1990 in British television

Events

January

• 1 January –
• *New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include the British television premieres of Grease 2 and Out of Africa.
• *Mr. Bean, starring Rowan Atkinson, makes its first appearance, on ITV.
• 2 January – Granada Television's flagship nightly news programme Granada Reports is rebranded as Granada Tonight.
• 3 January – Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles makes its debut on BBC1. The show's original US title, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is changed for the UK market because of controversy surrounding ninjas and related weapons such as nunchaku. The intro sequence is heavily edited because of this, replacing the word ninja with hero or fighting, using a digitally faded logo instead of the animated blob, and removing any scenes in which the character Michelangelo wields his nunchaku. Scenes of Michelangelo using his nunchaku are likewise edited out of the episodes themselves, leading the American producers to drop the weapons from the series entirely in order to make the show more appropriate for the international market.
• 6 January –
• *Baywatch, a series made by NBC in the United States, makes its British television debut on ITV. The series proves popular with ITV viewers, with audience figures regularly reaching 13 million. When NBC cancels the series after its first season, ITV teams up with an international consortium of broadcasters to sponsor the show for further seasons. The series comes to an end in 2001, following an eleven-year run.
• *ITV airs the British television debut of Jekyll & Hyde, a made-for-television film starring Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd.
• 8 January – The popular classic children's song Nellie the Elephant has been spawned into a 5-minute animated cartoon series on ITV featuring the voices of singer Lulu and veteran actor, comedian, author, presenter, historian and political activist Tony Robinson. The first episode "Nellie and the Ghost" airs on ITV and was shown every Monday and will keeping until 9 April with "Nellie Rescues Mrs Maple's Moggy". The series will return on 5 September with "Nellie Goes Ballooning" and will be shifted onto a Wednesday timeslot. The last three episodes will be broadcast in January 1991 with the final episode being shown on 21 January.
• 9 January – The Secret Cabaret, an innovative and shocking magic based programme hosted by magician Simon Drake, premieres on Channel 4.
• 14 January – The Observer reports that TVS have started searching for a buyer for a 49% stake in US production company MTM Enterprises, which it bought in 1988.
• 24 January–3 February – The BBC broadcasts the 1990 Commonwealth Games. BBC1 stays on air all night to provide live coverage.
• 31 January – British television premiere of the James Bond film A View to a Kill on ITV.
• January – For the first time, Emmerdale is networked across almost all of ITV, airing at 19:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• January – Chrysalis Television takes over the contract to produce LWT News.

  February

• 2 February – The BBC Schools gay-themed television film Two of Us is given its first daytime showing on BBC2. It is shown in two parts, on consecutive Friday lunchtimes. The channel had previously shown the film late at night in March 1988.
• 5 February – Sky Movies is encrypted and becomes Sky's first pay channel.
• 11 February – Live coverage is aired of the African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela's release from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa.
• 13 February – The US science fiction series Quantum Leap makes its British television debut on BBC2.
• 19 February – The first edition of Channel 4's documentary series Cutting Edge is shown.
• 20 February – Steve McFadden makes his first appearance as the EastEnders character Phil Mitchell. Ross Kemp debuts as Phil's brother, Grant in an episode aired two days later.

  March

• 4 March – The Observer newspaper reports that it has formed a partnership with Central Television to create Central Observer, making environmental themed films for British Satellite Broadcasting and terrestrial channels, with funding from the charity Television Trust for the Environment.
• 12 March – Ahead of the first free legislative election in the German Democratic Republic, BBC1 airs an edition of Panorama in which Fred Emery reports from the GDR and West Germany on the opportunities and strains facing the Germans.
• 20 March – Chancellor John Major delivers the first budget to be shown on television.
• 25 March – British Satellite Broadcasting launches on cable in the UK as a rival to Sky Television which launched the previous year.
• 26 March – The science fiction soap Jupiter Moon makes its debut on the Galaxy channel. 150 episodes are commissioned, but only 108 are aired before the series is cancelled in December.
• 27 March – BBC 1 airs the first of two flashback episodes of EastEnders as part of the storyline in which Diane Butcher ran away from home. The episodes show Frank Butcher going to meet his teenage daughter at King's Cross station after she contacted him following a three-month absence. Scenes showing Frank waiting for Diane and their subsequent reunion are interspersed with flashbacks to January showing her leaving home and living rough on the streets. Sophie Lawrence did research among real homeless people for the storyline.
• 28 March – ITV broadcasts the Granada Television documentary drama, Who Bombed Birmingham?. The programme, which looks at the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings and the conviction of the Birmingham Six names several people believed to have actually been behind the bombings.
• 31 March – Opportunity Knocks returns to BBC1 for the 1990 series with its original title, and with Les Dawson as host.

