7 April – BBC1 airs Three Clear Sundays, a Wednesday Play about the events leading to a man's conviction for capital murder.[4][5]
18 June – The last edition of Tonight is broadcast.[6]
7 July – The long-running science and technology programme Tomorrow's World makes its debut.[7]
6 August – The War Game, a drama-documentary by director Peter Watkins depicting the events of a supposedly futuristic nuclear attack on the United Kingdom, is controversially pulled from its planned transmission in The Wednesday Play anthology strand. The BBC was pressured into this move by the British government, which did not want much of the play's content to become public. It was eventually released to cinemas, and won the 1966 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. The BBC finally screened the play in 1985.
13 December – Jackanory debuts[11] which ran until 1996 and was later revived in 2006.
1966
3 January – Camberwick Green is the first programme on BBC1 to be shot in colour and the first programme to feature the copyright year in the end credits; BBC1 would not broadcast in colour until almost four years later and regular programmes also wouldn't show the copyright year in the end credits until six years later.
16 November – Cathy Come Home, possibly the best-known play ever to be broadcast on British television, is presented in The Wednesday Play anthology strand.
1967
3 January – Trumpton is the second programme on BBC1 to be shot in colour and feature the copyright year in the end credits five years before regular programmes would; only BBC2 became the first channel to broadcast colour TV. BBC1 however still wouldn't broadcast colour until almost three years later.
9 September – The first edition of teatime news magazine Nationwide is broadcast. Initially broadcast twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday), it airs every weekday from 1972.
6 October – Chigley is the third and final programme to be shot in colour on BBC1 before regular colour broadcasting and also happens to be the first programme to feature the copyright year in Roman numerals in the end credits nearly seven years ahead of regular programming.
15 November – Regular colour broadcasting is introduced to BBC1, coinciding with the launch of the new NODD Mirrored Globe ident.
1970s
1970
15 February – BBC1 airs the Ken Russell film Dance of the Seven Veils as part of its Omnibus strand. The film, about German composer Richard Strauss, attracts complaints because of its sex scenes, and controversy by depicting Strauss as a Nazi sympathiser. Strauss's family subsequently withdraw their permission for the use of his music, meaning the film cannot be shown again until the copyright on his work has expired. It is not until 2020 that the film is given a second airing, at that year's Keswick Film Festival.[12][13]
14 September – The Nine O'Clock News is first broadcast on BBC1. The programme aired until 13 October 2000 when the station's main evening bulletin was switched to 10pm.
24 April – The first edition of Newsround is broadcast.
2 October – Following a recent law change, BBC1 and ITV are allowed to begin broadcasting a full afternoon schedule with both broadcasters now broadcasting non-stop from lunchtime. BBC1's afternoon schedule launches with the first edition of a new lunchtime magazine programme Pebble Mill at One.
30 December – BBC1 airs part one of "The Three Doctors", a four-part serial of the science-fiction programme Doctor Who created to celebrate its tenth anniversary (which would occur on 23 November of the following year).
1973
4 January – The UK and world record breaking long-running comedy seriesLast of the Summer Wine starts as a 30-minute pilot on BBC1's Comedy Playhouse show. The first series run starts on 12 November and the programme runs for 37 years until August 2010.
31 October – The sixth series of television sitcom Dad's Army opens with the episode "The Deadly Attachment" containing the "Don't tell him, Pike!" exchange which will become rated as one of the top three greatest comedy moments of British television.[15]
23 November – 10th anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who.
1974
7 January – A two-minute weekday mid-afternoon regional news summary is broadcast on BBC1 for the first time. It is transmitted immediately before the start of the afternoon's children's programmes.
23 September – The BBC teletext service Ceefax goes live with 30 pages of information.
28 December – The BBC1 Mirrored Globe ident changes to a blue and yellow colour scheme. The legend BBC1 was rendered in white, using a heavy weight of the Futura typeface.
1975
6 January – Due to cutbacks at the BBC, BBC1 stops broadcasting programmes on weekday early afternoons. Consequently, apart from schools programmes and live sport, the channel now shows a trade test transmission between 2pm and the start of children's programmes.
4 February – Early morning programming from the Open University begins on BBC1, with Electrons in motion airing at 7:05am.[17]
6 April – Original scheduled airdate of Dennis Potter's Play for TodayBrimstone and Treacle. The film is pulled from transmission on BBC1 due to controversy over its content, including the rape of a woman by the devil. It is eventually screened on BBC1 in 1987, after having been made into a film starring Sting in 1982.
2 October – The first edition of Saturday morning children's magazine show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop is broadcast. It runs throughout the morning on BBC1.
1977
Unknown – Scum, an entry in BBC1's Play for Today anthology strand, is pulled from transmission due to controversy over its depiction of life in a Young Offenders' Institution (at this time known in the United Kingdom as a borstal). Two years later the director Alan Clarke makes a film version with most of the same cast, and the original play itself is eventually transmitted in 1991.
21–22 December – BBC1 and BBC2 are forced off the air due to industrial action at the BBC by the ABS union which starts on Thursday 21 December. On Friday 22 December the radio unions join their BBC Television counterparts, forcing the BBC to merge their four national radio networks into one national radio station, the BBC All Network Radio Service, from 4pm that afternoon. The strike is settled shortly before 10pm on 22 December, with the unions and BBC management reaching an agreement at the British government's industrial disputes arbitration service ACAS. BBC1 resumes broadcast at 3pm on Saturday 23 December, with BBC2 resuming at 1pm the same afternoon. Threat of disruption to the BBC's festive television schedules is averted. BBC Radio networks resume normal schedules on the morning of Saturday 23 December.[20][21][22][23]
2 September – Subtitling of television programmes on Ceefax begins.
25 September – Robin Day presents the first edition of the long-running political debate programme Question Time on BBC1. The programme continues to air to the present day.
11 November – The last episode of the first series of the sitcomTo the Manor Born is broadcast on BBC1.[25] It is watched by 23.95 million viewers, the all-time highest figure for a recorded programme in the UK.[26]
March – The very first in-vision Ceefax transmissions are broadcast. These consist of 30 minute transmissions, which BBC1 broadcasts on weekday mornings between 8:30am and 9am.
5 January – Debut of the BBC1 soap Triangle,[34] a twice-weekly series set aboard a North Seaferry, and filmed on location using outside broadcast cameras.[35] The website TVARK describes the programme as being chiefly remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced" owing to its clichéd storylines and stilted dialogue. It is axed after three series.[36]
10 February – Alan Rogers animation Pigeon Street begins on BBC1.[37] The series ran until December before repeats on BBC1 and BBC2 throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
29 March – BBC1 airs highlights of the first London Marathon under the International Athletics strand.[38] Live coverage of the event begins the following year.[39]
5 September – The BBC1 Mirror globe changes colour from yellow on blue to green on blue, also now using the twin-striped BBC1 legend, having been seen on caption cards and slides since 1975.
7 September – News After Noon is launched as a 30-minute lunchtime news programme, replacing the much shorter Midday News.[41]
16 September – Debut of a children's television series about a rural postman with a black and white cat written and created by John Cunliffe and voiced and narrated by Ken Barrie, And Edited By Ivor Wood the same director as most Filmfair programmes, Postman Pat on BBC1 the first Woodland Animations Ltd. produced programme. Episode 8 introduced a more authentic look to the Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd logos.
December – BBC1 and the BBC's Open University broadcasts begin using computer generated clocks.
1982
27 March – The final edition of Saturday morning children's magazine show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop is broadcast [43]
1 May – British television debut of the US soap opera Dynasty.[44]
4 May – The long-running chat show Wogan makes its debut on BBC1, presented by Terry Wogan. It would be shown thrice weekly from 1985 and would continue until July 1992.
