1992 in British television

Events

January
  • 1 January –
  • 2 January – BBC1 shows the network television premiere of The Accused, a graphic and disturbing film starring Jodie Foster, loosely based on the 1983 Cheryl Araujo case.[3]
  • 4 January – BBC2 airs Freddie Mercury: a Tribute, a special programme introduced by Elton John and that celebrates the life and work of Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.[4]
  • 7 January –
  • 13 January – The Parliamentary Channel, operated by United Artists Cable and funded by a consortium of British cable operators,[7] is launched.[8] It was later taken over by the BBC and relaunched as BBC Parliament in 1998.
  • 14 January – The Dreamstone, the children's animated series returns for a brand new series and second season on ITV.
  • 21 January – BBC Select launches overnight on BBC1 and BBC2 as a subscription service showing specialist programmes for professionals including businessmen, lawyers, teachers and nurses. The service ends in 1994.
  • 31 January — The Adult Channel is launched, a satellite-delivered subscription service that featured cable versions of adult movies and broadcasts four hours a day commencing from midnight to 4am.

February
  • 8 February – Channel 4 launches TV Heaven, a series of 13 themed Saturday evenings celebrating the best of archive British television. The programme is hosted by Frank Muir with each edition focusing (with one exception) on a particular year. The first week's episode takes a look at 1967, featuring classic episodes of Coronation Street, At Last the 1948 Show, Armchair Theatre and The Frost Programme.
  • 8–22 February – The BBC provides live and recorded coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympic Games.
  • 25 February – Children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends is revived on ITV with Michael Angelis taking over as storyteller.
  • 27 February – BBC 1 airs "Cascade", the sixth series finale of Casualty.[9] The episode, featuring a plane crash and originally scheduled to air on 20 December 1991, was postponed because the airdate fell on the eve of the third anniversary of the Lockerbie air disaster.
  • February – TV-am closes its in-house news service and contracts out news bulletins to Sky News.

March
  • 2 March – The News at 5.40 is renamed ITN Early Evening News.
  • 4 March – Sky One begins airing the Australian "adult soap" Chances on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9.00pm. However, after proving unpopular with viewers, it drops to one episode a week and is shown on Thursdays at 10.00pm, before ending in early 1993. The series is repeated in a late night slot in 1995, but on both occasions of its transmission the final nineteen episodes are not shown.
  • 6 March – ITV airs "If Only We Hadn't", the final new episode of Rainbow to be produced by Thames Television. The programme continues to air until 31 December, but with repeats of previous episodes.
  • 26 March – Television entertainer Roy Castle (59), who currently presents Record Breakers, announces that he is suffering from lung cancer.
  • 27 March – During the 1992 General Election campaign, Conservative MP Edwina Currie famously pours a glass of orange juice over Labour's Peter Snape shortly after an edition of the Midlands based debate show Central Weekend has finished airing.[10] Speaking about the incident later, Currie said "I just looked at my orange juice, and looked at this man from which this stream of abuse was emanating, and thought 'I know how to shut you up.' ".[10]
  • 28 March – Amanda Normansell wins the third series of Stars in Their Eyes, performing as Patsy Cline.

April

May

June
  • 9–10 June – Episodes 1450–1454 of Australian soap Neighbours are heavily censored by the BBC because they contain an incest storyline between the characters Glen Donnelly (played by Richard Huggett) and Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell), who had not realised they were half-siblings when they began a relationship. Scenes involving the story are cut from Episode 1450, aired on 9 June, while Episodes 1451–1454 are edited together into one episode, which is transmitted the following day.[16][17] The scenes were shown uncut in repeats aired by another channel some years later.[18]
  • 14 June – An edition of The South Bank Show, The Making of Sgt. Pepper, celebrates the 25th anniversary of the release of The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[19]
  • 21 June – ITV airs the first of four editions of Frankie's On..., a series of stand up shows recorded by the late Frankie Howerd shortly before his death in April. Six episodes had been planned, but only four were recorded before he died. The episodes are Frankie's On Board!, Frankie's On The Coals!, Frankie's On Fire! and Frankie's On Call!
  • 25 June – A British adaptation of the US informational docudrama television series Rescue 911 known as 999 begins on BBC1 airing for 11 years up until 2003.
  • 26 June – The final lunchtime edition of Business Daily is shown on Channel 4. The breakfast editions, which are part of Channel Four Daily, continue for another three months.
  • 29 June – Susie Dent premieres as lexicographer on Countdown, a role she holds to this day.
  • June – Yorkshire and Tyne Tees television merge as a result of financial strain brought on by the amount each paid to retain their ITV franchises.[20] The merger begins a process that will see the consolidation of ITV over the next decade.

