Stephen Merchant slates Channel 4

Saturday 24th March 2007, 9:03am

Stephen Merchant has said that, in his opinion, Channel 4 has lost its way when it comes to comedy. The award-winning Extras actor believes that the broadcaster has now ruined its reputation as the home of good comedy by making some bad commissioning choices in the last couple of years and not marketing its established shows well enough.

Merchant made the comments whilst attending Broadcast Magazine's TV Comedy Forum which is being held this weekend at the Soho Theatre in London. He said: "My memory of Channel 4 was always that it was the channel I went to for comedy, particularly on a Friday night. Since then, I'm not sure with some Channel 4 shows – some have completely passed me by".

He continued: "Somehow the channel isn't getting behind them [their comedy shows], giving them enough publicity and trusting that if you keep plugging away, you'll find an audience and it will grow. E4 is full of episodes of Friends, but what about new comedy?!?".

Channel 4 have been struggling in recent years to find successful new programmes. Formats such as The Charlotte Church Show, Balls of Steel and The Friday Night Project have all been called "rubbish" (and with good cause in our opinion). It appears that the broadcaster's apparent shift of attention towards catering for the post-pub audience is not working but has led to an inevitable decline in quality.

Even Channel 4's better received comedies have under-performed in the last few years. Although Peep Show, Green Wing and The IT Crowd have gained devoted fan bases they remain in the realm of 'cult comedies' having only brought in average rating figures for their home channel - this is despite very expensive marketing campaigns.

Merchant did praise Peep Show saying it was "dynamite" but "otherwise there's nothing that's got under my skin for a while, from this side of the Atlantic at least".

The writer and performer went on to praise BBC1 sitcom Not Going Out. He said it was: "a brave example of people trying to do a mainstream sitcom with a modern sensibility" and went on to suggest that it could find its feet in a big way as it has a lot of charm (Lee Mack and Andrew Collins are currently writing the second series).

Merchant also provided a bit more information his and Ricky Gervais' next project. Apparently the comedy drama they are considering writing is likely to be "in the style of Boon". (Boon was a popular 80s drama about an ex-firemen who goes from being an odd-job man to a private investigator)

Merchant also played down the recent reports that he and Gervais were finally starting working on their 'The Men From The Pru' sitcom idea. Apparently the period setting was proving "intimidating" in terms of the budget. The plan is to set the comedy in the Seventies in a provincial backwater far removed from London's burgeoning permissive society in which a group of twenty and thirtysomething wasters measure out their lives in beer mats and Sunday league fixture lists.

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