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Overview of the events of 2011 in British television
Toonattik after 6 years leaves CITV along with Action Stations!, which closes down after 5 years of broadcast. New Year's Day also sees the final appearance of The Fluffy Club on Mini CITV.
Cable channel Bravo closes down after 25 years of broadcasting. Its sister channel Bravo 2 also closes down.
5 January
Avon and Somerset Police ban ITN from attending a press conference convened to give updates on the Joanna Yeates case after a report on the previous day's ITV News criticised their handling of the investigation.[1] The ban is subsequently lifted.[2]
6 January
Samantha Womack is to leave her role in EastEnders as Ronnie Mitchell over the controversial baby swap plot.[3]
9 January
EastEnders viewers have complained in record numbers about the soap's "hurtful", "unrealistic" and "exploitative" cot death storyline involving the character Ronnie Mitchell.[4][5]
14 January
The S4C Authority confirms it has closed S4C2 due to budget cuts imposed on it by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.[6][7]
17 January
Barney Harwood becomes the new Blue Peter presenter taking over from Joel Defries.
25 January
Reporter Andy Gray is dropped by Sky Sports following sexist comments made by himself and fellow presenter Richard Keys against female official Sian Massey in footage recorded the previous Saturday.[8] Keys resigns the following day, in support of his colleague.[9]
February[]
Date
Event
1 February
The Sky HD swap is introduced giving HD channels more prominence. Sky also sees the launch of brand-new channel Sky Atlantic, and the Living channels are rebranded as Sky Living. Channel One closed down at 6 am, and was replaced on Freeview by Challenge.
2 February
John Nettles appears in his final ever episode of Midsomer Murders, having starred in a total of 81 episodes since the series was launched in 1997.[10][11]
BBC executive Craig Oliver is appointed as Prime Minister David Cameron's Director of Communications.[12]
4 February
The BBC apologises for remarks about Mexicans made on its Top Gear television programme but defends the original remarks as well.[13]
14 February
Channel 5 reverts to its original name after almost a decade.
16 February
BBC One airs a special hour-long episode of its daytime soap Doctors to celebrate the series 2000th episode.[14]
28 February
The ban on product placement in television programmes is lifted, allowing advertisers to pay for their goods to be seen on British TV. The first product to be displayed in this regard is a Nescafecoffee machine, which appeared on This Morning.[15][16] A year-long trial also begins allowing commercial television channels to show up to 12 minutes of adverts per hour during films and dramas, bringing them into line with soap operas where this is already permitted.[17]
March[]
Date
Event
2 March
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation agrees to sell Sky News to be in a position to buy BSkyB without a Competition Commission inquiry.[18] News Corp receives approval to buy out BSkyB the following day.[19]
16 March
Coleen Nolan announces her decision to quit ITV daytime panel show Loose Women after over 10 years as a panellist.
Gemma Collins makes her debut in the second series of ITV2 reality television series The Only Way Is Essex.
26 March
British terrestrial television premiere of the James Bond filmQuantum of Solace on ITV1.[20]
27 March
Sam Attwater and dancing partner Brianne Delcourt win the sixth series of Dancing on Ice.[21]
30 March – 13 April
Analogue signals are switched off in the Nottingham and Sandy Heath areas.
April[]
Date
Event
4 April
Magdalen College, Oxford wins the 2010–11 series of University Challenge, beating the University of York 290–85.
6 April
Channel 5 officially announced that it had bought the rights to show former Channel 4 reality series Big Brother from August 2011.[22]
6–20 April
Analogue signals are switched off in the Bromsgrove, Lark Stoke and Ridge Hill (Central and West) areas.
7 April
Top of the Pops returns to television in its former Thursday evening slot as BBC Four begins airing old episodes from 1976, the point at which the broadcaster's full archive of shows begins.[23]
18 April
Small Potatoes premieres on BBC as a children's television program which involves four anthropomorphic singing potatoes learning about different kinds of music, imagination and much more
19 April
Helen Mirren apologises after swearing during an interview on the day's edition of BBC Breakfast.[24]
27 April
Tim Anderson wins the 2011 series of MasterChef.[25]
29 April
Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton shown on BBC One and ITV. Audiences of around 24.5 million watched in the UK alone.[26]
May[]
Date
Event
11 – 25 May
Analogue signals are switched off in the Darvel and Rosneath (HP and VP) areas.
