1997 in British television


This is a list of British television related events from 1997.

Events

January

  • 1 January –
  • *New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include a TV film adaptation of The Mill on the Floss and Global Sunrise, an 80-minute film presented by Julian Pettifer. It also includes the culmination of a project that saw camera crews at twenty locations around the world on 1 January 1996, recording the rising sun through six continents and all time zones.
  • *ITV introduces a third weekly episode of Emmerdale.
  • 2 January – Test transmissions begin for Channel 5 in some areas. Details of them are made available on Ceefax page 698 for a few weeks.
  • 3 January
  • *The final episode in the second run of the game show Celebrity Squares, presented by Bob Monkhouse, is broadcast on ITV, although it will be revived briefly in 2014.
  • *The first episode of the ninth series of Wheel of Fortune is broadcast on ITV, with Bradley Walsh taking over as host.
  • 5 January – The network television premiere of Jim Sheridan's 1993 biographical drama In the Name of the Father on BBC2, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite and Emma Thompson.
  • 6 January – Channel 4 closes down for the last time with 24-hour transmissions commencing at 6am the following day. Consequently, after nearly 15 years on the air, 4-Tel On View ends.
  • 7 January – Carlton presents Monarchy: The Nation Decides, a live studio debate discussing the future of the monarchy in the UK, fronted by Trevor McDonald, John Stapleton, Michele Newman and Roger Cook. Viewers are encouraged to vote on the issue in what is the UK's largest television phone poll. However, Carlton is forced to extend the deadline for calls following complaints from people unable to get through. Of the 2.6 million callers who vote, 66% are in favour of retaining a monarch.
  • 8 January – The serialised children's series The Wild House makes its debut on BBC1.
  • 9 January – BT releases an advert featuring Letitia Dean and nine other former EastEnders stars in its Friends and Family promotion despite the BBC threatening them with legal action. The BBC subsequently withdraws its threat to sue after BT pays them an undisclosed five-figure amount.
  • 11 January – John Fashanu co-hosts his final edition of Gladiators, which is a sports celebrity special. He will return to the show for its final mini-series in 1999.
  • 14 January – Viewing figures released for 1996 indicate that BBC1 and BBC2 are the only terrestrial channels to increase their audience share during the year.
  • 29 January – Debut of the spoof documentary series Brass Eye on Channel 4.
  • 31 January
  • *The Independent Television Commission receives two applications for the licence to operate digital terrestrial television in the UK. They come from British Digital Broadcasting, a joint venture between Carlton, Granada and British Sky Broadcasting and from Digital Television Network, a company created by cable operator CableTel, later known as NTL.
  • *Details of Channel 5's schedule are leaked to Broadcast magazine. A spokeswoman for the channel confirms the schedule is largely accurate but that the amount of imported content has been distorted: Channel 5's schedule will be made up of 70% UK-produced content.

