40 years of Channel 4: from Big Brother to Brookside

Cast your minds back to 1982 - Britain was quite a different place, as was the TV landscape.

No Netflix - crikey, no internet!

Just three terrestrial TV channels, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.

Channel 4 not only revolutionised the TV industry - heralding a wave of independent productions - but also what we watched.

Channel 4 almost became a byword for controversy; from the first TV lesbian kiss on Brookside, to the launch of the fly-on-the-wall reality TV format in the shape of Big Brother.

Celebrity Big Brother in 2004

And that controversy remains today - not least in Government plans to privatise the channel, which is state-owned and has a duty to provide public service broadcasting and a remit to give a platform to diverse and different voices.

To mark its 40th year, we're taking a look back at some of its "best bits".

Here is our list of some favourite Channel 4 shows: is your favourite here? If not, tell us in the comments below or in our nostalgia group Why We Love York - Memories (facebook.com/groups/yorknostalgia/)

Channel 4: the best bits

1. Big Brother (2000 - 2010) The show that arguably changed TV forever by inventing a hit reality TV format, much copied, never beaten.

2. Brookside (1982 - 2003) A gritty soap opera based in Liverpool that tackled issues other dramas failed to touch. Trailblazing.

3. Black Mirror (2001) - Charlie Brooker's short dystopian films were such a hit that Netflix pinched the series five years later.

4. It’s A Sin (2021) - Russell T Davies's drama series rooted in the 80s HIV/AIDS epidemic was rejected by the BBC and ITV before arriving at Channel 4. It echoes the success of the channel's groundbreaking gay drama Queer As Folk - also written by Davies - from1999 drama, telling the lives of three men living in Manchester’s gay village and presenting positive LGBTQ characters on TV.

5. Comedy - From the IT Crowd to Peep Show to Fresh Meat and Da Ali G show, the channel was the place to go to for laughs.