2005 in British television

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This is a list of British television-related events in 2005.

Events

January

• 5 January—Desperate Housewives makes its initial UK debut. Overnight figures indicate it achieves an audience of 4.4 million viewers.
• 8 January—Jerry Springer: The Opera airs on BBC Two, despite protests from Christian Voice and other groups.
• 10 January—
  • Christian Voice confirms plans to launch a private blasphemy prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer: The Opera, which features Jesus, Mary and God as guests on The Jerry Springer Show. The group subsequently attempts to prosecute BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, but their bid is rejected by the High Court. An attempt to overrule that decision is also rejected in December 2007.
  • Vote for Me, a contest to find an independent Parliamentary candidate, makes its debut on ITV.
• 14 January—ITV's Vote for Me contest is won by former lawyer and convicted fraudster Rodney Hylton-Potts, who presented a "cabbies manifesto" that includes halting immigration, scrapping the Human Rights Act and legalising all drugs. However, the programme is soon caught up in controversy because of the winning candidate's extreme political views. Hylton-Potts went on to stand against Conservative leader Michael Howard as a candidate for Folkestone and Hythe at the general election, but came in seventh place and lost his deposit.
• 21 January—The auction channel bid-up.tv is rebranded as bid.tv.
• 23 January—Happy Mondays dancer Mark Berry, known professionally as Bez wins the third series of Celebrity Big Brother.
• 27 January—Holocaust Memorial Day and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp are observed in the UK. BBC Two and BBC News 24 air Auschwitz Remembered, a special news programme providing coverage of memorial events.

February

• 3 February—An audience member on the evening's edition of Question Time uses the show's final question to propose to his girlfriend, who says yes. It is the first time a marriage proposal has occurred on the programme in its 25-year history.
• 8 February—Teachers' TV, run by the Department for Education and Skills, launches on Sky Digital (channel 686) and Freeview.
• 9 February—The Africa-based BBC journalist and producer Kate Peyton is killed in a shooting incident in Mogadishu, Somalia while reporting on that country's nascent peace process.
• 16 February—The first series of the UK version of The Apprentice debuts on BBC Two.
• 19 February—EastEnders celebrates its 20th anniversary on the air, airing a special episode in which Dirty Den Watts is killed by his new wife Chrissie. 14.34 million watch the episode (shown on 18 February). It is the UK's second highest rated programme of 2005 (the first was an episode of Coronation Street three days later).
• 21 February—MasterChef relaunches as MasterChef Goes Large.
• 23 February—UKTV Style Gardens, a channel dedicated to gardening programmes, launches.
• 24 February—ITV airs another episode of its police drama The Bill to feature a storyline in which characters are killed off in a fire at Sun Hill police station. Computer generated imagery was used because producing a real explosion and fireball ripping through the station corridors was not possible.
• 26 February—Sound TV, known pre-launch as The Great British Television Channel, launches on Sky Digital (588). It closed in the Autumn.

March

• 3 March—Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opens RTÉ's new studios in London, based at Millbank opposite the Houses of Parliament.
• 10 March—BBC One airs an edition of Question Time from Changhai, China, as part of the BBC's China Week.
• 17 March—ITV signs up Jerry Springer to present a daytime talk show to replace Trisha.
• 20 March—
  • BBC Director General Mark Thompson announces BBC staff of 27,000 will be cut by 3,780.
  • Actress Kim Medcalf, who plays Sam Mitchell in EastEnders speaks to the Sunday Mirror about her decision to leave the series, and her plans to focus on stage acting. Her final scenes will be filmed in May and her final onscreen appearance will be in November.
• 23 March—Five announce plans to move its Trisha Goddard show to a morning slot from April to rival ITV's forthcoming The Springer Show.
• 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 episode went on to become the UK's seventh highest rated programme of 2005.
  • Gordon Hendricks, performing as Elvis Presley wins the sixteenth and final series of Stars in Their Eyes. He is the second Elvis impersonator to win the contest. Stars in Their Eyes continued until the following year, with a final junior series and a number of celebrity specials.
• 30 March—
  • As a test trial, the small Welsh towns of Ferryside and Llansteffan have their analogue television signals switched off. The trial proved a success and the digital switchover fully began two and a half years later in Cumbria.
  • Only days after his having debuted as the Ninth Doctor, the BBC announces that Christopher Eccleston will be leaving Doctor Who after only one season.

April

• 1 April—Thomasina Miers wins the 2005 series of MasterChef Goes Large.
• 2 April—Digital channel BBC Four broadcasts a live re-make of the famous 1953 science-fiction drama The Quatermass Experiment. The production is the first live drama broadcast by the BBC for over twenty years, and draws BBC Four's second highest audience to date, with an average of 482,000 viewers.
• 4 April—BBC Four airs Speak No Evil – The Story of the Broadcast Ban, a documentary recalling the 1988 broadcasting restrictions imposed by the Government of Margaret Thatcher on organisations in Northern Ireland believed to support terrorism.
• 8 April—13.03 million viewers watched Ken Barlow tie the knot with Deirdre Rachid on Coronation Street, one day before The Prince of Wales' wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles (7.36 million viewers watched). The scheduling move echoed Ken and Deirdre's first wedding, which occurred two days before Charles's nuptials to Diana, Princess of Wales, and which also beat the Royal wedding in the television ratings (see 1981 in British television).
• 11 April—ITV Day launches on ITV1.
• 14 April—The BBC removes advice from its website warning that Doctor Who was too scary to be watched by children under the age of eight, describing the statement as "a mistake".
• 16 April—David Tennant is announced as the Tenth Doctor.
• 18 April—Launch of the teleshopping channel iBuy.
• 28 April—BBC One airs a special election edition of Question Time, featuring the leaders of the three main political parties. Tony Blair (Labour), Michael Howard (Conservative) and Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats) are each questioned for 30 minutes by the audience.

May

• 3 May—The Sun has reported that Labour Party chiefs are concerned that the 5 May episode of EastEnders in which Dot Cotton learns to drive could distract viewers from voting.
• 4 May—Tim Campbell, a 27-year-old transport manager with London Underground wins the first series of The Apprentice. His prize is a £100,000 job with Sugar's firm, Amstrad.
• 5–6 May—Coverage of the 2005 general election is shown on British television. The Labour Party attains a third successive General Election victory.
• 7 May—Family Affairs wins Best Storyline at the British Soap Awards for a story in which a couple discover a family friend has been abusing their daughter.
• 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. The programme will air later this year or in early 2006.
• 16 May—BBC Weather relaunches, changing from 2D to 3D graphics.
• 23 May—Over one-third of BBC staff join a strike in response to proposed job cuts at the corporation.
• 26 May—BBC One airs a special edition of Question Time from Paris, France, ahead of the French referendum on the European Constitution.
• 31 May—David Easter, who plays villain Pete Callan in Family Affairs is to leave the series in September, it is announced.

June

• 18 June—Christopher Eccleston's final episode of the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who, 'The Parting of the Ways', is broadcast on BBC One. David Tennant becomes the Tenth Doctor in the same episode.
• 25 June—The Girl in the Café, a comedy-drama by Richard Curtis made as part of the global Make Poverty History campaign, is shown by both BBC One in the United Kingdom and HBO in the United States on the same day.
• 26 June—Countdown presenter Richard Whiteley dies at Leeds General Infirmary following a short illness.

July

• 1 July—Channel 4 broadcasts the last episode of Countdown hosted by Richard Whiteley.'
• 2 July—Broadcast of Live 8, a string of benefit concerts, in the G8 states and South Africa. They were timed to precede the 31st G8 summit being held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid.
• 4 July—The BBC apologises to viewers after a computer malfunction causes its new 3D weather graphics to freeze.
• 7 July—
  • Regular programming is suspended by major networks to provide ongoing news coverage after a series of co-ordinated terrorist bombings strike London's public transport system during the morning rush hour.
  • BBC One airs an edition of Question Time from Johannesburg, South Africa as world leaders convene for the 31st G8 summit in Scotland, and following the Live 8 concerts.
• 17 July—After forty-one years broadcasting on BBC One, music show Top of the Pops is switched to the less mainstream BBC Two channel due to declining audiences. This is not enough to save it, and it is axed the following year.
• 19 July—Jessie Wallace confirms she will leave EastEnders at the end of the year, having played Kat Slater since 2000.

August

• 1 August—BBC Broadcast, formerly Broadcasting & Presentation, and responsible for the playout and branding of all BBC Channels, is sold to Creative Broadcast Services, owned by the Macquarie Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank. It is renamed Red Bee Media on 31 October.
• 2 August—Five announces its soap, Family Affairs will be axed at the end of the year.
• 12 August—Anthony Hutton wins series six of Big Brother.
• 17 August—ITV announces plans to launch a children's channel to rival CBBC.

