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This is a list of British television related events from 1980.

Contents[]

 [hide*1 Events

Events[edit][]

  • 20 January – The British record TV audience for a film is set when some 23,500,000 viewers tune in for the ITV showing of the James Bond film Live and Let Die, released in 1973 and starring Roger Moore who is now in the process of filming his fifth film as the spy.
  • 24 January – The IBA reappoints most ITV franchises.
  • 25 February – first episode of the popular political sitcom Yes Minister broadcast by the BBC.
  • 4 April – Violet Carson makes her last appearance as Ena Sharples on Coronation Street.
  • 9 April – ATV airs the critically acclaimed Death of a Princess, a drama documentary about a young princess from a fictitious Middle-Eastern Islamic nation and her lover who are publicly executed for adultery. The drama is believed to be based on the true story of Princess Masha'il and its showing causes a great deal of controversy, provoking an angry response from the Saudi Arabian government
  • 5 May – Both the BBC and ITV interrupt their scheduled programming to broadcast the SAS assault during the Iranian Embassy siege. The coverage was to launch the careers of several journalists, such as the BBC's Kate Adie, while cameraman David Goldsmith and his team received a BAFTA for their coverage.
  • 6 May – The BBC's five-year-old Ceefax service is rebranded as Orbit.
  • November – The first annual Children in Need charity appeal organised by the BBC.[1]
  • 21 November – 21.5 million viewers tune in to watch the 1980–81 season premier of Dallas, which answers the question of Who shot J.R.?. At the time the audience figures are a record for a soap in Britain.[2][3]
  • 9 December – The single drama The Flipside of Dominick Hide is first broadcast as part of the Play for Today series on BBC1.
  • 9 December – 20th anniversary of the first episode of Coronation Street.
  • 28 December – A shake-up of broadcasting franchises paves the way for the launch of breakfast televisionTV-am is awarded the contract to begin transmission in 1983. Also, it is announced that TSW will replace Westward andTVS will replace SouthernATV must restructure the company to create a separate East and West Midlands service, and reduce the shareholding of its parent body to 51% by February 1981.[4]
  • 30 December – The BBC announce their intention to launch their own breakfast television service to compete with TV-am, which was announced two days earlier. Breakfast Time is launched on BBC1 in 1983, two weeks before TV-am.

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