1991 in British television

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List of years in British television (table)
+...

This is a list of

British television
related events from 1991.

Events

January

  • 1 January
  • 3 January
  • 7 January – BBC1 launches the local news programme,
    Midlands Today.[2]
  • 8 January
  • 14 January – The US sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring Will Smith, makes its debut on BBC2 as part of the DEF II programming strand.[4]
  • 17 January–2 March – Regular programming is suspended to bring live coverage of the Gulf War after Allied Forces launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. Over the coming weeks, there is extended coverage of events in the Persian Gulf. On BBC1, in addition to extended and additional news bulletins, a special daytime news analysis programme War in the Gulf, presented by
    The Channel 4 Daily. Some coverage, particularly in the earlier part of the war, comes from CNN. Sky News presents round-the-clock coverage and UK viewers are also able to watch rolling coverage on CNN
    .
  • 18 January – BBC2 airs a special edition of
    Arena in which playwright Arthur Miller meets ANC leader Nelson Mandela. In the show, Mandela talks for the first time about his life and experiences from a personal standpoint.[5]
  • 19 January
  • 28 January –
    After Dark discussing militarism, masculine stereotypes and violence to women. Reed drinks alcohol during the broadcast, leading him to become drunk, aggressive and incoherent.[7] He refers to another member of the panel who has a moustache as a 'tache' and uses offensive language. After one hour, Reed returns from the toilet and getting more to drink, rolls on top of the noted feminist author Kate Millett. The show is briefly taken off the air following a hoax call to the station claiming that Channel 4 boss Michael Grade
    is furious.

February

  • 12 February – A year after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, BBC2 airs an edition of its Assignment documentary strand in which journalist Donald Woods returns to South Africa to give his personal assessment of that country's future.[8]
  • 15 February – At the close of this day's programmes, the COW ident is seen for the final time on BBC1 after six years and the BBC2 'TWO' ident is also seen for the final time after five years.
  • 16 February
    • Both BBC1 and BBC2 receive new idents, both generated from laserdisc and featuring the BBC corporate logo introduced in 1986. BBC1 features a numeral '1' encased in a globe and BBC2 features eleven idents based around a numeral '2'. Also on this day, new idents for Open University programmes come into use.
    • Matthew Kelly succeeds Bruce Forsyth as presenter of ITV's You Bet!.
  • 25 February – Debut of the children's series Radio Roo on BBC1, starring Wayne Jackman.[9]
  • 26 February – Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. As the war comes to its conclusion, television programming begins to return to normal.

March

April

May

June

July

August

  • 3 August – The network television premiere of the comedy thriller Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs on BBC1, starring
    Ed Begley Jr.[40]
  • 9 August – Channel 4 debuts the hit HBO comedy series Dream On, one of the first US shows to feature uncensored profanity and nudity.
  • 14 August – BBC1 airs Mozart in London, the first of a three-part series marking the bicentenary of his death and in which his earliest pieces are performed by children of about the same age as he was when he wrote them. It is the first time this has been done on British television.[41]
  • 23 August–1 September – Eurosport airs the World Athletics Championships for the first time. The event is also shown on the BBC.
  • 26 August
    • BBC2 airs a day of programmes paying tribute to the Lime Grove Studios which closed the previous month and includes a remake of the 1950s soap opera The Grove Family featuring stars from the present day.
    • A repeat is shown of An Unearthly Child, the first-ever episode of Doctor Who from 1963.[42]
  • 29 August –
    Jakki Brambles.[43]
  • 31 August – NICAM stereo sound is introduced on BBC Television.

September

  • 3 September – The sitcom 2point4 Children makes its debut on BBC1, starring Belinda Lang and Gary Olsen.[44]
  • 5 September – The actor Arthur Pentelow who died on 6 August, makes his final on-screen appearance as Henry Wilks in Emmerdale. The character dies off-screen on 3 October.
  • 9 September – New idents launch on Children's BBC, featuring the BBC corporate logo.
  • 11 September – ITV airs Thatcher: The Final Days, a dramatisation of the final days of Margaret Thatcher's premiership. The film stars Sylvia Syms as the former Prime Minister.
  • 13 September – The documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife airs on Channel 4. It is set during the final days of the apartheid regime in South Africa, particularly centering on Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder and leader of the far-right, white supremacist political organisation AWB. A year later, Channel 4 faces its first libel case by Jani Allan, a South African journalist who objected to her representation in the documentary.[45]
  • 14 September – Channel 4 airs "A Night in Japan", a night of programmes dedicated to all things Japanese, from 8pm to 6am.[14]
  • 17 September – The sitcom Bottom makes its debut on BBC2, starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.[46]
  • 20 September – BBC2 begins a rerun of Gerry Anderson's classic 1960s series Thunderbirds.[47] The series proves to be popular, leading to a shortage of Tracy Island toys in stores during the run up to Christmas, something that prompts Blue Peter to show viewers and their parents how to make their own Tracy Island model.[48] An instruction sheet produced by the programme receives more than 100,000 requests.[49]
  • 21 September – More than eight years after launching a weekday breakfast television service, the BBC launches a five-minute long weekend breakfast news bulletin.[50]
  • 22 September
  • 26 September
  • 28 September – The network television premiere of the 1988 film Buster on ITV, starring Phil Collins as Great Train robber Buster Edwards.

