Today marks the 40th Anniversary of UK broadcaster Channel 4. Unlike the BBC, Channel 4 hasn’t had any of its programs or brands turned into LEGO® sets but its part in LEGO History is rather important. Channel 4 have a reputation for creating innovative programs and doing things differently from everyone else. In 2017, this was put to the test with a new TV series called LEGO Masters. The show first aired on Channel 4 in August 2017 and invited eight teams to compete against each other to build creative designs using their imagination and lots of LEGO bricks. The show was hosted by Melvin Odoom, with LEGO Group VP of Design Matthew Ashton acting as a judge along with Roma Agrawal and Fran Scott. It ran for two seasons on Channel 4 along with a celebrity Christmas special in 2018.
Although the show has since disappeared from UK screens, it’s become an international brand and an important creative tool for the LEGO Group. Both LEGO Masters US and LEGO Masters Australia continue to be popular primetime shows. LEGO Masters has seen in-store events run at LEGO stores and similar events taking place at LEGOLAND parks globally. If it wasn’t for Channel 4 commissioning LEGO Masters in 2017 those other shows would never exist and it’s a shame the UK version has been dropped. In the UK both the US and Australian versions are shown on E4, so it sort of lives on.
A little less impactful but pre-dating LEGO Masters by a couple of years, were a series of documentaries focused on the LEGO brand and its fans. The first was released in 2015 and was called The Secret World of LEGO. This followed the creation of a LEGO magazine, went behind the scene at the LEGO Group and even featured a certain superstar LEGO designer beginning his journey at the company.
It was followed by Inside LEGO At Christmas, when followed as different aspects of the LEGO Group prepared for the holiday season. Including getting their stores ready for the busy Christmas shopping spree and creating large-scale LEGO builds to bring a bit of festive joy to shoppers.
A similar documentary followed the opening of the LEGO Store in Leicester Square. At the time it was the biggest every LEGO Store anywhere in the world, a title it’s recently regained.
To celebrate the release of The LEGO Batman Movie, the mini Caped Crusader was chosen to take over the Channel 4 continuity announcements in-between programs. Specially created animated indents played before and after Channel 4 shows.
Most recently, Channel 4 and LEGO UK have joined forces to create a series of digital-first shorts called Kids Rebuild the Future. Different celebrities and kids discuss what the future could look like, using LEGO bricks to bring their creations to life.
Happy Birthday to Channel 4, if you want to watch some of the shows detailed above, head to the Channel 4 catch-up service, previously known as All4. You can watch LEGO Masters UK here. LEGO Masters USA here and LEGO Masters Australia here.
