1 January – BBC One airs the British television premiere of Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks.[1]
6 January – The BBC and ITV agree their scheduling arrangements for the 1998 World Cup, which will see both England and Scotland's opening matches airing on BBC One, while each nation's second group match will air on ITV.[2]
7 January – The BBC confirms that Helen Rollason will return to television screens to present weekend sports bulletins for BBC One and BBC Two following treatment for colon cancer.[3]
8 January – The ITV docudrama Miracle at Sea: The Rescue of Tony Bullimore reconstructs the events of yachtsman Tony Bullimore's dramatic rescue after his boat capsized during the 1996 Vendée Globe yacht race.[4]
9 January –
Chat show host Michael Parkinson returns to television after several years with a new series of Parkinson.[5] Guests on the first edition are Sir Anthony Hopkins, Barry Manilow, and Paul Merton.[6]
Channel 5 signs a deal with Buena Vista Entertainment to air some of its titles. This will include the British television premiere of The Rock, starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery.
12 January –
Location filming begins for a one-off episode of Australian soap Home and Away set in Ironbridge, Shropshire.[7] This is the first occasion the serial has filmed an episode overseas.[8] The storyline, aired later in the year, sees Irene Roberts (Lynne McGranger) arrive in the UK to help Selina Roberts (Tempany Deckert), who is recovering from a bout of malaria. Selina is also reunited with her on screen fiancé Steven Matheson (Adam Willits).[9]
The 1996 UTV logos are supplemented with a set of idents featuring people playing the UTV jingle on various musical instruments.[10]
14 January – Channel 4 airs the 2000th episode of its soap Brookside.[11]
17 January – Media sources report the arrival of a new EastEnders family, the Di Marcos, who will make their first appearance later in the month and set up an Italian restaurant in Albert Square.[12] The majority of the family are written out of the soap two years later.[13]
21 January – The former Conservative MP Rupert Allason loses a libel action against BBC Worldwide and Hat Trick Productions over comments made in a 1996 book based on the satirical television programme Have I Got News for You. A paragraph in Have I Got 1997 for You, had noted "...given Mr Allason's fondness for pursuing libel actions, there are also excellent legal reasons for not referring to him as a conniving little shit".[14]
24 January – ITV airs its first episode of Ice Warriors, a spin-off from the Gladiators.
25–26 January – Channel 4's coverage of American football comes to an end with its airing of the 1998 Super Bowl.[15]
26 January – Hayley Patterson, British soap's first transgender character, is first seen in Coronation Street. Hayley (played by Julie Hesmondhalgh) is a regular in the series for several years, and helps to change public attitudes towards transgender issues. The character is killed off in a dramatic and emotional right to die storyline in January 2014 after Hesmondhalgh decided to leave the show.[16][17]
30 January – The Weather Channel closes in the UK after less than 18 months due to low viewership. Rival weather station The Weather Network also closes its UK operation at around the same time..
February[]
February – CNBC Europe merges with European Business News, upon which the channel is known officially as "CNBC Europe – A Service of NBC and Dow Jones".
4 February – Debut of The Pepsi Chart Show on Channel 5. Initially presented by Rhona Mitra and Eddy Temple-Morris the programme is intended as a stablemate to the Pepsi Chart that airs across commercial radio. The show becomes one of the channel's most watched programmes, but has difficulty attracting some of the bigger acts of the day.
7–22 February – The BBC provides coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympic Games. Due to the time difference, live coverage is limited with little live action shown, especially during the second week of the Games.
16 February – Teletubbies begins its first airing in Australia on ABC.
17 February – Central Television's discussion programme Central Weekend is criticised by the Independent Television Commission after an elderly couple complained about an item on the show's 9 January edition that included a discussion about the size of male genitalia.[18]
27 February – Castle Transmission International is confirmed as the supplier of the BBC's Digital Terrestrial Television, and says it will invest £100 million in broadcast capacity.[20]
March[]
1 March – Positions for BBC Governors are advertised for the first time in the Sunday newspapers.
2 March – Channel 5 begins a rerun of the 1980s Australian soap Sons and Daughters. This is the programme's first networked showing as its previous run on ITV had varied from region to region.
