1995 in British television

Events

January

• 2 January – The Doors, Oliver Stone's critically acclaimed biopic of Jim Morrison, receives its British television debut on BBC2.
• 16 January –
• *BBC World Service Television is renamed as "BBC World" at 7pm GMT as the international free-to-air news channel. It was officially launched on Thursday, 26 January 1995 at 7pm GMT.
• *Mirror Group plc launches Mirror Television by purchasing Wire TV. It plans to launch Sportswire as a full-time channel and replace Wire TV with a new channel called L!VE TV.
• 24 January – Martine McCutcheon makes her EastEnders debut as Tiffany Raymond.
• 26 January – Launch of BBC World and BBC Prime, successors to World Service Television.
• 27 January – Premiere of medical drama series Dangerfield on BBC1.
• 29 January – Start of BBC2's weekly roundup of proceedings in the O. J. Simpson murder trial with The Trial of O. J. Simpson.
• 30 January – On Channel 4, the most watched episode of Brookside was broadcast where the body of Trevor Jordache was found under the patio.

  February

• 3 February – An edition of the live morning ITV discussion programme The Time, The Place is abruptly ended ten minutes early. After an item about men's fashion featured a black male model wearing a skirt, another black man in the audience starts complaining that the show is racist, eventually making his way onto the stage.
• 13 February – ITV broadcasts the British television premiere of Deceived.
• 15 February – As part of the Modern Times series BBC2 airs Death on Request, a Dutch documentary showing a doctor giving a terminally-ill patient a lethal injection of drugs. The programme is criticised by groups opposed to euthanasia.
• 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, and ending on Friday 26 May. 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.
• *24 February: Michelle and Lofty's wedding day in September 1986.
• *3 March: Den Watts hands Angie divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986.
• *10 March: Two-hander episode featuring Dot and Ethel from July 1987.
• 25 February – BBC2 airs a documentary about The Rev. W. Awdry called The Thomas the Tank Engine Man as part of their Bookmark series. The documentary is narrated by Hilary Fortnam, Awdry's daughter and includes a look at Thomas merchandise, the success of Thomas, images from the original Railway Series books with stock narration by Sir John Gielgud, interviews with several people such as The Reverend himself, fans of Thomas, Awdry's son Christopher, children's author and poet Michael Rosen, various people who worked on the books and toys, Brian Sibley who also wrote the Reverend's autobiography, the people behind the television broadcasts and rights of Thomas in Japan and the producers of the television series Britt Allcroft and David Mitton, plus a special behind the scenes peek of the 100th episode Thomas and the Special Letter and the Reverend criticizing the series 3 episode Henry's Forest.
• 27–28 February – Sky One airs Episode 404 of E Street, the final episode of the Australian soap, splitting the hour-long episode into two half-hour episodes.

  March

• 4 March – Channel 4 airs "Pot Night", eight hours of programming dedicated to cannabis.
• 11 March – Channel 4 begins airing a rerun of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' comedy drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, originally shown on ITV since its began on 11 November 1983, and also debuted "Red Light Zone", a season of "late-night programming focusing on sex, the sex industries and sexual tourism". The strand runs weekly for eight weeks.
• 17 March – The Night of Comic Relief, the 1995 Comic Relief telethon, airs on BBC1.
• 20 March — Film 95 reports about the illegally-rented pirate videos that include films such as Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers, The Mask and The Lion King are not available on tape for sale or hire, repeating the typically hyperbolic claims that video piracy were helped by the Federation Against Copyright Theft was directly funding organized crime, counterfeiting currency, drugs trade and child pornography.
• 24 March –
• *Following the recent death of James Herriot, BBC1 airs A Tribute to James Herriot in which Robert Hardy introduces a 1980 episode of the television series All Creatures Great and Small which was based on Herriot's memoirs as a Yorkshire vet.
• *Channel 4 broadcasts the final edition of its music show, The Word after five years on air.
• 29 March – Trinity College, Cambridge wins the 1994–95 series of University Challenge, beating New College, Oxford 390–180.

