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. They also include 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.[1]
ITV introduces a third weekly episode of Emmerdale.
2 January – Test transmissions begin for Channel 5 in some areas. Details of these are made available on Ceefax page 698 for a few weeks.[2]
6 January – Channel 4closes for the last time with 24-hour transmissions commencing at 6 am the following day. Consequently, after nearly 15 years of transmissions, 4-Tel On View ends.
7 January – Carlton Television presents Monarchy: The Nation Decides, a live studio debate discussing the future of the monarchy in the United Kingdom. The debate quickly descends into a shouting match, while 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 2.6million callers who vote, 66% are in favour of retaining a monarch while 34% are against.[3]
8 January – The first episode of the BBC's serialised children's programme The Wild House begins on BBC One.[4]
9 January – BT releases an advert featuring Letitia Dean and nine other former EastEnders actors to promote its Friends and Family promotion despite the BBC threatening them with legal action. The BBC subsequently withdraws its threat to sue after BT pays it an undisclosed five-figure amount.[5]
14 January – Viewing figures released for 1996 indicate BBC1 and BBC2 as the only terrestrial channels to increase their audience share during the year.[6]
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 (BDB) – a joint venture between Carlton Television, Granada Television, and satellite company British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)[7] – and from Digital Television Network (DTN), a company created by cable operator CableTel (later known as NTL).[8]
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.[9]
February[]
3 February –
Trouble launches, broadcasting programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It shares space with Bravo whose broadcasting hours change to 8pm to 6am.
The Family Channel relaunches as a gameshow channel called Challenge TV although Family Late continues to broadcast as an overnight programming block.
Pre-school programmes block Tiny TCC, which aired every morning from 6am until 9am, is transferred to UK Living and is renamed Tiny Living with its airtime being changed to 7:00-9:00 on weekdays, and 7:00-10:00 during the weekend.
5 February – The first Wednesday edition of the National Lottery is aired with the introduction of a second weekly draw.[10]
9 February – The live final of the 1997 Masters is interrupted by snooker's first ever streaker, 22-year-old secretary Lianne Crofts, who invaded the playing area at the beginning of the third frame. After stewards removed her from the arena, Ronnie O'Sullivan amused the crowd by comically wiping the brow of veteran referee John Street, who was refereeing his final match of his career.[11][12][13]
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.[14] A full schedule is published on 18 February.[15]
14 February – The cable-only entertainment channel Carlton Select replaces SelecTV, which it acquired when Carlton bought Pearson Television.
19 February – Ceefax ceases to provide information on Channel 5 test transmissions.[16]
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 Paramount Comedy Channel, a channel dedicated solely to comedy.[17] Previously, the channel had aired drama alongside its comedy output.
March[]
3 March – Dave Spikey becomes the sixth host for the final series of 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; 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 transmission, a dedicated BBC Sport channel and a TV version of Radio 1.[18]
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 BBC generally did not do.
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.[19]
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.[20]
22 March – First screening of the BBC television science documentary The Language Master, in which language teacher Michel Thomas taught French to sixth form students for five days at a further education college in London .[21] As a result of the interest generated by this documentary, UK publisher Hodder and Stoughton commissioned Thomas to produce commercial versions of his courses.[22]
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.[23]
30 March –
Channel 5, the UK's fifth and last analogue terrestrial channel, launches at 6.00pm. The first faces seen are the Spice Girls, who perform "1-2-3-4-5", a rewritten version of the Manfred Mann 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 US shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman.
ITV airs the comedy pilot Cold Feet. It returns for a full series in 1998 and runs for five years.
31 March –
BBC One airs a made-for-television version of Michael Flatley's musical Lord of the Dance.[24] The programme is shown on the same evening that Channel 4 airs the relaunched version of Riverdance featuring Colin Dunne and Jean Butler.[25]
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 acreens five major films, including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and RoboCop 2. Channel 4 has the films The Goodbye Girl and Breakheart Pass.[26]
Children's television series Teletubbies premieres on BBC2.[27]
The inaugural edition of 5 News features an interview with Labour Party leader Tony Blair.[28]
Debut of BBC World's flagship interview programme HARDtalk.[29]
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 screening in the UK as, during its earlier run on ITV, scheduling of the programme had varied from region to region.