2 October – The first edition of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop’s Saturday morning replacement show Saturday Superstore is broadcast on BBC1. It adopts a similar format to its predecessor.
3–9 October – As part of its coverage of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, BBC1 broadcasts a two-hour breakfast programme Breakfast with Brisbane. The programme includes regular news summaries. This is the first time the BBC has broadcast a scheduled news bulletin at breakfast and comes three months ahead of the launch of Breakfast Time.[45]
2 December – 10.2 million viewers saw a classic comedy scene from the Only Fools and Horses episode A Touch of Glass in which the Trotters accidentally smash a priceless chandelier.
1983
January – BBC1 starts broadcasting a full afternoon service, consisting of regional programmes, repeats and old feature films.
17 January – At 6:30am, Britain's first-ever breakfast television show, Breakfast Time, launches on BBC1.
late February/early March – The BBC begins broadcasting a 30-minute Ceefax slot prior to the start of Breakfast Time. It is called Ceefax AM. It is first mentioned in the Radio Times on 21 March.[46]
17 February – Woodland Animations Ltd. introduces a new stop-motion animated series, Gran, on BBC1, following the success of Postman Pat, the same day as the final episode of the sitcom Tom, Dick and Harriet airs on ITV.
3 May – From today Ceefax pages are broadcast during all BBC1 daytime downtime.
5 May – Top of the Pops celebrates its 1000th edition. The programme is also broadcast on BBC Radio 1 to allow viewers to listen to the programme in stereo.[47]
15 June – BBC1 broadcasts the first episode of The Black Adder, the first in the successful Blackadder series of sitcoms.
5 August – After 14 years on air, the final edition of Nationwide is broadcast.[48]
7–14 August – BBC1 broadcasts full live coverage of the first World Athletics Championships. Apart from in 2011, the BBC has shown the event ever since although more recently, the majority of the coverage has been on BBC2.
4 October – BBC1 broadcasts the Welsh children's animated series SuperTed which was based on a series of stories written by Welsh writer, producer and animator Mike Young to help his son overcome his fear of the dark. The series had been so popular it was spawned into merchandising and was broadcast in many countries worldwide.
24 October – Sixty Minutes launches on BBC1, replacing Nationwide but it ended less than a year later.
21 December – First showing on British television of The Fog, John Carpenter's 1980 horror film, which airs on BBC1.[49]
1984
5 April – Industrial action by members of the Entertainment Trades' Alliance results on all of today's BBC1 programmes being cancelled.[50]
7 June – BBC1 airs the first edition of Crimewatch. The first case to be featured on the show is the murder of Colette Aram, which had occurred the previous year. A man is finally charged with the murder in 2009,[51] and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2010 after pleading guilty.[52]
28 July–12 August – BBC Television broadcasts the 1984 Summer Olympic Games. Almost all of the coverage is shown on BBC1 and the channel stays on air into the night to provide live coverage.
3 September – BBC1's teatime news hour is relaunched and now runs from 6pm until 7pm. A new 30-minute-long news programme the Six O'Clock News is launched and this is followed by a longer regional news magazine, which is expanded to 25 minutes.
5 October – The first programme in the trilogy to be produced by Maddocks Cartoon Productions, The Family-Ness, makes its debut on BBC1.
23 October – BBC News newsreader Michael Buerk gives a powerful commentary of the famine in Ethiopia which has already claimed thousands of lives and reportedly has the potential to kill as many as 7 million people. This report subsequently leads to the formation of the charity supergroup Band Aid and the No.1 single Do They Know It's Christmas? as well as the Live Aid concerts the following year.
18 November – The BBC launches its first Sunday lunchtime political interview show, called This Week, Next Week.
7 January – The BBC ends its experiment with afternoon broadcasting and from this date afternoon Pages from Ceefax is shown on BBC1 between the end of lunchtime programmes and the start of children's programmes apart from when the party conferences and sporting events are being shown.
4 February – US detective drama Miami Vice makes its British television debut on BBC1, with the feature-length episode "Brother's Keeper".[58]
18 February – BBC1 undergoes a major relaunch. At 5:35pm, the legendary mechanical "mirror globe" ident, in use in varying forms since 1969, is seen for the last time in regular rotation on national BBC1. Its replacement, the COW (Computer Originated World, a computer generated globe) debuts at 7pm to introduce the relaunch of Terry Wogan's eponymous talk show as a thrice-weekly live primetime programme.
19 February – Debut of the soap opera EastEnders, set in the East End of London.[59]
19 March – BBC1 begins showing The Day the Universe Changed, a ten-part series in which science historian James Burke looks at how advances in science and technology have shaped western society over the last five centuries.[60]
29 March – Play School is shown in the afternoon for the final time.[61]
7 July – Debut on BBC1 of The Rock 'n' Roll Years, a series that looks at the music and events of a particular year, starting with 1956.[63]
13 July – Live Aid pop concerts are held in Philadelphia and London and televised around the world. Over £50 million is raised for famine relief in Ethiopia.[64] BBC1 shows the Philadelphia concert, the London concert had been shown on BBC2.
14 July – Watchdog launches as a stand-alone programme.[65] having previously been a segment within teatime news magazine programmes Nationwide and Sixty Minutes.
30 August – The weekday lunchtime Financial Report, broadcast on BBC1 in London and the south east, is broadcast for the final time ahead of the launch of a lunchtime regional news bulletin for viewers in the BBC South East region.
1 September – Debut of the drama series Howards' Way on BBC1.[66]
2 September – A regional news bulletin is broadcast after the Nine O'Clock News for the first time.[67]
3 September – BBC1's EastEnders moves from 7pm to 7:30pm to avoid clashing with ITV's Emmerdale Farm, which airs in the 7pm timeslot on Tuesdays and Thursdays in many ITV regions.
8 September – BBC1 'closes down' (albeit since 1983 with broadcasts of Pages from Ceefax) on Sunday mornings for the final time as from next year repeats are shown during the adult educational Sunday morning slot's annual summer break.
14 November – A special edition of Tomorrow's World examines how effective the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) might be at destroying any nuclear weapons launched at the United States.[69]
6 December – BBC1 airs John Lennon: A Journey in the Life, an Everyman special marking the fifth anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. The programme includes archive footage of Lennon, dramatisations of parts of his life, and contributions from some of his friends.[70]
1986
2 January – A special edition of Tomorrow's World travels back a century to discover the latest developments in science and technology from 1886.[71]
6 January – Debut of the children's animated series and second programme in the trilogy to be produced by Maddocks Cartoon Productions, Jimbo and the Jet-Set on BBC1.
1 April – As part of the BBC's Drugwatch campaign, BBC1 airs It's Not Just Zammo, a Newsround special presented by John Craven and Nick Ross that seeks to warn younger viewers about the dangers of using drugs. The programme follows a recent drug abuse storyline in Grange Hill involving the character Zammo McGuire (played by Lee MacDonald), and features the launch of a version of the anti-drugs song "Just Say No" recorded by members of the Grange Hill cast. The song goes on to reach the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, while members of the cast are invited to the White House to meet First LadyNancy Reagan, who founded the Just Say No campaign.[72][73][74]
9 May – BBC1 airs "Video Jukebox", a special extended edition of its Omnibus arts programme telling the story of the rock video. The programme is presented by John Peel and John Walters.[75]
24 July – BBC1 airs the opening ceremony from the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, which includes a 45-minute display produced by the BBC that celebrates the Spirit of Youth.[76] BBC1 goes on to provide full live coverage of the event, with daily coverage from 9.20am until 6pm, with coverage only transferring to BBC2 for the final hour or two of competition so that BBC1 can broadcast its usual 6pm news hour.
