1989 in British television

Events

January

February
  • February – Channel 4 begins broadcasting in Nicam digital stereo, initially from the Crystal Palace transmitter, prior to a national transmitter-by-transmitter roll-out during 1990.
  • February – Anglia and Central Television reschedule Emmerdale Farm to 7 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  • 5 February – The world's first commercial DBS system, Sky Television, goes on air.
  • 6 February – Launch of the Sky News flagship breakfast programme Sky News Sunrise.
  • 11 February – Australian soap Home and Away makes its British television debut on ITV. It is the second networked Australian soap on ITV following shortlived Richmond Hill which was still airing during the afternoon. Home and Away is crucially scheduled in early evening slots of either 17:10, 18:00 or 18.30 across the ITV regions and it immediately became the counterpart series to the BBC's Neighbours airing at 17:35. This scheduling continues thirty years later with both series now in these same slots but together on Channel 5.
  • 12 February – ITV launches its Find a Family campaign to find permanent homes for youngsters in care.
  • 13 February – The ITV national weather bulletin is launched.
  • 14 February – Debut of Channel 4's Out on Tuesday, the UK's first weekly magazine programme for gay and lesbian viewers. Later changing its name to Out, the programme aired for four series before being axed in 1992.[6]
  • 23 February – Some 23 million viewers tune in to watch the exit of the hugely popular character Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) from EastEnders. Grantham filmed his final scenes in the show in the autumn of 1988 but his exit was delayed into 1989 to avoid the show suffering the double blow of losing Den so soon after his former wife Angie (Anita Dobson) exited in April 1988. The character falls into a canal after being shot, but the character's exact fate is left unconfirmed.
  • 25 February – The long-awaited WBA Heavyweight title fight between Britain's Frank Bruno and America's Mike Tyson is held at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Because of the time difference between Britain and the United States, the fight is televised in the UK in the early hours of 26 February. Tyson wins after the referee stops the bout in the fifth round.[7]

March
  • 2 March –
    • First transmission of My Brother David, an edition of the BBC2 schools series Scene in which Simon Scarboro talks about the life of his brother, David Scarboro, who originally played the EastEnders character Mark Fowler, and who fell to his death from Beachy Head in 1988. The programme is repeated again on 19 June for a general audience as part of BBC2's DEF II strand.[8][9][10][11]
    • After much publicity, a two-minute advert for Pepsi featuring Madonna's single "Like a Prayer" is shown during a commercial break on ITV, 12 minutes into The Bill.
  • 6 March – Debut of the three-part ITV drama Winners and Losers starring Leslie Grantham; the series is Grantham's first post-EastEnders role.
  • 9 March – On Top of the Pops, comedian Lenny Henry joins regular presenter Nicky Campbell for a special Comic Relief edition of the programme.
  • 10 March – On the second Red Nose Day, BBC1 airs the eight hour telethon, A Night of Comic Relief 2.[12]
  • 15 March – BBC1 airs John's Not Mad,[13] an edition of the QED documentary strand that shadowed John Davidson, a 15-year-old from Galashiels in Scotland, with severe Tourette syndrome. The film explores John's life in terms of his family and the close-knit community around him, and how they all cope with a misunderstood condition.[14]
  • 31 March – The last Oracle on View transmission takes place on Channel 4.
  • March –

April

May

June

July
  • 10 July –
    • The first edition of the music magazine programme The O-Zone airs on BBC1.[32]
    • ITV introduces a second daily showing of Home and Away.
  • 12 July – A special edition of Question Time from Paris, France, is the last to be chaired by Robin Day. Panellists on the programme are Leon Brittan, Chantal Cuer, Denis Healey and Yvette Roudy.[33]
  • 19 July – The BBC programme Panorama accuses Shirley Porter, Conservative Leader of Westminster City Council, of gerrymandering.
  • 25 July – ITV airs "Don't Like Mondays", an episode of The Bill featuring a storyline in which several characters are caught up in a bank robbery. The episode sees the exit of PC Pete Ramsey (played by Nick Reding), who is shot in the chest by one of the robbers while protecting a colleague. The fate of the character is left unresolved.
  • 28 July – London Weekend Television's current affairs programme Friday Now! is axed after ten months on air due to poor ratings. From the autumn it is replaced by Six O'Clock Live.
  • 30 July – Sky Channel is rebranded as Sky One, and confines its broadcasting to Britain and Ireland.

August
  • 18–20 August – Michael Aspel presents Murder Weekend, a five-part televised murder mystery for ITV. The series, devised and written by Joy Swift sees celebrities attempting to solve a murder, with viewers also invited to identify the suspect.[34]
  • 25 August – Rupert Murdoch delivers the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in which he launches an attack on the narrow elitism within the British television industry.[35]
  • 27 August – Launch date of the first Marcopolo Satellite, which will serve as a platform for British Satellite Broadcasting.
  • 28 August–3 September – BBC1 airs News '39, a week of news-style programmes presented by Sue Lawley, marking the 50th anniversary of the start of World War II. Each edition is presented in news bulletin format, reporting on events as if they were occurring in the present.