Quincy, another series previously shown on ITV, begins airing on BBC1 as part of the network's daytime schedule.[30]
3 April –
BBC1 airs Episode 2710 of Neighbours in which the character Cheryl Stark (played by Caroline Gillmer) is killed off 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 its transmission in Australia in September 1996.[31][32]
Postman Pat returns with another series of 13 episodes on BBC One copyrighted from the previous year. Two special episodes were aired two and a half years prior making another 15 episodes in total.[33]
5 April – The 1997 Grand National is delayed after a suspected Provisional IRA bomb threat.[35] The race is run on Monday 7 April at 5:00pm.[36] It is the last of 50 Nationals (including the void race of 1993) to be commentated on by Peter O'Sullevan.
5–6 April – BBC1 airs a two-part adaptation of The Ice House, the debut novel of crime writer Minette Walters. The series stars Daniel Craig, Corin Redgrave, Kitty Aldridge, and Frances Barber.[37][38]
6 April – Channel 5 airs the British television premiere of Mrs. Doubtfire, starring Robin Williams.[39]
7 April – Peter Baldwin makes his final appearance as popular character Derek Wilton in Coronation Street, having appeared on and off in the series since 1976, with Derek dying of a heart attack following a road rage incident. The character was 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.[40]
9 April – BBC1 broadcasts American Canadian children's animated series Arthur for the first time in the UK.
12 April – Final edition of ITV's stunt-based game show You Bet!.[28]
15 April – Bookmark's documentary film The Thomas the Tank Engine Man airs on BBC2 once again as a tribute to the author and creator of The Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine & FriendsThe Rev. W. Awdry who died in his home in Stroud, Gloucestershire after being bedridden and suffering from deteriorating health problems on 21 March of that year.
16 April – The Movie Premiere of The Fugitive on ITV starring Harrison Ford.
25 April – The final edition of ITV's daytime quiz show Chain Letters is aired after 10 years of broadcast.
27 April – The BBC confirms comedy duo Hale and Pace have signed a £1million two-year deal that will see them move from ITV.[41]
May[]
1 May – UK General Election night: for the first time, the 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 – BBC1 airs Falling Down, a 1992 American action thriller starring Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, and Barbara Hershey.[42]
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.
13 May – Jeremy Paxman speaks to Michael Howard on Newsnight, 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 [Lewis]?" – a total of twelve times in succession (14 if the first two inquiries 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.[43][44][45] Howard finally answered 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."[46]
23 May – Channel 4's quiz show Countdown celebrates its 2000th edition.[47]
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.
26 May – BBC1 airs the documentary Lenny's Big Amazon Adventure, which sees Lenny Henry travel to Peru with survival expert Lofty Wiseman.[48]
30 May – Channel 5 airs the first showing on British television of Russell Mulcahy's 1993 American crime caper film The Real McCoy, starring Kim Basinger, Val Kilmer and Terence Stamp.
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.[49]
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 The Independent's Glenn Moore describing it as a "shambles"[50] However, the coverage gives the channel its largest audience so far, with a viewership of five million.[51]
June[]
2 June – BBC Breakfast News is given a re-vamp. It is studio and theme tune changes. It is now known as "Breakfast News" rather than "BBC Breakfast News".
4 June – Magdalen College, Oxford wins the 1996–97 series of University Challenge, beating The Open University 250–195.
8 June –
Last football match commentated by Jock Brown for BBC Scotland which was a World Cup Qualifier when Scotland played away to Belarus to win 1–0. He leaves the station at the end of the month to take a role as general manager at Celtic F.C..
Faye Dempsey wins the eighth series of Stars in Their Eyes, performing as Olivia Newton-John.