July
  • 3 July –
    • Columbia TriStar and Canwest, two backers of the four strong Channel 5 Holdings Ltd consortium, withdraw their support for the project, leaving Thames Television and Canadian businessman Moses Znaimer to take the project forward. As Channel 5 Holdings are the only current bidders for the Channel 5 licence there are concerns for the future of the process ahead of the deadline, but Channel 5 Holdings says it intends to put forward its bid as planned.[21]
    • After more than seven years on air, Terry Wogan's thrice-weekly chat show Wogan is broadcast for the final time.[22][23]
  • 6 July – BBC1 launches the ill-fated Eldorado, a soap about a group of ex-pats living in Spain.[24] The series is axed the following year.
  • 7 July – Date of the initial deadline for applications to run the Channel 5 service. One application to run the channel is submitted by Channel 5 Holdings Ltd.[11]
  • 18–19 July – ITV stages its third and final nationwide Telethon fundraising effort. The 28-hour show attracts criticism from disability campaigners, who protest outside London Weekend Television's headquarters, feeling that ITV's charity appeal films for the programme used "pitiful" stereotypes that would not help them to achieve equality.[25]
  • 19 July – Vanessa Binns wins the 1992 series of MasterChef.
  • 25 July−9 August – The BBC becomes the exclusive broadcaster of the Summer Olympic Games in the UK when it shows live coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Around 15 hours a day of mainly live coverage is provided although Games coverage is interrupted for coverage of other sport, mostly cricket and horse racing, rather than showing non-Olympic sport on the other BBC channel.
  • July – The former BSB satellite Marcopolo 2 is sold to Norway's Telenor and renamed Thor 1.

August
  • 4 August – ITV airs Katie and Eilish, an edition of the documentary strand First Tuesday about Siamese Twins in Ireland. The film, narrated by Julie Christie is a 1993 Peabody Award winner.[26]
  • 6 August – Lord Hope, the Lord President of the Court of Session, Scotland's most senior judge, permits the televising of appeals in both criminal and civil cases, the first time that cameras have been allowed into courts in the United Kingdom.[27]
  • 15 August –
    • Match of the Day returns to BBC screens on a weekly basis following the BBC's purchase of highlights of the newly formed Premier League.
    • Sky Sports launches Sports Saturday to co-inside with the launch of the new Premier League. It follows the same format as the BBC's Grandstand programme featuring a mix of sporting action, concluding with the day's football results.
  • 16 August – Sky Sports shows its first live Premier League match. The channel launches an afternoon-long football programme called Super Sunday which allows for two hours of pre-match build-up and one hour of post match analysis.
  • 18 August – Emma Bunton, who would later achieve fame as a member of the Spice Girls, makes her television acting debut in an episode of EastEnders, playing a mugger.
  • 20 August – Central Television broadcasts the final episode of the Australian soap The Young Doctors, making it the first ITV region to complete the series.
  • 21 August – The final edition of London Weekend Television's Friday evening magazine programme Six O'Clock Live is aired; the programme is ending to make way for changes to London's regional news service for ITV that will come in from January 1993.
  • 30 August – BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Dad, Gary David Goldberg's 1989 comedy drama starring Jack Lemon and Ted Dansen, and based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton.[28]
  • 31 August – BBC2 spends the evening in TV Hell.[29]

