1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1982nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 982nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 82nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1980s decade.
Music in Focus
20 January – Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat thrown at him during a performance, mistaking it for a toy.[1]
26 April – Rod Stewart is mugged in Los Angeles, California. Stewart loses his $50,000 Porsche to the mugger, but was not hurt.
15 May - "A Little Peace" becomes the 500th UK No.1 single.
26 May – The Rolling Stones open their European tour in Aberdeen, Scotland.
28 August - Eric Burdon gets arrested after a show at the Rockpalast in Cologne
22 September – The Who begin their only formally announced "farewell" tour in Washington, D.C.
5 November – First broadcast of The Tube on Channel 4.
Number 1 singles in 1982
Date Artist/s Title Label Weeks At #1
16th January Bucks Fizz The Land Of Make Believe RCA 2
30th January Shakin' Stevens Oh Julie Epic 1
6th February Kraftwerk The Model EMI 1
13th February Jam A Town Called Malice Polydor 3
6th March Tight Fit The Lion Sleeps Tonight Jive 3
27th March Goombay Dance Band Seven Tears Epic 3
17th April Bucks Fizz My Camera Never Lies RCA 1
24th April Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder Ebony And Ivory Parlophone 3
15th May Nicole A Little Peace CBS 2
29th May Madness House Of Fun Stiff 2
12th June Adam Ant Goody Two Shoes CBS 2
26th June Charlene I've Never Been To Me Motown 1
3rd July Captain Sensible Happy Talk A&M 2
17th July Irene Cara Fame RSO 3
7th August Dexy's Midnight Runners Come On Eileen Mercury/ Phonogram 4
4th September Survivor Eye Of The Tiger Scotti Bros 4
2nd October Musical Youth Pass The Dutchie MCA 3
23rd October Culture Club Do You Really Want To Hurt Me Virgin 3
13th November Eddy Grant I Don't Wanna Dance Ice 3
4th December Jam Beat Surrender Polydor 2
18th December Renee And Ronato Save Your Love Hollywood 4
Best selling singles of 1982
| Position | Artist/s | Title | Highest Position | Weeks At #1 |
| 1 | Dexy’s Midnight Runners | Come On Eileen | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | Irene Cara | Fame | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Survivor | Eye Of The Tiger | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | Culture Club | Do You Really Want To Hurt Me | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | Tight Fit | The Lion Sleeps Tonight | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Musical Youth | Pass The Dutchie | 1 | 3 |
| 7 | Eddy Grant | I Don’t Wanna Dance | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Goombay Dance Band | Seven Tears | 1 | 3 |
| 9 | Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder | Ebony & Ivory | 1 | 3 |
| 10 | The Jam | Town Called Malice /Precious | 1 | 3 |
Best selling Albums of 1982
| Position | Artist/s | Title |
| 1 | Barbra Streisand | Love Songs |
| 2 | The Kids From Fame | The Kids From Fame |
| 3 | Madness | Complete Madness |
| 4 | ABC | Lexicon Of Love |
| 5 | Duran Duran | Rio |
| 6 | John Lennon | The John Lennon Collection |
| 7 | Dire Straits | Love Over Gold |
| 8 | Haircut One Hundred | Pelican West |
| 9 | The Human League | Dare |
| 10 | Roxy Music | Avalon |
Movies of 1982
- An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
- Annie (1982)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- First Blood (1982)
- Grease 2 (1982)
- Moonlighting (1982)
- Poltergeist (1982)
- Rocky 3 (1982)
- Sophie’s Choice (1982)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- The Last American Virgin (1982)
- Tootsie (1982)
- The Verdict (1982)
- Tron (1982)
Televison in 1982
January
- 1 January –
- Central Independent Television starts broadcasting in the English Midlands, replacing ATV, TVS starts broadcasting to the South and South East of England, replacing Southern, and TSW starts broadcasting to the South West, replacing Westward.
