Channel 5: Now we are five, so please start taking us seriously

After five years of being reliably downmarket, Channel 5 has come over all highbrow. Instead of the usual fodder of sport, soap and soft porn, now you're as likely to find a history of religious art. Steve Clarke wonders what's going on

After half a decade as the most blatantly populist of Britain's five terrestrial television stations – eloquently summed up by one of its senior executives as providing a programme diet rich in the three Fs, as in "football, films and fucking" – Channel 5 is in the throes of reinventing itself.

Extraordinarily, the shift in direction is not only motivated by a desire to increase ratings and drive advertising revenue, it's also designed to give C5 some much-needed credibility among the middle classes, who hitherto wouldn't be seen dead watching the station. What is even more surprising is that the strategy appears to be working.

It may be some time before cheeky C5, famous for introducing soft porn to free-to-air TV in the UK, dominates the prize lists at Bafta or the Royal Television Society. But during the past six months or so, a change of emphasis is detectable as the station has trimmed back the trivia and sensation-seeking to adopt a more middlebrow attitude to life.

These days, a documentary on Stalin or Leonardo da Vinci is more likely to be promoted by C5, which celebrates its fifth birthday on Saturday, than an adult game show. These are mainstream, ratings-friendly subjects, yet in the present risk-averse TV environment, programmes of this kind, shown when most people are able to watch them, can no longer be taken for granted.

Listen to this verdict from the head of the BBC's new highbrow digital network, BBC 4, Roly Keating. "Channel 5 has been quite bold in some of its recent arts scheduling," he reckons. Keating, a fully paid-up member of the chattering classes, is not being ironic. Honest.

Translated from TV-speak, his point is that C5 is showing arts documentaries in the middle of the evening during peak-viewing time. Cynics might suggest that BBC 1, slated for its lack of arts shows, should follow suit, or perhaps that would be too middle-class and elitist.

Don't go to C5 expecting Jeremy Paxman or David Attenborough. But the network that gave us a naked Keith Chegwin, and was once, in the eyes of many critics, the dumbest of the five British terrestrial networks, has discovered that braining up can be good for business. Recent commissions include programmes about Tate Modern, Rachel Whiteread, Gaudi, and a 13-part series on religious art presented by Paul Binsky of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Can this really be the same station that made a series about serial murderer Fred West?

"We want to send out the message that Channel 5 is now a serious, proper station that matters," claims Kevin Lygo, the company's director of programmes who joined last summer from Channel 4, where he helped mastermind Big Brother, Trigger Happy TV and Ali G. "I've cut back the sex shows to one a week, and I intend to make sure our sex shows are of a higher quality in future. Adult programmes don't have to be tacky. At Channel 4, we did The History of Pornography rather than Busty Babes from Braintree," he adds.

It is Lygo, who began his TV career writing scripts for The Two Ronnies and Not The Nine O'Clock News, who is spearheading the attempt to give C5 some clout with the chattering classes. He is regarded as an accomplished programme man, a perfect complement to C5's driven and commercially savvy chief executive Dawn Airey. Airey, who rarely flinches from speaking her mind, was responsible for the "three Fs" quote. Today, she spends much of her time poring over the figures and dealing with RTL, the pan-European media giant that is C5's main owner, leaving commissioning and scheduling decisions to Lygo.

Together, they make an impressive team. Latest viewing figures put C5's average audience share almost a full point up on a year ago – close to seven per cent. This makes the channel, buoyed by poaching antipodean teen soap Home and Away from ITV1, the biggest gainer of the five terrestrial stations in the ratings so far this year. Granted C5 is making inroads from a low base, and its original target of reaching 10 per cent looks virtually impossible given the speed of digital take-up; 40 per cent of UK homes now have access to more than 200 channels.

The recent bidding war between BBC 2 and Channels 4 and 5 for The Simpsons, which fetched a record £700,000 for the new series, speaks volumes of how seriously rivals now regard C5. "C4 was reluctant to bid for The Simpsons, but once C5 entered the race, they knew they had to pay whatever it cost," says a BBC executive. "They couldn't afford to let C5 have The Simpsons because of the impact on their ad revenue with the 16-24 demographic."

Owing to a strong following among teens and twentysomethings, C5 has not been as badly affected by the advertising famine as rivals ITV and C4. But if Lygo is to succeed and build on the network's emerging respectability, he will need to do more than persuade discerning viewers to tune in without alienating the younger core audience.

Another battle he has to win is to find what is known in the industry as "a breakout hit" – a Big Brother, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? or Pop Idol. In other words, a show that becomes a national obsession and whose popularity cuts across all social and age groups. Lygo knows this is easier said than done, especially on a limited budget; at around £140m, C5 spends a third of C4's programme costs. Having a breakout show is crucial if the channel is to reach the next stage in its evolution and lose its reputation as a niche broadcaster. "I'm confident we can do it," he says, "but we've got to be prepared to get some things wrong."

And if he fails to find a signature show, would C5 plumb the depths again? Lygo isn't saying, but with Rupert Murdoch (cross-media ownership rules permitting) known to be interested in buying C5, nothing can be ruled out.

The writer is a former editor of 'Broadcast' magazine