September
  • 1 September –
    • Sky Sports becomes a subscription channel.
    • Sky Movies stops showing non-movies programming. It had previously shown selected premium content such as live boxing, music concerts and World Wrestling Federation due to it having being Sky's only encrypted channel and had been known as Sky Movies Plus until 1 September 1993 before the launch of the multi-channels package.
  • 4 September – London Weekend Television launches a new logo, sometimes dubbed the flying blocks logo.[30]
  • 6 September – Channel 4 launches its live coverage of Italian football's Serie A. The first match to be shown is Sampdoria v Lazio. The channel continues to show Italian football for the next ten years.[31]
  • 12 September –
    • Casualty returns to BBC 1 for a seventh series,[32] moving from its previous Friday evening slot to Saturday evenings.
    • Channel 4 airs the first edition of its magazine programme Gazzetta Football Italia, presented by James Richardson.[31]
  • 14 September – British television premiere of American animated series originally created for the Fox Children's Network, Peter Pan and the Pirates on BBC1.
  • 17 September –
    • Comedienne Victoria Wood narrates and voices a new animated series for children on BBC1 called Puppydog Tales. The series focus on four dogs lead by the streetwise Rosie in which she tries to teach her naughty friend Ruff some lessons along with jokes, stories and songs that appear at the very end.[33]
    • Children's stop-motion animated series Noddy's Toyland Adventures based on the original works by Enid Blyton debuts on BBC1.[34]
  • 19 September – The Times reports that the US media company International Family Entertainment (IFE) has made an offer to buy TVS for £38.2m.[35]
  • 23 September – Channel 4 begins a rerun of the cult 1960s science fiction series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan as the series marks its 25th anniversary.
  • 25 September – Channel 4 airs the final Channel Four Daily. The news based breakfast television show was axed due to poor ratings. From Monday 28 September it is replaced by The Big Breakfast, a programme which takes a lighter tone and proves to be more popular with viewers.

October

November
  • 1 November – UK Gold is launched. It is a joint venture between the BBC and Thames Television and shows programmes from the archives of both broadcasters.
  • 2 November – Channel 4 celebrates ten years on air. On that day, the Fourscore theme used in the idents is replaced.
  • 3 November – An artile in Variety magazine indicates that a number of American companies are interested in acquiring TVS, including TCW Capital, International Family Entertainment Inc. (IFE) and Lorne Michaels.[44] TCW Capital subsequently goes on to make an offer to rival IFE,[45] but pulls out a few weeks later after reviewing the TVS accounts.[46]
  • 9 November – ITV's News at Ten was given its first major relaunch, in part to address the criticism it had attracted over the last few years. In a bid to regain the personal touch that had been lost, the programme dispensed with the dual-presentation team in favour of a sole newscaster, Trevor McDonald, who subsequently became one of the most well-known newscasters in the UK. Julia Somerville, John Suchet and Dermot Murnaghan each presented News at Ten when McDonald was absent. The bulletin carried this format until 5 March 1999.
  • 12 November – The first episode of Absolutely Fabulous, a sitcom written by and starring Jennifer Saunders, airs on BBC2. The series also features Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks and June Whitfield.[47]
  • 20 November – Bob Mills presents a late night programme on ITV set in his home called In Bed with Medinner in which he specialised in a cynical view of life and its everyday objects, and in pastiches of popular culture icons.
  • 26 November – The Times reports that IFE have increased their offer to purchase TVS to £45.3m.[48]
  • 28 November – BBC1 shows the network television premiere of Tremors, Ron Underwood's 1990 monster comedy starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward.[49]
  • 30 November – To mark the 53rd European Council meeting, held in Edinburgh on 11–12 December, BBC1 Scotland begins a week of programming dedicated to Europe, including comedy, sport, documentaries and political programmes. Reporting Scotland also carries a week of reports about Britain's relationship with Europe.

December

Unknown

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Channel 4

Sky One

Sky Sports
  • 15 August – Sports Saturday (1992–1998)
  • 16 August – Super Sunday (1992–present)
  • 17 August – Monday Night Football (1992–2007, 2010–present)

MTV Europe

Channels

New channels
Date Channel
13 January The Parliamentary Channel
31 January The Adult Channel
March The Learning Channel
April The Box
May Wire TV
1 October Sky Movies Gold
October CMT Europe
1 November UK Gold

Defunct channels
Date Channel
30 September The Comedy Channel
31 December Sky Arts

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation
Shows Moved from Moved to
The Magic Roundabout BBC1 Channel 4
Paddington
The Wombles
The Herbs
University Challenge ITV BBC2
Stingray
The Dreamstone The Children's Channel

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

Continuing television shows

1920s
  • BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)

1930s
  • BBC Cricket (1939, 1946–1999, 2020–2024)