  April

• 1 April – Sky Movies broadcasts its first special event – World Wrestling Federation's WrestleMania VI.
• 3 April – ITV airs the First Tuesday documentary Sonia's Baby, the story of a woman's fight with the medical establishment to have a test tube baby using her late husband's sperm.
• 6 April – UK television debut of Australian children's sci-fi comedy Round the Twist on BBC1.
• 14 April – BBC2 begins showing the 91-part 1988 Indian serial, Mahabharat, a dramatisation of the epic poem the Mahabharata. The programme is shown in Hindi with English subtitles, and repeated the following day in a late night slot on BBC1.
• 16 April –
• *BBC1 airs Nelson Mandela – an International Tribute, a concert held at Wembley Stadium in honour of Nelson Mandela. The concert features a number of prominent musicians, including Anita Baker, Tracy Chapman, Stanley Clarke, Natalie Cole, George Duke, Peter Gabriel and Patti LaBelle. Nelson Mandela is also in attendance.
• *BBC1 airs Wogan on Ice, a special edition of Terry Wogan's chat show that gives viewers a rare chance to see ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performing together. The pair, who achieved success during the 1984 Winter Olympics, are appearing together in the UK for the first time since 1985.
• 21 April – Closing episode of the third series of ITV's You Bet!, and the last to be presented by Bruce Forsyth.
• 29 April – British Satellite Broadcasting launches on satellite television.

  May

• 5 May – Italy's Toto Cutugno wins the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest with "".
• 6 May – Airdate of the Everyman episode A Game of Soldiers, a documentary concerned a group of soldiers exploring their feelings about being trained to kill.
• 10 May – The Broadcasting Bill receives its third reading in the House of Commons and is passed with 259 votes to 180.
• 19 May – Helen Rollason becomes the first female presenter on BBC1's Grandstand.
• 22 May – ITV airs "Trojan Horse", an episode of The Bill in which the character PC Ken Melvin is killed off while trying to park a booby trapped car, when a bomb explodes.
• 27–28 May – ITV stages its second nationwide Telethon.
• 28 May – ITV airs a special edition of Coronation Street as part of its Telethon in which Hilda Ogden returns for a special visit.

  June

• 2 June – Opportunity Knocks ends its run on BBC1 after four series with the 1990 final.
• 8 June–8 July – The BBC and ITV provide television coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
• 15 June – The very first edition of Art Attack with Neil Buchanan is shown on Children's ITV.
• 20 June – Archie MacPherson commentates his last football match for BBC Scotland with the Scotland v Brazil World Cup match in Italy which Brazil won 1–0 leaving Scotland eliminated from the finals. He was later replaced by Jock Brown as main commentator who had commentated the same match on STV when Sportscene returned on 25 August. Brown was replaced by Gerry McNee for Scotsport which was shown the following day.
• 24 June – The cult science fiction film The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton receives its network television premiere on BBC2 as part of the channel's Moviedrome strand.
• 28 June – First screening of sitcom Waiting for God on BBC1.

  July

• 2 July –
• *ITV broadcasts Tom McGurk's film Dear Sarah, a play about Giuseppe Conlon's letters to his wife, Sarah after he was convicted as one of the "Maguire Seven" for allegedly making IRA bombs.
• *Channel 4 quiz show Countdown celebrates its 1000th edition.
• 5 July – The Tavernier family make their EastEnders debut; parents Celestine and Etta, their children Clyde, Hattie and Lloyd, and grandfather Jules.
• 6 July – Channel 4 introduces a third weekly episode of its soap Brookside, airing on a Friday evening. The soap now airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
• 7 July – In Rome, on the eve of the final of the 1990 FIFA World Cup the Three Tenors sing together for the first time. The event is broadcast live on television and watched worldwide by millions of people. Highlight is Luciano Pavarotti's performance of Nessun Dorma from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.
• 9 July – Anglia Television replaces its news programme About Anglia with Anglia News. The programme is a new dual news service, with both editions of Anglia News broadcast from Norwich. Journalists are also based at seven regional newsrooms and a Westminster bureau. Anglia also begins providing separate news services for the East and West of the Anglia region from this date.
• 13 July – Network television premiere of Michael Schultz's sci-fi adventure Timestalkers on BBC1, the film having been postponed from 25 June.
• 19 July – MPs vote to make televised proceedings of the House of Commons a permanent feature.
• 21 July – Debut of ITV's Stars in Their Eyes, a series presented by Leslie Crowther in which members of the public impersonate their favourite singers.
• 31 July – The final edition of Engineering Announcements is shown on Channel 4 at 5.45am.