31 August – Debut of Alan Bleasdale's four-part World War I drama The Monocled Mutineer on BBC1.[77] The series causes some controversy when some right-wing newspapers cite it as an example of what they believe to be a left-wing bias of the BBC.[78]
6 September – The first episode of medical drama Casualty airs on BBC1.[79] Although an immediate success with viewers, the show attracts controversy because of its portrayal of an under-funded National Health Service, which is seen as a criticism of Margaret Thatcher's government.[80]
16 October – The first two-hander episode of EastEnders, featuring Den and Angie Watts (Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson), is aired by BBC1. The episode, in which Angie tells Den she has six months to live after he tells her he wants a divorce, was an experiment as the two-hander format had not been tried in a British soap before, but received well by viewers and critics.
24 October
Ahead of the launch of the BBC's new daytime service, News After Noon is broadcast for the final time. The bulletin is replaced by a revamped lunchtime news programme One O'Clock News.
The weekday mid-afternoon regional news summary is broadcast on BBC1 for the final time. From Monday 27 October, it is broadcast on BBC2.
27 October
BBC1 starts a full daytime television service. Before today, excluding special events coverage, BBC1 had closed down at times during weekday mornings and afternoons, broadcasting trade test transmissions and from May 1983, Pages From Ceefax.
As part of the new service, Australian soap Neighbours makes its British television debut on BBC1, a year after it was first aired in its homeland.
10 November – Breakfast Time is relaunched with a more formal news and current affairs format.
13 November – Self-employed hod carrier Michael Lush is killed during his first rehearsal for a live stunt planned for BBC1's The Late, Late Breakfast Show. The stunt, called "Hang 'em High", involved bungee jumping from an exploding box suspended from a 120 ft-high crane. The carabiner clip attaching his bungee rope to the crane sprang loose from its eyebolt during the jump, and he died instantly of multiple injuries. The 15 November edition of Breakfast Show is cancelled after presenter Noel Edmonds resigns, saying he does not "have the heart to carry on".[81]
15 November – British television premiere of Michael Chrichton's science fiction crime drama Looker on BBC1.[82]
25 December – 30.15 million tune in to watch "Dirty" Dennis Watts hand wife Angie her divorce papers in EastEnders, making it the highest-rated episode of any drama in British television history.
1987
12 January – The five-part Australian World War I drama Anzacs makes its British television debut on BBC1.[84]
27 February – The BBC and independent television begins a week of programming aimed at educating people about the AIDS virus. Highlights include AIDS – The Facts on BBC1, a short programme of facts and figures covering frequently asked questions about the disease, and First AIDS, an ITV comedy-sketch programme produced by London Weekend Television and featuring Mike Smith, Jonathan Ross and Emma Freud.[85][86]
22 May–20 June – BBC TV broadcasts coverage of the first Rugby World Cup from Australia and New Zealand. This is the only time that the BBC has screened the tournament.
25 August – BBC1 airs the first public showing of Dennis Potter's 1976 television play Brimstone and Treacle, which was originally scheduled to air in 1976 but withdrawn shortly before broadcast.[88]
12 October – BBC1 debuts Going for Gold, a general knowledge quiz presented by Henry Kelly in which contestants from fourteen different European countries compete to become series champion. The winner of the first series, Daphne Hudson (later Daphne Fowler), receives ringside tickets at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and goes on to become a familiar face on television after appearing in a number of other quizzes, including Fifteen to One and Eggheads.[90][91]
15 October – During a weather forecast, BBCmeteorologistMichael Fish reports "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way; well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't, but having said that, actually, the weather will become very windy, but most of the strong winds, incidentally, will be down over Spain and across into France.".[92] Hours later, Britain is hit by the worst storm for 284 years.[93] Fish later drew criticism for the comments, but has since claimed that they referred to Florida, USA, and were linked to a news story immediately preceding the weather bulletin, but had been so widely repeated out of context that the British public remains convinced that he was referring to the approaching storm.
31 December – In an unusual move for a pre-recorded television series, the chimes of Big Ben are integrated into an episode of EastEnders on BBC1. Character Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) brought a television into the bar of the Queen Vic, 'watched' the chimes in their entirety and the episode resumed.[97]
1988
4 January – BBC1 moves the repeat episode of Neighbours to a 5:35pm evening slot,[98] the decision to do this having been made by controller Michael Grade on the advice of his daughter.
23 May – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC studios during a Six O'Clock bulletin of the BBC News to protest about the introduction of Section 28, a law preventing schools from teaching their students about homosexuality. Protesters can be heard chanting as Sue Lawley continues to read the news, prompting the presenter to comment "we have been rather invaded by some people who we hope to be removing very shortly".[100]
1 September – To celebrate BBC Radio 1's FM "switch on day", BBC1's Top of the Pops is simulcast with Radio 1 for the first time, allowing listeners to hear the programme in stereo. This edition is presented by Steve Wright and Mark Goodier.[103]Top of the Pops is then simulcast weekly with Radio 1 until August 1991.[104]
12 September – Debut of Stoppit and Tidyup on BBC1,[105] a 13-part animated series narrated by Terry Wogan and partly funded by the Tidy Britain Group charity.
18 September – On the Record replaces This Week News Week as BBC1 Sunday lunchtime political discussion programme.
14 October – Play School is broadcast for the final time on BBC1. The last new edition was shown in March.
17 October
Playbus, the replacement series for Play School makes its debut on BBC1.
20 October – Debut of the 13-part children's stop-motion animated series Charlie Chalk, produced by Woodland Animations Ltd., the company behind Postman Pat makes its debut on BBC1, featuring the voices of Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Michael Williams and John Wells. The last three episodes will air the following year.
Autumn – BBC1 takes its first tentative steps into later closedowns – previously weekday programmes ended no later than 12:15am and weekend broadcasting ended at 1:30am.
1989
15 March – BBC1 airs John's Not Mad,[citation needed] an edition of the QED documentary strand that shadowed John Davidson, a 15-year-old from Galashiels in Scotland, with severe Tourette syndrome. The film explores John's life in terms of his family and the close-knit community around him, and how they all cope with a misunderstood condition.[110]
12 July – A special edition of Question Time from Paris, France, is the last to be chaired by Robin Day.[111]
2 November – The final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, "Goodbyeee" is broadcast on BBC1.[114] With one of the most moving endings ever seen on British television, it is broadcast nine days before Armistice Day.
6 December – The last episode of the 26-year original run of Doctor Who, Part 3 of Survival, is broadcast on BBC1. The show would not resume regular airing for 16 years, with the only new material during this time being an American telemovie in 1996.
15 October – BBC1 launches a new morning service called Daytime UK.[124] Linked live from Birmingham, the service runs for four hours, from 8:50am until lunchtime.
18 November–23 December – The BBC's serialisation of the Chronicles of Narnia concludes with the fourth and final story, The Silver Chair, being aired in six parts.[126][127]
25 December – Steven Spielberg's 1982 science fiction adventure E.T. makes its British television debut on BBC1.[129]
1991
BBC1 logo used from 1991 to 1997
7 January – BBC1 launches the local news programme, East Midlands Today for the East Midlands region. News coverage for the area had previously been provided by a seven-minute opt out from the Birmingham-based Midlands Today.[130]
17 January – BBC1 abandons its scheduled programming to bring live coverage of the Gulf War after Allied Forces launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. Over the coming weeks there is extensive live coverage on BBC1 of events in the Persian Gulf although as the War develops, the BBC's non-news bulletin Gulf War programme War in the Gulf is scaled back. However extended and additional news bulletins continue to be broadcast until the end of the War on 2 March.