5 May
It is confirmed that Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole will leave their positions as judges on The X Factor to concentrate on the American version of the programme.[27] Cole was later dropped from the US version of the series.[28]
12 May
ITV axes the Scottish police drama Taggart after 28 years, citing poor viewing figures in other parts of the UK.[29]
Dennis Tanner, played by Philip Lowrie, returns to Coronation Street, having last appeared in 1968. His break of 43 years is the longest of any actor in the soap's history.[30]
Dannii Minogue announces she will not be appearing on the next series of The X Factor.[31]
19 May
A special edition of the BBC's political debate programme Question Time is recorded at Wormwood Scrubbs Prison in London.[32]
BBC World News America presenter Matt Frei is recruited by Channel 4 News to become their Washington correspondent, while Newsnight correspondent Jackie Long will become Channel 4 News's social affairs editor. Cathy Newman will become the first new presenter to join the in-studio team at Channel 4 for 13 years.[33]
24 May
Broadcast magazine reports that ITV is preparing to launch a new investigative series titled Exposure, thirteen years after it axed the award-winning World in Action.[34]
25 May
It is announced that Jeff Stelling is to leave Countdown after two years to concentrate on Sky Sports.[35]
30 May
After six and a half years, Emmerdale saw a new sequence to the opening titles of the series, with a new theme music, with new generic shots alongside a Range Rover driving through the woods, cuts sideways to a woman stroking a man's leg with her foot: a couple running upstairs in Home Farm, a dog in The Dingles' living room; then finally finishing on a new CGI image of the village, angled at Main Street which ends with the new logo fading on to the screen.
ITV confirms that Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland will join Louis Walsh as judges for series 8 of The X Factor.[36]
June[]
Date
Event
1–15 June
Analogue signals are switched off in the Craigkelly area.
ITV children's gadget show Cool Stuff Collective is criticised by Ofcom for "product placement" over the way featured items are reviewed by the programme.[39]
The Sun reports that the BBC's So You Think You Can Dance will not return for a third series.[40]
9 June
Mandy Salter will be returning to EastEnders as Nicola Stapleton is set to reprise the role for the first time since 1994.
11 June
Matt Flint wins series two of So You Think You Can Dance.[41]
13 June
BBC Two airs the controversial documentary Choosing to Die, a film presented by Terry Pratchett which examines the topic of assisted suicide.[42]
The BBC announces that its landmark Television Centre is up for sale.[43]
17 June
Viewers of the BBC News Channel claim to have been distracted when newsreaders Martine Croxall and Carrie Gracie appear on screen to read the morning's news wearing similar outfits that are an identical colour.[44]
22 June
The last analogue television services are switched off in Scotland, making it the second part of the UK to have a fully digital service.
ITV recruits BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg to be its new business editor. She will take up the role from September, and will also front editions of the Tonight programme.[45]
30 June
ITV confirms that Coronation Street will return to its traditional 19:30 timeslot on a Wednesday evening from September 2012.[46]
July[]
Date
Event
6–20 July
Analogue signals are switched off in the Sudbury area.
8 July
The BBC announces that Pam St. Clement is to leave EastEnders after 25 years.
10 July
ITV confirms it has sacked daytime presenters Kate Thornton and Zoe Tyler in a bid to boost flagging ratings for daytime show Loose Women
13 July
Rupert Murdoch announces that News Corporation is withdrawing its proposal to take full control of the subscription television broadcaster BSkyB due to concerns over the phone hacking scandal.
17 July
Inventor Tom Pellereau wins the seventh series of The Apprentice, and a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar, who will become his business partner in exchange for the investment.[47]
July
UKTV does a deal with BSkyB to provide on-demand content available to Sky customers via Sky Anytime.
ITV News hires former BBC and 5 News presenter Natasha Kaplinsky to cover for Nina Hossain while the latter is on maternity leave. She will present on London Tonight and national bulletins.[49]
3–17 August
Analogue signals are switched off in the Belmont and Olivers Mount areas.
10–24 August
Analogue signals are switched off in the Chesterfield and Sheffield areas.