  August

• 10 August – Debut of Channel 4's music show The Word.
• 14 August – BBC1 begins a repeat of the eight-part New Zealand action thriller Steel Riders.
• 18 August – BSB's second Marcopolo Satellite is launched.
• 20 August – The last ever episode of Miami Vice, Freefall is shown on BBC1.
• 25 August – The first series of Stars in Their Eyes is won by Maxine Barrie performing as Shirley Bassey.
• 31 August – BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Miracles, Jim Kouf's 1986 comedy starring Tom Conti and Teri Garr.

  September

• 2 September –
• *BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Heartsounds, a film based on the autobiographical book by Martha Weinman Lear, and starring James Garner and Mary Tyler Moore.
• *The long-running animated series The Simpsons is broadcast in the United Kingdom for the first time, making its debut on Sky1. Call of the Simpsons is the first episode to be shown on Sky.
• 5 September – New BBC building at White City opens.
• 7 September – After an eight-year absence, The Generation Game returns on BBC1 with Bruce Forsyth as returning host and Rosemarie Ford as hostess.
• 8 September – Ahead of the UK screening of the 1,000th episode of Neighbours, BBC1 airs Neighbours 1,000th Episode Celebration, a TV special produced by Australia's Network Ten which brought together past and present cast members to mark the occasion.
• 9 September – As part of the Screen One series, BBC1 screens the groundbreaking comedy drama Frankenstein's Baby which explores the subject of male pregnancy.
• 13 September – BBC1 screens the 1,000th episode of Neighbours. The episode features a storyline in which the characters Des Clarke and Jane Harris become engaged.
• 15 September – Raymond Baxter introduces BBC1's live coverage of the fly-past and parade at Buckingham Palace as the Royal Air Force marks the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.
• 16 September – Cliff Michelmore introduces BBC1's coverage of the Battle of Britain Service from Westminster Abbey, conducted by Archbishop of Canterbury Rev. Dr. Robert Runcie.
• 17 September – BBC1 airs a special edition of Blue Peter in which Yvette Fielding travels to Montserrat to report on efforts to rebuild the island, which experienced widespread damage when it was struck by Hurricane Hugo on 17 September 1989.
• 23 September – Debut of the Screen One drama Sweet Nothing, which deals with the subject of homeless young people in London.
• 24 September –
• *Yorkshire Television launches a third sub-regional news opt-out for south Yorkshire and north Derbyshire called "South" and is broadcast from Sheffield while "East" continues to air in east Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Norfolk and Calendar News is broadcast to the rest of the region.
• *Joan Bunting wins the 1990 series of MasterChef.
• 25 September – ITV premieres children's animated fantasy television series The Dreamstone.
• 26 September – makes its British television debut on BBC 2, with the feature-length episode "Encounter at Farpoint".
• 30 September – The BSB channel Galaxy airs the pilot episode of Heil Honey I'm Home!, a controversial sitcom featuring a fictionalised Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The show attracts much criticism and is cancelled after one episode. Several other episodes were recorded, but none have ever been broadcast.

  October

• 2 October – The First Tuesday documentary Swing Under the Swastika airs on ITV. The programme looks at jazz music under the Nazi regime and is narrated by Alan Plater.
• 3 October – The BBC Radio 1 comedy series The Mary Whitehouse Experience comes to television with a series on BBC2.
• 15 October –
• *BBC1 launches a new weekday morning service called Daytime UK. Linked live from Birmingham and running for four hours, from 8.50am until lunchtime, the new service includes hourly regional news summaries, broadcast after the on-the-hour news bulletins.
• *Fireman Sam returns to BBC 1 for a brand new series with a new character named Penny Morris being introduced.
• 18 October – The day's edition of BBC 1's Question Time from Edinburgh becomes the first edition of the programme to feature six panellists after delays require the last minute substitution of two guests. Tony Benn, Margaret Ewing, Andrew Neil and Malcolm Rifkind were originally scheduled to appear, but Menzies Campbell and Magnus Linklater are drafted in when Benn and Neil are late. Benn and Neil then arrive 20 minutes into the programme, and join the discussion.
• 23 October – David Lynch's critically acclaimed serial drama Twin Peaks receives its British television debut at 9.00pm on BBC2.
• 29 October – Debut of Keeping Up Appearances, a sitcom starring Patricia Routledge on BBC1.
• 30 October – Debut of The Sentence, an eight-part BBC2 documentary series looking at life inside Glen Parva Young Offenders Institute near Leicester, Europe's largest prison of its type. It is the first time a television crew has been given access to the prison.