15 February – The COWident is seen for the final time on BBC1, after six years in use.
16 February – BBC1 and BBC2 receive new idents, both generated from laserdisc and featuring the BBC corporate logo introduced in 1986. BBC1's new ident is a numeral '1' encased in a globe.
24 July – The final programme to be recorded at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush is aired, an edition of Wogan recorded on 18 July 1991.
31 August – BBC television starts officially broadcasting in stereo using the NICAM system although some transmitters had been broadcasting in stereo since 1986, but these were classified as tests.
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.[132]
17 November – Debut of Biteback, a monthly programme that gives viewers a right-to-reply on issues raised by BBC content. It is presented by Julian Pettifer.[133]
1992
21 January – BBC Select launches overnight on BBC Television as an overnight subscription service, showing specialist programmes for professionals including businessmen, lawyers, teachers and nurses. However, the first series, The Way Ahead, made for the Department of Social Security, is distributed free, on condition that no financial gain be made from it.[134] The subscription service launches shortly after, showing specialist programmes for professionals including businessmen, lawyers, teachers and nurses, although some programmes continue to be shown free-to-air.[119]
3 July – After more than seven years on air, Terry Wogan's thrice-weekly chat show Wogan is broadcast for the final time.[135]
6 July – BBC1 launches the ill-fated Eldorado, a soap about a group of ex-pats living in Spain.[136] The series is axed the following year.
12 October – As part of an attempt to compete better with the success of ITV's This Morning, BBC1 launches its own mid-morning magazine show called Good Morning with Anne and Nick.
31 October – The controversial one-off drama Ghostwatch is broadcast on BBC1, a 'live' investigation into a haunted North London house.[137][138]
6 January – Debut of Clive James' acclaimed series Fame in the 20th Century, an eight part BBC1 series in which James examines the nature of 20th century fame using archive footage and commentary.[140] The series concludes on 24 February.[141]
26–27 November – BBC 1 airs the two-part Doctor Who special Dimensions in Time, a crossover with EastEnders. The episode is part of the 1993 Children in Need telethon, and the first Doctor Who episode to be televised since the series ended in December 1989.[145][146]
9 December – Peter Sissons hosts his last edition of Question Time,[147] having chaired the political debate programme since 1989.
11 April – BBC1 introduces a third weekly episode of EastEnders which airs on Mondays at 8:00pm.[149]
6 May – BBC1 broadcasts a special live coverage for the opening of Channel Tunnel, as Queen Elizabeth II travels to Calais by train will be greeted by president François Mitterrand also jointly opens the French terminal, having journeyed on the shuttle to Folkestone as they inaugurate the British end of the venture.
25 May – First broadcast of the game show Wipeout created by Bob Fraser and hosted by Paul Daniels.[150]
19 June – That's Life!, the long-running BBC magazine programme presented by Esther Rantzen, is broadcast for the last time following twenty one years on air.[151]
27 July – The debut of The Human Animal on BBC1, a six-part nature documentary series written and presented by Desmond Morris described as "a study of human behaviour from a zoological perspective", travels the world to filming the diverse customs and habits of various regions while suggesting common roots. The series ends on 31 August.
17 August
BBC1 airs The Best of 'Allo 'Allo!, a special 50-minute episode featuring a compilation of clips from the series was linked by new scenes included Gorden Kaye and Carmen Silvera, in which René and Edith reminisce about the events of the war.
The fourth episode of BBC1's The Human Animal includes sexually explicit scenes when it depicted a couple making love by using tiny endoscopic cameras placed inside both bodies to show intimate orifices. It also depicts the insertion of a man's erectpenis into a woman's vagina and the subsequent orgasm. More than 12 million viewers watch the programme.
29 August – Debut of veterinary-based television series Animal Hospital on BBC1, presented by Australian entertainer and singer Rolf Harris.
17 October – The Morning on BBC1, a new weekday morning schedule of magazine, chat and entertainment programmes introduced by Mo Dutta begins airing.[154]
19 February – 10th anniversary of the launch of EastEnders. As part of the celebrations, the first 25 episodes from 1985 are repeated each morning at 10am during February and March, starting from episode one on Monday 20 February,[156] and ending on Friday 24 March.[157] Selected episodes from 1985 and 1986 are also repeated on BBC1 on Friday evenings at 8:30pm for a short while. Billed as The Unforgettable EastEnders the episodes aired are as follows:
17 February: The identity of the father of Michelle Fowler's baby is revealed in October 1985.[158]
24 February: Michelle and Lofty's wedding day in September 1986.[159]
31 May – Debut of the new BBC twice-weekly soap Castles, centring on the lives of the middle-class Castle family. The series attracts a relatively poor peak time audience of 3.2 million, leading the corporation's head of Drama, Charles Denton to brand it a failure.[162] It is cancelled after 26 episodes. The last episode is aired on 20 August.[163]
27 May – Doctor Who, an American television movie continuation of the famous British series of the same name, airs on BBC1.[166]
10 June–23 August – For the Summer period, the late afternoon block of children's programmes aired on BBC1 are transferred to BBC2.
2 September – Launch of "Daytime on 1", BBC1's new daily schedule that includes six and a half hours of drama, quiz shows, discussion programming, chat shows and cookery shows.
15 September – Debut of Rhodes, an eight part BBC1 drama series about the life of the controversial British adventurer and empire-builder Cecil Rhodes.[167] The series concludes on 3 November.[168] The series took a decade to make, employed over 10,000 extras, and at a cost of £10m is the most expensive British television project to date. However, despite a high-profile publicity campaign leading up to its launch, Rhodes attracts relatively poor viewing figures, with 7.6 million tuning into the first episode and 4.8 million watching the second, and it is quickly panned by critics. The BBC is also forced to launch an accompanying booklet about Cecil Rhodes as the series assumes a prior knowledge of the figure and many viewers are unfamiliar with him.[169]
23 November – The American animated series The Simpsons begins airing on BBC1, starting with the episode There's No Disgrace Like Home, although the channel would air the show until February 1997 when it is shown full-time on BBC2.
1997
BBC One logo used from 1997 to 2002
14 January – Viewing figures released for 1996 indicate BBC1 and BBC2 as the only terrestrial channels to increase their audience share during the year.[170]
5 February – The first Wednesday edition of the National Lottery is aired with the introduction of a second weekly draw.[171]
31 August – BBC1 continues to air through the whole night, simulcasting with BBC World News, to bring news updates of Diana, Princess of Wales's car accident. This is the first time that the BBC's international news channel had been seen in the UK. At 6am, a rolling news programme, anchored by Martyn Lewis and from 1pm by Peter Sissons, is shown on both BBC1 and BBC2 until BBC2 breaks away at 3pm to provide alternative programming. BBC1 continues to provide coverage until closedown when it once again hands over to BBC World.
1–5 September – BBC1 broadcasts extended news coverage of the events following Princess Diana's death.
4 October – The channel is now officially known as BBC One rather than BBC1. "One" was written all-caps in logo and was placed right to the BBC logo. BBC One adopts new "hot air balloon" globe identifications. See BBC One 'Balloon' idents.
8 November – BBC One fully closes down for the last time and ends its day with God Save the Queen for the final time.[173]
9 November – At the end of its broadcast day, instead of closing down BBC One hands over to BBC News 24, which launched earlier that day.
