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It began life as the home of bare bums and strange truck-touching competitions. But 25 years on, Five has started winning awards for its programming. Is it growing up at last?Twenty-five years ago, on Sunday 30 March 1997 at 6pm, Channel 5 launched in a blaze of glory. Provided your definition of glory is the Spice Girls and the comedian Tim Vine standing on a set that looked like the physical embodiment of a migraine. In the early months of the channel, any suspicions that it might not be the televisual equivalent of BBC Radio 4 were quickly confirmed when the director of programmes, Dawn Airey, referred to the station’s output as being based around the three Fs – football, films and, well, you can guess the other. It’s fair to say they probably didn’t have Melvyn Bragg on speed dial.Like all toddlers, Channel 5 spent its early years doing anything it could to get attention. Much of its programming was a hallucinogenic cacophony of awfulness, perhaps best symbolised by Naked Jungle, which aired in 2000. The one-off gameshow was part of a night celebrating 50 years of British naturism, which execs naturally took as an excuse to show a lot of nudity on TV. A stunningly ill-advised programme, it featured two teams competing in the buff in a Crystal Maze-style format, cheered on by the host, Keith Chegwin, who was resplendently naked save for a large helmet. On his head. Continue reading...