1985 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1985.

List of years in British television (table)
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Events

January
  • 1 January
    • BBC1's New Year's Eve special Live Into 85, broadcast from Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland, ends broadcasting early after a series of disasters.[1]
    • New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include the World War II film The Guns of Navarone and the Alan Ayckbourne play Absurd Person Singular.[2]
    • Channel 4 airs It Was Twenty Years Ago Today, a theme night celebrating the 1960s.[3]
    • Brookside is moved from Wednesdays to Mondays which means the soap can now be seen on Mondays and Tuesdays.
  • 2 January – Channel 4 begins airing the acclaimed series A Woman of Substance, a miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Barbara Taylor Bradford. The series airs over three consecutive nights and garners the channel an audience of 13.8 million, its largest to date.[3][4]
  • 3–6 January – The UK's last VHF 405-line television transmitters close down with transmissions in 405-lines ending in Scotland on the 4th.
  • 4 January
  • 7 January – The BBC ends its experiment with afternoon broadcasting and from this date afternoon Pages from Ceefax is shown on BBC1 between the end of lunchtime programmes and the start of children's programmes and on BBC2 Ceefax pages are shown continuously between 9am and 5:25pm apart from when Daytime on Two is in season and when sporting events are being shown.
  • 11 January
  • 17 January – Thames makes a deal with international distributors for US production company Lorimar to purchase the UK broadcasting rights for US drama Dallas, thus taking it from the BBC and breaking a gentlemen's agreement between the BBC and ITV not to poach each other's imported shows. Thames have paid £55,000 per episode compared to the £29,000 paid by the BBC. The deal is condemned by both the BBC and other ITV companies who fear the BBC will poach their imports in retaliation and push up prices.[6] In response to the Thames deal, the BBC plan to delay transmission of the episodes they already have so that they will clash with the episodes being shown by Thames. Ultimately, however, pressure from several ITV companies, especially Yorkshire Television to the Independent Broadcasting Authority forces Thames to sell the series back to the BBC at a loss. The controversy leads to the resignation of Thames managing director Bryan Cowgill who feels the board have not supported him; he leaves the company on 12 July.[7][8]
  • 18 January – Debut of The Practice, a twice-weekly medical drama intended to become Granada's second soap produced for the ITV network. But viewing figures are not as healthy as had been hoped and the series first run ends in May. It returns for a second series in 1986 before being axed.
  • 20 January – The US sitcom The Cosby Show makes its UK debut on Channel 4.
  • 23 January – A debate in the House of Lords is televised for the first time.[9]

February
  • 4 February – The US detective series Miami Vice, starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas makes its UK debut on BBC1, with the feature-length episode Brother's Keeper.[10]
  • 12 February – Debut of Television, a 13-part Granada documentary series narrated by Ian Holm that explores the history of television.
  • 16 February – The network television premiere of John Landis' 1981 horror comedy film An American Werewolf in London on BBC1, starring David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine and Brian Glover, with special appearances by Frank Oz and Jim Henson from The Muppets.
  • 18 February –
    • BBC1 undergoes a major relaunch. At 5:35pm, the legendary mechanical "mirror globe" ident, in use in varying forms since 1969, is seen for the last time on regular rotation on BBC1, although the regional versions are seen for the final time an hour later. Its replacement, the COW (Computer Originated World), a computer-generated globe makes its debut at 7pm.
    • Computer-generated graphics replace magnetic weather maps on all BBC forecasts.[11]
    • Terry Wogan's eponymous talk show is relaunched as a thrice-weekly live primetime programme.
  • 19 February – Debut of the soap opera EastEnders on BBC1, set in the East End of London.[12]

March

April

May

June
  • 3 June – ITV London and Southern regions begin showing "V": The Series, the follow-up series to the cult US sci-fi alien visitors drama. Other ITV regions air the show shortly afterwards, with ITV Midlands on 26 August, however STV don't show it until 10 March 1986 following a repeat of the original miniseries.
  • 5 June – The crime drama Bulman, a spin-off from Strangers makes its debut on ITV.
  • 12 June – David Dundas who composed the Channel 4 theme, wins a legal battle to retain all rights to the music and £1000 a week in royalties.[3]
  • 21 June – Channel 4 airs Europe in Concert, a three-and-a-half-hour sequence of classical performances presented by Peter Sissons.[3]
  • 28 June – The end of the 1984/85 school year sees the closure of the Daytime on Two information service and when Daytime on Two returns in September, the gaps are filled by interval captions and of for breaks of more than 10 minutes, the usual Ceefax miscellenary is shown.

