After Dark (TV programme)

Did You Know?

• The programme was parodied by the BBC1 comedy series Alas Smith and Jones, which dubbed it 'After Closing Time'.
• Oliver Reed's appearance on After Dark was featured in the 2011 BBC radio play 'Burning Both Ends' by Matthew Broughton.
• The 2016 touring theatre production 'The Destroyed Room' by Vanishing Point was inspired by After Dark.

Notable guests and programmes

The first programme aired on 1 May 1987 and ended with the Beatles' 'Do You Want to Know a Secret?'. The second programme, on 8 May 1987, focused on press ethics and featured Tony Blackburn, Peter Tatchell, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe, and a Private Eye journalist. A correction broadcast a week later stated that Simon Hughes was not a homosexual; Hughes later came out as bisexual. A discussion about the Mafia included claims that Pope John Paul I was eliminated because he discovered mafia profits laundered through the Vatican Bank. The Observer described these as 'spectacular corruption allegations' from author David Yallop. The programme makers faced no legal action despite widespread media anticipation. On 12 June 1987, the night after the British General Election, a show titled 'Is Britain Working?' brought together Tory MP Teresa Gorman, Billy Bragg, Helen from the Stonehenge Convoy, Colonel Hilary Hook, and an unemployed man named Adrian. Gorman stormed off, telling Bragg 'You and your kind are finished. We are the future now.' Bragg replied, 'I sing in smokey rooms every night and I can keep talking for far longer than you can Teresa.'

Later programmes

From 1993, Channel 4 broadcast After Dark one-off specials. The first special, part of the Bloody Bosnia season, featured Koljević admitting Serb concentration camps in Bosnia, alongside Sir Fitzroy Maclean. In January 1995, Sinéad O'Connor called in to ask to appear during a discussion about abuse and the Catholic church; she arrived ten minutes before closedown. A special on 17 August 1995 was broadcast, and on 13 September 1997, a fortnight after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, guests included Claus von Bülow, George Monbiot, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, and Beatrix Campbell, who argued that Diana had survived victimhood to realise her true self-identity. In March 2003, a programme gave airtime to a self-confessed paedophile. A week later, former Baader-Meinhof terrorist Silke Maier-Witt confessed she could no longer remember why she had done what she did. The final After Dark, titled 'Iraq: Truth and Lies?', was transmitted on 29 March 2003 and ended with a plug for the campaign for a screen-free TV Turnoff Week.

Production

The producer described making programmes about familiar British issues, or 'diseases', including the treatment of children, the mentally ill, prisoners, class, cash, racial and sexual difference. Several programmes addressed matters sensitive to the Thatcher government, such as state secrecy and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. International topics included Chile, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Nicaragua, South Africa, and Russia. Less solemn subjects like sport, fashion, gambling, and pop music were included from the start. An internal memo in 1988 listed main themes: lovelessness; who owns your body; what happens after dark; shining light into shadows to reveal invisible people; secrets; what is beyond the law; and not knowing as an act of choice, illustrated by a Holocaust discussion where an Austrian woman claimed 'We did not know' and another participant countered that choosing not to look or listen constitutes conscious not knowing.

Reception

In 1987, The Guardian noted that After Dark was finding that more serious chat attracted smaller audiences, with around three million viewers in its first slot. A Channel 4 audience survey reported that 13% of all adults watched, rising to 28% among young men. The programme has been fondly remembered: in 2016, Gail Walker of the Belfast Telegraph recalled programmes about nuclear issues; in 2020, Joe Morgan wrote a tribute titled 'A Sword in the Darkness'; and in 2022, Jonathan Calder published 'Remembering After Dark, the best TV discussion programme ever'. Critical praise came from Socialist Worker ('my favourite chat show'), The Guardian ('one of the most inspired and effective uses of airtime yet devised'), The Daily Telegraph ('a shining example of late-night television'), Sight & Sound ('often made The Late Show look like the Daily Mirror'), and Variety ('compulsive for late-night viewers'). The Listener called it 'The programme in which you can see the people think'. In 2004, the Open University characterised it as 'legendary'.