15 January – Zoe Ball begins hosting The Big Breakfast on Channel 4.[4]
15 January–11 March – Our Friends in the North, a nine-part drama spanning from the 1960s to the 1990s in the lives of four friends, begins airing on BBC2.
22 January – The Sci-Fi Channel begins airing episodes 109–150 of the BSB soap Jupiter Moon which were not televised during the series original 1990 run. Two episodes are aired per day up to 19 February.
26 January – The findings of the judicial review into the ITC's decision to award the licence for a fifth UK television channel to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd are published. The review concludes that there was no illegality or unfairness in the process.[5]
5 February – Breakfast News Extra is launched. The 20-minute programme which airs at the end of the main edition of Breakfast News is presented by Juliet Morris.[6]
9 February – The entertainment show TFI Friday makes its debut on Channel 4, presented by Chris Evans. The show ran for six series over four and a half years until 2000.
11 February – Debut of the Irish-set drama series Ballykissangel on BBC1.
18 February – The final episode of the long-running satirical puppet show Spitting Image is broadcast on ITV.
19 February – At the 1996 BRIT Awards, aired by ITV, Pulp's lead singer Jarvis Cocker invades the stage during Michael Jackson's performance of Earth Song. Jackson, surrounded by children was dressed as a Christ-like figure, an image which Cocker found objectionable.[7][8]
1 March – The Media Authority of Berlin and Brandenburg (Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg) awards a terrestrial television licence to BBC World, thought to be the first time a country has awarded a television frequency to a foreign broadcaster.
4 March – Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends returns to with a new series once again narrated by Michael Angelis, but instead of airing on free-for-air television, it will now air on satellite and cable channel Cartoon Network.
8 March – Mersey Television boss and creator of Channel 4 soaps Brookside and Hollyoaks, Phil Redmond predicts that in the future, every major soap on television will be aired five nights a week.[13]
11 March – Launch of the business and financial news channel CNBC Europe which is based in London.
13 March – In the wake of the Dunblane school massacre, ITV postpones the James Bond film Licence to Kill which was due to be shown this evening.
14 March – Channel 4 is forced to apologise to viewers after an ident showing The Big Breakfast presenter Mark Little firing a gun at the camera is seen on screen the day after the Dunblane school massacre.[14]
16 March
Cable channel L!VE TV stages a live reconstruction of the Frank Bruno vs. Mike Tyson fight using lookalike boxers as a way of hitting back at pay-per-view television on which the actual fight is being shown.[15]
18 March – Debut of the drama series This Life on BBC2.
19 March – Debut of And The Beat Goes On on Channel 4.
24 March
ITV airs Coronation Street – The Cruise, something which proves to be controversial as the film had only been released on VHS a few months earlier to celebrate the show's 35th anniversary.
The final episode of the long-running storytelling series Jackanory is broadcast on BBC2, although it would be briefly revived in 2006.
26 March – Cadbury becomes the first company to sponsor Coronation Street after signing a deal with Granada. The sponsorship will begin in September.[16]
30 March – The final episode of Saturday Disney is broadcast on ITV.
March – After two years of Pages from Ceefax Level 2 teletext graphics, they return to using the more basic Level 1 Teletext format.
All BBC commercial activities, including BBC Publications, is merged into BBC Enterprises Ltd.[17]
2 April – The popular comic strip character from The Beano, Dennis the Menace, is brought to life with a new animated series on BBC1 as part of the CBBC lineup.
5 April – BBC1 airs Eskimo Day, Jack Rosenthal's poignant comedy about parents letting go of their children when they make their way in the world.[18]
13 April
Channel 4 airs the first of ten editions of The Gaby Roslin Show, a chat show presented by Gaby Roslin which aims to recapture the atmosphere of 1970s series such as Parkinson.[19] Ratings for the show quickly fall from 3 million to less than a million and it is panned by viewers and critics alike.
The ITC confirms the awarding of the Channel 5 licence to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, setting out its broadcasting remit. 50% of programming must be original, while there are quotas for the amount of public service programming that must be aired.[5]
Marketing (magazine) reports that Midland Bank will sponsor ITV Drama Premieres, starting on 1 May with the latest series of Sharpe.[20]
21 April – The BBC Arabic television service closes down when the Saudi backer pulls out following a row over coverage of the execution of a princess accused of adultery.