10 June – BBC2 airs the television documentary Homeground: An Exile's Return, telling the story of Martin McGartland, a former British agent who infiltrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army.[52]
11 June – SMG buys Grampian Television, the ITV contractor for Northern Scotland, for £105 million.[53]
18 June – Sky One airs the final episode of the supernatural soap opera Springhill.
19 June – Media agencies reject Granada Group chairman Gerry Robinson's call for the formation of a single ITV company, expressing concerns it would be extremely damaging to advertisers.[54]
30 June – BBC One airs a day of coverage of the Hong Kong handover ceremony marking the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China, an event that happens at midnight local time (17:00 BST).[56]
July[]
3 July – After 17 years, Peter Snow presents Newsnight for the last time, though he will continue to make occasional appearances as a political analyst until 2005.
4 July – The Battersby family, described by media as a "family from hell", make their debut in Coronation Street.[57]
5 July – ITV screens the comedy pilot The Grimleys. A full series begins in 1999 and airs for three series until 2001.
12 July – BBC1 airs the network television premiere of John Woo's 1993 American action thriller film Hard Target, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
25 July –
Channel 5 announces plans to run an advertising campaign on ITV in order to attract more viewers.[58]
Channel 4 airs the network television premiere of Clive Barker's 1987 British supernatural horror film Hellraiser, starring Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence and Doug Bradley.
26 July – Midlands Today presenter Alan Towers announces live on air that he is leaving the programme after 25 years in broadcast journalism, describing BBC bosses as "pygmies in grey suits wearing blindfolds".[59]
August[]
3 August – Julie Friend wins the 1997 series of MasterChef.
8 August – Popular children's animated series Postman Pat has been snapped up by Premiere 12 for broadcasting transmissions in Singapore.
26 August – It is reported that former Grandstand presenter Helen Rollason has been diagnosed with cancer and will undergo emergency surgery.[60]
BBC1 stays on air through the night, simulcasting with BBC World News, to bring news updates of Diana, Princess of Wales's car accident. At 6.00am, a rolling news programme, anchored by Martyn Lewis and from 1.00pm by Peter Sissons, is shown on both BBC1 and BBC2 until BBC2 breaks away at 3 pm to provide alternative programming. BBC1 continues to provide coverage until closedown when it once again hands over to BBC World. ITV's unbroken news coverage of the tragedy lasts until well into the evening; the first scheduled program being aired on that channel is Coronation Street. In the days following her death, regular programming is abandoned in order to allow for coverage of events.
September[]
1 September –
National Geographic Channel is launched.
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.[61]
Magnus Magnusson hosts the final episode of Mastermind until 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 made a special broadcast to the nation. The address is broadcast live at 6.00pm, ahead of the early evening news broadcasts.[62][63]
The former ITV game show Name That Tune returns for a new series on Channel 5, where it is presented by Jools Holland.[64]
6 September – The live broadcast of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales is watched by 2.5 billion viewers worldwide.[65] The ceremony's footage goes down in the Guinness World Records as the biggest TV audience for a live broadcast.[66] 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.[67]
9 September – ITV broadcasts the movie premiere of A Perfect World, starring Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood.
10 September – BBC Two begins airing the six-part documentary series The Nazis: A Warning from History which examines the rise and fall of the Nazi Party in Germany.[68] The final part is aired on 15 October.[69]
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 radio and television news services produced by the same production teams.
BBC One airs the documentary series Holiday Memories in which presenter Esther Rantzen re-visits Zimbabwe with her daughter.[70] Rantzen became severely ill after filming the episode and was subsequently diagnosed with Giardiasis. She is absent from her BBC Two afternoon talk show Esther for several months while recovering from the condition, returning to television in early 1998.[71]
20 September – First appearance 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. Due to its popularity the version is released as a single on 17 November, with sales benefiting Children in Need.[72] 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.[73][74]
22–25 September – BBC 1 soap 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.[75][76]
29 September – BBC One airs two brand new animated programmes for children Enid Blyton's Enchanted Lands (based on the book series The Faraway Tree by renowned children's author Enid Blyton) and Noah's Island (made by Telemagination, the company behind The Animals of Farthing Wood). 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 BBC One after six years in use. The BBC logo changes from parallelogram to square.
4 October – BBC One adopts new "hot air balloon" globe identifications to coincide with the introduction of the network's new corporate logo. See BBC One 'Balloon' idents. Also, new idents feature on BBC Two alongside existing one's first seen in 1991 with the new logo.
