Network 7


Network 7 was a short-lived but influential youth music and current affairs programme screened on Channel 4 over two series in 1987 and 1988. The series was created by Jane Hewland and Janet Street-Porter, who was also editor of the first series.

Overview

Network 7 was broadcast live on Sundays from noon until two o'clock and was conceived of as a 'channel within a channel', something young people could roll out of bed and watch the morning after the night before. Its mission statement was "News is Entertainment. Entertainment is News." It was known for its heavily self-branded, frenetic visual style with wild camera work, rapid cuts, very short items and "blipverts" - a dense combination of innovative graphics, and pop video style visuals explaining everything from Third World debt to bulimia.
Much of Network 7's innovative style can be seen as being inspired by a combination of elements such as the aesthetic of the Max Headroom drama 20 Minutes into the Future and the studio-based anarchy of Tiswas. The show's logo and distinctive brand and graphics were designed by Malcolm Garrett and Kasper de Graaf's design studio Assorted iMaGes.
The show took place in a specially built 'caravan city' in Limehouse Studios, a deserted banana warehouse on the site of what is now One Canada Square. Presenters included Jaswinder Bancil, Magenta Devine, Sankha Guha, Eric Harwood, Murray Boland, Tracey MacLeod, Sebastian Scott, and Trevor Ward. Most presenters had previously worked in either television or journalism in a smaller capacity, but they all got their first major TV exposure on the show. Charlie Parsons was a presenter and also part of the production staff. He later set up the production company Planet 24, which produced The Word and The Big Breakfast with his partner Waheed Alli.
Network 7 challenged the idea that youth programming could only be a niche concern in the television business. The series won a British Academy award for Originality for Hewland and Street Porter in 1987. The series has been credited with changing the language of factual television.

Regular programme segments

Flesh + Blood was a mini-series running each week for 14 minutes within Network 7, written by Joanna Hogg and featuring Vladek Sheybal and Diana Quick in the main roles.
Dick Spanner, P.I. was a 6-minute Gerry Anderson claymation detective serial shown weekly during Series 1.
Room 113 was a pre-recorded one-to one psychological celebrity interview conducted by Oliver James.
True or False showed a pre-recorded bizarre real-life story, and the following week revealed whether the story was true or false. In Series 2 viewers could voice their guesses via a phone poll.
Film On 7 showed a short one-minute film made by students at London International Film School.

Memorable moments

The series premiered with a feature on cloning cashcards, where presenter Sankha Guha cloned a card and used it on live television to take money out of an ATM outside the Bank of England, going in depth on how it was done using a video recorder and strips of tape.
It broadcast a secular gay wedding ceremony, organised by Gay Humanist Group which provoked reaction at the time from the British press.
A live satellite link-up to Ed Byrne, a man on death Row in the USA convicted of murdering his girlfriend. Viewers voted whether they thought he deserved to live or die, and a presenter revealed the results to him at the end of the show.