1981 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1981.

Events

January

1 January – The Channel Four Television Company is established in preparation for the launch of Channel 4.
5 January
*Debut of the BBC1 soap Triangle, a twice-weekly series set aboard a North Sea ferry and filmed on location using outside broadcast cameras. The website TVARK describes the programme as being chiefly remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced" owing to its clichéd storylines and stilted dialogue as well as being notable for its troubled production. It is axed after three series in 1983.
*The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the television version of Douglas Adams' radio comedy of the same name, makes its debut on BBC2.
20 January – BBC2 airs live coverage of the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States.
22 January – The US sitcom Benson makes its UK debut on ITV.

February

5 February – BBC1 begins showing the American cartoon series Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
10 February – Alan Rogers' cutout animation series Pigeon Street makes its debut on BBC1. The series runs until December before repeats on the BBC throughout the 1980s and 1990s until 1994.
13 February – Arthur Marshall makes his debut on the BBC2 game show Call My Bluff after the death of Patrick Campbell the previous November.
27 February – ITV shows the pilot episode of Magnum P.I. starring Tom Selleck; the first series does not commence until 23 May.

March

12 March – Debut of the sitcom Sorry on BBC1, starring Ronnie Corbett.
21 March – After an unprecedented seven years starring in Doctor Who, Tom Baker makes his final appearance as the Fourth Doctor in Part 4 of Logopolis. Peter Davison makes his first appearance as the Fifth Doctor at the conclusion of that story.
29 March – BBC1 airs highlights of the first London Marathon under the International Athletics strand. Live coverage of the event begins the following year.
March – TV-am purchases a former car showroom in Camden as its headquarters. The building is subsequently renovated to create the Breakfast Television Centre.

April

4 April – The UK wins the 26th Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Making Your Mind Up" by Bucks Fizz, broadcast live on BBC1 from Dublin.
30 April – The long-running science-fiction series Doctor Who starts airing in Sri Lanka with the first part of the seventh series Spearhead from Space which is broadcast on the Independent Television Network.

May

1 May – First edition of Junior Pot Black on BBC2, a younger version of the popular snooker series and would run for two years and a revival in 1991. Among the players in this year's competition which would run until 19th June was future world champion John Parrott. The champion would eventually be another future professional, Dean Reynolds.
17 May – Sunday Grandstand launches. It airs during the summer months on BBC Two.

June

2 June – The music series Razzamatazz makes its debut on ITV; it will run for 6 years.

July

04 July – BBC1 launches the long running music quiz show Pop Quiz, hosted by Mike Read.
27 July – In a specially timed event by the show's production team, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton on Coronation Street just two days before the real-life wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The wedding of Ken and Deirdre is watched by over 24 million viewers in Britain.
29 July
*The marriage of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer takes place at St Paul's Cathedral. More than 30,000,000 viewers watch the wedding on television, the second highest television audience of all time in Britain.
*ITV shows the network television premiere of the 1977 disco-set drama Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta. This is the edited for television version which removes all profanity and adult themes from the original version of the film.
27 July – ITV begins showing Storybook International, featuring children's folk tales and fairy stories from around the world.

August

1 August – This week's issue of the Radio Times is not published due to a printing dispute.
11 August – TSW takes over Westward Television but continues to use the Westward name until 1 January 1982.
27 August – Moira Stuart, aged 31, is appointed as the BBC's first black newsreader.
31 August – The network television premiere of Richard Donner's 1976 supernatural horror film The Omen on ITV, starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. The following morning, newspapers report numerous complaints of viewers being horrified after the showing of the movie.
*
August – Southern sells its studios to TVS but continues to use them until its franchise runs out at the end of the year.

September

4 September – ITV broadcasts the feature-length pilot episode of The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Nicholas Hammond.
5 September – The BBC1 Mirror globe changes its colour from yellow on blue to green on blue.
7 September – BBC1:
*Launches News After Noon as a 30-minute lunchtime news programme, replacing the much shorter Midday News.
*Airs a two-part adaptation of the Stephen King vampire novel Salem's Lot, starring David Soul and James Mason. Part 2 is shown on 9 September.
8 September – BBC1 airs the first episode of the sitcom Only Fools and Horses starring David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst. It runs for seven series until 1991 and as Christmas specials until 2003. After a modest start, it will become one of the most-watched television shows in the UK and be voted Britain's Best Sitcom in a 2004 BBC poll.
9 September – Rediffusion launches a movie channel called Starview. It is allowed to launch the channel following a decision by the Home Office granting several experimental licences to broadcast subscription television and Rediffusion has won one of these licenses.
10 September – BBC1 broadcasts the science-fiction drama series The Day of the Triffids, based on the 1951 novel by John Wyndham.
16 September – Postman Pat, the children's stop-motion series about a rural postman with a black and white cat written and created by John Cunliffe and voiced and narrated by Ken Barrie makes its debut on BBC1. Episode 8 introduces a more authentic look to the Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd logos and more storybooks are produced after 13 episodes being broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2 which makes the series more popular than expected to be, starting from Christmas 1981 along with Pigeon Street.
21 September – BBC2 debuts the comedy sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties, launching the television career's of Tracy Ullman and Rick Mayall.
22 September – BBC1 begins showing the 10-part supernatural drama Dark Towers, produced for the children's educational Look and Read series.
26 September – ITV launches the practical joke themed series Game for a Laugh, featuring Jeremy Beadle, Matthew Kelly, Sarah Kennedy and Henry Kelly.
28 September
*ITV broadcasts the first episode of Cosgrove Hall Films' children's animated series Danger Mouse, with the lead character voiced by David Jason.
*Debut of the darts-based game show Bullseye on ITV, presented by Jim Bowen.

