The red triangle was a content warning system employed by mainstream terrestrial British TV broadcaster Channel 4 for a brief period in 1986. The channel showed a number of mainly 'X' or 18 certificateart films in the early hours of the morning as part of the "red triangle" series, gaining unexpectedly large audiences. After lobbying from newspapers and pressure groups this method of identifying such material was discontinued.
The red triangle broadcasts
The channel, launched in November 1982, hoped to gain a reputation as a relatively avant-garde alternative to the existing terrestrial stations. It compiled a list of provocative films, generally art-house and mostly in another language, and entered into negotiation with independent TV regulator the IBA with an eye to showing them. The films, all of which had been theatrically exhibited under British Board of Film Censorship's 'X' certificates, had never been shown on British television before. Their content transcended that which had hitherto been permitted by the UK's TV censors. The series began in September 1986 in a very late slot. Broadcasts were preceded by a warning, saying "Special Discretion Required" and displaying a full-screen logo of a red triangle with a white centre. To prevent viewers who missed the warningat the beginning from later being unwittingly exposed to the adult content of the film, a smaller red triangle was continually displayed in the top left corner of the screen throughout the broadcast. This quickly led to the broadcasts being informally known as the "red triangle films". The broadcasts proved to be controversial even before they began. Several newspapers branded some of the films to be shown "video nasties", and once broadcasts began the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse became involved. Condemning the films as pornography, her National Viewers' and Listeners' Association campaigned vociferously against the broadcasts and lobbied parliament and the IBA, calling for the broadcasts to be ended. The outcry over the red triangle series had entirely the opposite effect than the objectors had intended; the opening film, the grisly surreal comedyThemroc, garnered over two million viewers. Later films gained viewerships of over three million, figures which dwarfed those of the other channels still broadcasting that late. Some critics contended that the whole series was a cynical attempt to wilfully stir controversy, and in practice many viewers discovered that "softcore porn" against which campaigners had railed was in fact genuine art cinema. With viewing figures latterly declining, and press opposition remaining strong, Channel 4 quietly discontinued the red triangle the year after it had been introduced.
The films
Legacy
Several years later around 1995, Channel 4 instituted a late-night programming slot in which it showed a variety of adult-oriented programmes with more overt sexual content, mixing avant-garde material such as the works of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe with more unabashedly salacious content. By this time Whitehouse's influence had declined, and the general moral panic over "smut" and "video nasties" had largely subsided, such that the Red Light Zone proceeded without great controversy. More generally, the experiment showed there was a considerable appetite in the British viewing public for adult, sexually themed programming, and the following decade saw Channel 4 increasingly resorting to more blatantly sexual programmes to attract viewers. By showing that it was possible for TV to get viewership of several millions after midnight, the red triangle experiment went some way to establishing a late-night "after the pub" slot. This continues, although the content is more inclined toward the bawdy and laddish than to the red-triangle series' art house films.