July
  • 4 July
  • 6 July – The US sitcom Family Ties, starring Michael J Fox makes its UK debut on Channel 4.[20]
  • 7 July – Debut of The Rock 'n' Roll Years on BBC1, a series that looks at the music and events of a particular year, starting with 1956.[21]
  • 13 July – The Live Aid pop concerts are held at Wembley Stadium in London and the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and are televised around the world. The Wembley concert is shown in its entirety on BBC2 from midday, with BBC1 showing the Philadelphia concert later that evening. Over £50 million is raised for famine relief in Ethiopia. [22]
  • 14 July – Watchdog launches as a stand-alone programme on BBC1,[23] having previously been a segment within the teatime news magazine programmes Nationwide and Sixty Minutes.
  • 27 July – BBC2 airs "Blues Night", an Arena special dedicated to the Blues and featuring artists from the genre, including Sonny Boy Williamson, B. B. King, Blind John Davis and Big Bill Broonzy.[24]
  • 30 July – Debut of the pop music culture series No Limits on BBC2.[25]
  • 31 July
    • The BBC announces it has pulled At the Edge of the Troubles, a documentary in the Real Lives strand in which filmmaker Vincent Hanna secured an interview with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness and his wife. The announcement leads to a one-day strike by members of the National Union of Journalists and the eventual overturning of the ban. A slightly edited version of the programme is shown in October. The controversy damages the Director-Generalship of Alasdair Milne who eventually resigns from the post in 1987.[26]
    • The War Game, made for the BBC's The Wednesday Play strand in 1965 but banned from broadcast at the time, is finally shown on television as part of BBC2's After the Bomb season.[27]

August
  • August – After a series of high-profile football hooliganism events and a dispute between the Football League and the broadcasters over revenue, televised league football is missing from British TV screens until the second half of the season. The Charity Shield and international games are the only matches screened.
  • 1 August – The nuclear war docudrama Threads is repeated on BBC2 as part of the After the Bomb series.[28]
  • 5 August
    • The popular US animated series Transformers makes its UK debut on ITV's TV-am morning programme. Each episode is split into 5 minute segments and shown over the course of the week. It is initially broadcast during Roland Rat's weekday morning slot, before moving to TV-am's subsequent children's weekday segment Wacaday in October 1985, also using the same format. TV-am would also go on to show the rival animated show Gobots, several weeks later during the weekend slot Wide Awake Club.
    • Central launches a new presentation package that sees its moon logo redesigned into a three-dimensional shape.
  • 13 August – ITV airs the US intergalactic whodunnit Murder in Space. The film is shown without the ending and a competition held for viewers to identify the murderer(s). The film's concluding 30 minutes is shown a few weeks later, with a studio of contestants eliminated one by one until the winner correctly solves the mystery. There is a prize of £10,000.
  • 24 August – S4C airs Helfa Drysor, a pilot for a Welsh-language version of Channel 4's Treasure Hunt, with Robin Jones and Sioned Maid taking on the roles of Kenneth Kendall and Anneka Rice. The show is not picked up for a series, making the programme a one-off special.[29]
  • 30 August
    • Debut of Granada's ill-fated "continuing drama series", Albion Market. The series, set in a market in Salford and intended as a companion for Coronation Street, is panned by critics and suffers from poor ratings. It is axed a year later.
    • The weekday lunchtime Financial Report, broadcast on BBC1 in London and the south east, is broadcast for the final time ahead of the launch of a lunchtime regional news bulletin for viewers in the BBC South East region.
  • 31 August – Scottish Television launches a new computer-generated ident.[30]