February

  • 2 February – BBC2 airs George A. Romero's cult 1978 zombie horror Dawn of the Dead, starring David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger and Gaylen Ross.
  • 3 February
  • *Trouble launches, broadcasting programmes aimed at teenagers and young adults. It shares space with Bravo, the broadcasting hours of which change to 8pm to 6am.
  • *The Family Channel relaunches as a game show channel called Challenge TV, although Family Late continues to broadcast as an overnight programming block.
  • *Pre-school programmes block Tiny TCC which aired every day from 6am until 9am is transferred to UK Living and is renamed Tiny Living with its airtime being changed to 7am to 9am on weekdays and 7am to 10am during the weekend.
  • 5 February – The first Wednesday edition of the National Lottery is broadcast on BBC1 with the introduction of a second weekly draw.
  • 5 February – Debut of the comedy sketch series Armstrong and Miller on the Paramount Comedy Channel and later on Channel 4, starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller.
  • 9 February – The live final of the 1997 Masters on BBC2 is interrupted by snooker's first ever streaker, 22-year-old secretary Lianne Crofts, who invades the playing area at the beginning of the third frame. After stewards remove her from the arena, Ronnie O'Sullivan amuses the crowd by comically wiping the brow of veteran referee John Street who is refereeing the final match of his career.
  • 12 February – Channel 5 releases details of its programme scheduling. It will introduce the concept of stripping and stranding to British television, stripping being where a programme is shown at the same time each day and stranding being where similar programmes are shown at the same time each day. A full schedule is published on 18 February.
  • 14 February – The cable-only entertainment channel Carlton Select replaces SelecTV which it acquired when Carlton bought Pearson Television.
  • 15 February – The Simpsons is shown for the last time on BBC1 with the episode "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish".
  • 19 February – Ceefax ceases to provide information on Channel 5 test transmissions.
  • 21 February - Ornithology series Birding with Bill Oddie is first broadcast on BBC2.
  • 24 February – The final episode of the sitcom The Brittas Empire is broadcast on BBC1.
  • 28 February – The BBC sells its transmitters and transmission services to Castle Transmission Services for £244 million to help fund its plans for the digital age.
  • February – The Paramount Channel relaunches as the Paramount Comedy Channel, a channel dedicated solely to comedy. Previously, the channel had aired drama alongside its comedy output.

March

  • 3 March
  • * The iconic snooker series Pot Black returns in a format for veteran players aged over 40 years in a one year only tournament called Seniors Pot Black which runs for 10 editions for the next two weeks shown on a tea-time slot on BBC2. Regular snooker presenter David Vine hosts the series which featured former champions by now retired Ray Reardon, John Spencer and then current players Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths. The title was won by Joe Johnson who never competed in the original series.
  • *Dave Spikey becomes the sixth host for the final series of the ITV weekday morning game show Chain Letters in the same year as its 10th anniversary.
  • 4 March – The BBC and Flextech agree on a deal to provide BBC-branded channels. BBC Showcase, for entertainment, BBC Horizon, for documentaries, BBC Style for lifestyle programming, BBC Learning for schools and BBC Arena for the arts, plus three other channels: BBC Catch-Up for repeats of popular programmes within days of their original broadcast; a dedicated BBC Sport channel; and a TV version of Radio 1.
  • 8 March – ITV takes over the UK television rights to Formula One after 18 years of coverage on the BBC. It shows full coverage of qualifying as well as the race itself, something that the BBC generally did not do, although it is also criticised for showing advertisement breaks during the races.
  • 10 March – The Simpsons is moved from BBC1 to BBC2 and is shown between Monday and Friday at 6pm.
  • 14 March – Among the highlights of this year's Comic Relief telethon is Prime Cracker, a short spoof crossover of ITV stablemate crime dramas Prime Suspect and Cracker, starring Helen Mirren and Robbie Coltrane as their respective characters.
  • 18 March – The final episode of Come Outside is broadcast on BBC2.
  • 21 March – Campaign magazine reports that the BBC and Flextech have ratified their joint venture. They will create two new operational ventures, one that will develop and launch subscription channels in the UK and Ireland and one that will acquire and run UK Gold.
  • 23 March
  • *The science documentary The Language Master makes its debut on BBC2 in which language teacher Michel Thomas teaches French to sixth form students for five days at a further education college in London. As a result of the interest generated by this documentary, the publisher Hodder & Stoughton commissions Thomas to produce commercial versions of his courses.
  • *Debut on ITV of the long-running crime drama Midsomer Murders, starring John Nettles.
  • 25 March – ITV's Network First strand presents a ground-breaking documentary about Edinburgh's Royal Blind School, a boarding school for visually impaired students.
  • 26 March – The network television premiere on ITV of Alan J. Pakula's 1993 American thriller The Pelican Brief, based on John Grisham's novel of the same name starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.
  • 28 March – The final episode of the children's series Playdays is broadcast on BBC2.
  • 30 March
  • *Channel 5, the UK's fifth and last analogue terrestrial channel, launches at 6pm. The first faces seen are the Spice Girls who perform 1-2-3-4-5, a rewritten version of Manfred Mann's 1964 song 5-4-3-2-1. The opening night's highlights include the launch of a new daily soap Family Affairs and The Jack Docherty Show, a weeknight chat show based on the format of American shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman.
  • *Sky1 airs "The Springfield Files", a crossover episode of The Simpsons with The X-Files, featuring the guest voices of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, as well as Star Treks Leonard Nimoy, who appears as himself to feature numerous references of the series.
  • *ITV airs the comedy pilot Cold Feet. It returns for a full series the following year and runs until 2003. It will be revived in 2016 for four series.
  • 31 March
  • *The hugely popular preschool children's series Teletubbies makes its debut on BBC2.
  • *The game show Blockbusters relaunches on BBC2, presented by Michael Aspel. This is the first version featuring adult contestants and the only version to have purple rather than blue hexagons while retaining the same format. The series continues until 28 August.
  • *BBC1 airs a made-for-television version of Michael Flatley's musical Lord of the Dance. The programme is shown on the same evening that Channel 4 airs a relaunched version of Riverdance featuring Colin Dunne and Jean Butler.
  • *Channel 5 becomes the subject of a ratings war with all major channels adopting aggressive scheduling to retain viewers. As well as Lord of the Dance, BBC1 airs two episodes of EastEnders and the thriller Malice, while ITV screens five films, including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and RoboCop 2. Channel 4 has the films The Goodbye Girl and Breakheart Pass.
  • *The inaugural edition of 5 News features an interview with Labour Party leader Tony Blair.
  • *Among the new shows that make their debut on Channel 5 today are the game shows 100% and Whittle as well as Hot Property and the children's programming block Milkshake!.
  • *Debut of BBC World's flagship interview series HARDtalk.