October

  • 1 October – The Comedy Channel launches.
  • 2 October – The 1000th episode of the soap Brookside is broadcast on Channel 4.[52]
  • 3 October–2 November – ITV airs coverage of the 1991 Rugby World Cup. The competition is hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France.
  • 4 October – The US animated series The Legend of Prince Valiant makes its UK debut on BBC1.
  • 6 October – BBC1 airs Conundrum, the final episode of the original run of Dallas. The feature-length episode imagines a world in which the soap's central character, J. R. Ewing, had not existed.[53]
  • 11 October – BBC2 show the late-night
    B-Movie
    themed TV programmes and films.
  • 14 October
    • BBC World Service TV launches its Asian service.
    • After a five-year absence, Pebble Mill returns to BBC1.
  • 16 October – The ITV franchise auction results are announced and take effect starting midnight on 1 January 1993. It will see many notable names going off air after losing their franchises, including Thames, TVS, TSW, TV-am and ORACLE Teletext. Central is, however, unopposed in bidding to retain its franchise
  • 19 October – The final edition of Channel Television's TV listings magazine, CTV Times is published. It had remained on sale long after the other ITV regions had replaced their listings magazine with the TVTimes in the South of England edition along with TVS as it had been feared that Channel Television might cease trading without the revenue from its own magazine.
  • 31 October – Channel 4 shows a number of Halloween themed programmes starting with the documentary Fear in the Dark narrated by Christopher Lee as well as the UK terrestrial premiere of the 1983 Tony Scott film The Hunger, starring David Bowie, Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve.
  • October
    • Scottish Television rebrands its overnight service as Scottish Night Time and removes its overnight in-vision continuity.[54]
    • Cigar and pipe tobacco adverts are banned from British television.

November

December

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

BBC Scotland

Channel 4

Sky One

Channels

New channels

Date Channel
11 March BBC World Service Television
1 October The Comedy Channel

Defunct channels

Date Channel
8 April The Power Station

Rebranded channels

Date Old Name New Name
20 April The Sports Channel Sky Sports

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation

Shows Moved from Moved to
The Mysterious Cities of Gold BBC One The Children's Channel
Widget ITV
V Sky One
Robin of Sherwood
Thunderbirds BBC Two
MacGyver BBC One ITV
Eureeka's Castle
Galaxy
 Channel 4

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

  • 6 January – Lovejoy (1986, 1991–1994)
  • 16 January –
    Van der Valk
     (1972–1973, 1977, 1991–1992)
  • 10 April – The Two Ronnies for a 20th Anniversary special (1971–1987, 1991, 1996, 2005)
  • 16 September – Postman Pat (1981, 1991–1992, 1994, 1996, 2003–2008)
  • 14 October – Pebble Mill (1971–1986, 1991–1996)
  • 14 December – Up Pompeii! (1969–1975, 1991–1992)

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

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Ending this year

Births

Deaths

Date Name Age Cinematic Credibility
1 March Katharine Blake 69 actress
24 March Maudie Edwards 84 actress and singer
27 March Ralph Bates 51 actor (
Dear John
)
17 April Michael Pertwee 74 television screenwriter
4 May Bernie Winters 60 comedian
8 May Ronnie Brody 72 actor
15 May Ronald Lacey 55 actor
18 May Betty Alberge 69 actress (
Brookside
)
14 June Dame Peggy Ashcroft 83 actress
Bernard Miles character actor, writer and director
18 June Ronald Allen 60 actor (Crossroads)
8 July Geoff Love 73 theme tune composer (
Bless This House
)
21 July Jasmine Bligh 78 presenter
6 August Arthur Pentelow 67 actor (Emmerdale)
10 August Jessie Robins 86 actress
23 August Innes Lloyd 65 television producer
29 August Dallas Adams 44 actor
13 October Donald Houston 67 actor
17 October J. G. Devlin 84 actor
14 December John Arlott 77 sports commentator
Robert Eddison 83 actor
15 December Ray Smith 55 actor
19 December Paul Maxwell 70 Canadian actor (Coronation Street)
21 December Colin Douglas 79 actor

See also

References

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External links

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