1981 in British television

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

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Events

January

• 1 January – The Channel Four Television Company is established in preparation for the launch of Channel 4.[1]
• 5 January –
  • Debut of the BBC1 soap Triangle,[2] a twice-weekly series set aboard a North Sea ferry, and filmed on location using outside broadcast cameras.[3] 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. It is axed after three series.[4]
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the television version of Douglas Adams' radio comedy of the same name debuts on BBC2.[5]
• 20 January – BBC2 airs live coverage of the inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th President of the United States.[6]

February

• 10 February – Alan Rogers animation Pigeon Street begins on BBC1.[7] The series ran until December before repeats on BBC1 and BBC2 throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

March

• 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.[8] Live coverage of the event begins the following year.[9]
• March – TV-am purchases a former car showroom in Camden as its headquarters. The building is subsequently is renovated to create the Breakfast Television Centre.[10]

April

• 4 April – The UK wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up", sung by Bucks Fizz.
• 30 April – The long running British science fiction series Doctor Who starts airing for the first time in Sri Lanka with the very first part of the first serial of the seventh season Spearhead from Space. Doctor Who will be broadcast on ITN.

May

• 17 May – Sunday Grandstand launches. It broadcasts during the summer months on BBC Two.[11]

June

• 2 June – Razzamatazz debuts on ITV. The British music based series for children ran for 6 years.

July

• 27 July – In a specially timed event by the show's writers, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton on Coronation Street, just two days before the real-life wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. The wedding of Ken and Deirdre is watched by over 24 million viewers in Britain.
• 29 July – The marriage of Charles, 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.[12]

August

• 1 August — The issue of Radio Times following the Royal Wedding souvenir edition 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 29, is appointed the BBC's first black newsreader.
• August – Southern sells its studios to TVS but Southern continues to use them until its franchise runs out at the end of the year.

September

• 5 September – The BBC1 Mirror globe changes colour from yellow on blue to green on blue.
• 7 September –
  • News After Noon is launched as a 30-minute lunchtime news programme, replacing the much shorter Midday News.[13]
  • BBC1 airs a two-part adaptation of the Stephen King novel Salem's Lot with Part 2 being shown on 9 September.
• 8 September – BBC One airs the first episode of the popular comedy series Only Fools and Horses starring David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst.[14]
• 18 September – Debut of a children's television series about a rural postman with a black and white cat written and created by John Cunliffe and voiced and narrated by Ken Barrie, Postman Pat on BBC One. Episode 8 introduced a more authentic look to the Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd logos and more storybooks produced after 13 episodes being broadcast repeating on BBC1 and BBC2 made the programme (Postman Pat) more popular than usually expected to be (starting from Christmas 1981 along with Pigeon Street).
• 28 September – Thames Television broadcasts the first episode of Cosgrove Hall Films' children's animated series, Danger Mouse, with the lead character voiced by David Jason, later that day ATV broadcasts the first episode of the gameshow Bullseye.

October

• 3 October – TVTimes is rebranded as TVTimes Magazine, the premise for the change of name being it contains more than simply television listings.
• 8 October – ITV airs the British television premiere of Steven Spielberg's 1975 thriller Jaws which is watched by an estimated 23 million viewers making it the most watched film of the year.
• 12 October – Brideshead Revisited, a television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel of the same name, begins on ITV.
• 18 October – BBC1 airs season 5 of the US drama series Dallas.
• 23 October – The last ever teatime block of Open University programmes are transmitted 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.[15]

November

• 2 November – The TV licence increases in price from £34 to £46 for a colour TV, and £12 to £15 for black and white.
• 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. She had been sacked from the programme.

December

• December – BBC1 and the BBC's Open University broadcasts begin using computer generated clocks.
• 31 December – The final day on air for the ITV regional stations ATV, Southern and Westward.