September
  • 1 September
    • Debut of the drama series Howards' Way on BBC1.[31]
    • Ealing Cable launches Home Video Channel which shows low-budget movies devoted to horror, action/adventure, science fiction and erotica are subsequently rolled out to other cable operators sending tapes and a copy of the programme schedule so that could be played out locally.
  • 2 September
  • 3 September
    • BBC1's EastEnders moves from 7pm to 7:30pm to avoid clashing with ITV's Emmerdale Farm which airs in the 7pm timeslot on Tuesdays and Thursdays in many ITV regions.
    • Debut of the game show Telly Addicts on BBC1, presented by Noel Edmonds.
    • Debut of the game show Crosswits on ITV, presented by Barry Cryer and later Tom O'Connor.
  • 7 September – The US sci-fi adventure series Otherworld makes its UK debut in the HTV region. The series is aired by the Anglia, Border, Central, Grampian and Granada regions from 2 November with most other companies starting to show it in 1986, the exception being Thames/LWT which never aired it.
  • 8 September – BBC1 'closes down' on Sunday mornings for the final time, albeit since 1983 with broadcasts of Pages from Ceefax, as from next year repeats are shown during the adult educational Sunday morning slot's annual Summer break.
  • 9 September – Children's BBC is launched on BBC1 with Phillip Schofield presenting from "The Broom Cupboard".[33]
  • 10 September – ITV airs the Wales vs Scotland World Cup qualifier from Cardiff's Ninian Park. The match, played against the backdrop of escalating football hooliganism is notable for the death of Scotland manager Jock Stein who collapses shortly before Scotland secure their place in the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
  • 15 September – ITV airs Murder in Space: The Solution in which the puzzle of the sci-fi murder mystery is finally solved & was hosted by Anneka Rice & Roger Cook (the latter making his debut for ITV).
  • 22 September – Channel 4 celebrates 30 years of ITV with an evening of classic programmes from them.[3]
  • 27 September – EastEnders begins airing on TVNZ in New Zealand, making it the first country outside of the UK to air the soap.
  • 28 September – After 20 years on the air, ITV's Saturday afternoon sports programme World of Sport is broadcast for the last time.

October
  • 1 October – ORACLE revamps its service. The pages on ITV become more news focused and more regional pages are added and the content on Channel 4 becomes more magazine focussed. The changes also see the end of duplicate pages on both channels.[34]
  • 2 October – The Times reports that Thames Television have paid the BBC £300,000 in compensation to make up for the additional costs it paid for new episodes of Dallas.[35]
  • 3 October – Roland Rat, the puppet rodent who saved an ailing TV-am in 1983 transfers to the BBC. Commenting on the move, he says, "I saved TV-am and now I'm here to save the BBC."[36]
  • 5 October – The first weekend of horse racing is shown on Channel 4.
  • 6 October – The final episode of the classic sitcom Open All Hours is broadcast on BBC1, although it would be rebooted in 2013 as Still Open All Hours.
  • 23 October – The sitcom Girls on Top makes its debut on ITV, starring Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Ruby Wax.
  • 28 October – An edition of ITV's World in Action series casts doubt on evidence used to convict the Birmingham Six of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings.[37]
  • 29–30 October – Thames broadcasts its second Telethon.
  • 30 October – Children's ITV show the US animated special Garfield's Halloween Adventure.

November
  • 11 November – The 1000th episode of Emmerdale Farm which airs the following day, is celebrated with a special lunch attended by Princess Michael of Kent. Not recognising any of the cast members, she later admits that she never watches the show.
  • 14 November – A special edition of Tomorrow's World examines how effective the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) might be at destroying any nuclear weapons launched at the United States.[38]
  • 30 November – Debut of the dating game show Blind Date on ITV, presented by Cilla Black.