October

3 October – TVTimes is rebranded as TVTimes Magazine, the premise for the change of name being that it now contains more than television listings.
8 October – ITV airs the network television premiere of Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster thriller Jaws, starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. The film is watched by an estimated 23 million viewers, making it the most watched film of the year.
11 October – See Hear is launched on BBC1, initially as a series of 20 programmes. Broadcast with open subtitles It is presented in sign, thereby becoming the first regular television programme for deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United Kingdom.
12 October – Brideshead Revisited, a television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel of the same name, makes its debut on ITV, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.
18 October
*BBC1 starts to air season 5 of the US drama series Dallas.
*Debut of the long-running Jersey-set crime drama Bergerac on BBC1, starring John Nettles.
23 October – The last ever teatime block of Open University programmes is transmitted on BBC2 today. From the 1982 season, only a single Open University programme is aired, at 5:10pm ahead of the start of BBC2's evening programmes.
October – Scottish Television becomes the first ITV station to operate a regional ORACLE teletext service, containing over 60 pages of local news, sport and information.

November

November – BBC2 starts its weekdays at the earlier time of 3:55pm.
2 November
* The TV licence increases in price from £34 to £46 for a colour TV and £12 to £15 for black and white.
* ITV debuts the popular children's series Marmalade Atkins, starring Charlotte Coleman as the teenage rebel.
12 November – Noele Gordon, eight times winner of the TVTimes award for best actress, leaves Crossroads after playing Meg Richardson since the series began in 1964, having been sacked from the show.

December

December – The BBC's Open University broadcasts begin using computer generated clocks.
21 December – BBC1 screens the final episode of the cult sci-fi series Blake's Seven in which the main cast are dramatically killed off in a shoot out.
24 December
*ITV network premiere of the 1970 musical version of Charles Dickens' Scrooge, starring Albert Finney and Alec Guinness.
*BBC1 launches The Kenny Everett Television Show, following Everett's departure from ITV.
25 December – Christmas Day network television premiere of 1979's The Muppet Movie on ITV.
26 December – The British television premiere of the classic epic 1939 American Civil War movie Gone with the Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, on BBC1.
27 December – UK television premiere on ITV of the feature-length animated movie Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All. It would be shown only once more on 22 December 1983, again on ITV.
28 December
*BBC1 shows the UK television premiere of The Slipper and the Rose, the 1976 musical live action film version of Cinderella, starring Richard Chamberlain.
* The Doctor Who spin-off special K-9 and Company is shown on BBC1.
29 December – Pipkins is broadcast for the final time.
31 December – The final day on air for the ITV regional stations ATV, Southern and Westward.

Unknown

Radio Rental Cable Television launches the UK's first pay-per-view movie channel 'Cinematel' for cable viewers in Swindon. The channel later expands to Chatham, Kent. As well as showing movies, the channel also broadcasts some local programming, including one-off documentaries and a live news-magazine programme called Scene in Swindon launches. Also provided is a local teletext service with pages about film information, horoscopes, recipes, local bus times and job vacancies.
The original Talkback (production company) is established by comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.
First broadcasts of Glastonbury Festival: ITV records highlights which it shows over the following weeks.

Debuts

BBC1

4 January – The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island
5 January – Triangle
6 January – Seconds Out
10 January – Nanny
11 January – Solo
15 January – The Treachery Game
23 January – The Walls of Jericho
29 January – Partners
1 February – Sense and Sensibility
5 February – Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
10 February – Pigeon Street
11 February – Break in the Sun
20 February – Finders Keepers
4 March – The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
12 March – Sorry!
25 March – The Bagthorpe Saga
2 April – A Spy at Evening
30 April – The Chinese Detective
1 May – The Nightmare Man
1 July
* The Olympian Way
* Three of a Kind
4 July – Pop Quiz
10 July – A Chance to Sit Down
25 July – Summertime Special
7 August – The Rose Medallion
7 September
* Salem's Lot
* Blood Money
* News After Noon
8 September – Only Fools and Horses
10 September – The Day of the Triffids
14 September – Willo the Wisp
16 September – Postman Pat
24 September – Fanny by Gaslight
4 October – Great Expectations
11 October – See Hear
18 October – Bergerac
22 October – Tenko
11 November – Wilfred and Eileen
13 November – Kessler
8 December – Codename Icarus
16 December – Present Laughter
24 December – The Kenny Everett Television Show
29 December
*Artemis 81
*''John Diamond''