April

  • 1 April
  • *At 4:40am, Channel 5 begins a rerun of the Australian soap Prisoner: Cell Block H. This is the series' first networked broadcast in the UK as during its earlier run on ITV, scheduling of the show had varied from region to region.
  • *Quincy, a series that was previously shown on ITV, begins airing on BBC1 as part of their daytime schedule.
  • 3 April
  • *BBC1 airs Episode 2710 of Neighbours in which the character Cheryl Stark, played by Caroline Gillmer, is killed when she is hit by a vehicle while trying to cross a road to save her daughter. Scenes involving the accident are censored by the BBC before the episode is broadcast. Five seconds of the episode had also been cut before it aired in Australia in September 1996.
  • *Postman Pat returns for a new series of 13 episodes on BBC1, copyrighted the previous year. Two special episodes are aired two and a half years prior to making another 15 episodes in total.
  • * As a build up to the World Snooker Championship which was taking place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield for the 21st year, BBC2 airs a three part series Snooker: the Crucible - 21 Years in the Frame about the celebration of the championship by featuring the last 20 years of the event.
  • *The Learning Channel is renamed Discovery Home & Leisure.
  • 5 April
  • *The 1997 Grand National is delayed after a suspected IRA bomb threat. The race is eventually run on 7 April at 5pm. It is the last of 50 Nationals, including the void race of 1993, to be commentated by Peter O'Sullevan.
  • *Debut on Channel 5 of the music game show Night Fever, presented by Suggs.
  • *Debut on BBC1 of the game show Whatever You Want, presented by Gaby Roslin.
  • 5–6 April – BBC1 airs a two-part adaptation of The Ice House, the debut novel of crime writer Minette Walters. The miniseries stars Daniel Craig, Corin Redgrave, Kitty Aldridge and Frances Barber.
  • 6 April
  • *The network television premiere on Channel 5 of Chris Columbus's 1993 American comedy drama Mrs. Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams.
  • *Debut on ITV of the drama series Where the Heart Is.
  • 7 April
  • *Debut on BBC1 of the children's game show 50/50, presented by Sally Gray.
  • *HTV's main evening news programme is renamed The West Tonight, as the change coincides with the opening of a digital broadcast centre at Bristol studios.
  • *Peter Baldwin makes his final appearance as popular character Derek Wilton in Coronation Street, having appeared on and off since 1976, with Derek dying of a heart attack following a road rage incident. The character is axed in a high-profile cull by producer Brian Park.
  • 8 April
  • *BBC journalist Martin Bell announces that he is to stand as a candidate against Neil Hamilton in the Tatton constituency on an anti-corruption platform.
  • *The American/Canadian children's animated series Arthur makes its UK debut on BBC1.
  • 12 April – The final edition of the game show You Bet! is broadcast on ITV after 9 years on the air.
  • 13 April – The network television premiere of Brian Gibson's 1993 biographical drama What's Love Got to Do with It on Channel 4, based on the life of the legendary American singer Tina Turner and stars Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne and Vanessa Bell Calloway.
  • 14 April – June Brown returns to EastEnders as Dot Cotton after a four-year break.
  • 15 April – The Bookmark documentary film The Thomas the Tank Engine Man airs on BBC2 again as a tribute to the author and creator of The Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, the Rev. W. Awdry, who died in his home in Stroud, Gloucestershire after being bedridden and suffering from health problems on 21 March.
  • 16 April – The network television premiere on ITV of Andrew Davis's 1993 American action thriller The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.
  • 23 April – Channel 5 launches on satellite so that the third of the UK who live outside of its broadcast area can view the newly launched channel.
  • 25 April – The final edition of the daytime game show Chain Letters is broadcast on ITV after 10 years on the air.
  • 27 April – The BBC confirms that the comedy duo Hale and Pace have signed a £1 million two-year deal that will see them move from ITV.

