The Nation's Telly —
a jolly '90s homage to Channel One
Which British channel really owned the 1990s when it came to comedy and drama? The spreadsheet says ITV held the decade-long audience share. But the biggest nights — the ones the whole country gasped through with a mug of tea in hand — those belonged to Auntie's Channel One: 24.35 million people watched Del Boy finally make it. Nobody has beaten that sitcom night since.
Stand by. Between the comedy and the drama there was always the test card, the Radio Times on the arm, and somebody's dad walloping the set on top of the channels to make it come back.
Now then, straight facts, then
We said we'd be honest: on average share of total viewing, ITV stayed the nation's habit right through the decade — roughly a third of every evening. Channel One closed the gap year on year and by 1996 ran ITV within 2.7 points.
But this page is about the biggest nights, and those were Channel One's: the top comedy of 1995 and 1996 (One Foot in the Grave), the biggest night of the entire decade — Only Fools and Horses, 24.35 million, 29 December 1996 — the National Lottery draw as Saturday teatime national ritual, Euro '96 penalties, and — on our studious sister channel — the drama critics crowned the decade's landmark, Our Friends in the North. The Vicar of Dibley closed the century on top.
One channel had the habit. The other had the moments the nation actually turned up for. Telly is memory, and memory remembers Channel One.