  April

• 2 April – BBC1 airs the final episode of Brum for now, but the show will return for brand new revamped series in 2001 and will continue being repeated on the BBC. It is also Toyah Willcox's final episode as narrator for the series.
• 3 April – A Scottish Court imposes a ban on BBC Scotland airing an edition of Panorama that includes an interview with Prime Minister John Major amid concerns it could affect local elections to be held on 6 April. However, the edition is broadcast in England and Wales.
• 10 April – Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken calls a televised press conference three hours before the transmission of a World in Action film, Jonathan of Arabia, demanding that allegations about his dealings with leading Saudis be withdrawn. He promises to wield "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play ... to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism." After launching a subsequent libel case against the makers of the film Aitken is sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjuring himself.
• 17 April – ITV airs a TV adaptation of the Joanna Trollope novel A Village Affair.
• 21 April – Channel 4 airs the first episode of the Irish comedy series Father Ted.
• 28 April – US sitcom Friends and US medical drama ER make their British television debuts on Channel 4.
• 29 April – Final edition of You Bet! to be presented by Matthew Kelly.

  May

• 1 May – ITV airs what is billed as a one off episode of Boon. The episode, Thieves Like Us was originally due for transmission at the end of series 7 in 1992/93. No reason for this delay has ever been given as the record wait was 2 or 3 years long.
• 2 May –
• *Closing date for applications to run Channel 5. Four bids are received, from New Century TV Ltd who bid £2,000,000; Virgin TV Ltd with a bid of £22,002,000; UKTV who bid £36,261,158 and Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd with a bid of £22,002,000.
• *Debut of News '45, a news bulletin-style programme presented by Sue Lawley to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day.
• 8 May –
• *The 50th anniversary of VE Day is widely marked in television programmes.
• *BBC2 shows the network television premiere of Boyz n the Hood.
• 9 May – The US/Canadian police comedy drama Due South makes its British television debut on BBC1.
• 13 May – Norway's Secret Garden win the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest with "Nocturne".
• 15 May – Bruce Gyngell, the former chairman of breakfast station TV-am, becomes Yorkshire–Tyne Tees Television's managing director.
• 25 May–24 June – ITV provides coverage of the 1995 Rugby World Cup from South Africa, the first Rugby World Cup to be held entirely in one country.
• 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. It is cancelled after 26 episodes. The last episode is aired on 20 August.

  June

• TCI and NYNEX do a deal with BSkyB which includes a clause that the cable operators do not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This marks the end of Cable Programme Partners One ', which had been set up to try to provide alternative content to the satellite-dominated multi-channel environment of the time, and causes the collapse of sports channel Sportswire, days before its launch.
• 12 June – Mirror Group Newspapers launches the cable channel L!VE TV. The channel's programming quickly earns it a reputation as tabloid television. It is perhaps best remembered for its mascot News Bunny who, among other things, stood for Parliament at the 1996 South Staffordshire by-election and polled 85 votes.
• 22 June – Prime Minister John Major's intention to resign and stand in a Conservative Party leadership election is announced on screen as England are playing France in the Rugby World Cup third place play off.
• 29 June – Debut of Gaytime TV on BBC 2, the BBC's first gay magazine programme.

  July

• 3 July – The successful children's art and crafts series Art Attack receives its very first screening in Australia on ABC and will mostly be shown during the school holidays.
• 8 July –
• *BBC1 repeats the documentary Girl Friday, in which Joanna Lumley spends nine days on a desert island with just a basic survival kit and a film crew.
• *Lee Griffiths wins the sixth series of Stars in Their Eyes, performing as Bobby Darin.
• 9 July – Marion Macfarlane wins the 1995 series of MasterChef.
• 26 July – BBC Enterprises, the BBC's commercial arm, is restructured as BBC Worldwide Ltd.

  August

• 2 August – Channel 4 begins a season of documentaries and features for gay and lesbian viewers.
• 14 August – BBC1 airs the very first episode of its sitcom Oh, Doctor Beeching!.
• 15 August – Sue Lawley presents News '45: VJ Day to mark the 50th anniversary of VJ Day and the conclusion of World War II.
• 27 August – Speaking at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Michael Mansfield, QC, one of Britain's leading barristers calls for television cameras to be admitted into English courts to help demystify the legal process and restore public confidence in it.
• 30 August – The first National Television Awards are held at the Wembley Conference Centre and presented by Eammon Holmes.

  September

• 2 September – Channel 4 debuts Dyke TV, the first television series aimed at lesbians.
• 4 September – Carlton Television introduces it's new look.
• 5 September –
• *US animated fantasy sitcom featuring the first ever animated superstar Felix the Cat titled The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat debuts on ITV before airing in its homeland which won't happen until 16 September of that year.
• *Jill Dando succeeds Sue Cook as co-presenter of Crimewatch alongside Nick Ross.
• 10 September – BBC Wales relaunches its rugby union coverage under the name of Scrum V. It replaces Rugby Special Wales.
• 11 September – Debut of children's stop motion animated series Oakie Doke on BBC1.
• 12 September – An animated series for children Oscar's Orchestra featuring the voice of Dudley Moore starts screening on BBC1. The series was designed to inspire children with the delights of classical music and incorporates famous orchestrated works from famous legendary composers such as Ludwig Van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach.
• 15 September – The popular children's stop motion animated series Noddy's Toyland Adventures airs on Network 2. This was the first time it has been shown on television in Ireland, although viewers with access to the BBC and various British television channels were able to see earlier transmissions including the series' original 29 September 1992 television premiere.
• 24 September – Pride and Prejudice, the BBC's massively popular adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, debuts on BBC One. The six-part serial finishes on 29 October.
• 28 September – makes its debut on BBC2, with the feature-length episode "Emissary |Emissary".
• September – STV acquires a 20% stake in HTV worth £36 million, as part of a deal with Flextech.

  October

• 1 October – Six years after it was originally planned, a British version of the Disney Channel launches in the UK and The God Channel, then known as Christian Channel Europe, also launches.
• 8 October – BBC2 airs the final edition of The Trial of O. J. Simpson as coverage of the trial draws to a conclusion.
• 9 October – Launch of BBC Learning Zone, an education service shown overnight on BBC Two.
• 12 October – ITV airs "Bait", an episode of The Bill that concludes a three-part story, and sees the exit of the character Jo Morgan, who is shot while trying to warn June Ackland of an impending attack on her car.
• 16 October – After 25 years as Coronation Street landlady Bet Lynch, Julie Goodyear makes her final regular appearance in the soap. She briefly returned to the show in 2002 and 2003, and starred in a spin-off series, Coronation Street: After Hours in 1999. At the time of her departure, Goodyear had recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural National Television Awards.
• 20 October – Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited is awarded the licence to launch Channel 5. It is a consortium of four investors — Pearson, United News and Media, CLT-Ufa and Warburg Pincus.
• 21 October –
• *Comedian Jim Davidson succeeds Bruce Forsyth as presenter of The Generation Game.
• *Short-lived American science-fiction series VR.5 makes its debut on Sky One.
• 22 October – Jenna Tinson wins the 1995 series of Junior MasterChef.
• 23 October – Channel 4 broadcasts the first ever episode of Hollyoaks.

  November

• 1 November – Five more satellite and cable channels launch in the United Kingdom: European Business News, Playboy TV, The Paramount Channel, Sky Sports Gold, and the Sci-Fi Channel.
• 11 November –
• *The History Channel launches in the UK.
• *ITV airs the British television premiere of The Bodyguard.
• 12 November – BBC2 airs , David Lynch's 1992 prequel to the acclaimed television series Twin Peaks. The film stars Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise and Kyle MacLachlan.
• 20 November
• *Zee TV launches in the UK.
• *During an hour-long interview with Martin Bashir for the BBC's Panorama programme, The Princess of Wales speaks openly for the first time about her separation from The Prince of Wales, and admits to an adulterous affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. An estimated 22.78 million watch the broadcast, the all-time record for a British current affairs programme.
• 22 November – After Virgin TV challenges the ITC's decision to award the licence to run the UK's fifth television channel to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, the High Court grants leave for a judicial review into the decision.

  December

• 2–3 December – Channel 4 airs "Soap Weekend", a weekend of programming dedicated to soap operas, with documentaries and classic episodes of series including EastEnders, Neighbours and Brookside.
• 7 December – PText, the Paramount Comedy Channel's teletext service, begins showing old episodes of the ORACLE soap, Park Avenue. After showing the first four episodes, from 11 December they switch to episode 376, doing so in order that the dates correspond. In all PText showed 700 episodes of Park Avenue.
• 24 December — A Close Shave, the third short film starring Wallace and Gromit, premieres on BBC2.
• 25 December – Christmas Day highlights include the British television premiere of Indecent Proposal on BBC1.
• 31 December – New Year's Eve highlights on BBC1 include Songs of Praise on Ice from the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Ice Arena, and Baz Luhrmann's 1992 comedy romance Strictly Ballroom.
• December – Channel 4 screens the documentary Sex with Paula in which Paula Yates talks to celebrities about their love lives. Originally made in 1986 the programme was deemed to be unsuitable for audiences at the time due to its perceived message of promiscuity at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

