Five thrives under Frow Channel 5’s Ben Frow tells Steve Clarke why lockdown is tailor-made for the broadcaster
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Channel 5
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hey say that good things come in threes. When Channel 5 won Channel of the Year at March’s RTS Programme Awards, beating Sky Atlantic and BBC Three, the accolade followed identical wins at February’s Broadcast Awards and the 2018 Edinburgh TV Awards. “It was thrilling to win Channel of the Year,” says the station’s director of programmes, Ben Frow, looking dapper in a dark T-shirt. “We’ve won each one once; we’ve finally got them all. I wouldn’t actually enter another channel of the year [competition]. “It was very nice to get the recognition. I don’t want to become like Ant and Dec, and try to win it 30 years in a row. I’ve got enough pressure.” Frow is speaking via Microsoft Teams from his kitchen table, his new workplace in leafy Clapham, southwest London. He may be in lockdown, but Frow is enjoying a high profile thanks to an interview he gave last month to Radio 4’s Media Show in which he declared that the station’s “scrappy” spirit was well suited to riding out the coronavirus storm. “Content is critical and we are providing a real service to the country,”
Ben Frow
