1995 in British television

Events

January

February
  • 3 February – An edition of the live morning ITV discussion programme The Time, The Place is abruptly ended ten minutes early. After an item about men's fashion featured a black male model wearing a skirt, another black man in the audience starts complaining that the show is racist, eventually making his way onto the stage.
  • 13 February – ITV broadcasts the British television premiere of Deceived.
  • 15 February – As part of the Modern Times series BBC2 airs Death on Request, a Dutch documentary showing a doctor giving a terminally-ill patient a lethal injection of drugs. The programme is criticised by groups opposed to euthanasia.
  • 19 February – 10th anniversary of the launch of EastEnders. As part of the celebrations, the first 25 episodes from 1985 are repeated each morning at 10 am during February and March, starting from episode one on Monday 20 February,[3] and ending on Friday 26 May.[4] Selected episodes from 1985 and 1986 are also repeated on BBC1 on Friday evenings at 8:30 pm for a short while. Billed as The Unforgettable EastEnders the episodes aired are as follows:
    • 17 February: The identity of the father of Michelle Fowler's baby is revealed in October 1985.[5]
    • 24 February: Michelle and Lofty's wedding day in September 1986.[6]
    • 3 March: Den Watts hands Angie divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986.[7]
    • 10 March: Two-hander episode featuring Dot and Ethel from July 1987.[8]
  • 25 February – BBC2 airs a documentary about The Rev. W. Awdry called The Thomas the Tank Engine Man as part of their Bookmark series. The documentary is narrated by Hilary Fortnam, Awdry's daughter and includes a look at Thomas merchandise, the success of Thomas, images from the original Railway Series books with stock narration by John Gielgud, interviews with several people such as The Reverend himself, fans of Thomas, Awdry's son Christopher, children's author and poet Michael Rosen, various people who worked on the books and toys, Brian Sibley who also wrote the Reverend's autobiography, the people behind the television broadcasts and rights of Thomas in Japan and the producers of the television series Britt Allcroft and David Mitton, plus a special behind the scenes peek of the 100th episode Thomas and the Special Letter and the Reverend criticizing the series 3 episode Henry's Forest.
  • 27–28 February – Sky One airs Episode 404 of E Street, the final episode of the Australian soap, splitting the hour-long episode into two half-hour episodes.

March

April
  • 2 April – BBC1 airs the final episode of Brum for now, but the show will return for brand new revamped series in 2001 and will continue being repeated on the BBC. It is also Toyah Willcox's final episode as narrator for the series.
  • 3 April – A Scottish Court imposes a ban on BBC Scotland airing an edition of Panorama that includes an interview with Prime Minister John Major amid concerns it could affect local elections to be held on 6 April. However, the edition is broadcast in England and Wales.
  • 10 April – Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken calls a televised press conference three hours before the transmission of a World in Action film, Jonathan of Arabia, demanding that allegations about his dealings with leading Saudis be withdrawn.[14] He promises to wield "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play ... to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism."[15] After launching a subsequent libel case against the makers of the film Aitken is sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjuring himself.[16]
  • 17 April – ITV airs a TV adaptation of the Joanna Trollope novel A Village Affair.[17]
  • 21 April – Channel 4 airs the first episode of the Irish comedy series Father Ted.
  • 28 April – US sitcom Friends and US medical drama ER make their British television debuts on Channel 4.
  • 29 April – Final edition of You Bet! to be presented by Matthew Kelly.

May
  • 1 May – ITV airs what is billed as a one off episode of Boon. The episode, Thieves Like Us was originally due for transmission at the end of series 7 in 1992/93. No reason for this delay has ever been given as the record wait was 2 or 3 years long.
  • 2 May –
    • Closing date for applications to run Channel 5. Four bids are received, from New Century TV Ltd (British Sky Broadcasting, Goldman Sachs, Granada Group, Hoare Govett, Kinnevik, Polygram, Really Useful Group and TCI International) who bid £2,000,000; Virgin TV Ltd with a bid of £22,002,000; UKTV (CanWest Global Communications Corp., Scandinavian Broadcast System SA, SelectTV Plc, The Ten Group Ltd) who bid £36,261,158 and Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd (MAI (now United News and Media Plc), CLT/UFA, Pearson Plc, Warburg Pincus & Co) with a bid of £22,002,000.[18]
    • Debut of News '45, a news bulletin-style programme presented by Sue Lawley to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day.
  • 8 May –
    • The 50th anniversary of VE Day is widely marked in television programmes.
    • BBC2 shows the network television premiere of Boyz n the Hood.[19]
  • 9 May – The US/Canadian police comedy drama Due South makes its British television debut on BBC1.[20]
  • 13 May – Norway's Secret Garden win the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest with "Nocturne".
  • 15 May – Bruce Gyngell, the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am, becomes Yorkshire–Tyne Tees Television's managing director.[21]
  • 25 May–24 June – ITV provides coverage of the 1995 Rugby World Cup from South Africa, the first Rugby World Cup to be held entirely in one country.
  • 31 May – Debut of the new BBC twice-weekly soap Castles, centring on the lives of the middle-class Castle family. The series attracts a relatively poor peak time audience of 3.2 million, leading the corporation's head of Drama, Charles Denton to brand it a failure.[22] It is cancelled after 26 episodes. The last episode is aired on 20 August.[23]

