1991 in British television


This is a list of British television related events from 1991.

Events

January

  • 1 January
  • *The Independent Television Commission replaces the Independent Broadcasting Authority. On the same day, the Broadcasting Act 1990 takes effect, thus beginning the deregulation of British television and radio.
  • *New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include the network television premieres of the science fiction drama SpaceCamp and the 1987 cult vampire film The Lost Boys.
  • 3 January
  • *The sitcom The Brittas Empire makes its debut on BBC1, starring Chris Barrie and Pippa Haywood. The first episode is called Laying the Foundations.
  • *The puppet Gordon the Gopher returns to television with a 13-episode series on BBC1.
  • 7 January – BBC1 launches the local news programme BBC East Midlands Today for the East Midlands region. News coverage for the area had previously been provided by a seven-minute opt out from the Birmingham-based Midlands Today.
  • 8 January
  • *The opening episode of the second season of Twin Peaks makes its UK debut on BBC2.
  • *The children's arts and crafts series Bitsa makes its debut on BBC1.
  • 14 January – The US sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring Will Smith, makes its debut on BBC2 as part of the DEF II programming strand.
  • 17 January–2 March – Most regular programming is suspended to bring live coverage of the Gulf War after Allied Forces launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. Over the coming weeks, there is extended coverage of events in the Persian Gulf. On BBC1, in addition to extended and additional news bulletins, a special daytime news analysis programme War in the Gulf, presented by David Dimbleby, is broadcast, although as the war progresses the length of each programme and frequency of broadcast is scaled back. ITV also broadcasts additional news and discussion programmes about the war, including all-night coverage during the early stages of the conflict and Channel 4 broadcasts a two-hour special programme at midnight as well as Saturday editions of The Channel 4 Daily. Some coverage, particularly in the earlier part of the war, comes from CNN. Sky News presents round-the-clock coverage and UK viewers are also able to watch rolling coverage on CNN.
  • 18 January – BBC2 airs a special edition of Arena in which playwright Arthur Miller meets ANC leader Nelson Mandela. In the show, Mandela talks for the first time about his life and experiences from a personal standpoint.
  • 19 January
  • *The 17 January edition of Top of the Pops is broadcast, having been postponed from that date due to extended news coverage of the Gulf War.
  • *Debut of the comedy talk show The Full Wax on BBC1, starring Ruby Wax.
  • 26 January – Oliver Reed appears on an edition of the late-night Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark discussing militarism, masculine stereotypes and violence to women. Reed drinks alcohol during the broadcast, leading him to become drunk, aggressive and incoherent. He refers to another member of the panel who has a moustache as a 'tache' and uses offensive language. After one hour, Reed returns from the toilet and getting more to drink, rolls on top of the noted feminist author Kate Millett. The show is briefly taken off the air following a hoax call to the station claiming that Channel 4 boss Michael Grade is furious.

February

  • 12 February – A year after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, BBC2 airs an edition of its Assignment documentary strand in which journalist Donald Woods returns to South Africa to give his personal assessment of that country's future.
  • 15 February – At the close of this day's programmes, the COW ident is seen for the final time on BBC1 after six years and the BBC2 'TWO' ident is also seen for the final time after five years.
  • 16 February
  • *Both BBC1 and BBC2 receive new idents, both generated from laserdisc and featuring the BBC corporate logo introduced in 1986. BBC1 features a numeral '1' encased in a globe and BBC2 features eleven idents based around a numeral '2'. Also on this day, new idents for Open University programmes come into use.
  • *Matthew Kelly succeeds Bruce Forsyth as presenter of ITV's You Bet!.
  • 25 February – Debut of the children's series Radio Roo on BBC1, starring Wayne Jackman.
  • 26 February – Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. As the war comes to its conclusion, television programming begins to return to normal.

