January

• 1 January
  • Neighbours stars 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.
  • The network television premiere of Amadeus on BBC1, Miloš Forman's 1984 biographical drama based on the play of the same name that is a fictionalised biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.^[1]
• 2 January – The network television premieres of Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird on BBC1 and the 1985 Madonna-starring film Desperately Seeking Susan on BBC2.^[2]
• 5 January – Debut of the sitcom Desmond's, set in a London British Guyanese barber shop, on Channel 4.
• 7 January – The Chart Show moves from Channel 4 to ITV.
• 8 January – The original airdate of the Only Fools and Horses episode "Yuppy Love" featuring the classic scene in which Del Boy falls through a bar. A 2006 poll names the scene as the most popular of the entire series while it is 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, the UK's first daily arts programme, makes its debut on BBC2, presented by Sarah Dunant. It airs directly after Newsnight.^[3][4]
  • Debut of the critically-acclaimed children's series Press Gang on ITV, starring Julia Sawalha.
• 20 January – BBC2 airs live coverage of the inauguration of George H. W. Bush as the 41st President of the United States.^[5]
• 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, later move the episode to a Saturday afternoon slot and the omnibus is dropped in some areas from September 1990.
• 24 January – BBC1 airs an episode of EastEnders, featuring a mouth-to-mouth gay kiss between the characters Colin Russell (Michael Cashman) and Guido Smith (Nicholas Donovan), the first time such a scene is shown in a British soap. It causes uproar among viewers and in the press.^[6]
• 26 January – Debut of the sitcom Joint Account on BBC1.
• 27 January – The US family sitcom Roseanne makes its UK debut on Channel 4, starring Roseanne Barr and John Goodman.
• 28 January – The US drama series Midnight Caller makes its UK debut on BBC1; it is one of the first television shows to address the dramatic possibilities of the growing phenomenon at this time of talk radio.

February

• 5 February – At 6pm, the world's first commercial DBS system, Sky Television, goes on the air. Three new channels, Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport all launch, as well as the flagship Sky Channel, later renamed Sky One.
• 6 February
  • Launch of the Sky News flagship breakfast programme, Sunrise which would run until 2019.
  • Sky Channel begins a rerun of its popular Australian medical soap opera series The Young Doctors, starting with the first-ever episode.
• 11 February – The Australian soap Home and Away makes its UK debut on ITV. It is the second networked Australian soap on that channel, following the short-lived Richmond Hill which was still airing during the afternoon. Home and Away is crucially scheduled in early evening slots of either 5:10pm, 6pm or 6:30pm across the ITV network and it immediately became the counterpart series to BBC1's Neighbours airing at 5:35pm. This scheduling continues thirty years later with both series now in these same slots but together on Channel 5.
• 12 February – ITV launches its Find a Family campaign to help find permanent homes for youngsters in care.
• 13 February – The first ITV national weather bulletin is broadcast.
• 14 February – Debut of Out on Tuesday on Channel 4, the UK's first weekly magazine series for gay and lesbian viewers. