In Focus 1989

1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1989th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 989th year of the 2nd millennium, the 89th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1980s decade.

1989 was a turning point in political history because a wave of revolutions swept the Eastern Bloc in Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power sharing, coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, embracing the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December, and ending in December 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Collectively known as the Revolutions of 1989.

It was the year of the first Brazilian presidential elections in 29 years, since the end of the military government in 1985 which commanded the country for more than twenty years, and marked the redemocratization process’s final point.

F. W. de Klerk was elected in South Africa, and his regime gradually dismantled the Apartheid system over the next five years, culminating with the 1994 election that brought jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela to power.

In contrast, the year saw the violent suppression of mass political protest in China, in June. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 ended with a military crackdown resulting in the deaths of a number of protesters.

The first commercial Internet service providers surfaced in this year,^[1]^[2] as well as the first written proposal for the World Wide Web and New Zealand, Japan and Australia’s first Internet connections. The first babies born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis were conceived in late 1989, starting the era of designer babies.

1989 marked the beginning of the current Heisei period in Japan. It is also the latest year, when written in Roman numerals, to have an L.

Music in Focus

The very beginning of the year saw compilation albums excluded from the UK Albums Chart, and spun off into the new UK Compilations Chart from the week commencing 8 January 1989. Albums such as the Now series had regularly dominated the chart since 1983, with often up to 4 of the Number 1s each year being hit compilations. Now 13 was knocked off the top spot of the albums chart as a result of this new implementation.

In the UK Singles Chart, eighteen singles reached number one. The first was a duet between teen idols Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, “Especially for You”, which had narrowly missed out on being 1988’s Christmas number one single. The two would continue their success throughout the year, with Minogue getting her third number one single; “Hand on Your Heart” in May followed by “Wouldn’t Change a Thing” which peaked at No.2 in August, “Never Too Late” peaked at No.4 in October, and then her second number one album, Enjoy Yourself came in November. Donovan fared even better getting two number one singles (“Too Many Broken Hearts” in March, and “Sealed With a Kiss” in June) and one album (Ten Good Reasons in May). The two enjoyed a highly publicised romance throughout the year until Minogue ended the relationship and began dating Michael Hutchence from the band INXS.

Like many artists this year, Minogue and Donovan were produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, who were at the peak of their popularity in 1989. This year saw the production team re-launch Donna Summer’s ailing career, and she scored her first Top 10 hit for 10 years with “This Time I Know it’s For Real” which made Number 3 and followed it up with two more Top 20 hits (“I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt” and “Love’s About To Change My Heart”) all from her album “Another Place and Time”, written and produced entirely by the trio. Also, The Reynolds Girls and Sonia both got the Stock Aitken Waterman treatment with their top 10 singles “I’d Rather Jack” by the much derided The Reynolds Girls, which reached No.8 in March, and “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You” by Sonia which got to No.1 in July. Big Fun kick-started their short-lived pop career with a Stock Aitken Waterman produced cover of “Blame it on the Boogie” which got to No.5.

After a break the previous year, Madonna returned to Number 1 for the sixth time in March with “Like a Prayer”, though the music video caused controversy. Her album, from which this was the title track, also topped the charts and became one of her most critically acclaimed worldwide. The single was followed by 3 further Top 5 hits in 1989; “Express Yourself” (No.5), “Cherish” (No.3) and “Dear Jessie” which peaked at No.5 over the Christmas period, becoming a big seller, selling over 250,000 copies.

May saw The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden and producers Stock Aitken Waterman reach No. 1 with a charity cover of the Gerry & The Pacemakers song “Ferry Cross the Mersey”, released in aid of the Hillsborough disaster the previous month. The original reached number 8 in 1964.

Two sounds dominated the Summer and Autumn. The first came from Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, where several old songs from the 1940s to 1960s were joined together to create a megamix, with ‘Jive Bunny’ (an animated rabbit) featuring in the music videos. “Swing the Mood” topped the charts for five weeks from July, “That’s What I Like” for three weeks in October, and “Let’s Party” for one week in December. Unlike the first two, the latter sampled Christmas songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Jive Bunny became the third artist ever to have their first three singles reach number one, after Gerry & The Pacemakers and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

The second was the italo house sound of Black Box, whose “Ride On Time” was the biggest-selling single of the year, and, at six weeks, spent the longest time at number one. Though the song heavily sampled Loleatta Holloway’s “Love Sensation” from 1980, the music video featured a different singer miming to Holloway’s vocals. This prompted legal action, so later pressings of the single featured a different singer – the then little-known Heather Small, who later went on to massive fame as the lead single of M People in the 1990s. The same production team behind Black Box also reached No.9 under the group name Starlight with the hit single “Numero Uno”. The italio house sound continued with Top 10s from Mixmaster “Grand Piano” and FPI Project went to No.9 with their version of “Going Back to mMy Roots/Rich in Paradise”.

Along with italo, the House music genre was still going strong in 1989. Inner City released numerous house hits during the year which all entered the Top 40, the biggest being “Good Life”, which reached No.4 in January. Coldcut introduced Lisa Stansfield with her debut single “People Hold On”, which reached No.11 in May and stayed in the Top 75 for 9 weeks. This was followed by her first solo hit, “This Is The Right Time” which hit No.13, but in October, she made it all the way to the top with “All Around The World” which stayed at No.1 for two weeks.

The Rebel MC created a second wave house craze in October 1989 with his No.2 hit “Street Tuff”, and from Belgium, genre-defining Technotronic stormed to No.2 in November with their huge debut hit “Pump Up The Jam”. Like Black Box, there was minor controversy over who was the actual singer of the track. The label officially credited French model Felly as the vocalist (who also appeared in the video), however, it was in fact American rapper Ya Kid K providing all the vocals. A third scandal involving credited vocalists also continued this year with the duo Milli Vanilli who hit the headlines when it was revealed that neither of them had performed vocals on any of their debut singles, including this year’s No.2 smash from November, “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You”.

The teen-sensations of 1988, Bros, lost momentum and a band member this year, so a new boyband took their title and from the United States came New Kids on the Block and they soon became the latest pop sensations in Britain. Their debut single “Hangin’ Tough” initially stalled early in the summer, but it was the follow-up “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” that went straight in at No. 1 in the Autumn. It would stay there for three weeks, paving the way for a re-release of “Hangin’ Tough” in January 1990, and the multi-platinum success of their debut album of the same name.

The year’s Christmas number 1 single, and, indeed, the final number 1 of the 1980s, went to a new version of 1984’s Christmas number 1 “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”. Unsurprisingly, it was produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, Band Aid II, like the original Band Aid, featured numerous famous music stars of the day, including both Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan giving them the credit as appearing on both the first and last number one singles of the year. Donovan would also achieve the honour of the biggest selling album of the year with his “Ten Good Reasons” album going multi-platinum before the end of the year.

One of the highlights of the Proms was the première of John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil, performed by Steven Isserlis and the London Symphony Orchestra. Two new works by John McCabe were also premièred during the year: Sam Variations for violin, viola, cello, doublebass and piano, commissioned and performed by the Schubert Ensemble of London, and String Quartet No 5, performed by the Gabrieli Quartet at the Fishguard Festival. A choral work by McCabe’s, Proud Songsters, was written to celebrate the 70th birthday of Stephen Wilkinson.

8 January – Compilation albums are moved from the UK Albums Chart into the new UK Compilation Chart.
14 January – Paul McCartney releases Снова в СССР (Back in the USSR) exclusively in the USSR.
9 April – The Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman announces that he will marry 19-year-old Mandy Smith, his girlfriend for six years.
23 July – Former Beatle Ringo Starr forms his own band named Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

Number 1 Singles in 1989

Date	Artist/s	Title	Label	Weeks At #1
7th January	Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan	Especially For You	PWL	3
28th January	Marc Almond & Gene Pitney	Somethings Gotten Hold Of My Heart	4
25th February	Simple Minds	Belfast Child	Virgin	2
11th March	Jason Donovan	Too Many Broken Hearts	PWL	2
25th March	Madonna	Like A Prayer	Sire	3
15th April	Bangles	Eternal Flame	4
13th May	Kylie Minogue	Hand On Your Heart	PWL	1
20th May	Ferry Aid	Ferry ‘.Cross The Mersey	3
10th June	Jason Donovan	Sealed With A Kiss	PWL	2
24th June	Soul 2 Soul Featuring Caron Wheeler	Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)	4
22nd July	Sonia	You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You	PWL	2
5th August	Jive Bunny	Swing The Mood	5
9th September	Black Box	Ride On Time	6
21st October	Jive Bunny	That’s What I Like	3
11th November	Lisa Stansfield	All Around The World	2
25th November	New Kids On The Block	You got It (The Right Stuff)	3
16th December	Jive Bunny	Let’s Party	1
23rd December	Band Aid 2	Do They Know It’s Christmas	PWL	3

Best selling Singles of 1989

Position	Artist/s	Title	Highest Position	Weeks At #1
1	Black Box	Ride On Time	1	5
2	Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers	Swing The Mood	1	5
3	Bangles	Eternal Flame	1	4
4	Jason Donovan	Too Many Broken Hearts	1	2
5	Soul 2 Soul	Back To Life	1	4
6	Marc Almond & Gene Pitney	Somethings Gotten hold Of My Heart	1	4
7	Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers	That’s What I Like	1	3
8	Technotronic	Pump Up The Jam	2	n/a
9	Band Aid 2	Do They Know It’s Christmas	1	3
10	Madonna	Like A Prayer	1	3

Best selling Albums of 1989

Position

Artist/s

Title

1	Jason Donovan	Ten Good Reasons
2	Simply Red	A New Flame
3	Phil Collins	?But Seriously
4	Gloria Estefan	Anything For You
5	Gloria Estefan	Cuts Both Ways
6	Kylie Minogue	Enjoy Yourself
7	Madonna	Like A Prayer
8	Fine Young Cannibals	The Raw And The Cooked
9	Tina Turner	Foreign Affair
10	Chris Rea	The Road To Hell

Movies of 1989

Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Batman (1989)
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Glory (1989)
Heathers (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
The War of the Roses (1989)
Uncle Buck (1989)

Television of 1989

January

1 January –
- Neighbours actors and pop singers Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan reach number one in the UK Singles Chart with their duet “Especially for You“. The song, released in November 1988, remains at the top of the charts for three weeks.
- BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Amadeus, Miloš Forman‘s film based on the play of the same name that is a fictionalised biography of Mozart.
2 January – British television premiere of Desperately Seeking Susan on BBC2.
5 January – The first episode of Channel 4’s comedy series Desmonds is shown.
8 January – Original airdate of the Only Fools and Horses episode Yuppy Love during which Del Boy falls through a bar. A 2006 poll named the scene the most popular of the entire programme, while it was also named 7th Greatest Television Moment of all time in a 1999 Channel 4 poll.
9 January – Launch of Central News South, a separate local news service for the South Midlands, covering Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and parts of Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Wiltshire. The programme is broadcast from a new computerised news centre in Abingdon.
16 January –
- The Late Show, Britain’s first daily television arts programme, which is presented by Sarah Dunant debuts on BBC 2 directly after Newsnight.
- Debut of the critically acclaimed children’s television series Press Gang on ITV.
20 January – BBC2 airs live coverage of the inauguration of George Bush as the 41st President of the United States.
22 January – ITV launches an omnibus edition of Coronation Street, which airs on Sunday afternoons. But the repeat is not stranded across the network, with different regions airing it at different times. Some regions, including Central Television, later move the episode to a Saturday afternoon slot, and the omnibus is dropped in some areas from September 1990.
26 January – The first episode of the sitcom Joint Account is broadcast on BBC1.
29 January – Children’s television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends will make its US debut with a half hour children’s sitcom Shining Time Station on PBS starring Didi Conn, Brian O’Connor and Ringo Starr (the original narrator for the first two seasons of the UK version of the original series as a stand alone) as Mr. Conductor. The series will have a few changes for the Thomas parts such as script and dialogue changing and name changes such as The Fat Controller becoming Sir Topham Hatt, the Troublesome Trucks becoming freight cars, guards becoming conductors and points becoming switches.

February

February – Anglia and Central Television reschedule Emmerdale Farm to 7 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
5 February – The world’s first commercial DBS system, Sky Television, goes on air.
11 February – Australian soap Home and Away makes its British television debut on ITV.
12 February – ITV launches its Find a Family campaign to find permanent homes for youngsters in care.
13 February – The ITV national weather bulletin is launched.
14 February – Debut of Channel 4‘s Out on Tuesday, the UK’s first weekly magazine programme for gay and lesbian viewers. Later changing its name to Out, the programme aired for four series before being axed in 1992.
23 February – Some 23 million viewers tune in to watch the exit of the hugely popular character Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) from EastEnders. Grantham filmed his final scenes in the show in the autumn of 1988 but his exit was delayed into 1989 to avoid the show suffering the double blow of losing Den so soon after his former wife Angie (Anita Dobson) exited in April 1988. The character falls into a canal after being shot, but the character’s exact fate is left unconfirmed.
25 February – The long-awaited WBA Heavyweight title fight between Britain’s Frank Bruno and America’s Mike Tyson is held at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Because of the time difference between Britain and the United States, the fight is televised in the UK in the early hours of 26 February. Tyson wins after the referee stops the bout in the fifth round.

March

2 March –
- First transmission of My Brother David, an edition of the BBC2 schools series Scene in which Simon Scarboro talks about the life of his brother, David Scarboro, who originally played the EastEnders character Mark Fowler, and who fell to his death from Beachy Head in 1988. The programme is repeated again on 19 June for a general audience as part of BBC2’s DEF II strand.
- After much publicity, a two-minute advert for Pepsi featuring Madonna‘s single “Like a Prayer” is shown during a commercial break on ITV, 12 minutes into The Bill.
6 March – Debut of the three-part ITV drama Winners and Losers starring Leslie Grantham; the series is Grantham’s first post-EastEnders role.
10 March – On the second Red Nose Day, BBC1 airs the eight hour telethon, A Night of Comic Relief 2.
15 March – BBC1 airs John’s Not Mad, 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.
31 March – The last Oracle on View transmission takes place on Channel 4.

April

2–3 April – ITV airs The Heroes, an Australian-British television miniseries based on the World War II Operation Jaywick, starring John Bach and Jason Donovan.
3 April –
- Channel 4 launches its breakfast television show The Channel Four Daily. The programme is based heavily on news and current affairs, with segments focusing on sports, finance, lifestyles, arts and entertainment, and discussion. It is axed in 1992 after failing to gain enough viewers and was subsequently replaced by The Big Breakfast.
- Australian children’s television series The Bartons makes its British television debut on BBC1.
4 April – TUGS, a children’s model animated series made by Clearwater Features (the company behind the first two seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends) debuts on ITV.
15 April – The date of the Hillsborough Disaster. BBC Television‘s cameras are at the Hillsborough ground to record the FA Cup semi-final clash between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest for their Match of the Day programme, but as the disaster unfolds the events are relayed to their live sports show, Grandstand, resulting in an extreme emotional impact on the general British population.
20 April – John Leslie becomes the first Scottish presenter of Blue Peter.
21 April – BBC2’s 25th anniversary. Prigramming includes an edition of Arena in which the author Graham Greene sets out to trace a namesake who posed as him for many years, and an edition of The Late Show which looks at the early BBC2 jazz programme Jazz 625.
24 April –
- The BBC’s Ceefax teletext only runs as a partial service due to a strike by broadcasting unions.
- Jon Snow joins Channel 4 News as its main newscaster, replacing Peter Sissons.
26 April – BBC1 airs “A Case of Spontaneous Human Combustion”, a Q.E.D. documentary which sets out to investigate apparent instances of the phenomenon of spontaneous human combustion, combustion of the human body without an apparent external source of ignition.

May

2 May – ITV airs an edition of the First Tuesday documentary strand investigating the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. Four Hours in My Lai is later shown in the United States as part of the Frontline series with the title Remember My Lai.
6 May – Yugoslavia’s Riva win the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest with “Rock Me“.
26 May –
- The High Court rejects a legal challenge to overturn the broadcasting restrictions introduced in October 1988 after deciding the Home Secretary acted lawfully.
- ITV broadcast live the last game of the season, between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield. Arsenal win the league title with the last kick of the season thanks to a late goal from Michael Thomas. More than 8 million people are said to have tuned in.

