TV & VIDEO - April 24, 1987

Independent Channel Four introduced Britain to the glories of late-night programming Thursday, and initial word indicates other networks there--including, perhaps, the BBC--might leap on the bandwagon. Late-night television has been slow to arrive in Britain because of high labor costs, but Chris Griffin-Beale, a spokesman for the five-year-old Channel 4, one of Britain’s two commercial television networks, said his network reached an “unusually amicable deal with the unions.” Channel Four will be on the air three nights a week, Thursdays through Saturdays, until 3 a.m. The bill of fare will include films (some X-rated), talk shows (including one featuring prostitutes and massage-parlor employees) and an innovative live discussion program designed to stay on the air until the conversation runs out of steam.