  November

• 2 November – BSB merges with Sky Television, becoming British Sky Broadcasting. Of BSB's five channels, only two, The Movie Channel and The Sports Channel, remain on air long term, though both are eventually renamed. Galaxy is closed with its transponders handed over to Sky One, Now is replaced in the most part with Sky News and The Power Station remains on air until 8 April 1991 before being replaced by MTV.
• 9 November – The Word is moved from 6pm to a late night timeslot.
• 11 November – At 10.40pm ITV airs an ITN News special in which Trevor McDonald talks to Saddam Hussein. In his first interview with a British broadcaster since his country's invasion of Kuwait in August, the Iraqi President calls for talks and attempts to link the ongoing Gulf crisis with the Palestinian issue.
• 12 November – British/Swiss children's television series Pingu debuts on BBC1.
• 18 November–23 December – The BBC's serialisation of the Chronicles of Narnia concludes with the fourth and final story, The Silver Chair, being aired in six parts.
• 20 November –
• *Broadcaster John Sergeant's famous encounter with Margaret Thatcher on the steps of the British embassy in Paris. He was waiting for Thatcher in the hope of hearing her reaction to the first ballot in the party leadership contest of 1990, only to be pushed aside by her press secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham, when Thatcher emerges from the building. Sergeant later wins the British Press Guild award for the most memorable broadcast of the year.
• *BBC1 airs The Maze – Enemies Within, an Inside Story special looking at life inside Northern Ireland's Maze Prison.
• *Episode of Emmerdale in which Malandra Burrows sings "Just This Side of Love", a song later released by Burrows as a single. Released on 26 November, the song enters the UK Singles Chart at #44, before spending eight weeks in the top 60 and peaking at #11 on 22 December.
• 22 November – Following Margaret Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister, the evening's edition of Question Time, broadcast from London's Barbican Centre, is transmitted in two parts, with two different panels. The first part features Enoch Powell, David Owen, James Callaghan and Simon Jenkins, while Michael Howard, Nigel Lawson, Paddy Ashdown and Roy Hattersley are the panellists for the second part.
• 25 November –
• *BBC1 airs the final episode of Howards' Way.
• *Episode three of the ninth series of Spitting Image concludes with a film showing footage of Britain's homeless crisis over which plays a parody of Dionne Warwick's 1964 song "Walk on By". The piece is introduced as one of the legacies of Margaret Thatcher's government, and is rare for the series in that no puppets were used.
• November – The Broadcasting Act 1990 receives Royal Assent. The Act paves the way for the deregulation of the British commercial broadcasting industry, and will have many consequences for the ITV system. The Act also sets out the terms of a license for a fifth UK television channel, which would need to be a general entertainment channel with a remit for some public service broadcasting. Additionally, it is estimated that the channel's coverage would reach only 74% of the UK, and a video retuning operation would need to be undertaken.

