more4:Channel 4's latest digital offspring launched on Monday. You probably saw the pre-publicity which hinted that this was a porn channel, but it's not. It's the elder brother to E4's little brother, a sort of serious-ish mix of documentaries, current affairs and drama. You've probably not caught More4 yet because it's only available on Freeview, cable or paid-for MurdochSat, so I thought I'd watch it for you to see what it's like. Just to be fair I've given the channel a few days to bed down, but how's it doing so far?
• 4pm-ish - the old movie: Once a Saturday afternoon staple, those black and white classic movies now appear on More4 every weekday afternoon. Perfect if you're missing Countdown and fancy an idle matinee. It's Oliver Twist today, the 1948 David Lean version - Please Sir, can I have some More4? • 6pm - ER: Fancy watching this hospital drama from the very beginning? As I see it, you have three options. One - tune into More4 every weekday at six (tricky, because you're probably out, at least occasionally, and you'll miss some). Two - set your video or Sky+ to record every single episode (which will cost you nothing, but you'll still probably miss some and you'll never get round to watching them all). Three - buy series 1-5 of ER on DVD from Amazon (total cost £165 - which I note with interest is higher than the BBC's proposed licence fee that the media's been going apoplectic about recently). I shall be doing none of the above, I'm afraid. • 7pm - Grand Designs: Of all Channel 4's vast umbrella of property shows, this show must portray the least attainable lifestyle. No doubt it's watched avidly by people who'd love to self-build their own three-storey Renaissance villa in Naples... except they're more likely to live out their days in an over-mortgaged post-war semi five miles drive from Homebase. Aspirationally depressing telly. • 8pm - More4 News: Now that terrestrial TV has opened up a news desert between 8 and 10, More4 has slipped in with its own half hour summary. It's produced by the team that make Channel 4 News, so it's actually very good, but with 24 hour news channels now so easily available I wonder why More4 are bothering. • 8:30pm - The Daily Show: I'd heard a lot of goodthings about the DailyShow, allegedly American television's finest topical political satire. And now here it is showing daily in the UK. Ooh. Except that I've now watched three Daily Shows and I'm sorry to report that the programme's not fine at all, just irrelevant. I didn't laugh when the host took the mickey out of a Senator I'd never heard of, or flashed up a photograph I didn't recognise, or mocked a journalist whose newspaper I don't read. Even the regular attacks on the President were littered with American in-jokes that just don't travel. American TV channels wouldn't dream of showing Rory Bremner (Tony who?), so why inflict the Daily Show on the UK? • 9pm - the serious entertainment: Often this'll be a worthy film or a repeated documentary, but sometimes we can look forward to original drama. I really enjoyed Monday's A Very Social Secretary, which launched the channel with a very credible half million viewers. Bernard Hill's David Blunkett was acutely observed, and acutely funny, while Robert Lindsay's PM made a caricature convincing. As for the blind love story, well, you couldn't make it up - and it was all the funnier for being true. I bet the Americans won't buy it, though. • 11:05pm - The Last Word: A topical discussion show (thankfully home-grown) where an unknown host discusses semi-serious topics with sub-celebrities. It's nothing new and it's fairly missable, but now that they've bought the sofa it's presumably extremely cheap to make. • 11:40pm - The Sopranos: Another American drama, from the top. See ER above. • 12:45am - 4am: The evening's main programmes repeated in a different order, probably to an audience of about twenty viewers. Sadly they're not repeating Oliver Twist tonight, because it's probably the best thing on the channel.