4 March – Kate Winslet, star of Titanic appears as a guest on Celebrity Ready Steady Cook along with former Casualty actor Gray O'Brien.[21]
6 March –
Debut on ITV of Airline, a brand new six-part fly on the wall documentary series produced by London Weekend Television narrated by Charlie Higson that highlights the daily happenings of the passengers, ground workers and flight crew of Britannia Airways. From the second series, the programme switches its attention to EasyJet.
Central Weekend is briefly taken off air when a member of the audience becomes aggressive during a discussion about women's football.[22]
9 March – The name Tyne Tees Television is returned to ITV viewers in the North East of England, having been rebranded as Channel 3 North East two years previously.
15 March – ITV airs a special one-off edition of Sunday Night at the London Palladium to celebrate Bruce Forsyth's 70th birthday. It includes appearances by Diana Ross and Joe Longthorne.[23]
16 March – Teletubbies goes to air in New Zealand on TV3.
19 March – The BBC signs a deal with Discovery Communications that will allow the two to collaborate on the production of nature programming.
21 March – BBC Two airs Richard Eyre's of his Royal National Theatre production of King Lear, starring Ian Holm in the eponymous role, as well as Barbara Flynn, Amanda Redman and Victoria Hamilton as Lear's daughters.[24]
28 March – American adult animated comedy South Park debuts on Sky One.
29 March –
BBC America launches in the United States.
An episode of Coronation Street in which the character Deirdre Rachid is jailed for mortgage and credit card fraud is watched by 16.5 million viewers, giving the soap its highest Sunday viewing figures since the weekend episode was added in 1996. The crimes having been committed by her lover, Jon Lindsay, Deirdre's wrongful conviction sparks a public outcry. Her case is championed by national newspapers, and even Prime Minister Tony Blair offers to refer the conviction to Home Secretary Jack Straw.[25][26]
UK debut of Episode 2965 of Neighbours, which sees Anne Haddy make her final appearance as matriarch Helen Daniels, the character having been killed off. The episode aired on Australian television on 17 October 1997.[27] Haddy, the soap's longest serving cast member at the time of her departure, died herself in June 1999.[28]
Stargate SG-1 makes its debut on Sky One, begins with a special two-hour pilot episode.
4 April – After just nine shows, Ice Warriors is axed by ITV due to poor ratings and the show itself is not recommissioned for a second series.
6 April –
Cable and Wireless viewers see the Nordic version of The Children's Channel due to a pre-agreed contract signed some years before to air The Children's Channel in Scandinavia. Flextech creates an advertisement-free version known as TCC Nordic to fulfil this requirement.
Teletubbies starts airing in the United States for the first time on PBS.
10 April –
The leading progress in Northern Ireland after overnight talks as the final draft of a Good Friday Agreement is almost ready for signature. At about 5.30pm, BBC Two dropped its scheduled programmes in the late afternoon (including A Miracle of Tears and an episode of The Simpsons) to cover developments, picking up in the middle of a joint press conference at Castle Buildings in Stormont Estate by the prime ministers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern.
After 13 years with EastEnders, Gillian Taylforth makes her final regular appearance as the character Kathy Beale, with the show airing a one-hour special to coincide with her departure.[29]
16 April – CITV is scheduled to air the tenth episode of ReBoot's third season. However, the episode is not aired and Timmy Towers is aired instead of ReBoot, it hasn't aired since.
17 April – Coronation Street character Deirdre Rachid is freed from prison after her lover Jon Lindsay is exposed as a bigamist. Four separate tabloid newspapers subsequently claim victory in securing her release, but the soap's producers say they always planned for the jail storyline to conclude after three weeks.
21 April – Magdalen College, Oxford wins the 1997–98 series of University Challenge, beating Birkbeck, University of London 225–195.
27 April – Kevin Lloyd, who has played Tosh Lines in The Bill since 1988, is dismissed from the role by ITV due to his alcoholism. He dies, aged 49, within a week.[30]
May[]
1 May – The four individual segments of Granada Good Life are merged into a single channel and relaunched as Granada Breeze.
3 May – Sky One airs the 200th episode of The Simpsons, featuring members from the Irish rock band U2 to provide special guest voices as themselves.
9 May – Live coverage from The 43rd Eurovision Song Contest is held at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. The contest is presented by Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson and won by Israel's Dana International singing "Diva".
15 May – ITV announces that ITV2, a new digital terrestrial channel from ITV scheduled for launch later in the year, will be aimed at a younger and lighter audience, with an emphasis on male viewers.[31]
18 May – The British Academy Television Awards are awarded in the separate ceremony to the British Academy Film Awards for the first time.
20 May – BBC One airs Episode 3000 of Neighbours.[32]
25 May – Labour MP George Galloway demands an investigation into an edition of Panorama aired on 21 May, which he describes as "racist". The edition had focussed on two British nurses accused of the murder of Yvonne Gilford, a colleague with whom they worked in Saudi Arabia, and included a reconstruction of the two women being interrogated by Saudi Police. Galloway describes the programme as "tabloid television at its worst".[33]
26 May – CITV is relaunched with the revival of in-vision continuity, introducing Stephen Mulhern and Danielle Nicholls as regular presenters.
28 May – Channel 4 is censured by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for an episode of the series TV Dinners in which a woman's afterbirth was served up to friends and relatives as pâté. Several viewers, including MP Kevin McNamara complained about the programme, shown in February, which the Commission deemed had broken a taboo and "would have been disagreeable to many".[34]
30 May – BBC One airs The Bee Gees: One Night Only, a concert recorded in Las Vegas by the Bee Gees in 1997.[35]
31 May – Sky Scottish closes after 19 months on air, having failed to meet its financial targets.[36]
June[]
3 June –
The Big Breakfast co-presenter Denise van Outen apologises for taking an ashtray and tissue box holder from Buckingham Palace. She took the items while attending a royal reception two days earlier, but returns them with a note of apology following criticism in the press.[37]
British terrestrial television debut of the American comedy-drama series Ally McBeal on Channel 4.[38]
5 June – The BBC signs a deal with BSkyB to make BBC channels available through Sky Digital when it is launched later in the year.[39]
7 June – To mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Russell Harty, BBC Two airs You Are, Are You Not, Russell Harty?, a documentary paying tribute to the chat show presenter.[40]
9 June –
Film critic and host of The Film Programme, Barry Norman announces he will leave the BBC after 25 years to join BSkyB. He will leave Film 98 at the end of its current run and join Sky in September.[41]
The Bill episode "The People Person" is aired as a tribute to Kevin Lloyd, who died on 2 May.
10 June – The BBC switches on its digital signal, doing so to coincide with the start of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The technology will be showcased at a number of public venues over the summer, before the launch of the BBC's first digital television channel, BBC Choice, in the autumn.[42]
10 June – 12 July – The BBC and ITV show live coverage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
11 June – Blue Peter presenters Katy Hill and Richard Bacon bury a time capsule containing various items associated with the programme in the foundations of the Millennium Dome. It will be opened in 2050.[43]
13 June – Jason Searle wins the ninth series of Stars in Their Eyes, performing as Neil Diamond.[44]
25 June – The final episode of BBC One's The Human Body is the first British television programme to show the final moments of a cancer patient; 63-year-old Herbert Mower, who died the previous year, had given permission for his death to be recorded for the series.[45]
26 June – Launch of the music channel Kiss TV.
July[]
1 July –
Flextech and UKTV have signed a deal with BSkyB that will see Flextech and UKTV channels carried on BSkyB's new digital satellite service when it is launched.[46]
BBC Chairman Sir Christopher Bland officially opens the BBC News Centre.
BBC One airs the first of three bitesize episodes of EastEnders to coincide with the 1998 World Cup Final, which sees some characters travelling to Paris for the final. Subsequent episodes are aired on 11 July and 12 July.[50][51][52]
28 July – British Digital Broadcasting rebrand as ONdigital.[53]
August[]
10 August – The Independent Television Commission upholds a viewer's complaint after a member of the Irish girl band B*Witched used the phrase "feck off" during a live interview on children's channel Nickelodeon on 13 May.[54]
12 August – BBC Two announce plans for an evening of programmes dedicated to the Helen Fielding novel Bridget Jones's Diary and issues raised in the book for later in the year.[55]
15 August – On the first day of the 1998–99 football season, the first edition of Soccer Saturday is broadcast on Sky Sports. The afternoon-long football scores and results service replaces Sports Saturday.
19 August – It is reported that talk show host Vanessa Feltz has been sacked by Anglia Television because of her "unreal" demands to have her wages doubled to £2.75 million.[56]
24 August – Channel 5 is reprimanded by the Independent Television Commission for showing a commercial during its soap, Family Affairs after both featured the same actor. The advert for McDonald's, aired on 18 May, featured actor Stephen Hoyle, who plays Liam Tripp in the series. The ITC has strict rules governing the separation of television programmes and commercials, and after two viewers complained about the incident, rules that Channel 5 had breached its regulations.[57]
27 August – Vanessa Feltz signs an exclusive two-year contract with the BBC.[58]
28 August – The satellite TV channel Bravo launches The Doll's House, an online series enabling internet users to observe the lives of four women living in a house in London. The women were selected from 250 applicants to live rent free in the house for six months, with weekly highlights of their activities being aired on the channel's men's magazine, The Basement. The project, inspired by JenniCam, a US site established by Jennifer Ringley, follows an experiment by Bravo earlier in the year, where cameras chronicled the life of actress Sara West over three months.[59][60]The Doll's House later attracts some media attention after one of the housemates slept with a male partner, unaware they were both on camera at the time.[61]
29 August – SMTV Live makes its debut as ITV's Saturday morning children's programme. It replaces Scratchy & Co.
August – The BBC's domestic television channels become available on Sky Digital's satellite service. An unintended consequence of this is that people in the rest of Europe can now watch BBC One and Two, using viewing cards from the UK, as the signal is encrypted for right reasons. This applies even within the UK: people in England can now watch BBC channels from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and vice versa.
September[]
1 September – Channel 4 pulls a documentary from the following day's schedule after learning that it was faked. Daddy's Girl told the story of aspiring model Victoria and her father, Marcus, who spoke candidly of his feelings about his daughter's career. But father and daughter were revealed to be boyfriend and girlfriend when Victoria's real father contacted Channel 4 after seeing a trailer for the documentary.[62]
ITV's football magazine programme On the Ball debuts with Gabby Yorath as presenter.[64]
Debut of The Moment of Truth, a game show presented by Cilla Black in which families or groups of friends can win prizes if one of their number is able to complete a difficult task, such as getting 24 tiddlywinks into a pot in under two minutes or memorising then playing the US national anthem on a xylophone.[65][66][67] The programme achieves audiences of nine million, but is criticised as cruel because children are shown the prizes even though they could lose, and are visibly distressed when their family loses. Black herself later admits she was not "emotionally prepared" for the reaction of losing contestants, and the rules are changed to allow larger consolation prizes for the second series.[68]
9 September –
Manchester United informs the London Stock Exchange that it has accepted a £623.4 million takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting.[69]
ITV airs the network television premiere of Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, Chris O'Donnell, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey.
10 September – Sky Movies Screen 1, Sky Movies Screen 2 and Sky Movies Gold are changed its names to Sky Premier, Sky MovieMax and Sky Cinema.
14 September – Data released by the National Grid indicates that a special edition of EastEnders aired the previous evening beat ITV's Sunday edition of Coronation Street. Power surges recorded as the programmes ended suggest three times as many viewers tuned into EastEnders than did Coronation Street.[70]
17 September – ITV's This Morning conducts the first live test of the anti-impotence drug Viagra.[71]
18 September – In an attempt to attract more viewers to its soap Family Affairs, Channel 5 announces that its entire central cast, the Hart family will be killed off in a dramatic storyline.[72]
19 September – BBC Two airs a special Bee Gees edition of TOTP2.[73]
21 September –
The long running BBC soap EastEnders is sold to television stations in the Republic of Ireland for the first time despite airing in Northern Ireland in the same year as its television premiere in Britain. The first Irish television network to air EastEnders was the newly launched commercial free-to-air television channel TV3.