June

19 June – For the first time, BBC2 broadcasts during the morning when not showing Daytime on 2. Programmes begin at 10 am, as opposed to lunchtime.
22 June –
- John Craven signs off for the last time on the children’s news programme John Craven’s Newsround. The show continues under the name Newsround.
- An edition of Question Time looks back at Robin Day‘s ten years as the show’s presenter as he prepares to step down from the role. The edition is presented from the Greenwood Theatre in London, with panellists Michael Foot, Lady Antonia Fraser, Michael Heseltine, David Owen.
- Debut of the Channel 4 miniseries Traffik, a drama about the illegal drugs trade.

July

10 July –
- The first edition of the music magazine programme The O-Zone airs on BBC1.
- ITV introduces a second daily showing of Home and Away.
12 July – A special edition of Question Time from Paris, France, is the last to be chaired by Robin Day. Panellists on the programme are Leon Brittan, Chantal Cuer, Denis Healey and Yvette Roudy.
19 July – The BBC programme Panorama accuses Shirley Porter, Conservative Leader of Westminster City Council, of gerrymandering.
25 July – ITV airs “Don’t Like Mondays”, an episode of The Bill featuring a storyline in which several characters are caught up in a bank robbery. The episode sees the exit of PC Pete Ramsey (played by Nick Reding), who is shot in the chest by one of the robbers while protecting a colleague. The fate of the character is left unresolved.
30 July – Sky Channel is rebranded as Sky One, and confines its broadcasting to Britain and Ireland.

August

18–20 August – Michael Aspel presents Murder Weekend, a five-part televised murder mystery for ITV. The series, devised and written by Joy Swift sees celebrities attempting to solve a murder, with viewers also invited to identify the suspect.
25 August – Rupert Murdoch delivers the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in which he launches an attack on the narrow elitism within the British television industry.
27 August – Launch date of the first Marcopolo Satellite, which will serve as a platform for British Satellite Broadcasting.
28 August–3 September – BBC1 airs News ’39, a week of news-style programmes presented by Sue Lawley, marking the 50th anniversary of the start of World War II. Each edition is presented in news bulletin format, reporting on events as if they were occurring in the present.

September

1 September – The first ITV generic look is introduced.
3 September – BBC1 broadcasts the television film Bomber Harris, a drama based on the life of Arthur Harris, and starring John Thaw in the epinimus role.
10 September – BBC1 debuts Screen One, an anthology of one off dramas. The first film is One Way Out, directed by Mick Ford, and starring Bob Peck, Denis Lawson, Samantha Bond and Enn Reitel.
13 September – The BBC is accused of censorship after banning an interview with Simon Hayward, a former Captain of the Life Guards who spent several years in a Swedish prison after a drug smuggling conviction, just hours before he is due to appear on the Wogan show. The decision, taken by BBC1 Controller Jonathan Powell followed protests from several MPs. The BBC says the subject is not appropriate for a family programme, but will be discussed on other shows.
14 September –
- Peter Sissons takes over as presenter of Question Time as the series returns after its summer break.
- For the first time ever, children’s stop motion animated series Postman Pat is transmitted on television in Ireland on Network 2 as part of Dempsey’s Den. Animated series for preschoolers The Adventures of Spot also begins airing on Network 2 on the same day and month with an Irish language being dubbed called Echtrai Bhrain.
25 September – BBC2 airs The Interrogation of John, Malcolm McKay‘s 1987 screenplay, starring Dennis Quilley, Bill Paterson and Michael Fitzgerald. The film, about the police questioning of a murder suspect and first shown in 1987, now forms the first of a three-part series titled A Wanted Man, which further develops the story. The second part of the trilogy, The Secret, airs on 27 September, while Shoreland concludes the series on 28 September.
26 September – Debut of Capital City, a series about investment bankers produced by Euston Films for Thames Television. Thames spend an estimated £500,000 to run newspaper and billboard advertisements to promote the series’ launch, believed at the time to be the largest advertising spend for a program in the history of ITV. Full-page advertisements are taken in six national newspapers including the Financial Times, The Times and The Independent, promoting Shane-Longman, the fictitious company of the series, and featuring images of cast members in character.