September

• 3 September—After several revamps and presenting changes, BBC One airs the final edition of its children's entertainment series The Saturday Show.
• 7 September—The BBC and ITV announce plans to launch Freesat, a Free-to-air satellite television series to rival Sky.
• 8 September—Faze TV, a British digital channel aimed at gay men, cancels its launch after failing to secure sufficient funding to deliver "sufficient quality."
• 12 September—In an interview with The Guardian, the BBC Director of News and Current Affairs Helen Boaden defends the broadcaster's decision to stick with initial reports of a power surge on the London Underground on the morning of 7 July until actual events could be corroborated, saying it was the right thing to do. "Some of our competitors talked immediately of 90 dead. They talked about three bus bombs. That was off a range of various wire services and it was complete speculation and we wouldn't go with that. We would be careful – we would try to check things out."
• 20 September—BBC One airs Derailed, a docudrama dealing with the 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail crash.
• 22 September—
  • It is announced that Des Lynam will succeed Richard Whiteley as presenter of Channel 4's Countdown, with his first episode airing on 31 October.
  • ITV airs a second live episode of The Bill to mark the broadcaster's 50th year on air.
• 26 September—The BBC is censured by Ofcom for its coverage of the London bombings on 7 July. Of particular concern to them was an incident in which footage of a man being carried by stretcher into the Royal London Hospital was shown as a BBC News 24 presenter commentated "Let's just take a look at some of the pictures coming from the Royal London." Ofcom concludes that "the pictures were used generically and the commentary did not reflect the seriousness of the images being transmitted". Channel 4 News is also criticised for not "fully reflecting the enormity of the images being reflected", although it had not breached the Ofcom regulations as the images were not used casually. ITV News is not criticised, however, because it provided a "clear narrative context [with] sensitive accompanying reporting".
• 26–27 September—No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese's documentary on Bob Dylan, receives its broadcast premiere on BBC Two in the UK, under the Arena banner.
• September—ITV celebrates its 50th anniversary with a collection of special programmes, under the name ITV 50.

October

• 10 October—More4, a digital channel from Channel 4 offering factual content, launches.
• 24 October—Sky News moves to new studios, with a new schedule and on-air look.
• 25 October—The relaunched Doctor Who is the major winner at the annual National Television Awards in the UK, taking the Most Popular Drama award, with its stars Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper winning Most Popular Actor and Most Popular actress.
• 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.
• 31 October—
• Sky3 is launched on British digital terrestrial and satellite platforms. On the same day Sky Mix is rebranded as Sky Two, and Sky Travel ceases transmission on Freeview.
• The first episode of Countdown hosted by Des Lynam airs, as does the first episode of Deal Or No Deal, reviving Noel Edmonds's TV career on Channel 4.

November

• 1 November—ITV4, a digital channel aimed at men, is launched in the UK. It is launched on Sky Digital Channel 120 on 7 November.
• 3 November—A special edition of Question Time featuring David Cameron and David Davis—the two candidates in the forthcoming Conservative Party leadership election.
• 7–28 November—BBC One broadcasts ShakespeaRe-Told, a series of four adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays based in 21st century Britain. The plays in order are Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• 11 November—EastEnders is the first British drama to feature a two-minute silence. This episode later goes on to win the British Soap Award for 'Best Single Episode'.
• 18 November—
  • BBC One broadcasts this year's annual Children in Need appeal. It contained several highlights including Catherine Tate in EastEnders, the BBC Newsreaders performing Bohemian Rhapsody, and a brand new Doctor Who adventure. The first to fully star David Tennant as the Doctor, the 7-minute episode directly follows on from The Parting of the Ways and directly leads on to The Christmas Invasion.
  • It is announced that Five has bought a stake in DTT's pay-TV operator, Top Up TV.
• 22 November—Producers of ITV's I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! confirm that contestant Elaine Lordan will not be returning to the show following a stay in hospital. She had twice collapsed on the set of the jungle-based reality show, but had been given a clean bill of health by doctors.
• 28 November—The actress and I'm a Celebrity contestant Kimberley Davies is taken to hospital with a suspected fractured rib after she is injured in a stunt that goes wrong. Davies had jumped from a helicopter as part of one of the series' "bush tucker trials" when the incident occurred. Responding to criticism that it had not taken the correct safety precautions, ITV says that Davies was given a full safety briefing before she performed the stunt.
• 29 November—Kimberley Davies withdraws from I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

