2002 in British Television - Events

Events

• 23 January – At a meeting of the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster, BBC governor Sir Robert Smith tells the committee that the possibility of a Six O'Clock News bulletin for Scotland will be considered again following next year's Scottish Parliament election.
• 25 January – Bloody Sunday, a television drama based on the events of the controversial Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland in 1972 airs on ITV.
• 31 January – The last titled episode of The Bill, Set in Stone, is aired. This was followed by a six-part untitled story after which the series switched to a serial format.
• 9 February – Will Young wins the first series of Pop Idol.
• 11 February – Two new BBC children's channels, CBeebies (aimed at children under 6) and CBBC (aimed at children aged 6–12) launch.
• 16 February – F1 Digital+ launches on Sky Digital.
• 28 February – The Bill switches to serial format.
• 2 March – BBC Knowledge in the UK ceases transmission, (the first BBC channel to permanently close) with BBC Four launching to replacing BBC Knowledge. The opening night is simulcast on BBC Two.
• 27 March – ITV Digital placed into administration, becomes defunct and replaced by Freeview. Most subscription channels cease broadcasting on the network on 1 May.
• 29 March – At 2.10 am (in Northern Ireland at 2.50 am), the last Balloon ident is shown on BBC One, and with it, the last time the globe is used as the channel's symbol (having been used since 1963). Its replacement, the 'Rhythm & Movement' idents, première at 9 am.
• 29 March – Channel 4's The Big Breakfast ends after ten years on air.
• 30 March – The death of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother is announced. Most broadcasters abandon regular programming and begin airing tributes to her.
• 9 April – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's funeral is held at Westminster Abbey and aired on all major television channels.
• 29 April – Launch of RI:SE, scheduled as a replacement for The Big Breakfast.
• 30 April – The ITV Sport Channel is defunct.
• 1 May – ITV Digital's Pay-TV operations cease.
• 3 June – The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. During Golden Jubilee Weekend BBC One airs the Party at the Palace, while BBC Parliament reruns footage of the Queen's Coronation from 1953.
• 10 June – ITV introduces a second Monday episode of Coronation Street. It is broadcast at 20:30 to usher in the return of Bet Lynch. The Monday 20:30 episode is used intermittently during the popular Richard Hillman story line but becomes fully scheduled from Monday 25 August 2003.
• 25 June – ITV has told the newspapers that Peak Practice is axed after ten years.
• 26 August – The first series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! begins on ITV.
• 30 August – ITV soap Crossroads airs for the last time this year before taking a short break. The show is to be revamped due to low viewing figures.
• 7 September – Popstars: The Rivals debuts on ITV. The show will create two rival groups (one male and one female) who will compete against each other for the Christmas Number One spot on the UK Singles Chart.
• 8 September – Tony Blackburn voted winner of the first series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!
• 9 September – BBC One launches Inside Out, a regionally based television series in England. The series focuses on stories from the local area of each BBC region and replaces a number of different titles previously used on BBC Two.
• 16 September – Channel 5 rebrands itself to Five, and drops its digital on-screen graphic.
• 20 October – BBC motoring series Top Gear is relaunched with a new format
• 27 October – London Weekend Television (LWT) broadcast their final day after 34 years. A modern day recreation of a 1970s-style startup is shown in the early morning, and just after midnight a montage of LWT presentation over the years is broadcast, introduced in-vision by two of LWT's announcers, Trish Bertram and Glen Thompsett.
• 28 October – In England and Wales, ITV drops regional identification from most programmes and adopts a unified branding of just ITV1. The names for the London (Carlton and LWT), West (HTV West) and Wales (HTV Wales) are dropped altogether, and replaced with ITV1 London, ITV1 West of England and ITV1 Wales respectively, though the names continue to appear elsewhere.
• 30 October –
  • Formal broadcasting of ITV Digital's replacement Freeview begins.
  • With the launch of Freeview, BBC Parliament becomes available in vision for the first time to Digital Terrestrial Television viewers. Due to capacity limitations on the DTT platform, from its launch until today the channel had only been available in audio format.
  • This Morning presenter John Leslie is sacked by Granada Television following a series of allegations about his personal life. Although he was subsequently cleared his television career never recovered.
  • Have I Got News For You presenter Angus Deayton is sacked after allegations regarding his personal life appeared in the media. Since Deayton's departure, the show has been hosted by a different guest presenter each week.
  • The free-to-air music video channel The Hits goes on air. UK History is also launched on the same day.
• 31 October – Launch of TMF UK, a free-to-air music video channel and part of the Music Factory brand.
• 2 November – 20th anniversary of Channel Four.
• 14 November – Harry Hill's TV Burp begins on ITV with ITV2 showing repeats afterwards.
• 20 November – The controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens performs the first public autopsy in the UK for 170 years, to a sell-out audience of 500 people in a London theatre. The event is filmed and broadcast on Channel 4, prompting a raft of complaints from viewers.
• 24 November – ITV broadcasts the first episode of a three part remake of the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago. The series stars Hans Matheson as Zhivago and Keira Knightley as Lara.
• 30 November – Final of Popstars: The Rivals. It is revealed that the male group will be named One True Voice and the female group Girls Aloud.
• 15 December – On the Record, the BBC's flagship political programme, finishes after 14 years on air.
• 18 December – The joint NTL/Vivendi film channel The Studio announces it will close at the end of the year after its owners decide it is not financially viable.
• 22 December – A special edition of Popstars: The Rivals in which it is announced that "Sound of the Underground" recorded by Girls Aloud has reached Number one on the Singles Chart, thereby becoming the Christmas Number One. One True Voice's double A-side single, "Sacred Trust"/"After You're Gone" enters the charts at Number Two.
• 25 December – Strangers on the Shore, a Christmas special and the penultimate episode of Only Fools and Horses, is the highest rated show of the year in the UK, with an audience of 17.40 million.