Five news is ten years old, and I was there at the beginning. To anyone who doesn’t know why news anchors now stand up…well, we made it semi-respectable. Most of our innovations were the result of the tiny budget allowed for Britain’s fifth and final terrestrial channel.

We had a young, multi-skilled newsroom, before digital had even replaced analogue. We deconstructed graphics (once using Playmobil® characters to illustrate the impact of the Government’s budget proposals), outsourced features (to young producers like Dan Chambers), and got very lucky with our news anchor. Greg Dyke reviewed our pilot and told us to cut the features slot in half (which was the right call) but which meant losing current affairs minutage and resourcing another 3-4 minutes worth of content per show.

Among the senior news execs cutting their teeth on Five were Deborah Turness, now helming ITV News, Craig Oliver – now editing the BBC 10pm and Jon Williams, running the corporation’s international news. It didn’t too much harm the career prospects of Tim Gardam – the controller – who combined an admirably light touch with a brow so high he could deliver a skull-shattering intellectual headbutt to anyone tempted to sneer.

My old boss Gary Rogers who picked up the reins from Chris Shaw, now advises everyone who needs to know on how to set up lean, mean news operations the world over.

ITV, Channel 4, BBC and Sky‘s main bulletins are directed by people who learned their gallery skills on Five’s updates.

ITV and BBC newsgathering have editors who learned their trade using imagination and not much else to cover national and international news. Gardening makeover shows and gritty investigations are directed and filmed by onetime producers.

A couple of Channel 4’s best cameramen first picked up PD150s for us. We called them camera producers, for union reasons.

Five’s reporters are at Al Jazeera English, CNN International, BBC News, Channel 4 News, Sky News, and ITV – some are still with five. Between them they helped change the way television reports look and sound – not always for the better, and usually for reasons of economy.

They’re even in politics – John Reid‘s special adviser was once a humble junior producer on Five. Don’t blame us.

What did I get? Great freedom, great friends and great…financial challenges. Well, you can’t have everything.