December

• 5 December—Carol Thatcher wins the fifth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.
• 7–16 December—Space Cadets is shown on Channel 4, a hoax reality TV show where the contestants believe they are in a space shuttle orbiting Earth, when in fact they are in a set in a disused aircraft hangar in Suffolk.
• 10 December—Westlife's version of "You Raise Me Up" is voted the 2005 Record of the Year by ITV viewers, the fourth time the Irish boy band have won the title.
• 11 December—Cricketer Andrew Flintoff is named as this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
• 15 December—Sir Trevor McDonald makes his final ITN news broadcast after over 25 years. As a tribute, the closing theme tune for the News at Ten Thirty that night is replaced with the News at Ten theme used from 1992 to 1999, McDonald having presented the show during that time.
• 17 December—Cricketer Darren Gough and dancing partner Lilia Kopylova win the third series of Strictly Come Dancing. Shayne Ward wins the second series of The X Factor on the same evening.
• 19 December—Rolf Harris unveils his portrait of the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
• 21 December—The BBC 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.
• 23 December—The ITV News Channel closes.
• 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.
  • Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace leave EastEnders when their characters Alfie and Kat Moon depart for America.
• 29 December—The last edition of Click Online broadcast under its original title before it is renamed Click.
• 30 December—Five airs the final episode of its soap Family Affairs.

Debuts

BBC One

• 1 January – Star Spell (2005)
• 13 March – Supervolcano (2005)
• 26 March – Doctor Who (2005–Present)
• 11 September – Sunday AM (2005–present)
• 27 October – Bleak House (2005)
• 30 October – Rocket Man (2005)

BBC Two

• 16 February – The Apprentice (2005–present)
• 10 May – The Monastery (2005)
• 5 June – Mock the Week (2005–present)
• 6 July – To the Ends of the Earth (2005)
• 21 July – Extras (2005–2007)

BBC Four

• 19 May – The Thick of It (2005–2012)

ITV (1/2/3/4)

• 5 February – Toonattik (2005–2011)
• 11 April – ITV Day (2005–2006)
• 13 June – Cash Cab (2005–2006)
• 4 July – The Jeremy Kyle Show (2005–present)
• 24 September – Afterlife premieres. However, despite being a British series, it had actually received its world premiere some weeks earlier on Australia's Nine Network (2005–2006).
• 10 October – Vincent (2005–2006)
• 18 December – Wallis & Edward (2005)

Channel 4

• 10 January – Come Dine with Me (2005–present)
• 7 March – Coach Trip (2005–2006, 2009–2012, 2013–present)
• 3 June – 8 Out of 10 Cats (2005–present)
• 1 August – The House of Obsessive Compulsives (2005)
• 31 August – It's Me or the Dog (2005–2008)
• 29 September – Elizabeth I (2005)
• 31 October – The UK version of Deal or No Deal premieres, relaunching the career of Noel Edmonds and bringing the channel a surprise daytime hit (2005–2016).

More4

• 10 October – Launch of More4 News on new digital channel More4 (2005—2009).

Five

• 30 May – Fifi and the Flowertots premieres (2005–present)

Channels

New channels

Date	Channel
10 October	More4
31 October	Sky3
1 November	ITV4

Defunct channels

Main article: List of former TV channels in the United Kingdom § 2005

Date	Channel
23 December	ITV News Channel

Rebranded channels

Date	Old Name	New Name
31 October	Sky Mix	Sky2

Changes of network affiliation

Show	Moved from	Moved to
Trisha	ITV	Five
Family Guy (Terrestrial rights)	Channel 4	BBC Two
Top of the Pops	BBC One
24	BBC Two	Sky1
WWE SmackDown![1]	Sky1	Sky Sports
WWE Bottom Line[2]
WWE After Burn[3]
WWE Heat[4]

• ^1 All these WWE shows became exclusive to Sky Sports

Television shows

^{^[e]} signifies that this show has a related event in the Events section above.

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

• Muffin the Mule (1946–1955, 2005–2006)
• Doctor Who (1963–1989, 1996, 2005–present)
• Mr. Benn (1970–1972, 2005)
• Roobarb and Custard Too premieres (1974 BBC, 2005–2013 Channel 5)
• Willo the Wisp (1981–1984, 2005)
• Fireman Sam (1987–1994, 2005–2013)
• The Two Ronnies Sketchbook sequels to take over from The Two Ronnies (1971–1987, 1991, 1996, 2005)
• Family Guy (1999–2002, 2005–present)

1950s

• Panorama (1953–present)
• What the Papers Say (1956–2008)
• The Sky at Night (1957–present)
• Blue Peter (1958–present)
• Grandstand (1958–2007).