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.[177]
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. Herbert Mower, who died the previous year, had given permission for his death to be recorded for the series.[178]
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.[181]
16 October – Blue Peter celebrates its 40th anniversary with a special show including former presenters.[182]
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.[183][184]
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.[185]
2 April – BBC One airs Parkinson Meets Woody Allen, a 50-minute programme in which film director Woody Allen gives his first British television interview for 35 years.[190] Allen is questioned extensively about his private life by host Michael Parkinson, but is reluctant to speak on some topics. The BBC subsequently rejects reports that Allen had asked producers to edit out parts of the interview in which he discusses his marriage to his stepdaughter.[191]
5 September – BBC One begins airing Antiques Inspectors, the final series to be recorded by Jill Dando prior to her murder on 26 April. The series had made its debut with Dando as presenter on 25 April, with filming of the final episode completed two days before that. The programme was subsequently cancelled, but it was decided later in the year that it should be aired as a tribute to the presenter.[193][194][195][196]
6 September – The popular children's programme Tweenies makes its debut on BBC Two at 10:30am and again at 3:25pm on BBC One.[197]
1 January – Launch of Castaway 2000 on BBC One, a reality television show billed as a bold experiment for the new millennium. Thirty-six men, women and children from the British public are placed on Taransay, a remote Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides for a year and must build a sustainable self-sufficient community.[202] The programme ends on New Year's Day 2001.[203]
26 March – Debut of Doctors, BBC One's new daily serial set in a doctors' surgery. The first episode is broadcasts at 6:35pm on a Sunday evening, before continuing on weekdays at 12:30pm.[205]
2 October – The first edition of the BBC's revamped breakfast news programme Breakfast is broadcast. The new programme is carried on both BBC One and BBC News 24, previously, News 24 had aired its own breakfast programme with Breakfast 24.
3 October – The BBC confirms it will move its Nine O'Clock News to 10pm from 16 October to complete with ITV's relaunch of News at Ten. The announcement causes surprise as it had been expected the changes would take effect from October 2001.[207] Politicians from all major political parties criticise the BBC's decision, fearing it will affect news quality.[208]
13 October – The flagship BBC One news programme the Nine O'Clock News ends after a run of 30 years after the BBC earlier announced that it was to move the bulletin to 10:00 pm. The BBC News at Ten is launched on Monday 16 October. The change attracts criticism from both the National Consumer Council and the Culture Secretary Chris Smith. The BBC Nine O'Clock News also moves to its dedicated channel on the same day. ITV later announces its intention to reinstate News at Ten from January 2001.[209]
21 October – Parkinson returns to BBC One for a new series as part of the Saturday night schedule, having previously aired on Fridays since its relaunch in 1998.[211]
31 October – The Weakest Link makes its BBC One debut as part of the channel's evening schedule.[213] Billed as the Champions' League, the series sees winning contestants from BBC Two's daytime version of the quiz return to compete for a £20,000 prize, double the amount offered by the daily show.[214]
11 December – BBC One airs a BBC News special, Prince William in Chile, showing footage of Prince William's charity expedition to Chilean Patagonia with Raleigh International. The prince was interviewed and filmed during the ten-week trip, with an interview released to the media on 10 December.[216]
2001
10 August – The BBC introduces a fourth weekly episode of EastEnders, to be broadcast on Fridays at 8pm. This causes some controversy as the first episode clashes with Coronation Street which has been moved to 8pm to make way for an hour-long episode of Emmerdale at 7pm. In this first head-to-head battle, EastEnders claims victory over its rival.[217]
11 September – Viewers around the world witness a terrorist attack on the United States and the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City, live on television. BBC One abandons regular programming to provide up to date coverage of unfolding events.
21 September – BBC One and ITV are among broadcasters worldwide to air a live feed of America: A Tribute to Heroes, a two-hour telethon from the US to raise money for the victims of the 11 September terrorist attacks. The telethon features stars of film and music and is aired across 35 television networks in the US and over 200 countries worldwide.[219] The event is repeated by BBC One on 23 September.[220] The telethon raises $150m (£103m), which will be donated to the United Way's 11 September Fund.[221]
28 March – At 2:10am (in Northern Ireland at 2:50am in the evening hours), the last Balloon ident is shown on BBC One and with it, the last time the globe is used as the channel's symbol, having been used since 1963.
29 March – The 'Rhythm & Movement' idents, premieres at 9am, replacing the Balloon idents after five years on-air. "One" in logo was moved from the right side to a bottom side of the BBC logo.
21 April – Blackadder: Back & Forth makes its terrestrial television debut on BBC One,[226] the programme having been scheduled to air on 31 March but postponed because of ongoing coverage of the death of the Queen Mother.[227]
26 April – Making her first appearance as a panellist on an edition of Have I Got News for You at the age of 16, singer Charlotte Church becomes the youngest person to appear on the show.[228][229]
16 May – A UK version of The Chair, a US game show hosted by former tennis player John McEnroe in which contestants must control their heart rate while answering questions, will be produced for BBC One, it is reported.[231] McEnroe will also present the UK programme, which will air in the autumn.[232]
21 May – More than 100 viewers have complained to the BBC about an episode of BBC One's new spy drama Spooks aired the previous evening which depicted an MI5 agent having her head pushed into a deep fat fryer before being shot.[233]
9 September – BBC One launches Inside Out, a regionally based television series in England. The series focuses on stories from the local area of each BBC region and replaces a number of different titles previously used on BBC Two.[239]
13 October – BBC One airs Mr Trebus: A Life of Grime, a 60-minute programme paying tribute to Edmund Trebus, a compulsive hoarder who became famous after featuring in the first series of A Life of Grime in 1999.[240]
30 October – Have I Got News For You presenter Angus Deayton is sacked after allegations regarding his personal life appeared in the media.[241] Since Deayton's departure, the show has been hosted by a different guest presenter each week.[242]
31 December – BBC One airs the final edition of Vets in Practice, a special in which the show's participants discuss their time with the series.[243]
2003
12 February – In the weeks leading up to the Iraq War, the BBC screens a series of programmes examining the case for and against war. The centrepiece of this is Iraq Day: The Case For and Against War, a 90-minute programme on BBC One on that day. Presented by Peter Snow. the programme analyses the possible implications of a war in the Middle East and attempts to gauge public opinion on the subject with a viewers poll.[244]
7 March – Singer George Michael makes his first appearance on BBC One's Top of the Pops in 17 years, with a cover of Don McLean's protest song "The Grave", but runs into conflict with the show's producers for an anti-war, anti-Blair T-shirt worn by some members of his band.[247]
16 July – BBC One airs the final edition of Tomorrow's World.[248] It will be fifteen years later in 2018 before a new edition of the programme is broadcast.[249]
2 January – The BBC cancels the appearance of Coca-Cola sponsorship credits in the music charts in its BBC OneTop of the Pops show, after criticism from politicians and health campaigners that it would be promoting junk food and unhealthy drink products to teenagers.[252]
16 January – Robert Kilroy-Silk resigns as a BBC One talk show host after 17 years following the controversy over comments he made about Arabs.[253]
8 July – The first Schools edition of Question Time is aired on BBC One. Recorded in London, the panel is made up of guests chosen by the winners of the Schools Question Time Challenge.[255]
16 September – BBC One airs a special edition of Question Time to celebrate its 25th anniversary.[256]
29 November – The BBC announces that Top of the Pops will move from its Friday evening BBC One slot to BBC Two, where it will air on Sunday evenings.[257]
26 March – Nine years after its last new episode and sixteen years since its last regular run, Doctor Who returns to BBC One for a new series, the twenty-seventh in total since 1963. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper star. An average 10.81 million viewers, over 40% of the watching audience, tune in, winning its timeslot and making it No. 3 BBC show and No. 7 across all channels for the week. The premiere episode of the revival, "Rose", went on to become the UK's seventh highest-rated programme of 2005.