March

  • 1 March – The monopoly on listings magazines ends with the deregulation of TV listings. Before today, Radio Times published only BBC listings and TVTimes ITV only. However, from this day, they can carry listings for all channels. Newspapers are also allowed to publish 7-day listings for the first time, having previously been able to publish only the present day's. A raft of listings magazines and supplements starts up in the wake of the changes.
  • 3 March – Following the conclusion of the Gulf War, the ITN Early Morning News is halved in length and now goes on the air at 5:30am. From this point, the ITN World News is no longer broadcast as part of the bulletin.
  • 9 March – While appearing as a guest on the ITV chat show Aspel & Company, singer Rod Stewart takes off his shoes and tosses them into the audience.
  • 15 March – BBC1 airs Comic Relief 1991.
  • 18 March – ITV broadcasts World in Action Special: The Birmingham Six – Their Own Story, a documentary that airs four days after the release of the wrongly convicted 'Birmingham Six'. It is later nominated for a BAFTA award.
  • 30 March – Frederick Wiseman's six and a half-hour documentary Near Death, on life in a Boston intensive care unit, is broadcast in full by Channel 4.

April

  • 1 April – Sue Lawley interviews Prime Minister John Major for ITV.
  • 7 April
  • *ITV airs the first Prime Suspect series, starring Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison.
  • *Comedy drama The Darling Buds of May makes its debut on ITV, starring David Jason, Pam Ferris and Catherine Zeta Jones.
  • *The final episode of the sitcom Brush Strokes is broadcast on BBC1.
  • 8 April
  • *The Power Station, one of the channels to have survived the BSB merger with Sky, closes down at 4am after it was decided that the American MTV would be used as the music channel on BSkyB's Astra satellite service.
  • *Channel 4's three-week Banned season features a series of films and programmes which have previously been banned from British television or cinema. The season includes the network television premieres of Scum, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Sebastiane. There is also a second broadcast of the controversial 1988 Thames documentary Death on the Rock which investigated the shooting of three members of the IRA by the SAS in Gibraltar. The season proves to be controversial and Channel 4 is investigated by the Obscene Publications Squad and referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
  • 9 April
  • *Derek Nimmo makes a cameo appearance in Australian soap Neighbours as an eccentric English aristocrat, the episode having debuted in Australia on 26 February 1990.
  • *Central Television takes back over production of the Children's ITV strand, with Tommy Boyd becoming the new in-vision presenter.
  • 12 April – Debut of the children's game show Finders Keepers on Children's ITV, presented by Neil Buchanan.
  • 15 April — BSB's films channel The Movie Channel launches on the Astra 1B satellite.
  • 16 April – The network television premiere of Monty Python's Life of Brian as part of Channel 4's Banned season.
  • 20 April – The Sports Channel on BSB is rebranded as Sky Sports.
  • 29 April – On an edition of Terry Wogan's evening chat show Wogan and amid howls of laughter from the studio audience, footballer-turned-public speaker David Icke claims that he is "the son of God" and that Britain will be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes. He later says that he had been misinterpreted and that he had used the term "the son of God" to mean an "aspect" of the Infinite consciousness. The interview proves devastating for him. The BBC is later criticised for allowing the interview to go ahead, with Des Christy in The Guardian calling it a "media crucifixion."
  • 30 April – Debut of the long-running snooker-based game show Big Break on BBC1, presented by Jim Davidson.

