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1981 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1981.

Events

January

  • 1 January – The Channel Four Television Company is established in preparation for the launch of Channel 4.
  • 5 January
  • Debut of the BBC1 soap Triangle, a twice-weekly series set aboard a North Sea ferry and filmed on location using outside broadcast cameras. The website TVARK describes the programme as being chiefly remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced" owing to its clichéd storylines and stilted dialogue as well as being notable for its troubled production. It is axed after three series in 1983.
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the television version of Douglas Adams' radio comedy of the same name, makes its debut on BBC2.
  • 20 January – BBC2 airs live coverage of the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States.
  • 22 January – The US sitcom Benson makes its UK debut on ITV.

February

  • 5 February – BBC1 begins showing the American cartoon series Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
  • 10 February – Alan Rogers' cutout animation series Pigeon Street makes its debut on BBC1. The series runs until December before repeats on the BBC throughout the 1980s and 1990s until 1994.
  • 13 February – Arthur Marshall makes his debut on the BBC2 game show Call My Bluff after the death of Patrick Campbell the previous November.
  • 27 February – ITV shows the pilot episode of Magnum P.I. starring Tom Selleck; the first series does not commence until 23 May.

March

  • 12 March – Debut of the sitcom Sorry on BBC1, starring Ronnie Corbett.
  • 21 March – After an unprecedented seven years starring in Doctor Who, Tom Baker makes his final appearance as the Fourth Doctor in Part 4 of Logopolis. Peter Davison makes his first appearance as the Fifth Doctor at the conclusion of that story.
  • 29 March – BBC1 airs highlights of the first London Marathon under the International Athletics strand. Live coverage of the event begins the following year.
  • March – TV-am purchases a former car showroom in Camden as its headquarters. The building is subsequently renovated to create the Breakfast Television Centre.

April

May

  • 1 May – First edition of Junior Pot Black on BBC2, a younger version of the popular snooker series and would run for two years and a revival in 1991. Among the players in this year's competition which would run until 19th June was future world champion John Parrott. The champion would eventually be another future professional, Dean Reynolds.
  • 17 May – Sunday Grandstand launches. It airs during the summer months on BBC Two.

June

  • 2 June – The music series Razzamatazz makes its debut on ITV; it will run for 6 years.

July

August

  • 1 August – This week's issue of the Radio Times is not published due to a printing dispute.
  • 11 August – TSW takes over Westward Television but continues to use the Westward name until 1 January 1982.
  • 27 August – Moira Stuart, aged 31, is appointed as the BBC's first black newsreader.
  • 31 August – The network television premiere of Richard Donner's 1976 supernatural horror film The Omen on ITV, starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. The following morning, newspapers report numerous complaints of viewers being horrified after the showing of the movie.
  • August – Southern sells its studios to TVS but continues to use them until its franchise runs out at the end of the year.

September

October

  • 3 October – TVTimes is rebranded as TVTimes Magazine, the premise for the change of name being that it now contains more than television listings.
  • 8 October – ITV airs the network television premiere of Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster thriller Jaws, starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. The film is watched by an estimated 23 million viewers, making it the most watched film of the year.
  • 11 October – See Hear is launched on BBC1, initially as a series of 20 programmes. Broadcast with open subtitles It is presented in sign, thereby becoming the first regular television programme for deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United Kingdom.
  • 12 October – Brideshead Revisited, a television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel of the same name, makes its debut on ITV, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.
  • 18 October
  • BBC1 starts to air season 5 of the US drama series Dallas.
  • Debut of the long-running Jersey-set crime drama Bergerac on BBC1, starring John Nettles.
  • 23 October – The last ever teatime block of Open University programmes is transmitted on BBC2 today. From the 1982 season, only a single Open University programme is aired, at 5:10pm ahead of the start of BBC2's evening programmes.
  • October – Scottish Television becomes the first ITV station to operate a regional ORACLE teletext service, containing over 60 pages of local news, sport and information.

November

  • November – BBC2 starts its weekdays at the earlier time of 3:55pm.
  • 2 November
  • The TV licence increases in price from £34 to £46 for a colour TV and £12 to £15 for black and white.
  • ITV debuts the popular children's series Marmalade Atkins, starring Charlotte Coleman as the teenage rebel.
  • 12 November – Noele Gordon, eight times winner of the TVTimes award for best actress, leaves Crossroads after playing Meg Richardson since the series began in 1964, having been sacked from the show.

December

  • December – The BBC's Open University broadcasts begin using computer generated clocks.
  • 21 December – BBC1 screens the final episode of the cult sci-fi series Blake's Seven in which the main cast are dramatically killed off in a shoot out.
  • 24 December
  • ITV network premiere of the 1970 musical version of Charles Dickens' Scrooge, starring Albert Finney and Alec Guinness.
  • BBC1 launches The Kenny Everett Television Show, following Everett's departure from ITV.
  • 25 December – Christmas Day network television premiere of 1979's The Muppet Movie on ITV.
  • 26 December – The British television premiere of the classic epic 1939 American Civil War movie Gone with the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, on BBC1.
  • 27 December – UK television premiere on ITV of the feature-length animated movie '. It would be shown only once more on 22 December 1983, again on ITV.
  • 28 December
  • BBC1 shows the UK television premiere of The Slipper and the Rose, the 1976 musical live action film version of Cinderella, starring Richard Chamberlain.
  • The Doctor Who spin-off special K-9 and Company is shown on BBC1.
  • 29 December – Pipkins is broadcast for the final time.
  • 31 December – The final day on air for the ITV regional stations ATV, Southern and Westward.

Unknown

  • Radio Rental Cable Television launches the UK's first pay-per-view movie channel 'Cinematel' for cable viewers in Swindon. The channel later expands to Chatham, Kent. As well as showing movies, the channel also broadcasts some local programming, including one-off documentaries and a live news-magazine programme called Scene in Swindon launches. Also provided is a local teletext service with pages about film information, horoscopes, recipes, local bus times and job vacancies.
  • The original Talkback (production company) is established by comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.
  • First broadcasts of Glastonbury Festival: ITV records highlights which it shows over the following weeks.

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channels

New channels

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

  • 1 March – Open All Hours (BBC2 1976, BBC1 1981–1982, 1985, 2013–2019)
  • 9 April – Are You Being Served? (BBC1 1972, 1973–1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 2016)

Continuing television shows

1920s

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

1930s

  • Trooping the Colour (1937–1939, 1946–2019, 2023–present)
  • The Boat Race (1938–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)
  • BBC Cricket (1939, 1946–1999, 2020–2024)

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

Ending this year

Births

Deaths

See also

References

External links