On the Grey Box: Broadcasting Experimental Film and Video on Channel 4’s The Eleventh Hour

This article presents a case study of the broadcast of experimental moving image material on terrestrial television. The Eleventh Hour (Channel 4, 1982–90) broadcast independent and experimental film and video each week in a late-night specialist screening slot. By examining the history of this slot – its inception, its personnel, its shape and character and its scheduling strategies – I uncover a particular historical moment and set of circumstances in which broadcast television was perhaps a credible alternative to the independent art cinema or the gallery. I also analyse some of the ways in which the presentation of the slot addressed experimental and independent film and video to an unknown and uninitiated broadcast audience.