December
  • 4 December – Due to a clash with ITV morning broadcaster TV-AM for a 0900 UK time kick off, Scottish Television production Scotsport is screened on Channel 4 for the only time, broadcasting Australia v Scotland in a 1986 Football World Cup Qualifier.
  • 6 December – BBC1 airs John Lennon: A Journey in the Life, an Everyman special marking the fifth anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. The programme includes archive footage of Lennon, dramatisations of parts of his life and contributions from some of his friends.[39]
  • 9 December – 25th anniversary of the first episode of Coronation Street.
  • 22 December – Having been broadcast every Sunday teatime since the launch of BBC2 in 1964, News Review is broadcast for the final time. It is replaced in the new year by NewsView, a Saturday early evening bulletin which combines the day's news with a look back at the week's news.
  • 24 December – The network television premiere of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy film Arthur on ITV.
  • 25 December
  • 26 December
  • 29 December – The network television premiere of Richard Attenborough's eight-time Oscar-winning 1982 biopic Gandhi on BBC1, starring Ben Kingsley.
  • 30 December – Channel 4 celebrates Granada's 30th birthday with an evening of programmes from the 1960s, including Bootsie and Snudge and a compilation of From the North.[3]
  • 31 December – New Year's Eve highlights on BBC1 include repeat showings of the classic films Gone with the Wind and The Magnificent Seven, as well as a version of Terence Ratigan's The Browning Version with Ian Holm while Terry Wogan welcomes in 1986 from BBC Television Centre.[44]

Unknown
  • London Weekend Television comes to an agreement with TVS to help to fill its schedules with domestically produced programming while not having to increase its budget. This helps TVS to get more of its programmes onto the ITV network.
  • Swindon's cable service is rebranded as Swindon Cable and its news programme is renamed as part of this move and becomes Focus on Swindon. The channel increases the programme's frequency from twice a week to three times a week.

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

BBC Alba
  • 17 October – Dòtaman (1985–present)

ITV

Channel 4

Sky Channel

Channels

New channels
Date Channel
2 June Mirrorvision
1 September Home Video Channel
29 September The Arts Channel
30 October Lifestyle
20 December Bravo

Defunct channels
Date Channel
2 June The Entertainment Network

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

Ending this year

Births

Deaths
DateNameAgeCinematic Credibility
2 January Basil Bartlett 79 actor and screenwriter
12 January Paul Luty 52 actor (Coronation Street, Love Thy Neighbour, Emmerdale, Rosie, In Loving Memory)
18 January Wilfrid Brambell[45] 72 actor (Steptoe in Steptoe and Son)
29 January Chic Murray 65 actor and comedian
5 February Neil McCarthy 52 actor (The Avengers, The Saint, Z-Cars, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Only When I Laugh, Emmerdale)
14 February Eva Mottley 31 actress (Bergerac, Only Fools and Horses, Widows)
19 February Dorothy Black 85 actress
9 March John Tudor Jones 81 presenter
1 April Alec Clifton-Taylor 76 presenter (The Spirit of the Age, Six English Towns)
5 April Arthur Negus 82 antiques expert
14 April Noele Gordon 65 actress (Meg Mortimer in Crossroads)
21 April John Welsh 70 actor (The Duchess of Duke Street, Brideshead Revisited, Softly, Softly)
16 May Hugh Burden 72 actor (The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder, Sykes, The Avengers)
22 May Gerald Case 79-80 actor
1 June Richard Greene 66 actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood)
7 June Gordon Rollings[46] 59 actor and presenter (Z-Cars, Charlie Moffett in Coronation Street, Play School)
9 June Clifford Evans 73 actor (The Avengers, The Saint, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Codename)
24 June Valentine Dyall 77 actor (Secret Army, Doctor Who)
2 July Hector Nicol 64 actor and comedian
16 July Elsie Wagstaff 86 actress
18 July Robert Raglan 76 actor (Colonel Pritchard in Dad's Army)
7 August Joanne Cole 51 animator (Bod, Fingerbobs, Gran)
21 August Maxwell Shaw 55 actor
29 August Patrick Barr 77 actor (Doctor Who, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased))
22 September Dickie Henderson 62 presenter
30 October David Oxley 64 actor
20 November Victor Henry 42 actor
23 November Leslie Mitchell 80 announcer
12 December Barry MacKay 79 actor
23 December Philip Mackie 67 screenwriter

