1996 in British television

Events

January

  • January – L!VE TV introduces the News Bunny.
  • 1 January – The James Bond film Never Say Never Again is aired as part of BBC1's New Year's Day schedule.[1]
  • 7 January – The Glasgow Herald reports that STV have sold their shares in HTV to United News and Media.[2]
  • 9 January – The US science-fiction series The X-Files makes its BBC1 debut with the episode "Humbug".[3]
  • 12 January – Gaby Roslin presents her final edition of The Big Breakfast after three years as co-presenter, weeping live on air.[4]
  • 14 January – ITV broadcasts the movie premiere of Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin and Diane Keaton.
  • 15 January – Zoë Ball takes over as co-presenter of The Big Breakfast.[4]
  • 15 January–11 March – Our Friends in the North, a nine-part serial spanning the 1960s to the 1990s in the lives of four friends, is shown on BBC2.
  • 22 January – The Sci-Fi Channel begins airing episodes 109–150 of the BSB soap Jupiter Moon, which were not televised during the series' original 1990 run. Two episodes are aired per day up to 19 February.
  • 23 January – ITV broadcasts the movie premiere of Single White Female starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
  • 26 January – The findings of the judicial review into the ITC's decision to award the licence for a fifth UK television channel to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd are published. The review concludes that there was no illegality or unfairness in the process.[5]

February

March

  • March – Launch of the business and financial news channel CNBC Europe, which is based in London.
  • 1 March – The Media Authority of Berlin and Brandenburg (Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg) awards a terrestrial television licence to BBC World, thought to be the first time a country has awarded a television frequency to a foreign broadcaster.
  • 2 March – ITV broadcasts the British television premiere of The Marrying Man.
  • 4 March – Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends returns to television with a brand new series once again narrated by Michael Angelis, but instead of airing on free-for-air television, it will now air on cable television on Cartoon Network.
  • 8 March – Mersey Television boss and creator of soaps Brookside and Hollyoaks, Phil Redmond predicts that in the future every major soap on television will be aired five nights a week.[13]
  • 13 March – In the wake of the Dunblane school massacre, ITV postpones the James Bond film Licence to Kill which was due to air in the evening.
  • 14 March – Channel 4 is forced to apologise to viewers after an ident showing The Big Breakfast presenter Mark Little firing a gun at the camera is seen on screen the day after the Dunblane school massacre.[14]
  • 16 March –
  • 19 March – Channel 4 debuts And The Beat Goes On.
  • 24 March – ITV airs Coronation Street – The Cruise, something which proves to be controversial as the film had only been released on VHS a few months earlier to celebrate the show's 35th anniversary.
  • 26 March – Cadbury becomes the first company to sponsor Coronation Street after signing a deal with Granada Television. The sponsorship will begin in September.[16]

April

  • 1 April –
  • 2 April – The popular comic strip character from Beano Dennis the Menace is brought to life with a new animated series being show on BBC1 as part of their CBBC lineup.
  • 5 April – BBC1 airs Eskimo Day, Jack Rosenthal's poignant comedy about parents letting go of their children when they make their way in the world.[18]
  • 13 April – Channel 4 debuts the first of ten editions of The Gaby Roslin Show, a chat show presented by Gaby Roslin which aims to recapture the atmosphere of 1970s series such as Parkinson.[19] Ratings for the programme quickly fall from 3 million to less than a million, and it is panned by viewers and critics alike.
  • 15 April – ITV airs Episode 4000 of Coronation Street.
  • 18 April –
    • The ITC confirms the awarding of the Channel 5 licence to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, setting out its broadcasting remit. 50% of programming must be original, while there are quotas for the amount of public service programming that must be aired.[5]
    • Marketing Magazine reports that Midland Bank will sponsor ITV Drama Premieres, starting on 1 May with the latest series of Sharpe.[20]
  • 21 April – The BBC Arabic television service closes down when the Saudi backer pulls out following a row over coverage of the execution of a princess accused of adultery.
  • 23 April – Debut of Edward on Edward, a documentary produced for ITV by Prince Edward's company Ardent Productions, and presented by him, that tells the story of the Abdication of Edward VIII.[21]
  • 27 April – Granada Television confirms that O. J. Simpson has been booked to appear on the first edition of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's new series, Tonight with Richard and Judy, scheduled to air on 13 May. The former football star will be paid a nominal fee of £1 for his first interview since being cleared of murder in 1995, though Granada will also pay his travel expenses.[22] The interview proves to be controversial, with both Madeley and Finnigan attracting media criticism for what is deemed to be their "candyfloss" questioning of Simpson. Ultimately the show aired for just one series.[23]
  • April – The BBC becomes the world's first digital terrestrial broadcaster after conducting a test transmission.[24]

