When Channel Five begun, they quickly amassed quite a tawdry reputation as the worst of the five channels, and earned a lot of criticism for their frequent airing of softcore porn in the early hours of the morning. While I might have appreciated it more than many as a kid growing up in the late nineties, they're a channel that have evolved into not only a respectable, but thoroughly entertaining channel that gets more of my attention than, say, the stuffy and family friendly BBC1.

As someone who was raised on fine US crime dramas, Five is a welcome getaway from the rather dreadful British dramas we're subjected to, and they have gained a reputation as the home for these sorts of programmes, with CSI, NCIS and best of all, The Shield, all being regular fixtures on their channel. Also, they air a lot of films, and aren't afraid to push the boat out in regard to violence, language and swearing like some other channels, making with a channel for the thinking man's TV watcher who doesn't want to be wrapped in cotton wool.

The channel also panders to less discerning tastes with the Aussie soap Home and Away, but frankly this doesn't bother me as it doesn't cloud their programming schedule, and demonstrates that they aren't elitist or exclusive in any way. While I will never watch Five as much as Channel 4, their recent re-branding as "Five" has helped their image, and their fresh and exciting imports give them more appeal to less middle-minded viewers.

The real drag before digital came in was that many people couldn't pick up Five for some reason, but thankfully that has been alleviated in our digital age, and Five has also flourished to have their own sister channels such as Five U.S.