Red Triangle (Channel 4) - The Red Triangle Broadcasts

The Red Triangle Broadcasts

The channel, launched in November 1982, hoped to gain a reputation as a relatively avant-garde alternative to the existing terrestrial stations. It compiled a list of provocative films, generally art-house and mostly in a foreign language, and entered into negotiation with independent TV regulator the IBA with an eye to showing them. The films, all of which had been theatrically exhibited under British Board of Film Classification "18" ratings, had never been shown on British television before. Their content transcended that which had hitherto been permitted by the UK's TV censors, although by the standards of later decades their depictions of sex and violence are largely unexceptional.

The series began in September 1986 in a very late slot (with most films beginning after midnight). Broadcasts were preceded by a warning, saying "Special Discretion Required" and displaying a full-screen logo of a red triangle with a white centre (the standard scheme used for warning signs in the UK). To prevent viewers who missed the warning at the beginning from later being unwittingly exposed to the adult content of the film, a smaller red triangle was continually displayed in the top left corner of the screen throughout the broadcast. This quickly led to the broadcasts being informally known as the "red triangle films".

The broadcasts proved to be controversial even before they began. Several newspapers branded some of the films to be shown "video nasties", and once broadcasts began the 'anti-filth' campaigner Mary Whitehouse became involved. Condemning the films as pornography, her National Viewers' and Listeners' Association campaigned vociferously against the broadcasts and lobbied parliament and the IBA, calling for the broadcasts to be ended.

The outcry over the red triangle series had entirely the opposite effect than the objectors had intended; the opening film, the grisly surreal comedy Themroc, garnered over two million viewers (Whitehouse apparently among them, later saying of its broadcast "It's not good enough to slap on a warning symbol and then indulge in sadistic madness of this kind."). Later films (mostly those whose TV Times synopses sounded racy) gained viewerships of over three million, figures which dwarfed those of the other channels still broadcasting that late (which carried fare of very limited appeal and educational programming from the Open University). Some critics contended that the whole series was a cynical attempt to wilfully stir controversy, and in practice many viewers discovered that "softcore porn" against which campaigners had railed was in fact genuine art cinema (and not the titillation for which they'd stayed up late). With viewing figures latterly sagging, and press opposition remaining strong, Channel 4 quietly discontinued the broadcasts the year after they had begun.