23 April – Debut of Edward on Edward, a documentary produced for ITV by Prince Edward's company Ardent Productions and is presented by the Prince himself. It tells the story of the Abdication of Edward VIII.[21]
27 April – Granada confirms that O. J. Simpson has been booked to appear on the first edition of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan's new series, Tonight with Richard and Judy, scheduled to air on 13 May. The former football star will be paid a nominal fee of £1 for his first interview since being cleared of murder in 1995, though Granada will also pay for his travel expenses.[22] The interview proves to be controversial with both Madeley and Finnigan attracting media criticism for what is deemed to be their "candyfloss" questioning of Simpson. Ultimately, the show airs for just one series.[23]
April – The BBC becomes the world's first digital terrestrial broadcaster after conducting a test transmission.[24]
May
1 May – Imperial College London wins the 1995–96 series of University Challenge on BBC2, beating the London School of Economics 275–220.
2 May – Debut on BBC1 of Airport on BBC1, a fly-on-the-wall documentary series about London's Heathrow Airport.[25]
6 May – BBC1 airs the first episode of a new series of The Liver Birds which catches up with Beryl (Polly James) and Sandra (Nerys Hughes) two decades on from the original series.[26]
9 May – The BBC announces its plans for digital television. They include a free-to-air news channel, widescreen versions of BBC1 and BBC2, "side channels" which will broadcast extra programmes related to what is on the main channels and several paid-for channels featuring programming from the BBC archives.[27]
13 May – After an eight year absence, the game show Call My Bluff returns to BBC1, presented by Bob Holness.
21 May – Bill Treacher makes his final appearance as EastEnders character Arthur Fowler.[28] Having left the series in December 1995, he briefly returned to the role of Arthur to film scenes in which his character is killed off.[29]
Paul Doody wins the seventh series of Stars in Their Eyes on ITV, performing as Marti Pellow. He is the second Grand Final winner to portray the singer.
Debut of the golf-based game show Full Swing on BBC1, presented by Jimmy Tarbuck. However, the series is not a success and is axed after eight episodes on 27 July.
27 May – Doctor Who, a US television movie continuation of the famous British series of the same name is broadcast on BBC1.[30] It is regarded as being a part of the same story as the original series and is an unsuccessful pilot for a new, American co-produced series. This marks the end of Sylvester McCoy's era as the Seventh Doctor. Paul McGann stars as the Eighth Doctor. Doctor Who would return for a full series when it was revived in 2005.
7 June – The BBC is restructured by the Director-General John Birt. In the new structure, BBC Broadcast will commission programmes and BBC Production will make them.
8–30 June – The BBC and ITV broadcast live coverage of Euro 96 which is held in England.
10 June – For the Summer period, the late afternoon block of children's programmes aired on BBC1 are transferred to BBC2.
14 June – After 32 years, excluding six months in 1973, Top of the Pops moves from its traditional Thursday evening slot to Fridays on BBC1.
26 June – The BBC and ITV broadcast live coverage of the England v. Germany semi-final match of Euro 96 that is collectively watched by 26 million viewers.[31]
30 June – Neil Haidar wins the 1996 series of MasterChef on BBC1.
19 July–4 August – The BBC provides full live coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games. Live coverage runs for 15 hours a day, 1:40pm until 4:30am with highlights at breakfast time and morning-long extended highlights of the previous day's action.[34] In addition to BBC1's coverage for the first time, the BBC also provides alternative live action during the overnight hours on BBC2.[35]
24 July – Buckingham Palace ends the BBC's monopoly on producing the Royal Christmas Message which has been the sole responsibility of the broadcaster for 63 years. It is produced by ITV from 1997, before returning to the BBC in 1999, then ITV again from 2001, and so on in continuation.