Footage of US President Bill Clinton's recent testimony to a Grand Jury about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky is released to US television networks, and aired by broadcasters around the world, including in the UK.[74][75]
23 September –
BBC Choice, the UK's first digital-only television station, launches.[76]
BBC Parliament launches on digital satellite and analogue cable. It replaces the cable-only Parliamentary Channel.[77]
The BBC warns Blue Peter viewers to ignore a hoax chain letter claiming to be supported by the programme.[78]
ITV's autumn schedule will include what is reported to be the most expensive costume drama the broadcaster has ever made—the seafaring adventure Hornblower, which will cost £3 million an episode to produce.[79]
28 September – Three police officers are awarded substantial libel damages against Granada Television at the High Court after the broadcast of an April 1992 edition of World in Action which accused them of fabricating evidence against a prisoner charged with the murder of his cell mate.[80]
29 September – Former Spandau Ballet guitarist turned actor Martin Kemp is to join the cast of EastEnders as a nightclub owner, it is confirmed.[81]
October[]
1 October –
Digital satellite television launches in the UK, operated by Sky Digital. This sees the start of UK channels transmitting in 16:9 widescreen.
2 October – UK Gold Classics launches. On air as a part-time channel, broadcast from Friday to Sunday on Sky Digital from 6.00 pm to 2.00 am, the spin-off from UK Gold airs a number of early shows, including some black-and-white programmes, which had been acquired in the early years of the UK Gold service. It also aired some recent shows from the main channel, but the primary purpose of the channel was older shows from the early years of UK Gold to complement the main channel which had begun to move towards showing newer programmes.
5 October –
ITV adopts a new set of idents with lower case lettering, and themed around a heart design.[83]
Sky One begins simulcasting part of Virgin Radio's The Chris Evans Breakfast Show after Virgin signed a three year sponsorship deal with BSkyB. Under the agreement Evans is not allowed to mention Virgin Radio while the programme is being simulcast with Sky.[84][85]
Sarah, Duchess of York makes her debut as a television talk show host on Sky One with the first in a ten-part series titled Sarah... Surviving Life. Each week she will interview guests who have been through traumatic experiences, discussing with them how they overcame their difficulties. Guests in the first episode include a woman who was raped by serial killer Fred West, a man who killed someone, and a car crash survivor.[86] The programme is panned by critics, and axed in February 1999 because of poor viewing figures.[87]
6 October – The BBC announce plans to revamp its news bulletins following an 18-month review of news programming, the largest ever undertaken in the UK. Changes will include a new look Six O'Clock News concentrating on national and regional stories, and an increase in world news stories for the Nine O'Clock News.[88]
7 October – On the day's edition of The Big Breakfast, Denise van Outen announces her intention to leave the programme at the end of the year.[89][90]
10 October –
BBC Two airs Blue Peter Night, a selection of programmes celebrating 40 years of the children's television series Blue Peter.[91]
UK Play launches. Originally intended as a television version of BBC Radio 1, it showed music programming and videos during the day and comedy during the evening. It had no tie-up with Radio 1.
12 October – BBC One airs Divas Live, a concert from New York featuring Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estefan and Shania Twain.[92]
13 October –
Debut of Delia's How to Cook, a basic cookery programme presented by Delia Smith. The series is criticised by chef and restaurateur Gary Rhodes for its back-to-basics approach, while the Devon Fire Brigade criticise a piece of advice she gives in an edition to people who wish to season a new frying pan–to heat oil in it and leave it to simmer on low heat for eight hours.[93]
ITV airs the network television premiere of John McTiernan's 1995 action thriller film Die Hard with a Vengeance, starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons.