See also

References
  1. McCann, Graham (2021-12-30). "Gang Aft Agley: The Day TV Broke Hogmanay". Comedy Chronicles. British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
  2. "BBC One London – 1 January 1985 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  3. "1985 : Off The Telly". Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  4. "Channel 4's 25 year Anniversary" (PDF). Channel 4. 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  5. "Victoria Wood – as Seen on TV – BBC Two England – 11 January 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times. Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk (3190): 94. 1985-01-03. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  6. David Hewson "Thames deal angers ITV network", The Times, 17 January 1985
  7. David Hewson "Thames TV head leaves in dispute over Dallas", The Times, 12 July 1985
  8. Williams, Steve (October 2005). "Ten into Three: Steve Williams on 10 days that shook ITV". Off The Telly. www.offthetelly.co.uk. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  9. BC Genome Project – BBC1 listings 23 January 1985
  10. "Miami Vice – BBC One London – 4 February 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times. Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk (3194): 38. 1985-01-31. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  11. "A Change in the Weather – BBC One London – 18 February 1985 – BBC programme Index". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 1985-01-31. Retrieved 2022-09-07. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. "EastEnders – BBC One London – 19 February 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times. Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk (3196): 50. 1985-02-14. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  13. "The Executioner's Song – BBC Two England – 17 March 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3200): 43. 1985-03-14. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  14. "The Executioner's Song – BBC Two England – 24 March 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3201): 34. 1985-03-21. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  15. "The Day the Universe Changed – BBC One London – 19 March 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3200): 58. 1985-03-14. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  16. "Play School: It's Friday – BBC One London – 29 March 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3201): 67. 1985-03-21. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  17. "The Coppola Connection: Apocalypse Now – BBC Two England – 31 March 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3202): 39. 1985-03-28. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  18. "BBC One London – 8 May 1985 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  19. "Ident Central: TSW 1982–1989". Archived from the original on 2019-02-21. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  20. "BBC - Comedy Guide - Family Ties". December 26, 2004. Archived from the original on 2004-12-26.
  21. "Search Results – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  22. ""Live Aid makes millions for Africa" BBC On This Day". BBC News. 1985-07-13. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  23. "BBC One London – 14 July 1985 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  24. "Blues Night – BBC Two England – 27 July 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3219): 23. 1985-07-25. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  25. "No Limits – BBC Two England – 30 July 1985". BBC Genome. No. 3219. BBC. 1985-07-25. p. 43. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  26. O'Carroll, Lisa (12 December 2005). "The truth behind Real Lives". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  27. "The BBC, the State and Cold War Culture: The Case of Television's The War Game (1965)". English Historical Review vol. CXXI No. 494. Oxford University Press. 2006. JSTOR 4493713.
  28. "BBC One London – 1 August 1985". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  29. "Helfa Drysor". UKGameshows. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  30. "Ident Central Scottish Television 1985–1988". Archived from the original on 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  31. "Howards' Way – BBC One London – 1 September 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3224): 28. 1985-08-29. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  32. "Nine O'Clock News – BBC One London – 2 September 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3224): 36. 1985-08-29. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  33. "Who was your favourite? CBBC's 'Broom Cupboard' turns 30, in pictures". Telegraph. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
  34. IBA Engineering Announcements - 24 September 1985 ‘Oracle Teletext Page Reshuffle
  35. David Hewson "BBC ready to reclaim 'Dallas'", The Times, 2 October 1985
  36. Hewson, David (3 October 1985). "Roland Rat joins Wogan at the BBC". The Times. News International. p. 3.
  37. "Birmingham Pub Bombings". Hansard, vol 105 cc676-9. 20 November 1986. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  38. "Tomorrow's World – BBC One London – 14 November 1985". BBC Genome. No. 3234. BBC. 1985-11-07. p. 75. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  39. "John Lennon: A Journey in the Life – BBC One London – 6 December 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times. Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk (3237): 87. 1985-11-28. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  40. "BBC One London – 25 December 1985". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  41. "Roland's Yuletide Binge – BBC One London – 25 December 1985 – BBC Genome". The Radio Times (3240): 64. 1985-12-19. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  42. "Christmas Day TV Listings". Glasgow Herald. 24 December 1985. p. 11. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  43. "BBC One London – 26 December 1985 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  44. "BBC One London – 31 December 1985". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  45. Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 83. ISBN 9781476625997.
  46. "Gordon Rollings". BFI. Archived from the original on September 9, 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2018.


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