13 May – To celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II in 2006, artist Rolf Harris is to create an oil portrait of her as part of a special edition of his BBC One show Rolf on Art, it is announced.[260] The programme will air later this year or in early 2006.[261]
17 July – After forty-one years broadcasting on BBC One, music show Top of the Pops is switched to BBC Two due to declining audiences.[264] This is not enough to save it, and it is axed the following year.[265]
4 August – BBC One airs Sinatra: Dark Star, a documentary investigating rumours of Frank Sinatra's links to organised crime.[266]
3 September – After several revamps and presenting changes, BBC One airs the final edition of its children's entertainment series The Saturday Show.[267]
11 September – BBC One launches Sunday AM, a Sunday morning current affairs programme presented by Andrew Marr.[268]
27 October – 16 December–Bleak House, a 15-episode adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name designed to capture a soap opera-style audience by using Dickens's original serial structure in half-hour episodes, is broadcast on BBC One.
11 November – EastEnders is the first British drama to feature a two-minute silence.[271] This episode later goes on to win the British Soap Award for 'Best Single Episode'.[272]
21 December – The BBC announces that is to trial a three-month experiment in which its Saturday morning schedules for BBC One and BBC Two will be swapped. The changes, taking effect from January 2006, are being implemented because of frequent scheduling changes caused by big events and breaking news stories, and will mean children's programming will be absent from BBC One's Saturday morning lineup for the first time since 1976.[273]
25 December – BBC One airs the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "The Christmas Invasion"; this episode marks David Tennant's first full-length story as the Tenth Doctor.[274]
2006
BBC One logo used from 2006 to 2021.
1 January – BBC One airs The Queen by Rolf, a documentary following artist Rolf Harris as he paints a portrait of the Queen.[275]
9 January – Debut of the offbeat police drama Life on Mars on BBC One.[276]
15 February – BBC One debuts Davina, a chat show presented by Davina McCall. Guests on the first edition include Charlotte Church, Tess Daly and Vernon Kay.[277] The show proves to be a disaster, with The Guardian's Gareth Maclean noting that McCall "found herself floundering and foundering, struggling through [interviews], and exposing herself in a way from which even the hardiest flasher would recoil", while Jonathan Ross blames a poor guest line up. The 8 March edition gives BBC One its worst ever peak time ratings of 2.75 million.[278][279] By the time the show ends on 12 April ratings have fallen to below 2.5 million. It is axed shortly afterwards.[280][281]
23 February – Just the Two of Us debuts on BBC One.[282]
19 June – BBC One Controller Peter Fincham announces that They Think It's All Over will not be recommissioned for a new series, ending a run of eleven years on air.[283]
16 September – Connie Fisher wins BBC One's How Do You Solve a Problems Like Maria?. She will make her debut in the role in a revival of The Sound of Music at London's Palladium Theatre on 14 November.[285]
20 September – BBC One's daytime soap Doctors celebrates its 1000th episode with a one-hour special.[286]
22 September – BBC One airs Episode 5000 of Neighbours.[287]
6 October – After four and a half years, the BBC 'Rhythm & Movement' idents are shown for the final time on BBC One at 1:10am during the evening hours, as part of a special montage (2:55am on BBC One Northern Ireland).
7 October – The 'Circle' idents debuted at 10am. A new logo also debuted, with "One" now being written all lowercase and being larger than the BBC logo. "One" was set right to the BBC logo, just like it was between 1997 and 2002. This logo would remain in use until 20 October 2021.
27 January – Grandstand, the flagship BBC sports programme, is aired for the final time on BBC One, after nearly 50 years on television screens. The very last edition is broadcast the following day on BBC Two.[289]
9 March – The BBC's Castaway returns for a second, but shorter series.[290]
10 April – BBC One airs the concluding episode of the second and final series of Life on Mars.[291]
14 May – BBC One broadcasts "Scientology and Me" a Panorama investigation into Scientology by journalist John Sweeney. A clip from the programme of Sweeney losing his temper and shouting at a disruptive scientologist representative is widely released on the internet and by DVD by scientologists prior to airing.
9 September – The BBC One Sunday morning political programme Sunday AM is renamed The Andrew Marr Show when it returns after its summer break.[294][295]
3 December – Jay Hunt is confirmed as the next Controller of BBC One, replacing Peter Fincham. She will take up the role in early 2008.[296][297]
8 February – After 22 years, Neighbours is shown on BBC One for the last time, the broadcast rights for the series having been bought by Five.
15 March – Launch of BBC One's I'd Do Anything, a search for actors to appear in the West End musical Oliver!. Three boys will be chosen to play Oliver Twist and an actress to play the role of Nancy.[299]
5 April – BBC One moves its Countryfile programme to a 7 pm slot on Sunday evenings. The Sunday morning slot previously occupied by the show is taken over by a new outdoors activity show called Country Tracks.[305]
22 October – British National Party leader Nick Griffin makes a controversial first appearance on Question Time after being invited onto the show by the BBC. The edition attracts eight million viewers,[310] twice the programme's usual audience. The programme also results in a large number of complaints to the BBC, while Griffin himself makes a formal complaint to the corporation for the way he believes he was treated on the show.[310]
7 January – BBC One airs the first episode of Casualty filmed in at its purpose-built studios in Roath Lock, Cardiff, the series having been previously filmed in Bristol.[326] The episode, "Duty of Care", is also the first to be broadcast in HD.[327]
6 April – The EastEnders Omnibus edition is moved to a late night Friday/early Saturday morning slot from Sunday afternoons.[328][329]
24 June – 20.34 million watch the quarter-final match of Euro 2012 between England and Italy on BBC One, the highest number since the equivalent quarter final of Euro 2004. It briefly receives British television's highest audience for any programme for eight years until being overtaken the following month.
27 July–12 August – BBC One becomes the Olympic Channel. Apart from news, the channel's entire output is given over to live coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games.
21 December – CBBC and CBeebies both air on BBC One for the last time.
26 December – Jenni Falconer presents the National Lottery Wednesday Night Draw, which airs on BBC One for the last time.[330]
28 December – Matt Johnson presents the National Lottery Friday Night Draw, which airs on BBC One for the final time.[331]
2013
6 January – BBC One airs the last programme in its astronomy series The Sky at Night to be presented by Sir Patrick Moore, recorded shortly before his death in December 2012. He launched the series in 1957.[332]
17 April – BBC One airs the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died on 8 April. The three-hour special is watched by an average 3.2 million viewers, peaking at 4.4 million.[334]
23 April – Current Director of BBC One, Danny Cohen is appointed Director of BBC Television, taking up the position from 7 May.[335]
8 October – BBC Director-General Tony Hall announces plans to launch a BBC One +1 channel, and offer a 30-day catch-up service on the iPlayer.[338]
12 December – BBC One's Question Time is broadcast from South Africa to discuss the legacy of Nelson Mandela following his recent death.[339]
2014
21 April – Debut of BBC One's three-part adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's novel Jamaica Inn. The first episode attracts several hundred complaints from viewers because of its poor sound quality. The BBC later apologises, saying it could not adjust the sound while the episode was on air, but will do so for the remaining two instalments.[340][341][342]
28 May – 243 viewers have complained to the BBC about the poor sound quality on the first episode of Irish detective series Quirke, which made its BBC One debut on 25 May.[343] Writer Andrew Davies later tells RadioTimes.com that he watched the programme with the subtitles on after his wife told him she could not hear the dialogue.[344]
23 June – The BBC announces the UK's largest ever political debate ahead of the referendum. 12,000 first time voters will gather at Glasgow's SSE Hydro for a BBC One debate on independence on 11 September.[345]
10 July – An edition of BBC One's Question Time from Inverness, Scotland, is believed by its producers to be the first to feature a panel without any politicians.[346]
4 August – BBC One airs the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony which features a performance by Kylie Minogue. Overnight viewing figures released the following day indicate the event is watched by 6.8 million.[348]
9 August – Tumble, a show featuring 10 celebrities who take part in gymnastics to win the votes of the public, debuts on BBC One.[349][350]
11 September – BBC One airs Scotland Decides: The Big, Big Debate in which 16 and 17-year-old first time voters are given the opportunity to quiz a Question Time-style panel of politicians about issues surrounding the Independence referendum.[353][354]
16 September – BBC One airs a special edition of Crimewatch marking 30 years of the series.[355]
23 September – The BBC Trust introduces a current affairs quota to safeguard news programming, stipulating that BBC One's peak time schedule must include a minimum of 40 hours of current affairs programming annually.[356]
28 September – BBC One's Midlands news programme, Midlands Today, celebrates its 50th anniversary.[1]
3 October – EastEnders executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins announces that the soap's omnibus edition will be axed from April 2015 due to declining audience figures.[357] The final omnibus edition to air on BBC One is shown on Friday 24 April 2015.[358]
21 October – BBC One airs the Panorama film To Walk Again, documenting a pioneering therapy that enabled a paralysed man to walk again by transplanting cells from his nasal cavity into his spinal cord.[359]
16 November – BBC One airs a repeat of an edition of Countryfile first shown in August which includes an interview with Northern Ireland blacksmith Barney Devlin, who inspired Seamus Heaney's poem, The Forge. The piece is shown with subtitles, prompting nationalist and unionist politicians to accuse the BBC of being "patronising".[360]
15 December – BBC Three's Don't Tell the Bride is to move to BBC One, it is announced. The programme had faced the axe if BBC Three is given the go ahead to move its content online.[361]
1 January – BBC One airs the final ever episode of Miranda Hart's self-titled sitcom, Miranda. Overnight viewing figures suggest it was watched by an audience of 7.3 million.[364]
13 January – BBC One airs the 5000th episode of EastEnders.[365]
17 February – BBC One airs the first of four EastEnders episodes to feature live inserts throughout its 30th anniversary week. The editions also feature actor Himesh Pateltweeting in character as Tamwar Masood during the show's live segment, a first for British television.[366] Firefighters are called to a blaze at the set a few hours after the first of four episodes are aired, but damage is minimal and will not interrupt the show's filming schedule.[367] The cause of the fire is later revealed to have been a rehearsal for a fireworks display to celebrate the anniversary.[368]
20 February – BBC One airs a completely live episode of EastEnders to celebrate the show's 30th anniversary. A repeat of the first ever episode is also aired via the BBC Red Button.
8 March – BBC One airs the final episode of Waterloo Road.[369]
11 April – The first Women's Boat Race to be staged on the Tideway alongside the Men's race is aired on BBC One. The coverage is presented by Clare Balding, who chose to forego hosting the 2015 Grand National after the two events fell on the same day. Oxford beat Cambridge in both the Women's and Men's events.[372][373]
3 May – BBC One airs The C-Word, a dramatisation of Lisa Lynch's book about her battle with breast cancer. The film is watched by a peak audience of 4.2 million.[374]
25 June – After the Women's World Cup proves popular with viewers, and having increased BBC Three's viewership, the BBC switches coverage of England's 27 June quarter final match against Canada to BBC One.[375]
1 July – BBC One airs England's semi-final Women's World Cup clash with Japan, which sees England exiting the contest. Overnight figures suggest it was watched by 1.7m viewers.[376]
20 July – Rain during the first two days of the 2015 Open Championship requires the contest to be extended for an extra day, and BBC One to schedule an extra day of coverage at the eleventh hour.[377]
5 November – BBC One's The One Show previews a snippet of Adele performing her new single "Hello" on the forthcoming television special Adele at the BBC.[380]
13 November – Children in Need 2015 airs on BBC One, with Terry Wogan absent from the role as its presenter for the first time since its launch in 1980. Instead Dermot O'Leary steps in at the last minute after Wogan is advised to pull out following a back operation.[381] By the following day the telethon has raised over £37m, beating the 2014 amount of £32.6m.[382]
20 November – Adele at the BBC airs on BBC One, attracting 4.54m viewers (a 19.8% audience share).[383]
2016
3 January – Debut of BBC One's adaptation of War & Peace, which is watched by an average audience of 6.3 million, peaking at 6.7 million.[384]
19 January – BBC One controller Charlotte Moore is appointed to the newly created role of controller of BBC TV channels and iPlayer, while Kim Shillinglaw, current controller of BBC Two and BBC Four is to leave the BBC and her position abolished.[385]
21 March – After the concluding two episodes of the BBC One thriller The Night Manager were posted online, producers of the series say they are working hard to remove the content.[386]
11 July – Red Rock, a soap made by Ireland's TV3 and set in and around a fictitious Dublin Garda station, makes its UK television debut on BBC One. The opening episode draws an audience of 1.1 million (an 18.6% audience share).[389]
18 November – Children in Need 2016 is aired on BBC One. The fundraiser is the first to take place since the death of Sir Terry Wogan, and tributes are paid to him throughout the evening. The 2016 event raises a record £46.6m.[395]
25 November – As part of a new contract between the BBC and Lottery operator Camelot Group, BBC One Controller Charlotte Moore announces that the Saturday evening National Lottery Draw will no longer air live on BBC One from 2017. The draw will be shown via BBC iPlayer only from 7 January.[396]
27 December – Following the death of George Michael on Christmas Day, BBC One airs George Michael at the Palais Garnier, Paris, a concert given by the singer in 2012.[398]
1 January – BBC One launches a new set of idents, replacing the circle idents that have been shown before programmes for a decade. The new idents feature the photography of Martin Parr, who has attempted to capture portraits of modern Britain. The idents received an overwhelmingly negative audience review.[400]
20 January – BBC One and ITV provide live coverage of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States; BBC coverage of the event is presented by BBC World's Katty Kay, with ITV's coverage presented by Tom Bradby.[402] Also, BBC News announces that Kay would co-present 100 Days covering Trump's first 100 days, however in the end the programme carries on indefinitely apart from a summer break in August.