June
  • TCI (owners of Telewest) and NYNEX do a deal with BSkyB which includes a clause that the cable operators do not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This marks the end of Cable Programme Partners One (CPP1)', which had been set up to try to provide alternative content to the satellite-dominated multi-channel environment of the time, and causes the collapse of sports channel Sportswire, days before its launch.
  • 12 June – Mirror Group Newspapers launches the cable channel L!VE TV.[24] The channel's programming quickly earns it a reputation as tabloid television. It is perhaps best remembered for its mascot News Bunny who, among other things, stood for Parliament at the 1996 South Staffordshire by-election and polled 85 votes.
  • 22 June – Prime Minister John Major's intention to resign and stand in a Conservative Party leadership election is announced on screen as England are playing France in the Rugby World Cup third place play off.
  • 29 June – Debut of Gaytime TV on BBC 2, the BBC's first gay magazine programme.[25]

July
  • 3 July – The successful children's art and crafts series Art Attack receives its very first screening in Australia on ABC and will mostly be shown during the school holidays.
  • 8 July –
    • BBC1 repeats the documentary Girl Friday, in which Joanna Lumley spends nine days on a desert island with just a basic survival kit and a film crew.[26]
    • Lee Griffiths wins the sixth series of Stars in Their Eyes, performing as Bobby Darin.
  • 9 July – Marion Macfarlane wins the 1995 series of MasterChef.
  • 26 July – BBC Enterprises, the BBC's commercial arm, is restructured as BBC Worldwide Ltd.

August

September

October
  • 1 October – Six years after it was originally planned, a British version of the Disney Channel launches in the UK and The God Channel, then known as Christian Channel Europe, also launches.
  • 8 October – BBC2 airs the final edition of The Trial of O. J. Simpson as coverage of the trial draws to a conclusion.[35]
  • 9 October – Launch of BBC Learning Zone, an education service shown overnight on BBC Two.
  • 12 October – ITV airs "Bait", an episode of The Bill that concludes a three-part story, and sees the exit of the character Jo Morgan (played by Mary Jo Randle), who is shot while trying to warn June Ackland (Trudie Goodwin) of an impending attack on her car.
  • 16 October –
    • After 25 years as Coronation Street landlady Bet Lynch, Julie Goodyear makes her final regular appearance in the soap. She briefly returned to the show in 2002 and 2003, and starred in a spin-off series, Coronation Street: After Hours in 1999. At the time of her departure, Goodyear had recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural National Television Awards.
    • ITV airs a 5-part documentary every weekday celebrating 40 years of their children's input since the launch of their network in 1955, Simply the Best: CITV. Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends receives its only mention on Wednesday after three seasons.
  • 20 October – Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited is awarded the licence to launch Channel 5.[36][37] It is a consortium of four investors — Pearson, United News and Media, CLT-Ufa and Warburg Pincus.[38]
  • 21 October –
  • 22 October – Jenna Tinson wins the 1995 series of Junior MasterChef.
  • 23 October – Channel 4 broadcasts the first ever episode of Hollyoaks.

November

December
  • 2–3 December – Channel 4 airs "Soap Weekend", a weekend of programming dedicated to soap operas, with documentaries and classic episodes of series including EastEnders, Neighbours and Brookside.[9]
  • 7 December – PText, the Paramount Comedy Channel's teletext service, begins showing old episodes of the ORACLE soap, Park Avenue. After showing the first four episodes, from 11 December they switch to episode 376, doing so in order that the dates correspond (i.e., 11 December in the soap is also 11 December for the viewers). In all PText showed 700 episodes of Park Avenue.
  • 24 December — A Close Shave, the third short film starring Wallace and Gromit, premieres on BBC2.
  • 25 December – Christmas Day highlights include the British television premiere of Indecent Proposal on BBC1.[43]
  • 31 December – New Year's Eve highlights on BBC1 include Songs of Praise on Ice from the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Ice Arena, and Baz Luhrmann's 1992 comedy romance Strictly Ballroom.[44]
  • December – Channel 4 screens the documentary Sex with Paula in which Paula Yates talks to celebrities about their love lives. Originally made in 1986 the programme was deemed to be unsuitable for audiences at the time due to its perceived message of promiscuity at the height of the AIDS epidemic.[9]

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

S4C

The Disney Channel

Sky One

Sky Sports (1/2)

The Children's Channel

Nickelodeon UK

Cartoon Network UK

Channels

New channels
Date Channel
27 February European Business News
1 June SelecTV
12 June L!VE TV
1 October The Disney Channel
1 November The Paramount Channel
Sci-Fi Channel
Sky Sports Gold
Playboy TV
11 November The History Channel