May

  • 1 May – General election night: for the first time, brothers David and Jonathan Dimbleby anchor rival results programmes on BBC1 and ITV, respectively. The same arrangement will occur for the General Elections in 2001 and 2005.
  • 2 May – The network television premiere of Falling Down on BBC1, a 1993 American action thriller starring Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Barbara Hershey.
  • 3 May – Katrina and the Waves win the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Love Shine a Light", the first time the UK has won the competition since 1981.
  • 10 May – Debut on BBC1 of the crime mystery series Jonathan Creek, starring Alan Davies as the titular character.
  • 13 May – Jeremy Paxman speaks to Michael Howard on Newsnight on BBC2 and the interview becomes the programme's most notorious. Howard, who had been Home Secretary until thirteen days earlier, had held a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of the Prison Service, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison, John Marriott. Howard, having given evasive answers, was asked by Paxman the same question, "Did you threaten to overrule him ?", a total of twelve times in succession, 14 if the first two enquiries worded somewhat differently and some time before the succession of 12 are included. Howard did not give a direct answer, instead repeatedly saying that he "did not overrule him" and ignoring the "threaten" part of the question. Howard finally answers Paxman's question on his final edition of Newsnight in 2014, saying "No, Jeremy, I didn't. But feel free to ask another eleven times."
  • 21 May – Serena Martin wins the 1997 series of Junior MasterChef on BBC1.
  • 23 May – The long-running Channel 4 game show Countdown celebrates its 2000th edition with a special retrospective programme.
  • 24–26 May – Channel 4 dedicates the Spring Bank Holiday weekend to sitcoms. It features classic episodes, 1970s spin-off films and documentaries about the genre's appeal.
  • 25 May – The network television premiere of John Waters 1994 American black comedy Serial Mom on Channel 4, starring Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston and Ricki Lake.
  • 26 May – BBC1 airs the documentary Lenny's Big Amazon Adventure, which sees Lenny Henry travel to Peru with survival expert Lofty Wiseman.
  • 30 May
  • *The network television premiere on Channel 5 of Russell Mulcahy's 1993 American crime caper The Real McCoy, starring Kim Basinger, Val Kilmer and Terence Stamp.
  • *ITV airs a one-off special programme, Kids Behaving Badly: Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan present a live debate spotlighting lawlessness among Britain's youth with video evidence of juvenile crime and live links to troubled areas.
  • *The network television premiere on BBC1 of Carl Reiner's 1993 American spoof erotic thriller Fatal Instinct, starring Armand Assante, Sherilyn Fenn, Kate Nelligan and Sean Young.
  • 31 May
  • *Michael Grade steps down from the role of Chief Executive of Channel 4. He is succeeded by Michael Jackson who takes over the following day.
  • *Channel 5 airs its first international football coverage, a match between England and Poland. The channel experiments with a new presenting format which tries to recreate the atmosphere of a bar with presenters supplying coverage against the backdrop of chatter from an invited audience. The format draws criticism with Glenn Moore of The Independent describing it as a "shambles". However, the coverage gives the channel its largest audience so far with a viewership of five million.