11 August
BBC One airs a special edition of the political discussion show Question Time following the recent outbreak of rioting.[50]
15 August
Virgin Media agrees to sell its 50% stake in UKTV to Scripps Networks for £339m.[51]
16 August
BBC Magazines agrees a £12m deal to sell the Radio Times – together with ten other titles – to Exponent, owner of thetrainline.com.[52]
17–31 August
Analogue signals are switched off in the Waltham area.
18 August
Celebrity Big Brother 2011 launches on Channel 5 marking the first ever series of Celebrity Big Brother to air on the channel.
The BBC airs a special edition of its Crimewatch programme aimed at identifying people involved in the 2011 England riots.[53][54]
25 August
Teesside comedian Patrick Monahan wins the live final of ITV's Show Me the Funny, in which stand-up comedians competed to win £100,000, a 12-date nationwide tour and a DVD release.[55]
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband's keynote conference speech is blacked out for five-minute after all media communications are lost by a power outage at the conference centre.[59]
October[]
Date
Event
4 October
Joanne Wheatley wins the second series of The Great British Bake Off.
6 October
BBC Director GeneralMark Thompson announces that BBC HD will close to be replaced by a high definition simulcast of BBC Two. This BBC Two HD will work much the same way as BBC One HD.[60] This move allows the corporation to save £2.1 million, used to count towards their budget deficit following the freezing of the license fee and the additional financial responsibility of addition services.[61]
15 October
Helen Flanagan, who plays Rosie Webster in Coronation Street, announces she is leaving the series after twelve years. She will film her final scenes at Christmas and be seen on screen until February 2012.[62]
18 October
ITV plc buys the Channel Islands franchise Channel Television from the Yattendon Group plc.[63]
22 October
Phil Vickery wins the 2011 series of Celebrity MasterChef.[64]
October
High definition versions of Dave and Watch are launched by UKTV.
November[]
Date
Event
4 November
Jill Evans, a WelshMEP is fined £575 after refusing to pay her TV licence fee in protest over changes to the Welsh-language channel S4C.[65]
8 November
ITN confirms it has secured a five-year contract to resume production of 5 News from early 2012. The broadcaster lost the programme to Sky News in 2005. Part of the new deal will see the 7:00 pm bulletin move to an earlier 6:30 pm timeslot.[66]
9–23 November
Analogue signals are switched off in the Tacolneston area.
11 November
Aaron Allard-Morgan wins Big Brother 2011 and became Channel 5's first ever Big Brother winner.[67]
13 November
TV bosses are forced to apologise after the results of a phone vote for the previous evening's The X Factor appeared online before the lines had closed. The episode was also delayed for fifteen minutes by a technical glitch.[68]
14 November
Coronation Street becomes the first prime time British television programme to use product placement after signing a deal with Nationwide Building Society. A Nationwide cash machine is seen in the episode.[69]
16 November
Nick Hewer, one of Alan Sugar's advisers on The Apprentice is revealed as the latest host of Countdown. He will take over from outgoing presenter Jeff Stelling from January 2012.[70]
19 November
Attorney GeneralDominic Grieve QC seeks leave to prosecute Sky News for contempt of court over its reporting of the kidnapping of Paul and Rachel Chandler after the channel allegedly breached an injunction preventing the disclosure of the couple's welfare.[71]
December[]
Date
Event
1 December
The BBC has received over 31,000 complaints about comments made by Jeremy Clarkson on the previous evening's The One Show in which he said he would "execute" striking public sector workers.[72]
Matthew Wright, host of The Wright Stuff, apologises for remarks he made on 6 December edition of the show concerning a murder in the Western Isles.[74]
10 December
After 25 years Casualty airs its last episode to be filmed in Bristol. Subsequent episodes are filmed in Cardiff.[75]
11 December
Little Mix (originally named Rhythmix) win the eighth series of The X Factor, making them the first group to emerge as winners.
12 December
Student Zara Brownlees wins the second series of Young Apprentice.[76]
15 December
Ash Mair wins the fourth series of MasterChef: The Professionals.[77]
17 December
McFly drummer Harry Judd and his dancing partner Aliona Vilani win the ninth series of Strictly Come Dancing.[78]
^"BBC defends 'Top Gear' joke". Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. 4 February 2011. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2011.