Shocking ... Big Brother housemate Charley Uchea looking stunned after Emily Parr's outburst
Over the last few months Channel 4 has found itself at the centre of some major media rows - Celebrity Big Brother's Shilpagate, the Diana tunnel pictures documentary, and now the Emily Parr "N-word" incident on Big Brother (pleb edition). That's on top of The Great Global Warming Swindle, Richard and Judy's You Say We Pay debacle and You Are What You Eat's Gillian McKeith downgrading her status from "Doctor" to "expert".
Channel 4's Andy Duncan defended Big Brother as a "Marmite programme" on Today last week - you either love it or hate it, apparently. But could that apply to Channel 4 itself?
Every time trouble flares up around Horseferry Road, it's not long before the arguments over the channel losing its way pop up. "But you've gone more downmarket in the last few years than, than most people could have possibly imagined?" was John Humphrys' line on Friday.
But haven't they always balanced the upmarket with the controversial? The days of the Michael "Pornographer in Chief" Grade pouring Red Triangle arthouse sauce into middle England living rooms in the middle of the night, the weird world of the Minipops or granny-snogging on The Word suggest there's always been a flipside to the home of Dispatches, GBH and Jamie's School Dinners.
Yes, we've had the delights of Designer Vaginas, The Sex Inspectors and The World's Biggest Penis (even if they canned Wank Week); but Peep Show, Mark Of Cain, Skins, Low Winter Sun and the forthcoming Cape Wrath suggest there's some validity in the argument that a summer of Big Brother also lets the channel offer something for people who aren't worried about looking good naked or how clean someone else's house is.
Why do people care about the channel losing its upmarket flavour? Is it because it launched at a time when having a whole new station to watch actually made a real difference to viewing habits? Even after ten years, Five still has to work hard to assert itself as a viable option in the minds of many viewers, even with smart US buys like House, Prison Break and the CSIs. Perhaps people are still fond of Channel 4 because it arrived at a time when it offered a genuine alternative?
