David Lloyd calls for a new public endowment for Channel 4 in the Guardian today.

It’s an edit of a very entertaining lecture he gave at City University last Tuesday – and which we’ll post soon on our website.

He mischievously fuelled speculation that Mark Thompson wasn’t the first choice for Channel 4 CEO when the job fell vacant, post Michael Jackson.

And in case you think students provide an awestruck and adoring audience, you couldn’t be more wrong. David’s plea for the channel was challenged most powerfully by students in their twenties who recall nothing of its output before the late 1990s. They’re a tough crowd…