  Debuts

BBC1

• 1 January – Little Lord Fauntleroy
• 3 January – Timekeepers
• 5 January – Down to Earth
• 8 January – Tears Before Bedtime
• 11 January – The Private Life of Plants
• 12 January – Bad Boys
• 21 January – Ghosts
• 27 January – Dangerfield
• 5 February – The Buccaneers
• 15 February – The Biz
• 23 February – Crown Prosecutor
• 2 March – Glad Rags
• 12 March – The Choir
• 26 March – Hamish Macbeth
• 1 April –
• *Bugs
• * Chicago Hope
• 4 April – Monty the Dog who wears glasses
• 14 April – BBC Wildlife Specials
• 9 May – / Due South
• 13 May – Rumble
• 14 May – / The Hanging Gale
• 15 May – Next of Kin
• 21 May – The Vet
• 23 May – Out of the Blue
• 31 May –
• *Castles
• *Monkhouse's Memory Masters
• 10 June – An Independent Man
• 11 June – Oliver's Travels
• 27 June – Bump in the Night
• 26 July – Match of the Seventies
• 27 July – Resort to Murder 1995)
• 14 August – Oh, Doctor Beeching!
• 28 August – Atletico Partick
• 4 September – The Peter Principle
• 7 September –
• *Backup
• *Oakie Doke
• 12 September – / Oscar's Orchestra
• 14 September – They Think It's All Over
• 24 September – Pride and Prejudice
• 5 November – The Final Cut
• 13 November –
• *People's Century
• *The Thin Blue Line
• 15 November – The Queen's Nose
• 20 November – Can't Cook, Won't Cook
• 24 November – Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde
• 23 December – Nick and Noel
• 30 December – / Iznogoud
• 31 December –
• * ''Only an Excuse?

  BBC2

• 5 January – Jeremy Clarkson's Motorworld
• 16 January – Signs and Wonders
• 23 February – The Glam Metal Detectives
• 27 February – Game On
• 11 April – Fist of Fun
• 22 April – Fully Booked
• 29 June – Gaytime TV
• 18 August – Pulp Video
• 13 September – Degrees of Error
• 19 October – In the Company of Men
• 16 November – Ghostbusters of East Finchley
• 17 November – Coogan's Run
• 24 December – A Close Shave

  ITV

• 3 January – Kavanagh QC
• 6 January – The Glass Virgin
• 9 January – Lucky Numbers
• 1 February – Thief Takers
• 10 February – / Tales from the Cryptkeeper
• 26 February – The Gambling Man
• 6 March – She's Out
• 9 March – Chiller
• 12 March – Band of Gold
• 15 March – Cone Zone
• 4 April – My Good Friend
• 5 April – Sharman
• 13 April – The Baldy Man
• 17 April – A Village Affair
• 6 May – Scratchy & Co.
• 14 May – The Governor
• 22 May – Bramwell
• 23 May – Dangerous Lady
• 5 June – Caribou Kitchen
• 8 June – Searching
• 10 July – Barbara
• 15 July – Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe
• 17 July – Sometime, Never
• 2 September –
• *
• *Raise the Roof
• 4 September – The Slow Norris
• 5 September – The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
• 6 September – The Perfect Match
• 7 September – Fantomcat
• 10 September – The Famous Five
• 11 September – The Singing Kettle News
• 12 September – Is It Legal?
• 20 September – Tee Off, Mr. Bean
• 9 October – Wolves, Witches and Giants
• 11 October – Bliss
• 24 October – Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries
• 26 October – My Kind of People
• 27 October – Freakazoid!
• 31 October – Goodnight Mr. Bean
• 15 November – Hair by Mr. Bean of London
• 17 November – Faith in the Future
• 19 November – The Beatles Anthology
• 25 December –
• *The Best Bits of Mr. Bean
• */ The Little Engine That Could
• 26 December – Cadfael The Virgin in the Ice
• 28 December – McCallum

