1978 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1978.

Events

January

2 January – The first episode of the science fiction series Blake's 7 is broadcast on BBC1.
4 January – The first edition of the arts series The South Bank Show is broadcast, presented by Melvyn Bragg and replaces Aquarius.
8 January – All Creatures Great and Small debuts on BBC1.
15 January – Ski Sunday makes its debut on BBC2.
20 January – The first of ITV's occasional An Audience With programmes is aired. The first presenter is Jasper Carrott.
21 January
*The sci-fi TV series Logan's Run is shown on ITV.
*The ITV variety and sketch series The Les Dawson Show is first broadcast.
27 January – In an interview for Granada Television's World in Action, Leader of the Opposition Margaret Thatcher remarks, "people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture". Critics regard the comment as a veiled reference to people of colour, thus pandering to xenophobia and reactionary sentiment. However, she receives 10,000 letters thanking her for raising the subject and the Conservatives gain a lead against Labour in the opinion polls.

February

6 February – The BBC broadcasts the inaugural World Darts Championship run by the British Darts Organisation with evening highlights until 10 February.
8 February –The first episode of the influential comprehensive school series Grange Hill is broadcast on BBC1. The Phil Redmond-devised teenage drama will become one of the longest-running programmes on British television, lasting until 2008.
13 February – Anna Ford becomes the first female newscaster on News at Ten.
21 February – The supernatural drama series Armchair Thriller makes its debut on ITV. The series consists of stand-alone serials of which the most popular, Quiet as a Nun, features an infamous "Nun with No Face" scene.
22 February – Pop band The Police appear in an advert for Wrigley's chewing gum.
24 February – The BBC airs Going Straight. The sitcom is a direct spin-off from Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, newly released from prison. The programme runs for one series.

March

5 March – Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite finally makes its British television premiere on BBC1.
7 March – Dennis Potter's groundbreaking drama serial Pennies From Heaven is broadcast on BBC1, starring Bob Hoskins.
11 March – BBC2 launches the live music show Something Else, which will go on to feature bands such as Joy Division, U2, The Jam, Depeche Mode and The Clash.

April

3 April – ITV begins showing the courtroom drama series Rumpole of the Bailey, having originally debuted as a one-off drama on the BBC's Play for Today in 1975.
6 April – The four-part drama series Law & Order begins on BBC2. Each of the four stories within the series is told from a different perspective, including that of the Detective, the Villain, the Brief and the Prisoner. The series proves to be highly controversial upon its release due to its depiction of a corrupt British law enforcement and legal system.
10 April – BBC1 debuts the long running children's music quiz show Cheggers Plays Pop, hosted by Keith Chegwin.
17 April – The BBC begins broadcasting the World Snooker Championship with daily highlights until the final on 29 April. Previously, they only had highlights of the final on Grandstand with largely further coverage last year.

May

24 May – The iconic skateboarding duck item first airs on BBC1's Nationwide.
26 May – The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby as David Bruce Banner and Lou Ferrigno as The Hulk makes its UK television debut on ITV.
28–29 May – The network television premiere of Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 blockbuster crime film The Godfather, starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino and airing as a two-part presentation over two consecutive nights on BBC1.

June

3 June – The long-running US children's series Sesame Street begins airing on both ATV and Border.
16 June – ITV broadcasts the documentary The Making of Star Wars.

July

1 July – BBC1 begins showing the US superhero television series Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter.
3 July – The debut of The Kenny Everett Video Show featuring the comedian and DJ Kenny Everett in a series of sketches on ITV.
13 July – The original series of Top Gear begins airing on BBC2 having started as a locally produced programme at BBC Pebble Mill the previous year.
29 July – ITV airs the first episode of the Yorkshire Television-produced game show 3-2-1, presented by Ted Rogers, featuring the character "Dusty Bin". The first episode is also notable for the appearance of DJ Janice Long as a contestant.