May

June

  • 10 June
  • *Postman Pat begins airing on ABC in Australia along with Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends' sister show Tugs.
  • *The popular drama series Soldier Soldier makes its debut on ITV, starring Robson Green and Jerome Flynn.
  • 16 June – BBC1 airs Cry Freedom, Richard Attenborough's acclaimed film about South African journalist Donald Woods. It is shown in two parts with the second aired on 23 June.
  • 18 June – BBC2 airs the concluding episode of David Lynch's drama Twin Peaks.
  • 20 June
  • *The murder of Harry Collinson, the planning officer for Derwentside District Council, takes place at Butsfield, County Durham while television news crews are filming for a news item about a planning dispute. At the time of the murder, the Derwentside District Council is involved in the dispute with Albert Dryden over the erection of a building by Dryden on green belt land without planning permission and as television crews are filming, Dryden aims a handgun, a .455 Webley Mk VI revolver at Collinson and shoots him dead. As the journalists and council staff flee, Dryden opens fire again, wounding television reporter Tony Belmont and Police Constable Stephen Campbell. Dryden is convicted of Collinson's murder following a trial in April the following year. Additionally, he is also convicted of the attempted murder of council solicitor Michael Dunstan and the wounding of Campbell and Belmont. He is sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • *An edition of BBC2's The Late Show is the final programme to be broadcast from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios.
  • 30 June – Channel 4 airs the first episode of Family Pride, the first British soap to feature a predominantly Asian cast. The series is produced by Central and is also shown on ITV in the Midlands region.

July

  • 1 July – The long-lived "Wings" set makes its debut on the Channel 4 game show Countdown, alongside the use of tie-break conundrums.
  • 13 July – Bernard Wenton, performing as Nat King Cole, wins the second series of Stars in Their Eyes on ITV.
  • 14 July – Sue Lawrence wins the 1991 series of MasterChef on BBC1.
  • 14–25 July – Sky Sports broadcasts full live coverage of the 1991 World Student Games which are held in the UK. This is the only time that Sky has broadcast a multi-sport event and it is the only time the event has been broadcast live.
  • 22 July – BBC1 airs an extended edition of Wogan in which Terry Wogan meets and talks to the pop star Madonna.
  • 24 July – The final programme to be recorded at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush is broadcast, an edition of Wogan recorded on 18 July.
  • 29 July–2 August – Tim Brooke-Taylor and Lisa Aziz present QD – The Master Game, a game that aired over five nights on Channel 4 and comprised mental and physical challenges.
  • 30 July – The Australian children's series Johnson and Friends makes its UK debut on BBC2.
  • 31 July
  • *Pavarotti in the Park, a concert celebrating thirty years of Luciano Pavarotti's operatic career, is held in London's Hyde Park. The concert is attended by an audience of 125,000 who gather despite the wet weather and is broadcast to thirty countries. In the UK, the concert is aired by Sky.
  • *The BBC's Lime Grove Studios close.

August

  • 3 August – The network television premiere of the comedy thriller Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs on BBC1, starring Ed Begley Jr.
  • 9 August – Channel 4 debuts the hit HBO comedy series Dream On, one of the first US shows to feature uncensored profanity and nudity.
  • 14 August – BBC1 airs Mozart in London, the first of a three-part series marking the bicentenary of his death and in which his earliest pieces are performed by children of about the same age as he was when he wrote them. It is the first time this has been done on British television.
  • 20 August – The BBC revives the snooker series Pot Black after a five year absence. It begins with Junior Pot Black which last appeared in 1983 and being shown on BBC2 three mornings a week for this week and the next. In this series, 15 year old Ronnie O'Sullivan competed and later won the series. The main show returns soon afterwards on 2nd September on BBC1 in the afternoon schedule.
  • 23 August–1 September – Eurosport airs the World Athletics Championships for the first time. The event is also shown on the BBC.
  • 26 August
  • *BBC2 airs a day of programmes paying tribute to the Lime Grove Studios which closed the previous month and includes a remake of the 1950s soap opera The Grove Family featuring stars from the present day.
  • *A repeat is shown of An Unearthly Child, the first-ever episode of Doctor Who from 1963.
  • 29 August – Top of the Pops is simulcast on BBC Radio 1 for the last time, the episode presented by Jakki Brambles.
  • 31 August – BBC television starts officially broadcasting in stereo using the NICAM system, although some transmitters had been broadcasting BBC programmes in stereo since 1986, but these were classified as tests.