May

June

  • 1 June – Darren Day succeeds Matthew Kelly as presenter of ITV's You Bet!.
  • 7 June – The BBC is restructured by the Director-General, John Birt. In the new structure BBC Broadcast will commission programmes, and BBC Production will make them.
  • 8–30 June – The BBC and ITV air coverage of Euro 96, which is held in England.
  • 14 June – After 32 years (excluding six months in 1973), Top of the Pops moves from its traditional Thursday evening slot to Fridays.
  • 26 June – The BBC and ITV coverage of the England v Germany semi final match of Euro 96 is collectively watched by 26 Million viewers.[30]
  • 30 June – Neil Haidar wins the 1996 series of MasterChef.

July

  • 7 July – BBC1 airs Killing Me Softly, a Screen One film about the Sara Thornton case that stars Maggie O'Neill and Peter Howitt.[31]
  • 11 July –
  • 19 July–4 August – The BBC provides full live coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games. Live coverage runs for 15 hours a day (1.40pm until 4.30am) with highlights at breakfast time and morning-long extended highlights of the previous day's action.[33] In addition to BBC1's coverage, for the first time, the BBC provides alternative live action during the overnight hours on BBC2.[34]
  • 24 July – Buckingham Palace ends the BBC's monopoly on producing the Royal Christmas Message, which has been the sole responsibility of the broadcaster for 63 years. It is produced by ITV from 1997, before returning to the BBC in 1999, then ITV again from 2001. The two year changeover continues to the present day.
  • 25 July – A report commissioned collectively by the broadcasters that make up ITV claims that Channel 5's plans to retune millions of televisions and video recorders are inadequate and underfunded. The report follows a survey conducted on 700 households in Channel 5's pilot retuning area in Surrey, which says fewer than 60 per cent of households have been contacted by the retuning teams, and less than 50 per cent have had their equipment successfully retuned.[35]
  • 26 July – The BBC and Hat Trick Productions are fined £10,000 each in the High Court for contempt of court over comments made on a 1994 edition of Have I Got News for You, in which presenter Angus Deayton referred to Ian and Kevin Maxwell as "two heartless, scheming bastards" ahead of their trial.[36]
  • 29 July – Sources at Channel 5 Broadcasting confirm the estimated cost of the retuning operation required for people to watch the channel has risen by at least 25 per cent above the original £55m budget.[37]
  • July – Scottish acquires Caledonian Publishing – then-publishers of The Herald and the Glasgow Evening Times.[38] and Scottish renames itself Scottish Media Group (SMG).

August

September

  • 1 September –
    • Sky 2 launches in the UK. It is a sister channel to the then-titled Sky 1. It closes a year later, but a channel of almost the same name (Sky Two) would later launch in 2005.
    • The Computer Channel is launched. It was later renamed .tv (pronounced Dot TV).
    • Carlton Television's first spin-off channel, Carlton Food Network, launches exclusively on cable. It broadcasts on weekday afternoons and shares space with SelecTV.
    • Two American weather channels launch UK versions. The Weather Channel begins broadcasting in the UK. It transmits for five hours each morning on Sky and 24 hours a day on cable in some areas. Meanwhile, The Weather Network launches on the same day on many other cable networks. They take advantage of the localness of cable franchises by providing on-screen local weather forecasts.
    • London's Burning returns to ITV for a new series, its ninth since launching in 1988, and the first to be aired in two halves, with a US-style hiatus over Christmas. Following Episode Eleven on 17 November, the series takes a break until 12 January 1997, when the final four episodes of the series are shown. London's Burning continues to air with this format until the end of the thirteenth series in 2001. The hiatus is shifted to coincide with Easter from the twelfth series when new series are part of ITV's winter schedule rather than its autumn lineup.
  • 2 September –
    • Launch of "Daytime on 1", BBC1's new daily schedule that includes six and a half hours of drama, quiz shows, discussion programming, chat shows and cookery shows.
    • The ITV region Tyne Tees Television is rebranded as Channel 3 North East. The rebranding is unsuccessful, and the original name returns two years later.
    • Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies succeeds Zoë Ball as co-presenter of The Big Breakfast.[45]
  • 5 September – BBC1 premieres a Canadian animated series for pre-schoolers based on the books by Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak called Little Bear.
  • 10 September – ITV airs the smash Nickelodeon animated series Hey Arnold! a month before its broadcasting debut in the US.
  • 12 September –
  • 15 September – Debut of Rhodes, an eight part BBC1 drama series about the life of the controversial British adventurer and empire-builder Cecil Rhodes.[46] The series concludes on 3 November.[47] The series took a decade to make, employed over 10,000 extras, and at a cost of £10m is the most expensive British television project to date. However, despite a high-profile publicity campaign leading up to its launch, Rhodes attracts relatively poor viewing figures, with 7.6 million tuning into the first episode and 4.8 million watching the second, and it is quickly panned by critics. The BBC is also forced to launch an accompanying booklet about Cecil Rhodes as the series assumes a prior knowledge of the figure, and many viewers are unfamiliar with him.[48]
  • 20 September – The Independent reports that Channel 5 will employ another 1,500 people to undertake its retuning operation, bringing the total number of people working on the task to 8,500. An estimated 11.4 million televisions and videos will need to be retuned before the channel goes on air in 1997.[49]