August

30 August – The first edition of Midweek Sports Special is broadcast on ITV.

September

4 September – The network television premiere of the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service on ITV, starring George Lazenby.
5 September
* The US soap opera Dallas is broadcast for the first time in the UK on BBC1.
* Thames Television launches a lunchtime Thames News bulletin presented by Robin Houston. A late evening bulletin to follow News at Ten is also planned for the same day, but union problems lead to its launch being postponed until 1980.
10 September – Return of the Saint returns with new actor Ian Ogilvy and introducing the Jaguar XJ-S to take over from the Volvo P1800 in the Saint 1962 TV series. The first episode is "The Judas Game".
15 September – The American sitcom Soap is for broadcast on ITV.
23 September – Larry Grayson succeeds Bruce Forsyth as presenter of The Generation Game.
30 September – The Saturday morning children's programme, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop returns for a third series with Maggie Philbin joining hosts Noel Edmonds and Keith Chegwin.

October

17 October – James Burke's history of science series Connections is first broadcast on BBC1.
18 October – Morecambe and Wise return to ITV for their long-running comedy sketch show The Morecambe & Wise Show.

November

6 November – ITV airs the first episode of Edward & Mrs. Simpson, a seven-part British television series that dramatises the events leading to the 1936 abdication of Edward VIII, who gave up his throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson.
10 November – Debut of Carla Lane's family sitcom Butterflies on BBC2, starring Wendy Craig.
13 November – The Association of Broadcasting Staffs imposes an overtime ban on its members working in BBC drama, news and current affairs after talks on pay rise have stalled. This results in blackout of early evening programmes on BBC2, before spreading to other programmes and on BBC1 by 14 December.
23 November – 15th anniversary of the first episode of the long-running science-fiction series Doctor Who.
27 November – The Times reports that News International will sell 16% of its share in London Weekend Television, reducing its shares from 39.7% to 25%.
November – ITV starts broadcasting the ORACLE teletext service. It ends on 31 December 1992.

December

15 December – Scottish Television technical staff, who are members of the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians, impose an overtime ban over the company's use of freelance staff. This forces STV to go off the air at 4 p.m. today.
17 December – A strike forces Yorkshire Television off air throughout the entire Christmas period, with normal service not resumed on Yorkshire until 5.45pm on Wednesday 3 January 1979. Many of ITV's Christmas programmes are eventually shown on the channel in early 1979 after the dispute ends, but will be followed next summer by the 1979 ITV strike.
21–22 December – BBC1 and BBC2 are forced off the air due to industrial action at the BBC by the ABS union which starts on Thursday 21 December. The following day the radio unions join their BBC Television counterparts, forcing the BBC to merge their four national radio networks into one national radio station, the BBC All Network Radio Service, from 4pm that afternoon. The strike is settled shortly before 10pm on 22 December with the unions and BBC management reaching an agreement at the British government's industrial disputes arbitration service ACAS. BBC1 resumes broadcast at 3pm on Saturday 23 December with BBC2 resuming at 1pm the same afternoon. Threat of disruption to the BBC's festive television schedules is averted. BBC Radio networks resume normal schedules on the morning of Saturday 23 December.
25 December
*BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1965 family musical film The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews.
*The network television premiere of the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever on ITV, starring Sean Connery in his final official appearance as 007.
26 December
* BBC1 screens the network television premiere of William Friedkin's 1971 Oscar winning crime thriller The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.
* ITV screens the network television premiere of the 1973 film version of The Day of the Jackal
28 December – ITV airs the final episode of The Sweeney.