25 July – A report commissioned collectively by the broadcasters that make up ITV claims that Channel 5's plans to retune millions of televisions and video recorders are inadequate and underfunded. The report follows a survey conducted on 700 households in Channel 5's pilot retuning area in Surrey which says fewer than 60 per cent of households have been contacted by the retuning teams and less than 50 per cent have had their equipment successfully retuned.[36]
26 July
The BBC and Hat Trick Productions are fined £10,000 each in the High Court for contempt of court over comments made on a 1994 edition of Have I Got News for You in which presenter Angus Deayton referred to Ian and Kevin Maxwell as "two heartless, scheming bastards" ahead of their trial.[37]
Scottish acquires Caledonian Publishing, at this time publishers of The Herald (Glasgow) and Glasgow Evening Times,[38] and renames itself Scottish Media Group (SMG).
29 July – Sources at Channel 5 Broadcasting confirm the estimated cost of the retuning operation required for people to watch the channel has risen by at least 25 per cent above the original £55 million budget.[39]
13 August – Flextech plc, the UK's second largest supplier of subscription television, confirms it is in talks with the BBC about setting up to six new cable and satellite channels.[44]
16 August
The US animated science-fiction comedy series Captain Simian & the Space Monkeys makes its UK debut on ITV before airing in its homeland the following month.
Sky Sports 3 launches with broadcasting hours of midday to midnight and Sky Sports Gold closes.
22 August – BBC World begins broadcasting to Berlin.
27 August – The late afternoon block of children's programmes returns to BBC1.
30 August
London Weekend Television launches new idents.[45]
Zoe Ball presents her final edition of The Big Breakfast on Channel 4; she is leaving the series in order to present BBC1's Live & Kicking with Jamie Theakston.[46]
August – David Elstein of BSkyB is appointed Chief Executive of Channel 5.[5]
September
1 September
Sky 2 launches. It is a sister channel to the then-titled Sky1. It closes a year later, but a channel of almost the same name would launch in 2005.
Two US weather channels launch UK versions. The Weather Channel begins broadcasting in the UK. It transmits for five hours each morning on Sky and 24 hours on cable in some areas. The Weather Network launches on the same day on many other cable networks. They take advantage of the localness of cable franchises by providing on-screen local weather forecasts.
London's Burning returns to ITV for a new series, its ninth since launching in 1988 and the first to be shown in two halves, with a US-style hiatus over Christmas. Following episode 11 on 17 November, the series takes a break until 12 January 1997 when the final four episodes of the series are shown. London's Burning continues to air with this format until the end of the thirteenth series in 2001. The hiatus is shifted to coincide with Easter from the twelfth series when it becomes part of ITV's Winter schedule rather than its Autumn line-up.
Launch of "Daytime on 1", BBC1's new daily schedule that includes six and a half hours of drama, quiz shows, discussion programming, chat shows and cooking shows.
The ITV region Tyne Tees Television is rebranded as Channel 3 North East. The rebranding is unsuccessful and returns to its original name two years later.
9 September – The NBC Super Channel renames itself as NBC Europe or simply known as NBC on the air.
10 September – The Nickelodeon animated series Hey Arnold! makes its UK debut on ITV a month before its debut in the US.
12 September – The children's magazine show It's a Mystery makes its debut on ITV.
14 September – The final episode of the practical jokes series Beadle's About is broadcast on ITV.
15 September – Debut of Rhodes, an eight-part BBC1 series about the life of the controversial British adventurer and empire-builder Cecil Rhodes.[47] The series concludes on 3 November.[48] It took a decade to make, employed over 10,000 extras and at a cost of £10 million is the most expensive British television project to date. However, despite a high-profile publicity campaign leading up to its launch, Rhodes attracts relatively poor viewing figures with 7.6 million tuning into the first episode and 4.8 million watching the second and it is quickly panned by critics. The BBC is also forced to launch an accompanying booklet about Cecil Rhodes as the series assumes a prior knowledge of the figure and many viewers are unfamiliar with him.[49]
20 September – The Independent reports that Channel 5 will employ another 1,500 people to undertake its retuning operation, bringing the total number of people working on the task to 8,500. An estimated 11.4 million televisions and video recorders will need to be retuned before the channel goes on air next year.[50]
The Granada-produced series Springhill makes its debut on Sky1, a supernatural soap set in Liverpool which airs for two series of 26 episodes. It is later shown on Channel 4.