15 October – The BBC loses the broadcasting rights to test match cricket after the England and Wales Cricket Board accepts a rival £103 million four-year bid from Channel 4 and BSkyB. The decision brings to an end sixty years of continuous cricket coverage by the BBC.[94]
16 October –
A man who got drunk and ran amok on the set of Central Television's Central Weekend during a debate on women's football in March, forcing the show to be taken off the air, is jailed for 12 months over the incident.[95][96]
Blue Peter celebrates its 40th anniversary with a special show including former presenters.[97]
19 October – Richard Bacon becomes the first ever Blue Peter presenter to have his contract terminated in mid-run after the tabloid newspaper News of the World publishes a report of him taking cocaine.[98] After his dismissal the Head of BBC children's programmes, Lorraine Heggessey, goes on air to explain the situation to CBBC viewers.[98]
25 October –
The T4 strand is broadcast for the first time.
ITV airs Goodnight Mister Tom, a feature-length adaptation based on the 1981 wartime novel of the same name by Michelle Magorian and was directed by Jack Gold in his final film. The cast featured well-known British actors, including the veteran actor John Thaw.
26 October �� Ads Infinitum debuts on BBC Two after showing a pilot episode two years later.[99]
27 October – As part of its Q.E.D. strand, BBC One airs Hope for Helen, a documentary following television presenter Helen Rollason's fight against terminal cancer. She had been diagnosed with the condition the previous year and given three months to live.[100][101]
30–31 October – ITV broadcasts a special themed "Alien Invasion" night devoted to programmes with a mix of science-fiction and horror featuring some of the weirdest links that include Starship Bloopers, as well as the quiz show Universe Challenge and John Carpenter's 1982 film version of The Thing, starring Kurt Russell.
October – Cable and Wireless stops showing the Nordic version of The Children's Channel, thereby ending all UK broadcasts of The Children's Channel after more than 14 years.
November[]
1 November –
S4C Digidol launches in Wales.
Launch of FilmFour, a new subscription movie channel from Channel 4.[102] The opening night is simulcast on Channel 4.[103]
9 November – Release of Voice of an Angel, the debut album from Charlotte Church, who was discovered after singing Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Pie Jesu" down the telephone on an edition of ITV's This Morning in 1997. The singer went on to make appearances on Talking Telephone Numbers and , which helped to launch her career both in the UK and internationally. By 2010, Voice of an Angel had sold more than four million copies worldwide.[104][105]
15 November – Digital terrestrial television launches in the United Kingdom, operated by ONdigital.[106] It changed its name to ITV Digital in July 2001.[107]
18 November –
The British Egg Information Service reports that egg sales have increased by 10% since the debut of Delia Smith's BBC Two series Delia's How to Cook, a series that teaches viewers basic cookery skills.[108]
The National Grid reports a surge in the use of electricity at 8.00pm, as the Coronation Street episode featuring the death of the character Des Barnes (played by Philip Middlemiss) reaches its conclusion.[109]
19 November –
ITV is given permission to move its 10.00pm news bulletin by the Independent Television Commission, a decision that will allow the channel to axe News at Ten in early 1999. ITV wanted to move the programme because of declining ratings, and to make way for films and television dramas to air uninterrupted in its evening schedule, but the plans had been criticised by senior journalists and politicians, who fear it will lead to a reduction in the quality of evening television. Once the changes are implemented, ITV's main evening bulletin will air at 6.30pm, with a shorter news programme at 11.00pm.[110][111]
Members of the National Assembly Against Racism, one of Britain's leading anti-racism groups, stage a protest outside the headquarters of Channel 4 as the channel airs a Dispatches documentary that claims to have established that most juvenile gang rapes are carried out by black youths.[112]
20 November –
The Independent Television Commission orders ITV to take its advertising campaign for digital television off air because it is "derogatory" towards satellite television. The campaign had featured a crossed out satellite dish, and had attracted complaints from other major broadcasters in the week it was shown. The regulator also decides that future digital television advertising campaigns by ITV must be submitted to the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre before going on air.[113]
At London's Wandsworth County Court the makers of Channel 4's Fifteen to One are awarded a county court judgment against Trevor Montague, a former series champion who broke the show's rule that losing contestants cannot appear on the programme again. Having lost in 1989, Montague re-applied under a different name in 1992 and went on to become series champion, but was subsequently identified by a contestant who watched a repeat of the show on Challenge TV. Montague must pay £3,562 in compensation, and return his prizes – two goblets and a set of decanters – to Regent Productions.
