span> English television channel in Singapore

Channel 5 is an English-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Singapore, owned by state media conglomerate Mediacorp. The channel primarily airs general entertainment and news programming in the English language.

e.tv South African free-to-air television station

e.tv is the first and only privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa. It is the fifth terrestrial television channel in the country, following three channels that are operated by the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation and the privately owned subscription-funded M-Net. In 1997, the e.tv channel bought the broadcasting rights to broadcast English Premier League (EPL) matches and, later on, they also bought the rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League matches.

<i>Harry Hills TV Burp</i> 2001 British TV series or programme

Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy series produced by Avalon Television, and written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show ran for 11 series between 2001 and 2012 on ITV1. Each episode sees the host take a humorous look back at the previous week of programming on British television from a range of shows aired on terrestrial and digital channels.

Babestation is an adult chat television channel and programme block which has aired on television in the United Kingdom since 2002. Since 2015, Babestation has also had a complementary website that includes more options than those available on the TV channel. The television version was the first show of its kind in the UK allowing viewers to communicate live with female presenters via a premium-rate telephone number or text messaging. It is broadcast daily, and since 2006 has had a dedicated channel on Sky. Its sister stations and websites are more hardcore in nature but the main programme shown on TV is also streamed on the Internet via the Babestation websites.

Night Network, Night Time and Night Shift were names given to the overnight schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the companies broadcasting through the night by the end of 1988. At first, individual companies created their own services; however, before too long, many of the smaller ITV stations began simulcasting or networking services from others.

Suria is a Malay-language free-to-air terrestrial television channel in Singapore, owned by state media conglomerate Mediacorp. The channel broadcasts general entertainment and news programming in the Malay language, including original programming, and imported programmes from Malaysia and Indonesia.

There have been two Channel 4 Banned seasons. The first aired in April 1991 over three weeks and saw the broadcast of a number of films and documentaries which had previously been banned from British television or cinema. The second was in 2004/2005 and consisted of a series of documentaries concerning the history of explicit and controversial material on British television.

X-Rated: The TV They Tried to Ban is a 2005 British one-off television documentary examining controversial material on British television. It was first broadcast on Channel 4, at 10pm on Sunday 6 March 2005, as part of their "Banned" season, and was approximately 90 minutes long. The show was produced by Monkey Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, pornography is regulated by a variety of laws, regulations, judicial processes and voluntary schemes. Pornographic material generally has to be assessed by regulators or courts to determine its legality. British censorship laws with regard to pornography have often been some of the most restrictive in Western Europe.

Home Video Channel (HVC) was a British cable television channel that began operating in 1985, broadcasting low-budget films between 8:00 p.m. and midnight. Film genres included horror, action, adventure, science fiction, and erotica. In 1992, a second channel, The Adult Channel, was launched by HVC's owner, Home Video Channel Limited (HVCL). It broadcast erotic films and softcore pornography.

References

  1. ↑ "News in Brief" , The Times, no. 58855, Times Digital Archive, 8 August 1973, p. 2, retrieved 29 August 2024
  2. ↑ Themroc, BBFC website
  3. ↑ Identification of a Woman, BBFC website
  4. ↑ Pixote, BBFC website (drop down list)
  5. ↑ The Clinic, BBFC (details in drop down section)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.