2 October – It is reported that Channel 5 Broadcasting is planning to bid for newly available space on the Astra 1A satellite in the hope of reaching a further one million UK viewers.[51]
11 October – After nearly 14 years, Channel 4 is given a whole new look replacing the original coloured blocks idents with all-new circles idents.
19 October – Fox Kids Network launches in the UK, becoming the first Fox Kids channel in Europe.
23 October
NYNEX, Vidéotron and Bell Cablemedia merge with the subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, Mercury Communications. The new company is called Cable & Wireless Communications.[55][56][57]
27 October – Lucy Wright wins the 1996 series of Junior MasterChef on BBC1.
October – United News & Media buys Scottish Television's 20% stake in HTV.
November
1 November – Sky Scottish launches. The channel is a joint venture between Scottish Television and British Sky Broadcasting.[58]
6–7 November – A two-part special episode of the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous called The Last Shout is broadcast on BBC1. It was billed as the final episode at the time but the series would return in 2001.
11 November – UTV introduces a new series of idents which showcase scenic locations in Northern Ireland. These include the Giant's Causeway, a waterfall at Glenarriff and Portaferry harbour. Some of the idents feature UTV personalities.[59]
17 November – BBC1 airs Ruby Wax Meets the Duchess of York, a one-off interview with Sarah, Duchess of York conducted by US comedian Ruby Wax.[61]
21 November – Campaign (magazine) reports that ITV's decision to stop airing Baywatch midway through the season and replace it with Sabrina the Teenage Witch has raised questions about the vulnerability of sponsorship deals to programme rescheduling. Wella had renewed its sponsorship of Baywatch with ITV earlier in the year, but the show was pulled from its Saturday evening timeslot after only eight of the scheduled twenty-two episodes were shown with Sabrina the Teenage Witch, set to air from 23 November. ITV says the decision was taken because it began airing Baywatch earlier than planned after a previously scheduled programme, SeaQuest 2032 did not prove as popular with viewers as anticipated, this led to episodes of Baywatch catching up with their airdates in the US. ITV says the programme will return in 1997 while Wella will continue its sponsorship.[62]
23 November – The BBC picks up the terrestrial rights to The Simpsons which is first shown at 5:30pm on BBC1 with a Sunday lunchtime repeat on BBC2. There's No Disgrace Like Home is the first episode to be shown on BBC1, later being beaten in the ratings by Sabrina the Teenage Witch which made its UK debut on that day.
24 November – ITV introduces a fourth weekly episode of Coronation Street, airing on Sundays at 7:30pm.
25 November – Carlton launches a new set of idents.
30 November – During a live broadcast of The National Lottery Live on BBC1, the draw machine does not start, causing it to be delayed by 50 minutes. Resident psychic Mystic Meg later said that she had been predicting it all day.[63]
12 December – The popular game show Strike It Lucky returns under the new name of Strike It Rich on ITV. Like its predecessor, it is presented by Michael Barrymore.
18 December – Labour Party leader Tony Blair is a guest on ITV's Des O'Connor Tonight where he famously admits to trying to run away from school as a teenager by attempting to stow away on a flight to the Bahamas.[64][65]
23 December – ITV airs the pilot of In the Dark with Julian Clary, a game show in which couples must complete everyday tasks while in complete darkness. The show is not picked up for a full series by ITV, but a series is recorded for the US where Julian Clary will be introduced to American viewers. However, it is pulled a few hours before its transmission. Two series of In the Dark are later produced for Channel 5 starting in 1998, but presented by Junior Simpson.[66]
29 December – Time On Our Hands, the final episode of the Christmas trilogy of the popular sitcom Only Fools and Horses, airs on BBC1. Originally publicised as the last ever episode, it draws 24.35 million viewers, the largest ever audience for a sitcom in the UK and discounting the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, the following year, the biggest UK television audience of the 1990s. However, the show returns for three subsequent specials, one shown each Christmas from 2001.
