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.[1]
- 5 January
- Debut of the BBC1 soap Triangle,[2] a twice-weekly series set aboard a North Sea ferry and filmed on location using outside broadcast cameras.[3] 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.[4]
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the television version of Douglas Adams' radio comedy of the same name, makes its debut on BBC2.[5]
- 20 January – BBC2 airs live coverage of the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States.[6]
- 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.[7] 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.[8] Live coverage of the event begins the following year.[9]
- March – TV-am purchases a former car showroom in Camden as its headquarters. The building is subsequently renovated to create the Breakfast Television Centre.[10]
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.[11]
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.[13]
- August – Southern sells its studios to TVS but continues to use them until its franchise runs out at the end of the year.
September
- 4 September – ITV broadcasts the feature-length pilot episode of The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Nicholas Hammond.
- 5 September – The BBC1 Mirror globe changes its colour from yellow on blue to green on blue.
- 7 September – BBC1:
- 8 September – BBC1 airs the first episode of the sitcom Only Fools and Horses starring David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst. It runs for seven series until 1991 and as Christmas specials until 2003. After a modest start, it will become one of the most-watched television shows in the UK and be voted Britain's Best Sitcom in a 2004 BBC poll.[15]
- 9 September – Rediffusion launches a movie channel called Starview.[16] It is allowed to launch the channel following a decision by the Home Office granting several experimental licences to broadcast subscription television and Rediffusion has won one of these licenses.
- 10 September – BBC1 broadcasts the science-fiction drama series The Day of the Triffids, based on the 1951 novel by John Wyndham.
- 16 September – Postman Pat, the children's stop motion series about a rural postman with a black and white cat written and created by John Cunliffe and voiced and narrated by Ken Barrie, makes its debut on BBC1. Episode 8 introduces a more authentic look to the Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd logos and more storybooks are produced after 13 episodes being broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2 which makes the series more popular than expected to be, starting from Christmas 1981 along with Pigeon Street.
- 21 September – BBC2 debut the comedy sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties, launching the television career's of Tracy Ullman and Rick Mayall.
- 22 September – BBC1 begin showing the 10-part supernatural drama Dark Towers, produced for the children's educational Look and Read series.
- 26 September – ITV launch the practical joke themed series Game for a Laugh, featuring Jeremy Beadle, Matthew Kelly, Sarah Kennedy and Henry Kelly.
- 28 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.[17]
- 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
- 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.[18]
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 – BBC 1 screen 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
- 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 Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All. It would be shown only once more on 22 December 1983, again on ITV.
- 28 December
- 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.[19]
- First broadcasts of Glastonbury Festival: ITV records highlights which it shows over the following weeks.
Debuts
BBC1
- 4 January – The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island (1981)
- 5 January – Triangle (1981–1983)
- 6 January – Seconds Out (1981–1982)
- 10 January – Nanny (1981–1983)
- 11 January – Solo (1981–1982)
- 15 January – The Treachery Game (1981)
- 23 January – The Walls of Jericho (1981)
- 29 January – Partners (1981)
- 1 February – Sense and Sensibility (1981)
- 5 February – Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979-1982)
- 10 February – Pigeon Street (1981)
- 11 February – Break in the Sun (1981)
- 20 February – Finders Keepers (1981–1985)
- 4 March – The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981)
- 12 March – Sorry! (1981–1982, 1985–1988)
- 25 March – The Bagthorpe Saga (1981)
- 2 April – A Spy at Evening (1981)
- 30 April – The Chinese Detective (1981–1982)
- 1 May – The Nightmare Man (1981)
- 1 July
- 4 July – Pop Quiz (1981-1984, 1994, 2008)
- 10 July – A Chance to Sit Down (1981)
- 25 July – Summertime Special (1981-1982)
- 7 August – The Rose Medallion (1981)
- 7 September
- 8 September – Only Fools and Horses (1981–1983, 1985–1993, 1996, 2001–2003, 2014)
- 10 September – The Day of the Triffids (1981)
- 14 September – Willo the Wisp (1981, 2005)
- 16 September – Postman Pat (1981–1982, 1990; 1997, 2004–2008)
- 24 September – Fanny by Gaslight (1981)
- 4 October – Great Expectations (1981)
- 11 October – See Hear (1981–present)
- 18 October – Bergerac (1981–1991)
- 22 October – Tenko (1981–1985)
- 11 November – Wilfred and Eileen (1981)
- 13 November – Kessler (1981)
- 8 December – Codename Icarus (1981)
- 16 December – Present Laughter (1981)
- 24 December – The Kenny Everett Television Show (1981–1988)
- 29 December
BBC2
ITV
Channels
New channels
Television shows
Returning this year after a break of one year or longer
Continuing television shows
1920s
- BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
Ending this year
Births
- 19 January – Thaila Zucchi, singer and actress
- 31 January – Gemma Collins, media personality and businesswoman
- 8 February – Helen Pearson, journalist and presenter
- 10 February
- 1 April – Hannah Spearritt, actress and singer (S Club 7)
- 3 May – Charlie Brooks, actress
- 9 May – Sally Carman, actress
- 2 June – Steve Brown, television presenter and wheelchair rugby player
- 5 June – Jade Goody, television personality (died 2009)
- 25 June – Sheridan Smith, actress
- 2 July – Angela Hazeldine, actress and musician
- 12 July – Rebecca Hunter, actress and singer
- 3 September – Fearne Cotton, television and radio presenter
- 5 September – Elize du Toit, actress
- 21 September – Jack Ryder, actor
- 25 September – Sarah Jayne Dunn, actress
- 29 September – Suzanne Shaw, actress and singer (Hear'Say)
- 4 November – Guy Martin, motorcycle racer, mechanic and television presenter
- 10 October – Laura Tobin, broadcast meteorologist
- 9 December – Victoria Shalet, actress and psychotherapist
- 19 December – Sam Bloom, actor and singer
Deaths
See also
References
- ^ "Channel 4's 25 year Anniversary" (PDF). Channel 4. 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ "Triangle". 1 January 1981. p. 43. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2019 – via BBC Genome.
- ^ "The Sunday Post: Soap on the Box". BBC Genome Blog. 3 July 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
- ^ "Soaps | British". TVARK. Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
- ^ "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – BBC Two England – 5 January 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
- ^ "The President's Inauguration – BBC Two England – 20 January 1981". BBC Genome. BBC. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
- ^ "Pigeon Street – BBC One London – 10 February 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
- ^ "International Athletics – BBC One – 29 March 1981". BBC Genome. BBC. Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
- ^ "London's Marathon – BBC One – 9 May 1982". BBC Genome. BBC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
- ^ "TV-am Studios". Ian White. 2005.
- ^ "BBC Two England – 17 May 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ "1981: Charles and Diana marry". On This Day. BBC. 1981-07-29. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ "Satanic Panic: When British TV Viewers were Traumatised by The Omen".
- ^ "News After Noon – BBC One London – 7 September 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
- ^ Jason, David (2017). Only Fools and Stories. Arrow: Arrow. p. 95. ISBN 9781784758790.
- ^ "Subscription tv by cable". Wireless World. November 1981.
- ^ BBC Programme Index - BBC One 11 October 1981
- ^ Saunders, Jim (12 October 1981). "Turn to the Oracle to be kept in the picture". The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (2025-07-20). "Mel Smith remembered: 'A gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit': Griff Rhys Jones talks about his shock at the news of his former comedy partner's death from a heart attack at home". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
- ^ "What the Papers Say in pictures". The Guardian. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
External links