Debuts

BBC1

• 4 January – The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island (1981)
• 5 January – Triangle (1981–1983)
• 6 January – Seconds Out (1981–1982)
• 10 January – Nanny (1981–1983)
• 11 January – Solo (1981–1982)
• 15 January – The Treachery Game (1981)
• 23 January – The Walls of Jericho (1981)
• 29 January – Partners (1981)
• 1 February – Sense and Sensibility (1981)
• 10 February – Pigeon Street (1981)
• 11 February – Break in the Sun (1981)
• 20 February – Finders Keepers (1981–1985)
• 4 March – The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981)
• 12 March – Sorry! (1981–1982, 1985–1988)
• 25 March – The Bagthorpe Saga (1981)
• 2 April – A Spy at Evening (1981)
• 30 April – The Chinese Detective (1981–1982)
• 1 May – The Nightmare Man (1981)
• 1 July –
  • The Olympian Way (1981)
  • Three of a Kind (1981–1983)
• 10 July – A Chance to Sit Down (1981)
• 7 August – The Rose Medallion (1981)
• 7 September –
  • Blood Money (1981)
  • News After Noon (1981–1986)
• 8 September – Only Fools and Horses (1981–1983, 1985–1993, 1996, 2001–2003, 2014)
• 10 September – The Day of the Triffids (1981)
• 18 September – Postman Pat (1981–1982, 1991–1992, 1994–1995, 1996–1997, 2004–2008)
• 24 September – Fanny by Gaslight (1981)
• 4 October – Great Expectations (1981)
• 18 October – Bergerac (1981–1991)
• 22 October – Tenko (1981, 1984–1985)
• 11 November – Wilfred and Eileen (1981)
• 13 November – Kessler (1981)
• 8 December – Codename Icarus (1981)
• 24 December – The Kenny Everett Television Show (1981–1988)

BBC2

• 4 January – The History Man (1981)
• 5 January – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
• 8 January – The Little World of Don Camillo (1981)
• 14 January – Sons and Lovers (1981)
• 17 February – Maggie (1981–1982)
• 6 May – Private Schulz (1981)
• 9 May – Maybury (1981–1983)
• 17 May – Sunday Grandstand (1981–2007)
• 5 April – Bread or Blood (1981)
• 21 September – A Kick Up the Eighties (1981–1984)
• 24 September – Roger Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1981)
• 29 September – Timewatch (1981–present)
• 1 October – World's End (1981)
• 2 October – Prisoners of Conscience (1981)
• 14 October – The Borgias (1981)
• 3 November – The Last Song (1981–1983)