1960s

• Coronation Street (1960–present).
• Songs of Praise (1961–present).
• Top of the Pops (1964–2006).
• Match of the Day (1964–present).
• The Money Programme (1966–2010).

1970s

• Emmerdale (1972–present).
• Newsround (1972–present).
• Last of the Summer Wine (1973–2010).
• Arena (1975–present).
• One Man and His Dog (1976–present).
• Top Gear (1977–2001, 2002–present).
• Grange Hill (1978–2008).
• Antiques Roadshow (1979–present).
• Question Time (1979–present)

1980s

• Children in Need (1980–present)
• Postman Pat (1981, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2004–2008).
• Timewatch (1982–present)
• Countdown (1982–present)
• The Bill (1984–2010).
• Thomas & Friends (1984–present)
• EastEnders (1985–present).
• Comic Relief (1985–present).
• Casualty (1986–present).
• ChuckleVision (1987–2009).
• This Morning (1988–present).
• The Simpsons (1989–present)

1990s

• Have I Got News for You (1990–present)
• Room 101 (1994–2007, 2012–present)
• Stars in Their Eyes (1990–2006)
• Heartbeat (1992–2010)
• Time Team (1994–2013)
• Hollyoaks (1995–present)
• Arthur (1996–present)
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks (1996–2015)
• Silent Witness (1996–present).
• Midsomer Murders (1997–present).
• South Park (1997–present)
• King of the Hill (1997–2010)
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (1998–2014).
• Bob the Builder (1998–present).
• Bremner, Bird and Fortune (1999–2010).
• Ed, Edd n Eddy (1999–2009)
• SpongeBob SquarePants (1999–present)

2000s

• Doctors (2000–present)
• Big Brother (2000–present)
• The Weakest Link (2000–2012)
• The Kumars (2001–2006, 2014–present)
• Popworld (2001–2007)
• Real Crime (2001–present)
• Flog It! (2002–present)
• Foyle's War (2002–2015)
• I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2002–present)
• Harry Hill's TV Burp (2002–2012)
• Spooks (2002–2011)
• Daily Politics (2003–present)
• Peep Show (2003–2015)
• All Grown Up! (2003–2008)
• New Tricks (2003–2015)
• Politics Show (2003–2011)
• QI (2003–present)
• The Royal (2003–2011)
• This Week (2003–present)
• Strictly Come Dancing (2004–present)
• Sea of Souls (2004–2007)
• Supernanny (2004–2008, 2010–2012)
• Shameless (2004–2013)
• The X Factor (2004–present)

Ending this year

Date	Show	Channel(s)	Debut(s)
30 January	Andy Pandy	CBeebies	1950 & 2002
	Angelina Ballerina	CITV	2002
	Up on the Roof	CITV on GMTV
	Diggin' It		2003
	Superstars	BBC
	Call My Bluff		1965
	Cathedral		2005
25 March	The Powerpuff Girls	Channel 5 & Cartoon Network	1998
29 May	Breakfast with Frost	BBC	1993
16 June	UK Top 40	CBBC	2002
12 July	50/50		1997
20 July	To the Ends of the Earth	BBC	2005
24 July	Ground Force		1997
3 August	Born and Bred		2002
18 August	Should I Worry About...?		2004
15 October	Star Spell		2005
23 October	Monarch of the Glen		2000
4 December	Rocket Man		2005
16 December	Bleak House
25 December	The Two Ronnies Sketchbook
30 December	Family Affairs	Channel 5	1997

Deaths

Date	Name	Age	Cinematic Credibility
2 January	Cyril Fletcher	91	British comedian (That's Life!)
5 January	Gabrielle Daye	93	actress (Bless Me Father, Coronation Street)
9 February	Kate Peyton	39	BBC journalist and producer
11 February	Stan Richards	74	actor (Seth Armstrong in Emmerdale)
10 March	Dave Allen	68	Irish comedian, host of solo shows on BBC1 and ITV.
26 June	Richard Whiteley	61	presenter, host of Countdown.
4 July	Bryan Coleman	94	actor
11 July	Gretchen Franklin		actress (Ethel Skinner in EastEnders)
9 August	Kay Tremblay	91	Actress (Road to Avonlea)
31 August	Michael Sheard	67	actor (Mr Bronson in Grange Hill)
3 October	Ronnie Barker	76	comedian, half of The Two Ronnies
17 October	Leslie Duxbury	79	television producer (Coronation Street)
25 October	Barbara Keogh	76	actress (Eastenders)
31 October	Mary Wimbush	81	actress (Poldark, Jeeves and Wooster, Century Falls)