  Channel 4

• 16 February – Hearts and Minds
• 20 March – Deadline
• 21 April – Father Ted
• 28 April –
• * Friends
• * ER
• 4 May – Paul Merton's Life of Comedy
• 16 May – The Politician's Wife
• 4 September – One for the Road
• 12 October – Jake's Progress
• 23 October – Hollyoaks
• 13 November – Porkpie
• 24 November – Dressing for Breakfast
• 24 December – The Adventures of Mole

  S4C

• 5 September – Rownd a Rownd

  The Disney Channel

• 29 October – Cyberstar
• Unknown –
• * Donald's Quack Attack
• * Adventures in Wonderland
• * Dumbo's Circus
• * Welcome to Pooh Corner

  Sky One

• 15 March – '
• 4 October – Earth 2
• 21 October – VR.5
• 22 October – '

  Sky Sports (1/2)

• August – Soccer AM

  The Children's Channel

• 2 September – Earthworm Jim
• Unknown –
• *Cybernet
• */ Animated Classic Showcase

  Nickelodeon UK

• 29 April – The Ferals
• Unknown – / The Magic School Bus

  Cartoon Network UK

• Unknown – 2 Stupid Dogs

  Channels

New channels

Defunct channels

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

• Boon

  Continuing television shows

1920s

• BBC Wimbledon

  1930s

• BBC Cricket

  1940s

• Come Dancing

  1950s

• Panorama
• Take Your Pick
• What the Papers Say
• The Sky at Night
• Blue Peter
• Grandstand

  1960s

• Coronation Street
• Songs of Praise
• World in Action
• Top of the Pops
• Match of the Day
• Mr. and Mrs.
• Jackanory
• Sportsnight
• Call My Bluff
• The Money Programme

  1970s

• Rainbow
• Emmerdale
• Newsround
• Last of the Summer Wine
• Wish You Were Here...?
• Celebrity Squares
• Arena
• One Man and His Dog
• Grange Hill
• Antiques Roadshow
• Question Time

  1980s

• Children in Need
• Timewatch
• Brookside
• Countdown
• Right to Reply
• Spitting Image
• The Bill
• Channel 4 Racing
• Thomas & Friends
• EastEnders
• The Cook Report
• Crosswits
• Telly Addicts
• Comic Relief
• Beadle's About
• The Chart Show
• Casualty
• Going for Gold
• The Time, The Place
• Chain Letters
• ChuckleVision
• You Bet!
• Playdays
• London's Burning
• On the Record
• Fifteen to One
• This Morning
• Birds of a Feather
• Bodger & Badger

  1990s

• Turnabout
• The Upper Hand
• Drop the Dead Donkey
• Stars in Their Eyes
• 2point4 Children
• Big Break
• The Brittas Empire
• Soldier Soldier
• Noel's House Party
• GamesMaster
• Heartbeat
• Men Behaving Badly
• The Big Breakfast
• 999
• Absolutely Fabulous
• Chef!
• Doctor Finlay
• Saturday Disney
• Mr. Motivator exercise routines
• Frasier
• Breakfast with Frost
• Wycliffe
• Body Heat
• Pets Win Prizes
• Small Talk
• Wipeout
• Animal Hospital
• Time Team
• The National Lottery Draws
• Top of the Pops 2

  Ending this year

• The Tomorrow People
• Why Don't You?
• The Krypton Factor
• Bullseye
• Boon
• The DJ Kat Show
• Allsorts
• A Bit of Fry & Laurie
• Challenge Anneka
• Keeping Up Appearances
• The Crystal Maze
• The Dreamstone
• Mr. Bean
• Bottom
• What's Up Doc?
• The Animals of Farthing Wood
• The Legends of Treasure Island
• Alphabet Castle
• The High Life
• Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe
• Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
• Scavengers
• Incredible Games
• Knowing Me Knowing You
• The All New Alexei Sayle Show
• Ain't Misbehavin'
• Castles

  Births

• 23 January – Holly Kenny, actress
• 1 February – Richard Wisker, actor, singer and presenter
• 16 April – Poppy Lee Friar, actress
• 18 June – Jacob Andeson, actor
• 9 July – Georgie Henley, actress
• 17 August – Jessie Mei Li, actress
• 31 August – Ceallach Spellman, actor and radio DJ

  Deaths