20 March – The final edition of Crimewatch is broadcast on BBC One. The programme ends as a monthly evening programme after nearly 33 years on air[404] although it isn't until October that its cancellation is confirmed when it is announced that its daytime spin-off series Crimewatch Roadshow (now Crimewatch Live) would continue to air, but will also air more episodes per year.[405]
16 May – Debut of Three Girls, a hard hitting three-part BBC One drama about the Rochdale child grooming scandal.[406][407] The series is later cited as an influence on Darren Osborne's decision to commit the Finsbury Park attack in June. Osborne's trial in early 2018 is told that he watched the drama a few weeks before carrying out the attack, and became fixated by its subject matter.[408]
4 June – The One Love Manchester concert airs live on BBC One and BBC Radio, starring Ariana Grande. Overnight viewing figures indicate it had a peak audience of 22.6 million, making it the most watched television event of 2017 to date.[409]
29 July – BBC One airs the series 31 finale of Casualty, an episode notable for being the first on British television to be shot in entirely one take using a single camera.[413]
21 October – BBC One airs the first episode of Gunpowder, a drama about the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. The episode attracts seven complaints to Ofcom because of violent scenes involving execution. In defence, the BBC says the scenes are "grounded in historical fact", and reflect events that were happening at the time.[415]
29 October – Blue Planet II debuts on BBC One, where overnight figures suggest it is watched by an average 10.3 million viewers.[416]
10 November – BBC One pulls the drama Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence from the Christmas schedule after one of the stars, Ed Westwick was accused of rape. The BBC says the drama will not be broadcast "until these matters are resolved".[417]
6 July – BBC One airs a special episode of EastEnders featuring the funeral of knife crime victim Shakil Kazemi (played by Shaheen Jafargholi) in which real-life knife crime stories are also included, with parents of victims speaking about their loved ones.[424]
2 September – BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show moves to the later timeslot of 10:00am as part of a shake up of the channel's Sunday morning schedule.[426]
28 September – BBC One airs a special edition of Bargain Hunt recorded for BBC Music Day featuring members of the bands Happy Mondays and Pulp. It is reported that the end of the programme had to be re-recorded after it was discovered one of the participants had broken the rules.[427]
2 October – As part of plans to revamp its daytime schedule BBC One announces that Flog It! will be axed after seventeen years.[428]
15 November – The BBC announces that the 2018 Doctor Who Christmas special will air on New Year's Day 2019, the first time the Christmas special has not aired on Christmas Day since the series returned to television screens in 2005.[430]
16 November – Children in Need 2018 is aired on BBC television, with £50.6m donated during the course of its broadcast. This brings the collective total raised by Children in Need to £1bn.[431]
2 March – BBC One airs the first of two special Casualty/Holby City crossover episodes featuring a storyline involving characters from both series. The story concerns a cyber attack on Holby City Hospital. Part One of the story appears in the evening's episode of Casualty, with Part Two appearing in the 5 March episode of Holby City.[440]
4 March – The Monday to Thursday editions of BBC News at Ten are cut from 45 minutes to 35 minutes. The reduction affects editions of the national and local news bulletins airing in that timeslot, as well as the post-bulletin weather forecast, and is done in order to make way for a new BBC Three strand of programming, as well as avoiding a clash with the start of BBC Two's Newsnight, which begins at 10.30pm. The BBC Three strand will run from Mondays to Wednesdays at 10:35pm, with Question Time continuing to air after the news on Thursdays.[441]
18 April – David Attenborough presents the BBC One documentary Climate Change – The Facts, which explores the science of climate change and possible solutions to counteract it.[442] The film wins general praise from critics for highlighting the dangers that could be presented by not doing enough to tackle climate change.[443]
18 July – BBC One broadcasts the final edition of This Week after sixteen years on air. A special live audience edition of the programme marks its finale.[447]
8 December – BBC One airs a television adaptation of Emma Healey's novel, Elizabeth Is Missing, a drama featuring Glenda Jackson in her first television acting appearance for 25 years.[448]
2020s
2020
21 February – The BBC announces that its consumer affairs programme Watchdog will be subsumed into The One Show from Spring 2020.[449]
2 March – As cases of Coronavirus in the UK continue to increase, a BBC One programme Coronavirus: Everything You Need to Know addresses questions from the public on the outbreak.[450]
23 April – BBC One airs The Big Night In, a first-of-its-kind joint broadcast with Children in Need and Comic Relief, and featuring an evening of music and entertainment. The broadcast celebrates the acts of kindness, humour and the spirit of hope and resilience that is keeping the nation going during the unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic, with viewers given a chance to donate to a fund helping local charities and projects around the country.[453] On the night the event raises £27m for charity, with the government pledging to double that amount.[454]
2 May – An episode of Casualty that details a (real-life) viral outbreak is pulled from BBC One's schedule after being deemed as inappropriate. The broadcast is replaced by the next episode in the series, with a recap of the skipped episode being shown beforehand.[456]
26 October – BBC One launches a "topical live series" that airs at 9:15 am on weekdays.[458] Called Morning Live, airing on weekdays at 9.15am, the programme is designed to connect with viewers' real-life concerns and to offer trustworthy and expert advice. Morning Live was initially commissioned to run for 40 episodes, until Christmas, but soon became a permanent part of BBC One's morning schedule.
2021
9 April – BBC One suspends regular programming following the death of Prince Philip, which is announced at midday and simulcasts the BBC News Special, which is also shown on BBC Two and BBC Parliament. BBC One continues to simulcast the BBC News Channel until 2pm the following day. Programmes are then cancelled in favour of ongoing news coverage of unfolding events and special programmes paying tribute to the Prince. Among the programmes to be pulled from the day's schedule are The One Show, EastEnders and the MasterChef final.[459][460][461] Within six hours of the death being announced the BBC has received so many viewer complaints about its continuous coverage that it establishes a dedicated form to deal with complaints about the schedule changes. Viewer ratings also fall across the television networks, with the BBC One audience down by 6% in comparison with the same day the previous week.[462]
18 July – The "social distancing" idents are discontinued, following England lifting most of its coronavirus restrictions, and the normal Oneness idents are reintroduced the following day on 19 July.
BBC One logo used since 2021.
20 October – BBC introduces its new logo, being a modification of a previous one used since 1997. BBC One also received a new logo for the first time since 2006, reverting the change of typesetting of "One" in it. "One" is set below the BBC logo, just like it was in 2002 logo. In line with BBC's other domestic services, it is no longer seen in boxed form, and its red colour tonation is lighter.
19 December – After more than 16 years, Andrew Marr presents BBC One's Sunday morning political talk show for the final time. Most recently titled The Andrew Marr Show, the programme ends following Andrew's decision to leave the BBC.
2022
26 January – A new regional programme for England launches. Called We Are England, the programme chooses a subject and produces six editions tailored for six different pan-regional areas of England.[463] The series replaces Inside Out which ended last year.
21 February – The BBC One magazine programme Morning Live moves to studios in Manchester as part of the BBC's drive to produce more content outside London.[464]
29 March – Medical drama Holby City airs its final episode after 23 years.[465]
1 April – BBC One launches a new set of idents, replacing the previous set. Each ident features a large community space, being utilised for a variety of different purposes. The idents present these spaces by slowly rotating around the image, with a circular, lens effect showing parts of the space being used for different events, during different times of day, and in different configurations.
27 June – For the first time since 1983, the BBC schedules live evening coverage of Wimbledon on BBC One to try to reduce the disruption caused to the BBC's schedules due to last moment decisions to transfer live coverage from BBC Two to BBC One.
13 July – Dedicated evening continuity for BBC One viewers in Northern England launches but it is not accompanied by any additional north-specific programming and there is no special on-screen BBC North branding.[468]
8–19 September – Most of BBC One's output is given over to provide live coverage of the Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II. Some shows during the evening are broadcast as originally scheduled and BBC One's pre-recorded daytime programmes during this period are shown on BBC Two.
2023
22 March and 26 April – The roll-out of regional BBC One takes place, in two parts.[470][471] The BBC will then close its SD versions on satellite.
6 May – BBC One airs full coverage of the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.[472] Overnight viewing figures indicate it to have had a collective audience of 18 million, peaking at 20.4 million at the moment the King was crowned[473] with 12.03 million people watching BBC One's coverage,[474] with a peak BBC One audience of 13.4 million.[475]
20 August – BBC One broadcasts the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final which sees England defeated by Spain 1–0. Overnight viewing figures indicate the match to have had a peak audience of 12 million, with 3.9 million watching online.[477]
2 January – BBC Breakfast and Morning Live's running times are extended. BBC Breakfast runs until 9.30 with Morning Live airtime extended to 75 minutes, giving that programme a transmission slot of 9.30 to 10.45.[479]
13 January – Gladiators is revived by the BBC, airing on BBC One during Saturday evening primetime. The programme, originally broadcast by ITV, was last seen on Sky One in 2009.
14 November – Continuing drama Doctors broadcasts its final ever episode after 24 years on air.[480] This means that, for the first time since launching a full daytime schedule in 1986, a continuing drama/soap no longer forms part of the channel's daytime output
^Macdonald, Marianne (15 January 1997). "BBC triumphant in ratings battle". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
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