22 November – The BBC confirms that Patsy Palmer, who plays Bianca Butcher in EastEnders will leave the soap in 1999 to spend more time with her family.[114]
27 November – ITV has scrapped plans for a documentary investigating claims of anti-English racism in Scotland because there was not enough evidence to support it, the Daily Record reports.[115]
December[]
1 December – Channel 4 marks World AIDS Day with a fundraising evening of music and comedy presented by Stephen Fry.[116]
2 December – ITV airs the first celebrity special of Stars in Their Eyes, an edition that includes Carol Vorderman performing as Cher, and five female cast members of Coronation Street as The Spice Girls. The edition is won by Steven Houghton as Tony Hadley.[117][118]
3 December – Channel 4 announces it has secured a £400,000 deal to air the only international interview with Monica Lewinsky, the woman at the centre of the sex scandal involving US President Bill Clinton.[119]
7 December –
Long-running current affairs series World in Action ends after 35 years, its final edition an investigation into Britain's alcohol consumption titled Britain on the Booze.[120]
Launch of the UK's second digital-only TV station ITV2.[121]
9 December – Channel 4 News unveils a new look for its hour-long bulletin and a new set, which will be seen on air from January 1999 and marks the biggest change for the programme since its launch in 1982. Jon Snow will continue to present the bulletin.[122]
11 December – BBC governors reject a request to give Scotland its own Six O'Clock News bulletin. Instead an extra £20 million will be spent on new jobs and programming in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.[123]
12 December –
The Commission for Racial Equality has called on British soaps to change the way black and Asian people are portrayed after , a new black character in Coronation Street, was seen breaking into a house in one of his first scenes.[124]
Viewers of Living channel accidentally see five minutes of an adult film being aired by Television X following a switching error by the company relaying both channels. The interruption, which occurs during an edition of The Jerry Springer Show generates seven complaints to the Independent Television Commission. The company responsible for the glitch later apologises, and makes technical changes to ensure it won't happen again.[125]
After a world-record-breaking 75 consecutive victories, Ian Lygo makes his final appearance on the Channel 5 game show 100%, after being forced to retire by the show's producers.[127][128]
After 25 years presenting Sooty, Matthew Corbett announces his retirement and hand picks Richard Cadell and Liana Bridges as his successors in the very last edition of Sooty & Co.
15 December – Holiday presenter Jill Dando rules herself out of becoming the face of a planned relaunched BBC Six O'Clock News following much media speculation on the topic. Dando says she plans to leave BBC News to concentrate on her presenting roles.[129]
16 December – Regular programming is interrupted when the United States and United Kingdom launch air strikes against Iraq after that country failed to comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction.
17 December – Jane Root is appointed Controller of BBC Two, becoming the first female head of a BBC channel. She will replace the outgoing incumbent, Mark Thompson in January 1999.[130]
18 December –
BBC political correspondent Huw Edwards is confirmed as the new face of the Six O'Clock News, taking over when the programme is revamped next year.[131]
Carlton Television is fined £2 million by the Independent Television Commission for a 1996 documentary titled The Connection in which actors pretended to be drug traffickers.[132]
19 December – Denise van Outen presents the final of the first Record of the Year for ITV, a show allowing viewers to vote for their favourite single of 1998 through a phone-in poll.[133] More than a million viewers call to register their vote, making the poll the UK's largest ever television phone poll. Of the ten songs shortlisted for the show, Irish boy band Boyzone's single "No Matter What" emerges as the winner.[134]
20 December – Sky One airs the third Christmas episode of The Simpsons, featuring special guest appearance by Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.
