Network 7 (TV series)

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Network 7 logo from Series 2

Network 7 was a shortlived but influential BAFTA award winning 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.

1 Overview
2 Regular Programme Segments
3 Memorable Moments
4 Spoofs
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] 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. It's 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 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 took place in a specially built 'caravan city' in Limehouse Studios, a deserted banana warehouse on the site of what is now the Canary Wharf Tower. Presenters included Sebastian Scott, Jazwinder Bancil, Shanka Guha, Eric Harwood, Trevor Ward, Murray Boland, Tracey Macleod and Magenta Devine. 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'.

Network 7 challenged the idea that youth programming could only be a niche concern in the television business. The series won a British Academy [BAFTA] award for Originality for Hewland and Street Porter in 1987. The series has been credited with changing the language of factual television and giving a start in the industry to some of UK TV's leading programme makers.

[edit] 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 in 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.

[edit] Memorable Moments

A feature on cloning cashcards, where the presenter actually cloned a card and used it to take money out of ATMs.

A live satellite link-up to Ed Byrne, a man on death Row in the USA charged with 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 (55% favoured death).

[edit] Spoofs

A spoof of Network 7 (renamed 'Network') appeared in Episode 4, Series 2 of French and Saunders.

Spitting Image featured a Network 7 spoof where an interviewer asked God to sum up the meaning of life in 9 seconds.

Victor Lewis-Smith featured a scathing spoof of Network 7 as part of his Buygones series, itself ironically part of Network 7's successor Club X which has retrospectively been seen as one of television's lowest points.