BBC2

4 January – The History Man
5 January – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
8 January – The Little World of Don Camillo
14 January – Sons and Lovers
17 February – Maggie
5 April – Bread or Blood
6 May – Private Schulz
9 May – Maybury
17 May – Sunday Grandstand
21 May – Chock-A-Block
21 September – A Kick Up the Eighties
22 September – Look and Read: Dark Towers
24 September – Roger Doesn't Live Here Anymore
29 September – Timewatch
1 October – World's End
2 October – Prisoners of Conscience
14 October – The Borgias
3 November – ''The Last Song''

ITV

1 January – Wood and Walters
3 January – Punchlines
4 January
* Barriers
* Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective
6 January – The Ballyskillen Opera House
9 January – The Gaffer
13 January – Wolcott
17 February – A Sense of Freedom
18 January – Sunday Night Thriller
20 January – Cover
21 January – Honky Tonk Heroes
22 January – Benson
23 January – Second Chance
10 February – Bognor
16 February – West End Tales
19 February – The Incredible Mr Tanner
22 February – Doctors' Daughters
27 February – Magnum, P.I.
6 March – My Father's House
8 March – Seven Dials Mystery
31 March – Plays for Pleasure
1 April – Echoes of Louisa
2 April – Jason of Star Command
5 April – The Smuggler
9 April – Get Up and Go!
15 April – The Good Soldier
23 April – Funny Man
27 April – Chintz
28 April – Thicker Than Water
13 May – Into the Labyrinth
22 May – Till Death...
2 June – Razzamatazz
3 June – Have I Got You... Where You Want Me?
5 June – Misfits
12 June – Get Lost!
15 June – Sorry I'm a Stranger Here Myself
22 June – Scarf Jack
4 July – The House on the Hill
24 July – That Beryl Marston...!
31 July – Storybook International
23 August – Miss Morison's Ghosts
24 August – The Member for Chelsea
29 August – Stay with Me Till Morning
1 September
*The Flame Trees of Thika
*Frankie Howerd Strikes Again
2 September – The Paul Squire Show
4 September – Kinvig
5 September – Take a Letter, Mr. Jones
6 September – Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
7 September – Never the Twain
9 September – Diamonds
11 September – Roots: The Next Generations
24 September – Taff Acre
26 September – Game for a Laugh
28 September
*Bullseye
*Danger Mouse
*Stig of the Dump
29 September
*Rod, Jane and Freddy
*Vice Versa
12 October – Brideshead Revisited
13 October – Going Out
17 October – The Stanley Baxter Series
23 October – That's My Boy
26 October – Astronauts
27 October – It Takes a Worried Man
1 November
*Dear Enemy
*A Fine Romance
2 November
*Marmalade Atkins
*Theatre Box
8 December – Freetime
13 December – Celebrity Playhouse
Unknown – ''Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo''

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

1 March – Open All Hours
9 April – ''Are You Being Served?''

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

''Come Dancing''

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

Ending this year

1 March – Agony
15 March – The Muppet Show
31 March – Robin's Nest
21 April – When the Boat Comes In
29 April – The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
1 August – You're Only Young Twice
19 August – How
3 September – It Ain't Half Hot Mum
10 October – Take a Letter, Mr. Jones
29 November – To the Manor Born
12 December – Worzel Gummidge
17 December – Pigeon Street
21 December – Blake's 7
29 December – Pipkins
30 December – ''The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island''

Births

19 January – Thaila Zucchi, singer and actress
31 January – Gemma Collins, media personality and businesswoman
8 February – Helen Pearson, journalist and presenter
10 February
*Max Brown, actor
*Holly Willoughby, television presenter
1 April – Hannah Spearritt, actress and singer
3 May – Charlie Brooks, actress
9 May – Sally Carman, actress
2 June – Steve Brown, television presenter and wheelchair rugby player
5 June – Jade Goody, television personality
25 June – Sheridan Smith, actress
2 July – Angela Hazeldine, actress and musician
12 July – Rebecca Hunter, actress and singer
3 September – Fearne Cotton, television and radio presenter
5 September – Elize du Toit, actress
21 September – Jack Ryder, actor
25 September – Sarah Jayne Dunn, actress
29 September – Suzanne Shaw, actress and singer
4 November – Guy Martin, motorcycle racer, mechanic and television presenter
10 October – Laura Tobin, broadcast meteorologist
9 December – Victoria Shalet, actress and psychotherapist
19 December – Sam Bloom, actor and singer