Debuts

BBC1

1 January – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
2 January – Blake's 7
3 January – The Story of Perrine
4 January – A Traveller in Time
8 January – All Creatures Great and Small
21 January – The Les Dawson Show
29 January – Hawkmoor
February – Grand Slam
8 February – Grange Hill
24 February – Going Straight
1 March – The Hong Kong Beat
7 March – Pennies from Heaven
9 March – Breakaway Girls
4 April – The Standard
10 April – Cheggers Plays Pop
1 May – The Little and Large Show
17 June – Lennie and Jerry
5 September – Dallas
10 September – Sexton Blake and the Demon God
18 September – Tycoon
20 September – Touch and Go
24 September – A Horseman Riding By
30 September – Scotch and Wry
10 October – Space Sentinels
13 October – Rings on Their Fingers
22 October – Huntingtower
25 October – The Hills of Heaven
15 November – The Moon Stallion
3 December – Pinocchio
31 December – ''The Mill on the Floss''

BBC2

15 January – Ski Sunday
17 January – In the Looking Glass
22 January – The Mayor of Casterbridge
11 March – Something Else
6 April – Law & Order
17 April – Pickersgill People
30 April – The Devil's Crown
7 May – Grand Prix
5 June – An Englishman's Castle
19 September – Look and Read: Sky Hunter
20 September – Langrishe, Go Down
24 September – Wuthering Heights
11 October – The Lost Boys
26 October – Gauguin the Savage
30 October – And Now the Good News
31 October – Empire Road
31 October – The Voyage of Charles Darwin
2 November – Accident
10 November – Butterflies
3 December – ''BBC Television Shakespeare''

ITV

3 January – Glad Day: A Celebration for William Blake
7 January – Logan's Run
11 January – Cloppa Castle
13 January – Maggie and Her
14 January – The South Bank Show
15 January – Do You Remember?
16 January – Hazell
17 January – Wilde Alliance
21 January – Enemy at the Door
22 January – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
20 February – Warrior Queen
21 February – Armchair Thriller
23 February – Battleground
1 March – Send in the Girls
3 March – Mixed Blessings
12 March – The Doombolt Chase
3 April – Rumpole of the Bailey
23 April – Come Back, Lucy
29 April – Scorpion Tales
26 May – The Incredible Hulk
5 June – Strangers
13 June
* Life Begins at Forty
* Will Shakespeare
3 July
*The Famous Five
*The Kenny Everett Video Show
8 July
*The Law Centre
*Saturday Banana
9 July – William and Dorothy
13 July – Leave it to Charlie
16 July – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
18 July – Spearhead
23 July – Parables
24 July – Out
29 July – 3-2-1
31 July – A Soft Touch
8 August – The Bass Player and the Blonde
5 September –Disraeli
7 September – Jabberjaw
9 September
*Saturday Night People
*The Bubblies
10 September – Return of the Saint
11 September – Cooper, Just Like That
13 September – Born and Bred
15 September – Soap
18 September – The Sandbaggers
24 September
*Bless Me, Father
*Lillie
7 October – Bruce Forsyth's Big Night
8 October – The Clifton House Mystery
18 October – The Morecambe & Wise Show
23 October – Bernie
24 October – The Upchat Connection
1 November – The One and Only Phyllis Dixey
6 November – Edward and Mrs Simpson
12 November – The Losers
14 November – Fallen Hero
2 December – ''By Alan Bennett – Six Plays''

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

''Come Dancing''

1950s

1960s

1970s

Ending this year

20 March – Opportunity Knocks
10 April – 1990
15 April – Within These Walls
9 May – Rising Damp
24 May – A Bunch of Fives
10 June – The Good Life
21 July – The Black and White Minstrel Show
August – This Week
20 September – Z-Cars
20 December – Happy Ever After
25 December – Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
28 December – The Sweeney
31 December – ''The Story of Perrine''

Births

22 February – Jenny Frost, singer, dancer, television presenter and model
23 March — Joanna Page, actress
31 March – Daniel Mays, actor
28 April — Lauren Laverne, radio and television presenter and singer
29 May — Adam Rickitt, actor
10 July — Sarah-Jane Mee, journalist and news and sports presenter
11 July — Dustin Demri-Burns, actor, comedian and writer
24 July — Joanna Taylor, actress and model
19 August — Callum Blue, actor
8 November — Jane Danson, actress
17 November – Tom Ellis, actor

Deaths

11 January – Michael Bates, actor
21 July – Henry Longhurst, golf commentator
5 October – May Warden, actress
1 December – David Nixon, magician