1980 in British television


This is a list of British television related events from 1980.

Events

January

February

March

  • 12 March – The very first in-vision Ceefax transmissions is broadcast on BBC1 between 8:30am and 9am. In-vision teletext broadcasts on BBC2 start shortly after, airing between 10 and 10:30am and 3:30 and 4pm, although if BBC2 was transmitting programmes at these times, the channel would often broadcast Ceefax pages for the 30 minutes prior to the start of the first programme. These broadcasts are shown only on weekdays.

April

May

  • 5 May – Both the BBC and ITV interrupt their scheduled programming to live broadcast footage of the SAS assault which ends the Iranian Embassy siege in London. The coverage launches the careers of several journalists such as the BBC's Kate Adie, while ITN Director, David Goldsmith and his team receive a BAFTA for their coverage.
  • 22 May – Blue Peter interviews two of the stars of The Empire Strikes Back, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. Hamill goes on to name the next Star Wars movie as well as an accurate prediction on the eventual prequels almost two decades later.
  • 24 May – The fantasy game show The Adventure Game makes its debut on BBC1.
  • 26 May – BBC1 airs the third-season finale of the US drama series Dallas two months after its US airing in which J. R. Ewing is shot by an unknown assailant in his office; this leads to the Who shot J.R.? phenomenon which lasts until November 1980 when the series returns for the fourth season.

June

July

  • 19 July–3 August – The BBC and ITV provide live coverage of the 1980 Summer Olympics from Moscow.

August

  • 30 August
  • *BBC1 launches the long running police drama Juliet Bravo, starring Stephanie Turner.
  • *The science-fiction series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century makes its debut on ITV.
  • 31 August – Sunday Cricket is broadcast for the final time, and consequently this is the last time that the featured Sunday league game is broadcast in full because next year, Sunday Grandstand launches and the cricket has to share with coverage of the other sporting events taking place that afternoon.

September

  • 4 September – The US science-fiction series Battlestar Galactica makes its debut exclusively on ITV London. The series isn't shown across other ITV regions until 1983.
  • 6 September
  • *BBC2 launches a computer generated clock, probably the first in the world, although ATV has an electronic digital timepiece by this time, the digits are electronically superimposed onto a physical "ATV – COLOUR" caption.
  • *The family comedy series Metal Mickey makes its debut on ITV in which a five foot silver robot becomes the member of a household. The show attracts an audience of 12 million viewers.
  • 8 September – Watchdog is launched as a weekly consumer slot on BBC1's news magazine programme Nationwide. It becomes a series in its own right in 1985.
  • 13 September – ITV begins showing Hammer House of Horror, the supernatural anthology series produced by Hammer Films.
  • 19 September – Regional peak time continuity on BBC1 ends and with it the weeknight closedown regional news bulletin.
  • September – Edmund Dell is appointed as the chairman of Channel 4, the UK's forthcoming fourth channel while Jeremy Isaacs becomes its chief executive.

October

  • 1 October – BBC1's lunchtime children's block is now called See Saw.
  • 2 October – Thames airs a 10-hour Telethon to raise money for good causes in the London area.
  • October – The government reverses its position on a separate Welsh language service for Wales following opposition from the public and Welsh politicians, including a threat from the former president of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans, to go on hunger strike. The Welsh Fourth Channel Authority will be established to be responsible for Welsh output on the new channel, broadcast mainly during peak hours, with as many Channel 4 programmes as possible appearing at other times. 22–25 hours of Welsh programming would be broadcast. The majority of the output would come from the BBC and from HTV Wales although independent producers would provide some programming.

November

  • 9 November – BBC1 starts airing season 4 of the US drama series Dallas.
  • 13 November
  • *The Broadcasting Act 1980 paves the way for a fourth UK television service, leading to creation of Channel 4 and S4C in Wales, beginning transmission in 1982. The IBA begins the process of creating Channel 4 as a subsidiary: a subscription will be levied on the ITV companies to pay for the channel and they will sell Channel 4's airtime in return.
  • *The Times reports that News International has sold its remaining 25% stake in London Weekend Television, bringing an end to LWT's connection with Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch.
  • 17 November – BBC1 debuts the Jackanory spin-off series Spine Chillers, in which various actors read ghost stories from authors such as H. G. Wells and M. R. James.
  • 21 November – The first annual Children in Need charity appeal is broadcast on BBC1. Although it does not broadcast the full evening until 1984, it shows a series of short segments linking the evening's programmes.
  • 22 November – 21.5 million viewers tune in to watch the episode of Dallas which answers the question of Who shot J.R.? less than 18 hours after its showing in the United States, At this time the audience figures are a record for a soap in Britain.
  • 24 November – The US sitcom Diff'rent Strokes makes its UK debut on ITV, starring Gary Coleman with his catchphrase "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

December

Unknown

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Continuing television shows

1920s

  • ''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

Ending this year

Tom Sawyer

Births