  December

• 1 December – With the media watching, the two ends of the service tunnel of the Channel Tunnel are joined together, linking Britain and France for the first time since the Ice Age. A handshake then takes place between Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette, after which British and French workers board trains to complete the first journey between the two countries.
• 2 December –
• *ITV screens a repeat of Episode One of Coronation Street as the soap approaches its 30th anniversary.
• *Galaxy and Now are closed down and are replaced on the Marco Polo satellite by Sky One and Sky News although arts programmes are shown for a short time as a weekend opt-out service from Sky News.
• 7 December – BBC2 broadcasts Your Move, a pioneering interactive show in which the home audience are invited to play chess against grandmaster Jonathan Speelman using telephone voting to select each move.
• 9 December –
• *Cilla Black hosts Happy Birthday Coronation Street, an evening of entertainment on ITV to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the long–running soap.
• *The Greek language channel Hellenic TV – the UK's first foreign-language service to be given a broadcast licence by the Independent Television Commission – goes on air in London.
• 16 December – BBC1 airs the network television premiere of The Muppets Take Manhattan, the third feature length film starring the Muppets.
• 24 December –
• *BBC1 shows a feature-length episode of All Creatures Great and Small, the last to be aired in the long running series.
• *The first ever Wallace & Gromit film, A Grand Day Out, premieres on Channel 4.
• 25 December –
• *Steven Spielberg's 1982 science fiction adventure E.T. makes its British television debut on BBC1.
• *Channel 4 airs The Coronation Street Birthday Lecture, a talk delivered by Labour politician Roy Hattersley in which he discusses aspects of the soap in front of an invited audience, which includes some Coronation Street cast members. The programme also includes some classic clips from the series.
• 26 December –
• *BBC1 airs the network television premiere of the supernatural horror film , and Toto – Live in Paris, a rare live performance from Toto.
• *ITV airs a made-for-television adaptation of R. D. Blackmore's historical romance Lorna Doone. The film, produced by Thames Television, is noted for its choice of filming location, footage having been shot near Glasgow rather than in the novel's Exmoor setting.
• 27 December –
• *BBC1 airs the first part of the Australian film Bushfire Moon. The second part is shown the following day.
• *BBC2 airs the network television premiere of Jim Henson's 1982 fantasy adventure The Dark Crystal.
• *British television premiere of My Left Foot, Jim Sheridan's biopic of the writer Christy Brown, which is aired by ITV.
• 31 December – New Year's Eve highlights on BBC1 include the network television premiere of the romantic comedy Roxanne, a modern retelling of Edmond Rostand's 1897 verse play Cyrano de Bergerac.

  Debuts

BBC1

• 3 January –
• * Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles
• * Little Sir Nicholas
• 4 January – One Foot in the Grave
• 6 January – Waterfront Beat
• 8 January – // The Further Adventures of SuperTed
• 16 January – A Sense of Guilt
• 20 January – Alfonso Bonzo
• 8 February – Mick and Mac
• 15 February –
• *'
• *Dizzy Heights
• 26 March – Turnabout
• 28 March – The Gift
• 6 April – Round the Twist
• 21 April – '
• 26 May – Takeover Bid
• 29 May – Chain
• 28 June – Waiting for God
• 2 July – MasterChef
• 4 September – On the Up
• 10 September – Pigsty
• 14 September – Bump
• 20 September – The Brollys
• 22 September – / Babar
• 3 October –
• *Canned Carrott
• *The Trials of Life
• 4 October – Uncle Jack
• 11 October – Your Cheatin' Heart
• 28 October – The Green Man
• 29 October – Keeping Up Appearances
• 12 November – / Pingu
• 13 November – Forget Me Not Farm
• 18 November – House of Cards
• 23 December – The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries

  BBC2

• 10 January – Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
• 2 February – Two of Us
• 13 February – Quantum Leap
• 21 March – Never Come Back
• 30 March – Tales of Aesop
• 6 April – United
• 31 May – The March
• 18 September – Over the Moon with Mr Boon
• 19 September – Portrait of a Marriage
• 26 September –
• 27 September – Rab C. Nesbitt
• 28 September – Have I Got News for You
• 3 October – The Mary Whitehouse Experience
• 7 October – Saban's Adventures of Pinocchio
• 13 October – The Littl' Bits
• 23 October – Twin Peaks
• 24 October – Blood Rights
• 30 October – The Sentence
• 8 November – Harry Enfield's Television Programme

  ITV

• 1 January – Mr. Bean
• 5 January – Stolen
• 6 January –
• *Jekyll & Hyde
• * Baywatch
• 7 January – Rescue
• 8 January – Nellie the Elephant
• 10 January – // Wowser
• 13 January – Yellowthread Street
• 20 January – Kappatoo
• 27 January – Haggard
• 7 February –
• *El C.I.D.
• *No Job for a Lady
• 28 February – Spatz
• 6 March – Chancer
• 25 March – Not with a Bang
• 26 March – What a Mess
• 27 March –
• *Phoenix Hall
• *Oh, Mr. Toad
• 16 April – You've Been Framed!
• 19 April – The Castle of Adventure
• 20 April – The Chief
• 22 April –
• *Jeeves and Wooster
• *Perfect Scoundrels
• 23 April –
• *Families
• *Coconuts
• 1 May – The Upper Hand
• 2 May – Up the Garden Path
• 19 May – Cannon and Ball's Casino
• 1 June – The $64,000 Question
• 3 June – Shoot to Kill
• 15 June – Art Attack
• 27 June – Bertie the Bat
• 9 July – ITV News Anglia
• 10 July – Under the Bedclothes
• 21 July – Stars in Their Eyes
• 24 July – Made in Heaven
• 1 September – The New Adventures of Black Beauty
• 3 September – Rosie and Jim
• 7 September – The Piglet Files
• 21 September – / Paddington Bear
• 24 September – Cannon and Balls Playhouse
• 25 September – The Dreamstone
• 26 September – How 2
• 9 October – She-Wolf of London
• 26 October – Coasting
• 12 November – Freddie and Max
• 14 November – Medics
• 29 December – The Widowmaker