October

1 October – The largest entertainment company in Britain HIT Entertainment (which was originally a Jim Henson production company called Henson International Television) was launched. The company specializes in acquiring rights and distributing television series for children such as Thomas and Friends, Bob the Builder, Barney and Friends, Fireman Sam, Pingu, Angelina Ballerina and The Wiggles.
2 October –
- Launch of RTL Veronique, a Dutch private commercial television station broadcasting from Luxembourg. The channel aired to Europe via the Astra Satellite, and attracted attention in its early days due to its late night line up of erotic programmes. The station changed its name to RTL 4 in 1991.
- The BBC breakfast programme Breakfast Time is relaunched as Breakfast News.
4 October – Jeremy Paxman makes his first appearance as presenter of BBC2‘s Newsnight.
11 October – Debut of BBC1 series Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days, a seven part series in which Michael Palin circumnavigates the world, following the route taken by Jules Verne‘s fictional character Phileas Fogg. The series concludes on 22 November.
20 October – ITV introduces a third weekly episode of Coronation Street which airs on Fridays at 7:30 pm.

November

1 November – ITV airs One Day in the Life of Television, a documentary filmed by 50 camera crews looking behind-the-scenes of British television on 1 November 1988.
2 November – The final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, “Goodbyeee” is broadcast on BBC1. With one of the most moving endings ever seen on British television, it is broadcast nine days before Armistice Day.
9 November – The last episode of Emmerdale Farm to air under its original title.
14 November – Yorkshire Television soap Emmerdale Farm changes its name to Emmerdale after 17 years.
16 November – Debut of Tony Robinson‘s well known children’s comedy series Maid Marian and Her Merry Men.
19 November–26 November – Prince Caspian becomes the second Narnia book to be aired as a television serial by the BBC in two parts.
21 November – Television coverage of proceedings in the House of Commons begins.
22 November – The Stone Roses are invited to appear on BBC2’s The Late Show. During their performance the electricity is cut off by noise limiting circuitry, prompting singer Ian Brown to shout “Amateurs, amateurs” as presenter Tracey MacLeod tries to link into the next item.
25 November – Helen Sharman is selected as the first Britain to travel into space in a live programme aired by ITV. She was one of 13,000 people to apply for the chance to become an astronaut after responding to a radio advertisement, and journeys to the Mir space station in 1991.

December

3 December–24 December – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, another Narnia story, is aired as a four-part serial by the BBC.

4 December – ITV airs the 3000th episode of Coronation Street.

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.

8 December – Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) is fatally run over by a Blackpool tram on Coronation Street, getting the programme’s biggest ever audience at almost 27 million viewers, a record that remains to this day.

24 December – ITV airs the original television film adaptation of Susan Hill‘s novella The Woman in Black.

25 December –

Christmas Day highlights on BBC1 include the network television premieres of Crocodile Dundee and Clockwise.
Christmas Day highlights on ITV include the network television premieres of The BFG, and Down and Out in Beverly Hills.

26 December – Boxing Day highlights on ITV include the network television premieres of Return of the Jedi and Ruthless People.

29 December – Deirdre Barlow confronts her husband Ken on Coronation Street before throwing him out, ending their decade-long television marriage.

31 December –

BBC1 says goodbye to the 1980s with Clive James on the 80s, a special two-hour programme reviewing the decade.
BBC2 has its own review of the 1980s, with The Late Show Eighties, featuring highlights of 1980s rock music.
Animated television special Granpa based on a book by veteran English children’s author and illustrator John Burningham and produced by John Coates and directed by Dianne Jackson best for working on the British animated Christmas special The Snowman is shown on Channel 4 at 6:30 pm.

December

The controversial Broadcasting Bill is introduced into Parliament by the Government. It will pave the way for the deregulation of commercial television.
A hearing at the Appeal Court upholds the broadcasting ban.