After Dark (TV Programme)

''After Dark'' is a British late-night live television discussion programme that was broadcast weekly on Channel 4 between 1987 and 1991, and which returned for specials between 1993 and 1997. It was later revived by the BBC for a single season, broadcast on BBC Four in 2003.

Roly Keating of the BBC described it as "one of the great television talk formats of all time". In 2010 the television trade magazine ''Broadcast'' wrote "''After Dark'' defined the first 10 years of Channel 4, just as ''Big Brother'' did for the second" and in 2018 the programme was cited in an editorial in '' The Times'' as an example of high-quality television.

Broadcast live and with no scheduled end time, the series, inspired by an Austrian programme called ''Club 2'', was considered to be a groundbreaking reinvention of the discussion programme format. The programme was hosted by a variety of presenters, and each episode had around half a dozen guests, often including a member of the public.

Premise

''After Dark'' featured a different topic each week, with guests selected to provoke lively discussion. Subject matter included "the treatment of children, of the mentally ill, of prisoners, and about class, cash and racial and sexual difference", as well as "matters of exceptional sensitivity to the then Thatcher government, such as state secrecy or the Troubles in Northern Ireland"; "places further afield ... – Chile, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Nicaragua, South Africa and Russia – featured regularly" and "less apparently solemn subjects – sport, fashion, gambling and pop music – were in the mix from the start"."After Dark and the Future of Public Debate"
''Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies'', 3 September 2017, accessed 29 March 2023

Other conversations included footballer Garth Crooks disputing the future of the game with politician Sir Rhodes Boyson and MP Teresa Gorman walking out of a discussion about unemployment with Billy Bragg. Other guests included "poets and pornographers, spies and solicitors, feminists and farmers, witches and whalers, judges and journalists".

History

Start on Channel 4

From late April in 1987, Channel 4 screened a ''Nighttime'' strand, a mixture of films and discussion programmes that ran until 3am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Channel 4 launched ''After Dark'' in an open-ended format broadcast on Friday nights (later Saturday nights), as an original piece of programming that would be inexpensive to produce. There was no 'chair', simply a 'host', and the discussion took place around a coffee table in a darkened studio. Due to its late-night scheduling the series was dubbed ''After Closing Time'' by the BBC1 comedy series '' Alas Smith and Jones''.

Jeremy Isaacs, the founding Chief Executive of Channel 4, said that the programme allowed him to realise one of his longest-held ambitions: "When I first started in television at Granada... Sidney Bernstein said to me that the worst words ever uttered on TV were, I'm sorry, that's all we have time for. Especially since they were always uttered just as someone was about to say something really interesting." ''After Dark'' would only end when its guests had nothing more to say.

The series was made by production company Open Media. The series editor, Sebastian Cody, talking about the programme in an interview in 2003, said that "Reality TV is artificial. ''After Dark'' is real in the sense that what you see is what you get, which isn't the case with something that's been edited to give the illusion of being real. Other shows wind people up with booze beforehand, then when they're actually on the programme they give them glasses of water. We give our guests nothing until they arrive on set and then they can drink orange juice, or have a bottle of wine. And we let them go to the loo."

The media academic David Lee described the programme:

Cancellation

In August 1991, Channel 4 announced the end of the series, an action which became the subject of an editorial in '' The Times''.

Specials and BBC version

The show ended in 1991 but a number of one-off specials were broadcast from 1993 and 1997.

In 2003, it was revived by the BBC for a single season, broadcast on BBC Four.

Repeats

In October 2007, as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, Channel 4 repeated the first ever ''After Dark'' on the More4 channel.

Reception

Viewer response

In 1987, '' The Guardian'' wrote: "''After Dark'', the closest Britain gets to an unstructured talk show, is already finding that the more serious the chat, the smaller the audience ... Channel 4's market research executive Sue Clench ... says that around three million saw some of ''After Dark'' in its first slot."

The audience survey conducted later by Channel 4 reported that ''After Dark'' was watched by 13% of all adults, rising to what the research company referred to as a "staggering figure" of 28% amongst young men. One viewer is quoted in the academic study ''Talk on Television'' as follows:

The programme is still fondly remembered by viewers. For example, in 2016, Gail Walker, the editor of the ''Belfast Telegraph'', recalled ''After Dark'' programmes about nuclear issues and in 2020 the Cardiff-based writer Joe Morgan wrote a tribute ''A Sword in the Darkness'', saying the show "broke all existing rules and conventions. There has been nothing like it ever since". In 2022 the Liberal Democrat Jonathan Calder published ''Remembering After Dark, the best TV discussion programme ever''.

Critical response

''After Dark'' earned critical praise, from the '' Socialist Worker'' ("my favourite chat show") and '' The Guardian'' ("one of the most inspired and effective uses of airtime yet devised"), and '' The Daily Telegraph'' ("A shining example of late-night television"), to more media focussed journals such as the BFI's '' Sight & Sound'' ("often made ''The Late Show'' look like the '' Daily Mirror''") and the American publication '' Variety'' in its review of the year ("compulsive for late-night viewers"). '' The Listener'' magazine called it "The programme in which you can see the people think".

In 2012, on the 30th anniversary of Channel 4, ''After Dark'' featured in a number of tributes in British newspapers.

Guest response

Author James Rusbridger wrote in '' The Listener'' magazine: "When I appeared on a Channel 4 ''After Dark'' programme recently my postman, milkman and more than two dozen strangers stopped me in the street and said how much they'd enjoyed it and quoted verbatim extracts from the discussion."

In 2021 author David Hebditch wrote an article about appearing on ''After Dark'' to discuss pornography. It is availabl
here

Journalist Peter Hillmore described appearing on ''After Dark'':

Episodes

An extended article including more detail of individual episodes is on the production company's websit
here

In popular culture

* ''After Dark'' featured in ''Biff'' cartoons from '' The Guardian'' in 1988.
* ''After Dark'' was parodied on a regular basis as part of the BBC1 comedy series '' Alas Smith and Jones''.
* Simon Bell plays the part of an ''After Dark'' presenter in the 1989 film '' The Tall Guy''.
* In 2011 Oliver Reed's appearance on ''After Dark'' featured in the BBC radio play ''Burning Both Ends'' by Matthew Broughton.
* In 2016 ''After Dark'' was the inspiration for the touring production ''The Destroyed Room'' by theatre company Vanishing Point."An instinctive look at the world is taken through a glass darkly"
'' The Herald'', 5 January 2016, accessed 13 September 2017

See also

* List of ''After Dark'' editions
* Open Media

References

External sources

{{Commons category, After Dark

An extended article including more detail of individual episodes
(from the production company's website)

Credits
(from IMDb)

One entire episode and several clips of others
(from the production company's YouTube channel)

Interview with Helena Kennedy launching a new series of ''After Dark''
('' The Sunday Times'', 23 February 2003)

Article by Sebastian Cody on ''After Dark and the Future of Public Debate''
(''Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies'', 3 September 2017)

Channel 4 original programming
British political television series
Television censorship in the United Kingdom
1980s British television series
1990s British television series
1987 British television series debuts
2003 British television series endings
British television talk shows
British television series revived after cancellation
Debate television series