21 December –
Coronation Street unveils its first Asian family, the Desais, who will be seen on screen from the New Year. They are Ravi Desai (played by Saeed Jaffrey), his daughter Nita (Rebecca Sarker) and son Vikram (Chris Bisson), and will take over the running of the corner shop from Fred Elliott (John Savident).[135]
The National Federation of SubPostmasters criticises the forthcoming Christmas Day episode of Emmerdale for featuring the death of a village postmaster during a robbery, expressing concerns it could prompt a spate of copycat incidents. The union calls on ITV to pull the episode, which sees the character Vic Windsor (Alun Lewis) killed after he strikes his head during a robbery at his post office. ITV says it has taken care not to breach Post Office security during the episode's filming.[136]
22 December – BBC One airs These Are Special Times, a TV special recorded by Celine Dion, and featuring appearances from Andrea Bocelli and Rosie O'Donnell.[137]
A £30 million advertising campaign for the Millennium Dome kicks off with a 60-second commercial voiced by actor Jeremy Irons that invites viewers to imagine the achievements of the past 1,000 years had happened in one day. Major events such as the Consecration of Westminster Abbey, the plays of William Shakespeare and the Fall of the Berlin Wall are highlighted against the backdrop of the Easter Island Statues from sunrise to sunset.[138]
25 December –
Christmas Day highlights on BBC One include the 1994 film Miracle on 34th Street, Babe, and the first of three new episodes of Men Behaving Badly.[139]
BBC One broadcasts a documentary special about the long running pre-school series Teletubbies called Big Hug!: The Story of Teletubbies. The special takes a look at the phenomenal success of the series, how it came about, the way it was done, how it was criticized and been under fire, the differences between children's television in the old and later days, how the series was commissioned for the BBC and how children communicate to the "Tubby" language. There is also interviews with several people include the creator of the TeletubbiesAnne Wood, the co-creator and writer Andrew Davenport, Anna Home a former BBC executive who commissioned the series prior to retiring, journalist, gourmet and food writer, broadcaster and television personality Nigella Lawson, Oliver Postgate (the creator and writer of Bagpuss, The Clangers, Noggin the Nog, Pogles' Wood, Ivor the Engine and Pingwings) and the president and CEO of the Children's Television Workshop David Britt.
Channel 4 airs The Omen, a 1976 supernatural horror film depicting the Antichrist, at 10.30pm.[140][141] This leads to six viewer complaints that its scheduling on Christmas Day was in poor taste, and the Broadcasting Standards Commission later agrees with this sentiment.[142] However, the ruling in May 1999 draws criticism from Channel 4 Chief Executive Michael Jackson, who describes it as "typical of how the commission fails to get things in proportion" and says he would schedule the film similarly again.[140]
26 December – Boxing Day highlights on BBC One include the films Casper, Free Willy 2 and The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, as well as the second of three episodes of Men Behaving Badly.[143]
27 December – BBC One airs the 1997 costume drama Mrs Brown, starring Judi Dench and Billy Connolly.[144]
28 December – BBC One concludes its Christmas trilogy of new episodes of Men Behaving Badly.[145]
29 December –
The BBC's Come Dancing marks its 50th anniversary with an edition of the programme from London's Royal Albert Hall.[146]
BBC Two airs a special edition of TOTP2 dedicated to glam rock.[147]
29–30 December – BBC One airs a two-part dramatisation of Minette Walters' 1997 crime novel The Echo, starring Clive Owen and Joely Richardson.[148][149]
30 December – Provisional viewing figures indicate that BBC One had seven of the top ten most watched programmes over the Christmas weekend. The 28 December episode of EastEnders achieved first place with 15.7m viewers, followed by an episode of Coronation Street from the previous day with 15.1m. The final episode of Men Behaving Badly was watched by 14m viewers.[150]
31 December –
An episode of EastEnders in which the character Tiffany Mitchell is killed when she is hit by a car driven by Frank Butcher is watched by 22 million viewers.[151][152]
Other New Year's Eve highlights for BBC One include the film Getting Even with Dad, and Shirley Bassey: Viva Diva in which Shirley Bassey performs a number of show tunes with the backing of a large orchestra and the cast of the musical Chicago.[153]
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Early in 1998, BBC2 stops shutting down its transmitters when it isn't broadcasting the BBC Learning Zone. Instead, BBC2 broadcasts Pages from Ceefax during all overnight downtime.[154]
Vanni Treves succeeds Sir Michael Bishop as Chairman of Channel 4.[155]
^Arnold, Harry (17 December 1998). "Tv Quiz Chiefs Drop Mister 100 Per Cent: They alter rules after his 75th win". Daily Mirror. Trinity Mirror. p. 27.