September

  • 3 September – The sitcom 2point4 Children makes its debut on BBC1, starring Belinda Lang and Gary Olsen.
  • 5 September – The actor Arthur Pentelow who died on 6 August, makes his final on-screen appearance as Henry Wilks in Emmerdale. The character dies off-screen on 3 October.
  • 9 September – New idents launch on Children's BBC, featuring the BBC corporate logo.
  • 11 September – ITV airs Thatcher: The Final Days, a dramatisation of the final days of Margaret Thatcher's premiership. The film stars Sylvia Syms as the former Prime Minister.
  • 13 September – The documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife airs on Channel 4. It is set during the final days of the apartheid regime in South Africa, particularly centering on Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder and leader of the far-right, white supremacist political organisation AWB. A year later, Channel 4 faces its first libel case by Jani Allan, a South African journalist who objected to her representation in the documentary.
  • 14 September – Channel 4 airs "A Night in Japan", a night of programmes dedicated to all things Japanese, from 8pm to 6am.
  • 17 September – The sitcom Bottom makes its debut on BBC2, starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.
  • 20 September – BBC2 begins a rerun of Gerry Anderson's classic 1960s series Thunderbirds. The series proves to be popular, leading to a shortage of Tracy Island toys in stores during the run up to Christmas, something that prompts Blue Peter to show viewers and their parents how to make their own Tracy Island model. An instruction sheet produced by the programme receives more than 100,000 requests.
  • 21 September – More than eight years after launching a weekday breakfast television service, the BBC launches a five-minute long weekend breakfast news bulletin.
  • 22 September
  • *Sponsorship of ITV programmes is allowed.
  • *The network television premiere of Adrian Lyne's 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction on ITV, starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer.
  • 26 September
  • *The children's series Brum makes its debut on BBC1.
  • *The children's game show Get Your Own Back makes its debut on BBC1, presented by Dave Benson Phillips.
  • 28 September – The network television premiere of the 1988 film Buster on ITV, starring Phil Collins as Great Train robber Buster Edwards.

October

  • 1 October – The Comedy Channel launches.
  • 2 October – The 1000th episode of the soap Brookside is broadcast on Channel 4.
  • 3 October–2 November – ITV airs coverage of the 1991 Rugby World Cup. The competition is hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France.
  • 4 October – The US animated series The Legend of Prince Valiant makes its UK debut on BBC1.
  • 5 October – ITV screens the terrestrial premiere of the 1987 action film Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
  • 6 October – BBC1 airs Conundrum, the final episode of the original run of Dallas. The feature-length episode imagines a world in which the soap's central character, J. R. Ewing, had not existed.
  • 11 October – BBC2 shows the late-night Richard O'Brien hosted series Mystery Train featuring cult and B-Movie themed TV programmes and films.
  • 14 October
  • *BBC World Service TV launches its Asian service.
  • *After a five-year absence, Pebble Mill returns to BBC1.
  • 16 October – The ITV franchise auction results are announced and take effect starting midnight on 1 January 1993. It will see many notable names going off air after losing their franchises, including Thames, TVS, TSW, TV-am and ORACLE Teletext. Central is, however, unopposed in bidding to retain its franchise
  • 19 October – The final edition of Channel Television's TV listings magazine, CTV Times is published. It had remained on sale long after the other ITV regions had replaced their listings magazine with the TVTimes in the South of England edition along with TVS as it had been feared that Channel Television might cease trading without the revenue from its own magazine.
  • 31 October – Channel 4 shows a number of Halloween themed programmes starting with the documentary Fear in the Dark narrated by Christopher Lee as well as the UK terrestrial premiere of the 1983 Tony Scott film The Hunger, starring David Bowie, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve.
  • October
  • *Scottish Television rebrands its overnight service as Scottish Night Time and removes its overnight in-vision continuity.
  • *Cigar and pipe tobacco adverts are banned from British television.

November

December

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

BBC Scotland

Channel 4

Sky One

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

Continuing television shows

1920s

  • ''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Ending this year

Births