September
  • 1 September –
    • The first ITV generic look is introduced.
    • Launch of London Weekend Television's Friday evening news magazine programme Six O'Clock Live.[36]
  • 3 September – BBC1 broadcasts the television film Bomber Harris, a drama based on the life of Arthur Harris, and starring John Thaw in the epinimus role.[37]
  • 10 September – BBC1 debuts Screen One, an anthology of one off dramas. The first film is One Way Out, directed by Mick Ford, and starring Bob Peck, Denis Lawson, Samantha Bond and Enn Reitel.[38]
  • 13 September – The BBC is accused of censorship after banning an interview with Simon Hayward, a former Captain of the Life Guards who spent several years in a Swedish prison after a drug smuggling conviction, just hours before he is due to appear on the Wogan show. The decision, taken by BBC1 Controller Jonathan Powell followed protests from several MPs. The BBC says the subject is not appropriate for a family programme, but will be discussed on other shows.[39]
  • 14 September –
    • Peter Sissons takes over as presenter of Question Time as the series returns after its summer break.[40]
    • For the first time ever, children's stop motion animated series Postman Pat is transmitted on television in Ireland on Network 2 as part of Dempsey's Den. Animated series for preschoolers The Adventures of Spot also begins airing on Network 2 on the same day and month with an Irish language being dubbed called Echtrai Bhrain.
  • 25 September – BBC2 airs The Interrogation of John, Malcolm McKay's 1987 ScreenPlay, starring Dennis Quilley, Bill Paterson and Michael Fitzgerald. The film, about the police questioning of a murder suspect and first shown in 1987, now forms the first of a three-part series titled A Wanted Man, which further develops the story. The second part of the trilogy, The Secret, airs on 27 September, while Shoreland concludes the series on 28 September.[41][42][43]
  • 26 September – Debut of Capital City, a series about investment bankers produced by Euston Films for Thames Television. Thames spend an estimated £500,000 to run newspaper and billboard advertisements to promote the series' launch, believed at the time to be the largest advertising spend for a program in the history of ITV. Full-page advertisements are taken in six national newspapers including the Financial Times, The Times and The Independent, promoting Shane-Longman, the fictitious company of the series, and featuring images of cast members in character.[44]
  • 28 September – Sybil Ruscoe and Jenny Powell are the first female duo to present Top of the Pops.[45][46]

October

November
  • 1 November – ITV airs One Day in the Life of Television, a documentary filmed by 50 camera crews looking behind-the-scenes of British television on 1 November 1988.[52]
  • 2 November – The final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, "Goodbyeee" is broadcast on BBC1.[53] With one of the most moving endings ever seen on British television, it is broadcast nine days before Armistice Day.
  • 8 November – The teenage drama series Byker Grove makes its debut on BBC1.[54]
  • 9 November – The last episode of Emmerdale Farm to air under its original title.
  • 14 November – Yorkshire Television soap Emmerdale Farm changes its name to Emmerdale after 17 years.
  • 16 November – Debut of Tony Robinson's well known children's comedy series Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.[55]
  • 19 November–26 November – Prince Caspian becomes the second Narnia book to be aired as a television serial by the BBC in two parts.[56][57]
  • 20–24 November – TVS pilots a 30-minute late night edition of its news programme Coast to Coast entitled Coast to Coast Late.[58]
  • 21 November – Television coverage of proceedings in the House of Commons begins.
  • 22 November –
    • Following the commencement of televised coverage of the House of Commons the previous day, BBC2 launches a breakfast round-up of yesterday's proceedings. This is preceded by the 8am bulletin from Breakfast News.[59] Previously, the only BBC2 breakfast output was programmes from the Open University. Open University programmes continue to be shown on BBC2 at breakfast, but in an earlier timeslot.
    • The Stone Roses are invited to appear on BBC2's The Late Show. During their performance the electricity is cut off by noise limiting circuitry, prompting singer Ian Brown to shout "Amateurs, amateurs" as presenter Tracey MacLeod tries to link into the next item.
  • 25 November – Helen Sharman is selected as the first Britain to travel into space in a live programme aired by ITV. She was one of 13,000 people to apply for the chance to become an astronaut after responding to a radio advertisement, and journeys to the Mir space station in 1991.[60]

December

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Sky Channel/One

Sky News
  • 6 February – Sunrise (1989–2019)

The Children's Channel

Channels

New channels
Date Channel
5 February Sky News, Sky Movies, Eurosport
1 April Discovery Channel Europe

Defunct channels
Date Channel
July Premiere (TV channel)

Rebranded channels
Date Old Name New Name
31 July Sky Channel Sky One

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation
Shows Moved from Moved to
Family Ties Channel 4 Sky One
Tell the Truth ITV
The World of David the Gnome The Children's Channel
Towser ITV
Into the Labyrinth
Camberwick Green BBC1 Channel 4
Trumpton
Chigley
Roobarb
Captain Pugwash
Mary, Mungo and Midge
The Adventures of Sir Prancelot
The Wombles ITV
Rocky Hollow The Children's Channel

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

Continuing television shows

1920s
  • BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)

1930s
  • The Boat Race (1938–1939, 1946–2019)
  • BBC Cricket (1939, 1946–1999, 2020–2024)

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

Ending this year

Births

Deaths
DateNameAgeCinematic Credibility
27 January Arthur Marshall 78 writer, humorist and regular member of Call My Bluff
21 February Robert Dorning 75 musician and actor
12 April Gerald Flood 61 actor
1 July Joan Cooper 66 actress
4 July Jack Haig 76 actor ('Allo 'Allo!, Crossroads)
11 July Laurence Olivier 82 actor, director, producer and narrator of the landmark documentary series The World at War
23 July Michael Sundin 28 Presenter and Actor (Blue Peter)
4 October Graham Chapman 48 comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe

See also

References
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  6. Paul Burston; Paul Burston Nfa; Colin Richardson (26 July 2005). A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men and Popular Culture. Routledge. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-134-86482-9.
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