ITV

• 1 January – Wood and Walters (1981–1982)
• 3 January – Punchlines (1981–1984)
• 4 January – Barriers (1981–1982)
• 6 January – The Ballyskillen Opera House (1981)
• 9 January – The Gaffer (1981–1983)
• 13 January – Wolcott (1981)
• 18 January – Sunday Night Thriller (1981)
• 20 January – Cover (1981)
• 21 January – Honky Tonk Heroes (1981)
• 23 January – Second Chance (1981)
• 10 February – Bognor (1981–1982)
• 16 February – West End Tales (1981)
• 19 February – The Incredible Mr Tanner (1981)
• 22 February – Doctors' Daughters (1981)
• 6 March – My Father's House (1981)
• 31 March – Plays for Pleasure (1981)
• 1 April – Echoes of Louisa (1981)
• 5 April – Smuggler (1981)
• 9 April – Get Up and Go! (1981–1983)
• 23 April – Funny Man (1981)
• 27 April – Chintz (1981)
• 28 April – Thicker Than Water (1981)
• 13 May – Into the Labyrinth (1981–1982)
• 22 May – Till Death... (1981)
• 2 June – Razzamatazz (1981–1987)
• 3 June – Have I Got You... Where You Want Me? (1981)
• 5 June – Misfits (1981)
• 12 June – Get Lost! (1981)
• 15 June – Sorry I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1981–1982)
• 22 June – Scarf Jack (1981)
• 4 July – The House on the Hill (1981)
• 24 July – That Beryl Marston...! (1981)
• 24 August – The Member for Chelsea (1981)
• 29 August – Stay with Me Till Morning (1981)
• 1 September –
  • The Flame Trees of Thika (1981)
  • Frankie Howerd Strikes Again (1981)
• 2 September – The Paul Squire Show (1981)
• 4 September – Kinvig (1981)
• 5 September – Take a Letter, Mr. Jones (1981)
• 6 September – Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981)
• 7 September – Never the Twain (1981–1991)
• 9 September – Diamonds (1981)
• 11 September – Roots (1981)
• 24 September – Taff Acre (1981)
• 26 September – Game for a Laugh (1981–1985)
• 28 September –
  • Bullseye (1981–1995, 2006)
  • Danger Mouse (1981–1992, 2015–present)
  • Stig of the Dump (1981)
• 29 September –
  • Rod, Jane and Freddy (1981–1991)
  • Vice Versa (1981)
• 12 October – Brideshead Revisited (1981)
• 13 October – Going Out (1981)
• 23 October – That's My Boy (1981–1986)
• 26 October – Astronauts (1981–1983)
• 27 October – It Takes a Worried Man (1981–1983)
• 1 November –
  • Dear Enemy (1981)
  • A Fine Romance (1981–1984)
• 2 November –
  • Marmalade Atkins (1981–1984)
  • Theatre Box (1981)
• 8 December – Freetime (1981–1985)
• 13 December – Celebrity Playhouse (1981)

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

• 1 March – Open All Hours (BBC2 1976, BBC1 1981–1982, 1985, 2013–present)
• 9 April – Are You Being Served? (BBC1 1972, 1973–1979, 1981, 1983, 1985)

Continuing television shows

1920s

• BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)

1930s

• The Boat Race (1938–1939, 1946–2019)
• BBC Cricket (1939, 1946–1999, 2020–2024)

1940s

• Come Dancing (1949–1998)

1950s

• The Good Old Days (1953–1983)
• Panorama (1953–present)
• Crackerjack (1955–1984, 2020–present)
• What the Papers Say (1956–2008)
• The Sky at Night (1957–present)
• Blue Peter (1958–present)
• Grandstand (1958–2007)

1960s

• Coronation Street (1960–present)
• Songs of Praise (1961–present)
• Animal Magic (1962–1983)
• Doctor Who (1963–1989, 1996, 2005–present)
• World in Action (1963–1998)
• Top of the Pops (1964–2006)
• Match of the Day (1964–present)
• Crossroads (1964–1988, 2001–2003)
• Play School (1964–1988)
• Mr. and Mrs. (1964–1999, 2008–2010, 2012–present)
• World of Sport (1965–1985)
• Jackanory (1965–1996, 2006–present)
• Sportsnight (1965–1997)
• Call My Bluff (1965–2005)
• It's a Knockout (1966–1982, 1999–2001)
• The Money Programme (1966–present)
• ITV Playhouse (1967–1982)
• The Big Match (1968–2002)
• Nationwide (1969–1983)
• Screen Test (1969–1984)

1970s

• The Goodies (1970–1982)
• The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971–1987)
• The Two Ronnies (1971–1987, 1991, 1996, 2005)
• Clapperboard (1972–1982)
• Crown Court (1972–1984)
• Pebble Mill at One (1972–1986)
• Rainbow (1972–1992, 1994–1997)
• Emmerdale (1972–present)
• Newsround (1972–present)
• Weekend World (1972–1988)
• We Are the Champions (1973–1987)
• Last of the Summer Wine (1973–2010)
• That's Life! (1973–1994)
• Tiswas (1974–1982)
• Wish You Were Here...? (1974–2003)
• Arena (1975–present)
• Jim'll Fix It (1975–1994)
• Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (1976–1982)
• Rentaghost (1976–1984)
• One Man and His Dog (1976–present)
• The Mighty B! (1977–1982)
• The Professionals (1977–1983)
• Strangers (1978–1982)
• Butterflies (1978–1983, 2000)
• 3-2-1 (1978–1988)
• Grange Hill (1978–2008)
• Dick Turpin (1979–1982)
• Friday Night, Saturday Morning (1979–1982)
• Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982)
• Only When I Laugh (1979–1982)
• Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982)
• Terry and June (1979–1987)
• The Book Tower (1979–1989)
• The Loud House (1979-1988)
• Blankety Blank (1979–1990, 1997–2002)
• The Paul Daniels Magic Show (1979–1994)
• Antiques Roadshow (1979–present)
• Question Time (1979–present)