  Channel 4

• 2 January – Gophers!
• 9 January – The Secret Cabaret
• 2 February – The Great Moghuls
• 15 February – The Crystal Maze
• 19 February – Cutting Edge
• 27 February – Nightingales
• 5 May – Bright Sparks
• 25 May – Vic Reeves Big Night Out
• 12 June – Set of Six
• 27 June – The Gravy Train
• 14 July – Elly & Jools
• 9 August – Drop the Dead Donkey
• 10 August – The Word
• 7 October – Bobobobs
• 8 October – Centrepoint
• 24 December – A Grand Day Out

  S4C

• 17 September – Heno

  Sky One

• 2 September – The Simpsons
• 3 September – Love at First Sight
• 3 October – Alien Nation

  Galaxy

• 26 March – Jupiter Moon
• 30 April –
• *Laughlines
• *Wife of the Week
• 5 May – The Satellite Game
• Unknown –
• * Blizzard Island
• * Eureeka's Castle

  The Children's Channel

• 14 March – Rude Dog and the Dweebs
• 1 September –

  Channels

New channels

Defunct channels

Rebranded channels

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation

Continuing television shows

1920s

• BBC Wimbledon

  1930s

• BBC Cricket

  1940s

• Come Dancing

  1950s

• Panorama
• This Week
• What the Papers Say
• The Sky at Night
• Blue Peter
• Grandstand

  1960s

• Coronation Street
• Songs of Praise
• World in Action
• Top of the Pops
• Match of the Day
• Mr. and Mrs.
• Jackanory
• Sportsnight
• The Money Programme
• The Big Match

  1970s

• Rainbow
• Emmerdale
• Newsround
• Last of the Summer Wine
• That's Life!
• Wish You Were Here...?
• Arena
• Jim'll Fix It
• One Man and His Dog
• Grange Hill
• The Paul Daniels Magic Show
• Antiques Roadshow
• Question Time

  1980s

• Children in Need
• Bergerac
• 'Allo 'Allo!
• Wogan
• Brookside
• Countdown
• Timewatch
• Right to Reply
• Good Morning Britain
• First Tuesday
• Highway
• Blockbusters
• Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends
• Wide Awake Club
• Spitting Image
• The Bill
• Channel 4 Racing
• Busman's Holiday
• EastEnders
• The Cook Report
• Crosswits
• Telly Addicts
• Comic Relief
• Bread
• Brush Strokes
• Naked Video
• Boon
• Every Second Counts
• Lovejoy
• The Raggy Dolls
• Beadle's About
• The Chart Show
• Casualty
• Going Live!
• Watching
• The Time, The Place
• Allsorts
• Going for Gold
• Chain Letters
• ChuckleVision
• Playbox
• All Clued Up
• I Can Do That
• After Henry
• Park Avenue
• Count Duckula
• You Rang, M'Lord?
• You Bet!
• Playdays
• London's Burning
• On the Record
• Fifteen to One
• This Morning
• Tricky Business
• Fun House
• The Channel Four Daily
• Absolutely
• KYTV
• Press Gang
• Birds of a Feather
• A Bit of Fry & Laurie
• Desmond's
• Mike and Angelo
• Bodger & Badger

  Ending this year

• 19 January – Home to Roost
• 27 January – Bob's Full House
• 16 February – Colin's Sandwich
• 12 March – Blankety Blank
• 16 March – Campion
• 25 March – Don't Wait Up
• 9 April – The Labours of Erica
• 2 June – Opportunity Knocks
• 6 June – Connections
• 28 July – The Trap Door
• 19 September – The Best of Magic
• 1 October – Penny Crayon
• 25 November –
• *Juke Box Jury
• * Howards' Way
• 27 November – The Paradise Club
• 11 December – Huxley Pig
• 13 December – The Brollys
• 15 December – Noel's Saturday Roadshow
• 24 December – All Creatures Great and Small
• Coconuts

  Births

• 1 March – Harry Eden, actor
• 16 May – Thomas Brodie-Sangster, actor
• 18 June – Jacob Anderson, actor
• 29 July – Joey Essex, reality TV personality
• 17 October – Scarlett Moffatt, TV presenter

  Deaths