From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
This is a list of British television related events from 1989.
Events
January
- 5 January - The first episode of Channel 4's comedy series Desmonds is shown.
- 8 January – Original airdate of the Only Fools and Horses episode Yuppy Love during which Del Boy falls through a bar. A 2006 poll named the scene the most popular of the entire programme, while it was also named 7th Greatest Television Moment of all time in a 1999 Channel 4 poll.
- 16 January –
- 22 January – ITV launches an omnibus edition of Coronation Street, which airs on Sunday afternoons. But the repeat is not stranded across the network, with different regions airing it at different times. Some regions, including Central Television, later move the episode to a Saturday afternoon slot, and the omnibus is dropped in some areas from September 1990.
February
- February – Anglia and Central Television reschedule Emmerdale Farm to 19:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- 5 February – The world's first commercial DBS system, Sky Television, goes on air.
- 11 February – Australian soap Home and Away makes its British television debut on ITV.
- 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.[1]
- 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.[2]
March
- 2 March – 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.
- 15 March – BBC1 airs John's Not Mad,[3] 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.
April
May
June
- 22 June – John Craven signs off for the last time on the children's news programme John Craven's Newsround. The show continues under the name Newsround.
July
- 13 July – Robin Day chairs his last edition of Question Time after ten years as the show's presenter.
- 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.
- 30 July – Sky Channel is rebranded as Sky One, and confines its broadcasting to Britain and Ireland.
August
September
- 1 September – The first ITV generic look is introduced.
- 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.[8]
- 14 September – Peter Sissons takes over as presenter of Question Time as the series returns after its summer break.
- 15 September – The ITV national weather bulletin is launched.
- 26 September – Debut of Capital City, a series about investment bankers produced by Euston Film 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.[9]
October
November
- 1 November – ITV air 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.[11]
- 2 November – The Final Episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, "Goodbyeee" is broadcast on BBC1. With one of the most moving endings ever seen on British television, it is broadcast nine days before Armistice Day.
- 9 November – The Last Episode of Emmerdale Farm.
- 14 November – Yorkshire Television soap Emmerdale Farm changes its name to Emmerdale after 17 years.
- 19 November–26 November – Prince Caspian becomes the second Narnia book to be aired as a television serial by the BBC in two parts.
- 21 November – Television coverage of proceedings in the House of Commons begins.
- 22 November – 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.[12]
December
Debuts
BBC1
BBC2
ITV
Channel 4
Television shows
Changes of network affiliation
Returning this year after a break of one year or longer
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
- Children in Need (1980–present)
- Bergerac (1981–1991)
- 'Allo 'Allo! (1982–1992)
- Wogan (1981–1992)
- Brookside (1982–2003)
- Countdown (1982–present)
- Timewatch (1982–present)
- Right to Reply (1982–2001)
- Don't Wait Up (1983–1990)
- Good Morning Britain (1983–1992, 2014–present)
- First Tuesday (1983–1993)
- Highway (1983–1993)
- Blockbusters (1983–93, 1994–95, 1997, 2000–01, 2012)
- Bob's Full House (1984–1990)
- Wide Awake Club (1984–1992)
- Aspel & Company (1984–1993)
- Spitting Image (1984–1996)
- The Bill (1984–2010)
- Home to Roost (1985–1990)
- Howards' Way (1985–1990)
- Busman's Holiday (1985–1993)
- EastEnders (1985–present)
- The Cook Report (1985–1998)
- Crosswits (1985–1998)
- Telly Addicts (1985–1998)
- Comic Relief (1985–present)
- Bread (1986–1991)
- Brush Strokes (1986–1991)
- Naked Video (1986–1991)
- Boon (1986–1992, 1995)
- Every Second Counts (1986–1993)
- Lovejoy (1986–1994)
- Beadle's About (1986–1996)
- The Chart Show (1986–1998, 2008–2009)
- Casualty (1986–present)
- Allsorts (1987–1995)
- Going Live! (1987–1993)
- Watching (1987–1993)
- The Time, The Place (1987–1996)
- Going for Gold (1987–1996, 2008–2009)
- Chain Letters (1987–1997)
- ChuckleVision (1987–2009)
- Noel's Saturday Roadshow (1988–1990)
- All Clued Up (1988–1991)
- I Can Do That (1988–1991)
- After Henry (1988–1992)
- Park Avenue (1988–1992)
- Count Duckula (1988–1993)
- You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–1993)
- You Bet! (1988–1997)
- Playdays (1988–1997)
- London's Burning (1988–2002)
- On the Record (1988–2002)
- Fifteen to One (1988–2003, 2013–present)
- This Morning (1988–present)
- Garfield and Friends (1988–1994)
Ending this year
Births
Deaths
References
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