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Ending this year

Births

Deaths
DateNameAgeCinematic Credibility
18 April H. V. Kershaw 74 scriptwriter (Coronation Street)
19 April Frankie Howerd 75 comedian and actor (That Was The Week That Was and Up Pompeii!)
20 April Benny Hill 68 comedian (The Benny Hill Show)
19 May James Bate 47 actor (Sleuth, The Spoils of War)
3 June Robert Morley 84 actor (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, British Airways advertisements).
5 June Laurence Naismith 83 actor (The Persuaders!)
29 August Teddy Turner 75 actor (Never the Twain, Emmerdale)
2 September Johnnie Mortimer 61 scriptwriter (Man About the House, George & Mildred, Robin's Nest, Never the Twain )
11 December Michael Robbins 62 actor (On the Buses)

See also

References
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  2. "BBC Two England – 1 January 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  3. "The Accused – BBC One London – 2 January 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  4. "Freddie Mercury: a Tribute – BBC Two England – 4 January 1992 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  5. "First Tuesday: In Cold Blood – The Massacre of East Timor". Archived from the original on 2009-05-10. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  6. "Joshua Jones – BBC One London – 7 January 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  7. "Broadcasting Select Committee Minutes Of Evidence, 1997". Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  8. "House of Commond Debate, 27 January 1992". Hansard. Retrieved 29 May 2009.
  9. "Casualty – BBC One London – 27 February 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  10. Whitney, Craig R. (29 March 1992). "Tories Say Party's Strategy Is Hurting Campaign". New York Times. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
  11. "thisisfive.co.uk – the story of five". www.thisisfive.co.uk. 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  12. "The Freddie Mercury Tribute – BBC Two England – 20 April 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  13. "The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert – BBC Radio 1 England – 20 April 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  14. "Everyman – BBC One London – 24 May 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  15. "Psycho III – BBC One London – 25 May 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  16. "Neighbours Episode Guide: 1426–1450". Ramsay-street.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  17. "Neighbours Episode Guide: 1451–1475". Ramsay-street.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  18. "A neighbourly obsession". The Age. Fairfax Media. 30 September 2004. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  19. The Making of Sgt. Pepper on IMDb
  20. "Timeline: ITV 1955-today". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. 7 October 2003. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  21. O'Carroll, Lisa (5 July 1992). "Two backers quit Channel 5 consortium". The Independent. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  22. "BBC One London – 3 July 1992 – BBC Genome". genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  23. Wogan's show to be axed in BBC shake-upRichard Brooks Media EditorThe Observer (1901– 2003); 1 December 1991;
  24. "Eldorado – BBC One London – 6 July 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  25. Rose, Damon (26 April 2012). "Is this the year of disability on TV?". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  26. "First Tuesday: Katie and Eilish".
  27. Cusick, James (7 August 1992). "Scotland's appeal courts to let in TV cameras". The Independent. Independent Print Ltd. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
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  30. Ident Central: LWT 1992–1996
  31. "Part Two (1992–2002): "I Didn't Get Off Massively on Saint and Greavsie" : Off The Telly". Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  32. "Casualty – BBC One London – 12 September 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  33. "Puppydog Tales – BBC One London – 17 September 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  34. "Noddy – BBC One London – 17 September 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  35. American company bids £38m for TVS. The Times, Saturday, 19 September 1992
  36. Bennett, Will (5 October 1992). "Police still seek cause of Crowther car crash". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  37. "Leslie Crowther 'critical' after second operation". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. 6 October 1992. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  38. "James Bond On TV – Movies". MI6 – The Home Of James Bond 007. 5 April 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
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  44. Dawtrey, Addam (3 November 1992). "New player makes bid for TVS Entertainment". Variety. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  45. Second potential bidder for TVS. By our Deputy City Editor.The Times (London, England), Wednesday, 4 November 1992.
  46. Evangelist may be sole runner for TVS. Martin Waller. The Times, Thursday, 26 November 1992
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  48. Evangelist may be sole runner for TVS. Martin Waller.The Times, Thursday, 26 November 1992
  49. "Tremors – BBC One – 28 November 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  50. "Weekend at Bernie's – BBC One London – 5 December 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  51. TVS bid opposed. The Times, Friday, 11 December 1992;
  52. "BBC One London – 25 December 1992". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
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  55. "Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side – BBC One London – 27 December 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  56. "Granadaland – BBC Two England – 28 December 1992 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
  57. "University Challenge – BBC Two England – 21 September 1994 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
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