Film On Four
The Fall and Rise of British Cinema
Channel 4
Quality Television
The First Five Years
The International Market
The Film Four Style
Good Films – Poor Profits
A Stifling Influence?
The BBC and ITV
Conclusions
A History of British Film
Early British Comedy
Early Hitchcock
Introduction to Humphrey Jennings
Humphrey Jennings and Third Cinema
The Stars Look Down / The Proud Valley – Conflict and Unity
The Renaissance of the 1980s
Film On Four
Conclusions
By 1996 Film on Four had been involved in the production of over 300 films and continues to increase investment to date, £100million was pledged to produce 80 films between 1996-9. The future for British film had not looked so promising for many years. Undeniably, a significant percentage of British films of the 80’s and 90’s would not have been made if it wasn’t for Film on Four. The major criticism seems to be with the effect the type of films they produced has had on the industry. Channel Four themselves give their opinion thus; ‘Film on Four’s role in British cinema is simple. It plugged a crucial low-budget gap in the UK after the catastrophic production slump of the mid-seventies’. The British cinema has taken fifty years to assimilate the presence of television. Its present and future symbiotic relationship with what it had for so long regarded as an anathema has, if not been made possible, been accelerated by Film on Fours philanthropy to the cash starved industry.