- The Bluebell Hill transmitter in Kent was transferred from Thames/LWT to TVS, to increase the size of TVS’s new South East sub-region and the Kendal transmitter, covering much of southern Cumbria, is transferred from Granada to Border.
- The first showing on British television of Stanley Kubrick‘s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is aired as part of BBC1’s New Year’s Day lineup.
- 3 January – Final edition of The Generation Game to be presented by Larry Grayson. It is a compilation of highlights of the previous series.
- 4 January – Peter Davison makes his first full appearance as the Fifth Doctor in the Doctor Who serial “Castrovalva“.
February
- February – The first-ever 3D broadcast in the UK is screened by Television South. The programme includes excerpts of test footage shot by Philips in the Netherlands. Red/green 3D glasses were given away free with copies of the TV Times listings magazine, but the 3D sections of the programme were shown in monochrome.
March
- 5 March – The BBC is given permission by the Government to start broadcasting television programmes on two satellite channels from early 1986. Ultimately, however, the channels were not launched.
- 28 March – The British television premiere of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me on ITV.
April
- 2 April – The Falklands War begins as Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. Both the BBC and ITV broadcast additional and extended news bulletins throughout the conflict.
- 24 April – The 27th Eurovision Song Contest is held in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The contest is presented by Jan Leeming and won by Germany‘s Nicole with Ein bißchen Frieden.
- 26 April – “The Satellite Channel” is launched. In 1984 it is renamed Sky Channel after it is purchased by Rupert Murdoch and in 1989 it becomes known as Sky One. Today it is named Sky1.
May
- 1 May – British television debut of the US soap opera Dynasty.
- 28 May–2 June – The BBC and ITV provide extensive live coverage of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United Kingdom.
June
- 14 June – The Falklands War ends after Argentina surrenders.
- 17 June – American musical high school drama Fame starts airing on UK television on BBC1.
- 20 June – The BBC relaunches its Sunday morning programme for the Asian community. The new programme is called Asian Magazine.
- 26 July – Alasdair Milne succeeds Ian Trethowan as Director-General of the BBC.
July
- 9 July – British television premiere of science-fiction horror film Alien on ITV.
August
- August – Test broadcasts commence for Channel 4 and S4C. These mainly consist of showing the IBA‘s testcard ETP-1.
September
- 20 September – The first showing of BBC Schools‘ first computer generated ident takes place.
October
- 3–9 October – As part of its coverage of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, the BBC 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.
- 10 October – Boys from the Blackstuff premieres on BBC2 (last episode was shown on 7 November).
- 17 October – First showing on British television of Lord of the Flies on BBC2.
- 24 October – British television premiere of Star Wars on ITV.
November
- 1 November – S4C, the first Welsh language TV service is launched.
- 2 November – Channel 4 starts broadcasting in the UK at 4:45pm. The first programme shown is the game show Countdown, which, barring the news, is the only programme from the launch night that is still running today. The first ever episode of Brookside is broadcast. The programme was shown on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8:00pm.
- 3 November – Television debut of the nostalgic coming-of-age film P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang on Channel 4, a film produced by David Puttnam as part of the First Love series.
- 5 November – Debut of Channel 4’s innovative music programme The Tube.
- 9 November – The first edition of anarchic sitcom The Young Ones starring Rik Mayall is transmitted on BBC2.
- November/December – A dispute over new technology forces Border Television to close for around a month.
December
- 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.
- 23 December – Service Information is broadcast on BBC2 for the final time.
- 27 December – British television premiere of the James Bond film film Moonraker on ITV.
- December – ITV conducts a national 3D experiment, with red/blue glasses allowing colour 3D to be shown for the first time. The programme, an episode of the weekly science magazine The Real World (produced by TVS) is shown on a weekday evening, and repeated that weekend on Sunday afternoon, followed by a rare screening of the Western Fort Ti starring George Montgomery and Joan Vohs.