June

July

August

  • 1 August – The US animated series King of the Hill makes its UK debut on Channel 4.
  • 3 August – Julie Friend wins the 1997 series of MasterChef on BBC1.
  • 7 August – The final episode of This Life is broadcast on BBC2.
  • 8 August – The children's animated series Postman Pat has been snapped up by Premiere 12 for broadcasting in Singapore.
  • 24 August – Sky1 airs a special episode of The Simpsons, in which Troy McClure introduces three spin-off segments including references to many different television series, as well as American comedian and actor Tim Conway, who makes a guest appearance as himself.
  • 26 August
  • *It is reported that former Grandstand presenter Helen Rollason has been diagnosed with cancer and will undergo emergency surgery.
  • *Debut of the fly-on-the-wall documentary series Vets in Practice on BBC1.
  • 31 August
  • *Sky2 and Granada Talk TV both cease broadcasting.
  • *BBC1 stays on the air throughout the night, simulcasting with BBC World News to bring updates of Diana, Princess of Wales's car accident and subsequent death, which is announced at 5am. At 6am, a rolling news programme, anchored by Martyn Lewis and from 1pm by Peter Sissons, is shown on both BBC1 and BBC2 until the latter breaks away at 3pm to provide alternative programming. BBC1 continues to provide coverage until closedown when it once again hands over to BBC World News. ITV initially continues with its normal late night programming before interrupting a repeat of The Chart Show to commence open-ended news coverage from ITN shortly before her death is announced, anchored by Dermot Murnaghan and Nicholas Owen. After handing over to GMTV at 6am, its unbroken news coverage of the tragedy resumes at 9:25am and lasts well into the evening with the first scheduled programme being Coronation Street. In the days following her death, regular programming is abandoned in order to allow for coverage of events.