16 October – Emmerdale celebrates its 25th anniversary.
19 October –
BBC One shows Steven Spielberg's 1993 Oscar-winning drama Schindler's List, a film based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally. The film is followed by an interview with Spielberg and a profile of Oskar Schindler.[77]
Debut of Lynda La Plante's police proceduralTrial & Retribution, a series that makes frequent use of the split-screen format.
27 October – UK Living changes its name to Living TV, 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. Anderson repeatedly jokes about their life and career throughout the interview, but they decide to leave after he refers to them as "tossers".[78]
31 October – Queen Elizabeth II opens a £5.5 million interactive visitors' centre, the BBC Experience at Broadcasting House. The venture proved to be loss-making for the corporation and was closed in 2001.
November[]
1 November –
The UKTV network is launched in the UK. Existing channel UK Gold is joined by UK Horizons, UK Arena and UK Style.
The Movie Channel is rebranded under the Sky Movies banner, now called Sky Movies Screen 1 and Sky Movies Screen 2.[79]
2 November – Quentin Tarantino's critically acclaimed film Pulp Fiction makes its British television debut on BBC Two.[80]
4 November – BBC News Online is launched.
9 November – At 6.00pm, BBC News 24 is launched. It is the BBC's first new UK channel since BBC Two in 1964. The channel also broadcasts on BBC One through the night after closedown.
12 November – ITV broadcasts the movie premiere of In the Line of Fire starring Clint Eastwood.
20 November – BBC One airs live coverage of the service of thanksgiving marking the golden wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, held at Westminster Abbey.[81]
21 November – For the first time, the BBC's Children in Need has its own website, which is launched at 4.00pm ahead of the evening's telethon.[82]
26 November – British television premiere of Trainspotting on Channel 4.[83]
December[]
1 December –
The original four Sky Box Office movies-on-demand channels launch.
Konnie Huq presents her first episode of the UK children's programme Blue Peter. She will go on to be the longest running female presenter and third longest overall in the show's history, presenting for ten years before leaving in January 2008.
5 December – Canadian/German science-fiction series Lexx debuts on Channel 5.
7 December – The Teletubbies, the characters from the pre-school BBC television series, are at number one in the UK Singles Chart with their debut single "Teletubbies say "Eh-oh!"". The track is a contender for the coveted Christmas number one, but that title is taken by the Spice Girls with "Too Much".[84][85][86]
9 December – CNBC Europe announces its intention to merge with the Dow Jones news channel in Europe, European Business News.[87]
20 December – The ITC award the three pay-TV digital multiplex licences to British Digital Broadcasting.
Christmas Eve highlights on Channel 5 include Tim Vine's Christmas Present, an Andy Williams Show style programme of festive music and guests.[89]
25 December – Christmas Day highlights on BBC One include British television premieres of The Flintstones and The Mask.[90][91]
26 December –
Boxing Day highlights on BBC One include the films Hook, Beethoven's 2nd and True Lies, as well as Paul McCartney's Standing Stones, the Documentary and Unplugged: Oasis.[92]
Channel 4 broadcasts the British television premiere of Nell.
27 December – Channel 4 airs an evening of programmes chosen by viewers. The line up includes episodes of Brookside, Friends, Father Ted, Cutting Edge and Whose Line is it Anyway?, as well as the film Shallow Grave.[49]
31 December – BBC One airs Cold Enough for Snow, the sequel to Jack Rosenthal's 1996 comedy Eskimo Day.[93]
December – The first series of Robot Wars in the UK is filmed from December of this year to January of the following year.
Unknown[]
Michael Jackson is appointed Chief Executive of Channel 4.[94]
Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announces that Channel 4's funding formula with ITV will be abolished from 1998.[94]
^The Language MasterArchived 6 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine at the British Film Institute Film & TV Database
^Campbell, Sophie (5 February 2005), "Now Repeat After Me", The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 21 December 2007, retrieved 14 February 2012
^Poole, Steven (26 March 1997). "Last night's television". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
^Thorpe, Vanessa; Blackhurst, Chris (27 July 1997). "And finally, you're all BBC pygmies". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 24 April 2015.