Defunct channels
Date Channel
March TV Asia
May Wire TV

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation
Shows Moved from Moved to
Kissyfur The Children's Channel Nickelodeon
Biker Mice from Mars Channel 4
Count Duckula ITV
Knightmare Sci-Fi Channel
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Disney Channel
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Muppet Show (1976–1981)
DuckTales
Where's Wally?: The Animated Series The Children's Channel
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet Channel 4
Hong Kong Phooey BBC1
Charlie Chalk The Children's Channel
Quantum Leap BBC2 Sky1
Ky’s Cartoons ITV Cartoon Network

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer
  • Boon (1986–1992, 1995)

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

1990s

Ending this year

Births

Deaths
DateNameAgeCinematic Credibility
7 January Larry Grayson[45] 71 comedian and television presenter
9 January Peter Cook 57 comedian and actor
30 January Gerald Durrell 70 naturalist, writer and presenter of natural history programmes
22 March Peter Woods 64 BBC journalist and newsreader
4 April Kenny Everett 50 comedic performer and DJ
16 April Arthur English 75 actor (The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Are You Being Served?, In Sickness and in Health)
2 May Michael Hordern 83 actor (narrator of Paddington Bear and voice of badger from The Wind in the Willows)
29 June Noel Dyson 78 actress (Coronation Street, Father, Dear Father)
12 September Jeremy Brett 59 actor (Sherlock Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
4 November Marti Caine 51 actress, dancer, presenter, singer, writer and comedian
Paul Eddington 68 actor (The Good Life and Yes Minister)

See also

References
  1. "BBC Two England – 2 January 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  2. "The Trial of OJ Simpson – BBC Two England – 29 January 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  3. "EastEnders – the Early Days – BBC One London – 20 February 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  4. "The Morning on BBC1 – BBC One London – 26 May 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
  5. "The Unforgettable EastEnders – BBC One London – 17 February 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  6. "The Unforgettable EastEnders – BBC One London – 24 February 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  7. "The Unforgettable EastEnders – BBC One London – 3 March 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  8. "The Unforgettable EastEnders – BBC One London – 10 March 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  9. "1995 : Off The Telly". Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  10. Rees, Jasper (11 March 1995). "Red hot and British". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  11. "The Night of Comic Relief – BBC One London – 17 March 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  12. "A Tribute to James Herriot – BBC One London – 24 March 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  13. "UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (FINAL - TRINITY CAMBRIDGE V. NEW COLLEGE OXFORD)". ITN Source. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  14. "Aitken sues over Saudi claims". The Guardian. 11 April 1995. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  15. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 17 Dec 1997". House of Commons. 17 December 1997. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  16. "Special reports: the Aitken case". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  17. The Weasel. "Up & Down Canary Wharf". The Independent. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  18. "thisisfive.co.uk – the story of five". www.thisisfive.co.uk. 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  19. "Boyz'n the Hood – BBC Two England – 8 May 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  20. "Due South – BBC One London – 9 May 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  21. Horsman, Mathew (2 May 1995). "Yorkshire snaps up former TV-am boss Bruce Gyngell". Independent on Sunday. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  22. Williams, Rhys (12 July 1995). "BBC chief admits 'Castles' a failure". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  23. "Castles – BBC One London – 20 August 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  24. Horsman, Mathew (21 April 1995). "Mirror TV move outlined as profits jump 43%". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  25. Burston, Paul (20 June 1995). "Gay TV: as in lively, bright, playful, merry". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  26. "Girl Friday – BBC One London – 8 July 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  27. Williams, Rhys (28 August 1995). "Cameras in court 'will let justice be seen to be done'". The Independent. Independent Print Ltd. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  28. "Crimewatch UK – BBC One London – 5 September 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  29. "Oakie Doke – BBC One London – 11 September 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  30. "Oscar's Orchestra – BBC One London – 12 September 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  31. "Pride and Prejudice – BBC One London – 24 September 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  32. "Pride and Prejudice – BBC One London – 29 October 1995 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  33. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Emissary". 21 September 1995. p. 114. Retrieved 3 February 2019 – via BBC Genome.
  34. "MediaTel: Newsline: Mirror Group Rebuilds STV Stake". mediatel.co.uk.
  35. "The Trial of OJ Simpson – BBC Two England – 8 October 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  36. "'The Channel 5 licence was the last chance to offer something new on a".
  37. "ITC to identify Channel 5 winner – Design Week". 20 October 1995.
  38. Tara Conlan (20 July 2005). "A history of Five". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  39. "Jim Davidson's Generation Game – BBC One London – 21 October 1995". BBC Genome Project. BBC. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  40. "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me – BBC Two England – 12 November 1995 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  41. "Diana admits adultery in TV interview". On This Day. BBC. 1995-11-20. Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  42. "Top 10 Programmes – 1995". BARB. Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved 2012-02-15.
  43. "BBC One London – 25 December 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  44. "BBC One London – 31 December 1995". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  45. Hayward, Anthony (8 January 1995). "Obituary: Larry Grayson". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
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