September

  • 1–5 September – Extended news bulletins and additional programmes are broadcast all week to keep viewers up to date on the aftermath of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
  • 1 September
  • *The National Geographic Channel is launched. It is an evening-only service, on air each day from 7.00 o'clock until 1.00 o'clock.
  • *Channel 5's The Jack Docherty Show returns after the summer break with a relaunch which includes new music and titles. The Friday edition is also dropped at Docherty's suggestion, ending the original five-nights-a-week format.
  • *Magnus Magnusson hosts his final episode of Mastermind on BBC1. John Humphrys would succeed him upon its return in 2003.
  • 5 September
  • *Queen Elizabeth II addresses the nation with a special broadcast in which she pays tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, only the second time she has done so. The address is broadcast live at 6.00pm, ahead of the early evening news broadcasts.
  • *The former ITV game show Name That Tune returns for a new series on Channel 5, presented by Jools Holland.
  • 6 September – The live broadcast of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales is watched by 2.5 billion viewers worldwide. The ceremony's footage goes down in the Guinness World Records as the biggest TV audience for a live broadcast. In the UK, 32.10 million viewers watch the broadcast. It is the UK's second most-watched broadcast of all time, behind 1966's World Cup final.
  • 9 September – The network television premiere on ITV of the 1993 American crime drama A Perfect World, starring Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood and Laura Dern.
  • 10 September – BBC2 begins showing the six-part documentary series The Nazis: A Warning from History, which examines the rise and fall of the Nazi Party in Germany. The final part is aired on 15 October.
  • 11 September – The US sitcom Suddenly Susan makes its UK debut on Sky1, starring Brooke Shields.
  • 13 September
  • *Gladiators returns to ITV for its sixth series, delayed by a week following schedule changes in the light of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales the previous Saturday. England rugby union player Jeremy Guscott joins the show as new co-host to Ulrika Jonsson.
  • *The network television premiere on ITV of the 1991 American romantic drama The Prince of Tides, starring Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte.
  • 14 September – Gumby: The Movie is broadcast on The Disney Channel, marking the only time Gumby is aired in the UK.
  • 16 September
  • *The BBC announces a radical shake-up of news and current affairs programming that will see television and radio news services produced by the same production teams.
  • *BBC1 airs the documentary series Holiday Memories, in which presenter Esther Rantzen revisits Zimbabwe with her daughter. She becomes severely ill after filming the episode and is subsequently diagnosed with Giardiasis. She is absent from her BBC2 afternoon talk show Esther for a few months while recovering from the condition, returning to television in early 1998.
  • 19 September – Debut of the garden makeover series Ground Force on BBC2, presented by Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh.
  • 20 September – Debut of the BBC promotional film featuring a version of Lou Reed's 1972 song "Perfect Day" performed by various artists including David Bowie, Bono, Brett Anderson and Laurie Anderson. Owing to its popularity, the version is released as a single on 17 November with sales benefiting Children in Need. The song ultimately spends three weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart and raises £2,125,000 for Children in Need. By November 2016, it has sold 1.54 million copies, despite not being available for download.
  • 22–25 September – EastEnders airs a series of episodes from Ireland which attract criticism from viewers and the Irish embassy because of their negative and stereotypical portrayal of Irish people. The BBC later issues an apology for any offence the episodes caused.
  • 29 September – Two new children's animated series, The Enchanted Lands and Noah's Island, made by Telemagination, the company behind The Animals of Farthing Wood, make their debuts on BBC1. Both of the series first aired in Ireland, prior to airing in their homeland.

October

  • 3 October – The 'Virtual Globe' ident is seen for the final time on BBC1 after six years in use.
  • 4 October
  • * BBC One launches its new hot air balloon globe idents to coincide with the introduction of the network's new corporate logo. Also on this day, new idents feature on BBC Two alongside the existing ones first seen in 1991 with the new logo.
  • * BBC2 begins showing the six-part documentary series Clive Barker's A-Z of Horror, written and presented by the acclaimed horror author and director Clive Barker.
  • 11 October – ITV airs delayed coverage of England's final qualifying match for the 1998 FIFA World Cup against Italy in Rome which is shown exclusively live this evening on Sky Sports. The goalless draw is enough to qualify England for next summer's tournament.
  • 14 October – Debut of the football-based drama series Dream Team on Sky One.
  • 16 October – Emmerdale celebrates its 25th anniversary.
  • 19 October
  • * The network television premiere of Steven Spielberg's 1993 Oscar-winning drama Schindler's List on BBC One, based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. The film is followed by an interview with Spielberg and a profile of Oskar Schindler.
  • * Debut of Lynda La Plante's police procedural series Trial & Retribution on ITV, which makes frequent use of the split-screen format.
  • 27 October – UK Living changes its name to Living to distance itself from the forthcoming UKTV network.
  • 30 October – BBC One airs Clive Anderson's infamous interview with the Bee Gees which ends with them storming out of the studio. He repeatedly jokes about their life and career throughout the interview, but they decide to leave after he refers to them as "tossers".
  • 31 October – Queen Elizabeth II opens a £5.5 million interactive visitors centre, the BBC Experience at Broadcasting House. The venture proves to be loss-making for the corporation and is closed in 2001.

November

December

Unknown

Debuts

BBC1/One

BBC2/Two

BBC News 24

ITV

Channel 4

S4C

Channel 5

Nickelodeon UK

Cartoon Network UK

Disney Channel UK

Sky 1/One

Paramount Comedy Channel

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

Captain Pugwash Sale of the Century Birds of a Feather Blankety Blank

Continuing television shows

1920s

  • ''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Ending this year

Births