1989 in British Television - Events

Events

• 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 in the United Kingdom.
• 11 February – Australian soap Home and Away makes its British television debut on ITV.
• 23 February – Leslie Grantham makes his last appearance in EastEnders as Den Watts; his character falls into a canal after being shot.
• 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 – 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, 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.
• 3 April – Channel 4 launches its breakfast television show The Channel Four Daily. The programme is based heavily on news and current affairs, with segments focusing on sports, finance, lifestyles, arts and entertainment, and discussion. It is axed in 1992 after failing to gain enough viewers.
• 15 April – The date of the Hillsborough Disaster. BBC Television's cameras are at the Hillsborough ground to record the FA Cup semi-final clash between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest for their Match of the Day programme, but as the disaster unfolds the events are relayed to their live sports show, Grandstand, resulting in an extreme emotional impact on the general British population.
• 20 April – John Leslie becomes the first Scottish presenter of Blue Peter.
• 24 April – The BBC's Ceefax teletext only runs as a partial services due to a strike by broadcasting unions.
• 2 May – ITV airs an edition of the First Tuesday documentary strand investigating the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. Four Hours in My Lai is later shown in the United States as part of the Frontline series with the title Remember My Lai.
• 26 May –
  • The High Court rejects a legal challenge to overturn the broadcasting restrictions introduced in October 1988 after deciding the Home Secretary acted lawfully.
  • ITV Broadcast live the last game of the season, between Liverpool & Arsenal at Anfield. Arsenal win the league title with the last kick of the season thanks to a late goal from Michael Thomas. More than 8 million people are said to have tuned in.
• 1 June – Television debut of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean was officially aired on Thames Television launched.
• 22 June – John Craven signs off for the last time on the UK children's news programme John Craven's Newsround. The show continues under the name Newsround.
• 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.
• 30 July – Sky Channel is rebranded as Sky One, and confines its broadcasting to Britain and Ireland.
• 25 August – Rupert Murdoch delivers the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in which he launches an attack on the narrow elitism within the British television industry.
• 27 August – Launch date of the first Marcopolo Satellite, which will serve as a platform for British Satellite Broadcasting.
• September - The first ITV generic look is introduced.
• 4 September – The BBC breakfast television programme Breakfast Time is relaunched as Breakfast News.
• 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.
• 2 October – Launch of RTL Veronique, a Dutch private commercial television station broadcasting from Luxembourg. The channel aired to Europe via the Astra Satellite, and attracted attention in its early days due to its late night line up of erotic programmes. The station changed its name to RTL 4 in 1991.
• 4 October – Jeremy Paxman makes his first appearance as presenter of BBC2's Newsnight.
• 20 October – ITV introduces a third weekly episode of Coronation Street which airs on Fridays at 7:30pm.
• 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.
• 2 November – The Final Episode of Blackadder-Goodbyeee is broadcast on BBC 1. With one of the most moving endings ever seen on British television, it is broadcast nine days before Armistice Day.
• 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.
• 3 December-24 December - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, another Narnia story, is aired as a four-part serial by the BBC.
• 6 December – The last episode of the 26-year original run of Doctor Who, 'Survival' (part three) is broadcast on BBC1. This marks the end of Sylvester McCoy's era as the Seventh Doctor.
• 8 December – Alan Bradley is run over by a Blackpool tram on Coronation Street, getting the programme's biggest ever audience at 26.93 million viewers, a record that remains to this day.
• 24 December – ITV airs the original television film adaptation of Susan Hill's novella The Woman in Black.
• 29 December – Deirdre Barlow confronts her husband Ken on Coronation Street before throwing him out, ending their decade-long television marriage.
• December – The controversial Broadcasting Bill is introduced into Parliament by the Government. It will pave the way for the deregulation of commercial television.
• December – A hearing at the Appeal Court upholds the broadcasting ban.