During Jon Snow’s polite but relentless grilling of Richard Branson following the Virgin SpaceShipTwo accident, it was hard not to reflect on the easy ride Branson has always had from a media seemingly blinded by his wealth and dazzled by his fuzz-framed rictus grin. But if anyone would buck the trend, it was always going to be Channel 4 News. Branson began the interview smirking but eventually seemed both offended and startled by the turn events were taking. The shock was enough to induce a certain petulance – which might be as close as we’ve ever come to seeing the real Branson.

He shouldn’t have been surprised. If Branson had somehow been keeping half an eye on Channel 4 News from his Caribbean paradise, he’d have known which way the wind was blowing. With a cowed BBC increasingly feeling like an auxiliary government information portal, it has been left to Snow and friends to spike the wheels of the supposedly great and good. It’s a challenge they’ve accepted with alacrity.

It may be partly attributable to a scheduling niche which leaves the UK’s best news programme sandwiched between Hollyoaks and whichever interchangeable property, medical or cookery show Channel 4 is currently launching into the early-evening ether. But this summer’s revelation that Channel 4 News’s ratings had suffered a double-digit decline over the previous year was still worrying. Because Channel 4 News feels valuable. It has pursued certain stories with righteous tenacity – the Sri Lankan government still hasn’t forgiven the channel for its devastating coverage of the country’s civil war and even produced a book detailing its grievances. But the show combines real investigative bite with a charmingly ad hoc air of irreverence and occasionally, even a touch of chaos.

This isn’t a smooth operation. Surprisingly often, something will go wrong. A presenter will gaze blankly at an autocue for five seconds. A piece will be introduced into the wrong camera. A Snow quip will misfire. Yet somehow, these quirks are shrugged off and incorporated into the momentum of the show. Channel 4 News feels completely unapologetic and in today’s stage-managed current-affairs climate, a little defiance goes a long way.

This cheerful disorder feeds into the actual substance of the show’s news-gathering strategies too. Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s two signature interviews are probably his awkward, dead air-strewn exchange with Richard Ayoade and his raw but illuminating face-off with Quentin Tarantino. It’s surely no coincidence that no comparable turbulence has been experienced on the BBC lately. The Beeb would panic over a disrupted narrative; Channel 4 simply wonders where the story might be going and follows it to the end. And often, this is where the real revelations can be found – the truth sometimes emerges out of frayed tempers and confounded expectations. Ask Godfrey Bloom, UKIP’s blustering human cartoon, whose career never really recovered from his encounter with the professional wind-up merchant Michael Crick.



Crick’s experiences are telling. He began his career at Channel 4 News, graduated to Newsnight and then returned to home turf where he has been allowed to simply do his job; namely reeling in scoops and giving politicians enough rope to hang themselves. Economics editor (and Guardian columnist) Paul Mason is another Newsnight refugee; often a lost soul when conversing with self-proclaimed “one-nation Tory” Jeremy Paxman but free to mumble, theorise and occasionally dazzle on Channel 4. Even Snow himself feels like an oddly unpredictable figure – simultaneously a pillar of the establishment and a loose cannon. There’s always the sense that he might just amaze you, that the flamboyant ties and socks could be the tip of a surprisingly outre iceberg.

Channel 4 news also boasts accomplished and likeable female presenters such as Cathy Newman and Jackie Long and even – a fact that shouldn’t feel as significant as it does – a head-scarfed, female Muslim reporter in Fatima Manji. It has pulled off a difficult trick; it feels simultaneously fresh and authoritative. With the election approaching and the BBC limping apologetically behind the government with half an anxious eye on 2016’s charter renewal process, we should be grateful for its robust humanity.



Channel 4 recently announced that Paxman would be helming its election coverage. The channel probably regards this a coup, but perhaps it should look to the talent it has already nurtured.