1980s

• Into the Labyrinth (1980–1982)
• The Gentle Touch (1980–1984)
• Juliet Bravo (1980–1985)
• Cockleshell Bay (1980–1986)
• Children in Need (1980–present)
• Postman Pat (1981–2008)

Ending this year

• 1 March – Agony (1979–1981)
• 15 March – The Muppet Show (1976–1981)
• 31 March – Robin's Nest (1977–1981)
• 21 April – When the Boat Comes In (1976–1981)
• 29 April – The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981)
• 1 August – You're Only Young Twice (1977–1981)
• 3 September – It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981)
• 10 October – Take a Letter, Mr. Jones (1981)
• 31 October - Microscopic Milton (1975-1981)
• 29 November – To the Manor Born (1979–1981, 2007)
• 11 December – Postman Pat (1981, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2004–2008)
• 12 December – Worzel Gummidge (1979–1981)
• 17 December – Pigeon Street (1981)
• 21 December – Blake's 7 (1978–1981)
• 29 December – Pipkins (1973–1981)
• 30 December - The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island (1981)

Births

• 19 January – Thaila Zucchi, singer and actress
• 31 January – Gemma Collins, television personality
• 8 February – Helen Pearson, journalist and presenter
• 10 February
  • Max Brown, actor
  • Holly Willoughby, television presenter
• 1 April – Hannah Spearritt, actress and singer (S Club 7)
• 5 June – Jade Goody, reality show contestant and media personality (died 2009)
• 25 June – Sheridan Smith, actress
• 2 July – Angela Hazeldine, actress and musician
• 12 July – Rebecca Hunter, actress and singer
• 3 September – Fearne Cotton, radio and television 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 (Hear'Say)
• 10 October – Laura Tobin, broadcast meteorologist
• 19 December – Sam Bloom, actor and singer

Deaths

Date	Name	Age	Cinematic Credibility
15 April	Blake Butler	56	actor
24 May	Jack Warner	85
27 October	Val Gielgud	81	pioneer director of broadcast drama
3 December	Joey Deacon	61	author and television personality

See also

• 1981 in British music
• 1981 in British radio
• 1981 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1981

References

1. "Channel 4's 25 year Anniversary" (PDF). Channel 4. 2007. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
2. "Triangle". 1 January 1981. p. 43. Retrieved 27 January 2019 – via BBC Genome.
3. "The Sunday Post: Soap on the Box". BBC Genome Blog. 3 July 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
4. "Soaps | British". TVARK. Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
5. "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – BBC Two England – 5 January 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
6. "The President's Inauguration – BBC Two England – 20 January 1981". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
7. "Pigeon Street – BBC One London – 10 February 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
8. "International Athletics – BBC One – 29 March 1981". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
9. "London's Marathon – BBC One – 9 May 1982". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
10. "TV-am Studios". Ian White. 2005.
11. "BBC Two England – 17 May 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
12. "1981: Charles and Diana marry". On This Day. BBC. 1981-07-29. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
13. "News After Noon – BBC One London – 7 September 1981 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
14. Jason, David (2017). Only Fools and Stories. Arrow books. p. 95. ISBN 9781784758790.
15. Saunders, Jim (12 October 1981). "Turn to the Oracle to be kept in the picture". The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 25 January 2019.