October

November

  • 1 November – Sky Scottish launches. The channel is a joint venture between Scottish Television and BSkyB.[54]
  • 11 November – UTV introduces a new series of idents which showcase scenic locations in Northern Ireland. These include the Giant's Causeway, a waterfall at Glenarriff, and Portaferry harbour. Some of the idents feature UTV personalities.[55]
  • 15 November – Sarah Lancashire makes her final appearance in Coronation Street as Raquel Watts.
  • 17 November – BBC1 airs Ruby Wax Meets the Duchess of York, a one-off interview with Sarah, Duchess of York conducted by US comedian Ruby Wax.[56]
  • 21 November – Campaign magazine reports that ITV's decision to stop airing Baywatch midway through the season and replace it with Sabrina the Teenage Witch has raised questions about the vulnerability of sponsorship deals to programme rescheduling. Wella had renewed its sponsorship of Baywatch with ITV earlier in the year, but the programme was pulled from its Saturday evening timeslot after only eight of the scheduled twenty-two episodes were shown, with Sabrina set to air from 23 November. ITV says the decision was taken because it began airing Baywatch earlier than planned after a previously scheduled programme, SeaQuest 2032 did not prove as popular with viewers as anticipated; this led to episodes of Baywatch catching up with their airdates in the United States. ITV says the programme will return in 1997, while Wella will continue its sponsorship.[57]
  • 23 November – The BBC picks up the Terrestrial rights to The Simpsons, which is first shown at 5.30pm on BBC1, with a Sunday lunchtime repeat on BBC2. There's No Disgrace Like Home is the first episode to be shown on BBC1, later being beaten in the ratings by Sabrina.
  • 24 November – ITV introduces a fourth weekly episode of Coronation Street, airing on Sundays at 7:30pm.
  • 30 November – During the live broadcast of The National Lottery on BBC 1, the draw machine fails to start, causing the draw to be delayed by 50 minutes; Resident psychic Mystic Meg later said that she had been predicting it all day.[58]

December

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Sky One/1

Sky 2

Fox Kids UK

Disney Channel UK

Cartoon Network UK

Nickelodeon UK

Channels

New channels

Date Channel
16 March Sky Box Office
March CNBC Europe
16 August Sky Sports 3
1 September The Computer Channel
Sky 2
Carlton Food Network
The Weather Channel
1 October Granada Good Life
Granada Men & Motors
Granada Plus
Granada Talk TV
19 October Fox Kids
1 November Sky Scottish

Defunct channels

Date Channel
16 August Sky Sports Gold

Rebranded channels

Date Old Name New Name
1 September Sky One Sky 1

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation

Shows Moved from Moved to
Oscar's Orchestra BBC1 The Children's Channel
Dennis the Menace
X-Men Fox Kids
Santo Bugito ITV Nickelodeon
Hey Arnold!
Sabrina the Teenage Witch Disney Channel
Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends Cartoon Network
Earthworm Jim The Children's Channel Channel 4
The Magic School Bus Nickelodeon
The Ferals

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

  • 4 March – The Wombles (1973–1975, 1990–1991 BBC, 1996–1997 ITV)
  • 10 April – The Two Ronnies for a 25th Anniversary special (1971–1987, 1991, 1996, 2005)
  • 6 May – The Liver Birds (1969–1979, 1996)
  • 27 May – Doctor Who (1963–1989, 1996, 2005–present)

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
11 May Joan Thirkettle[73] 48 television journalist for ITN
20 May Jon Pertwee 76 former star of Doctor Who and voice of Spotty in SuperTed
29 September Leslie Crowther 63 British TV comedian and game show host (Crackerjack, The Price Is Right and Stars in Their Eyes)
13 October Beryl Reid 77 actor
26 October Tricia Ingrams 50 journalist and presenter for Thames Television
26 November Michael Bentine 74 comedian, comic actor, and founding member of The Goons
11 December Willie Rushton 59 comedian, satirist, cartoonist and writer

See also

References

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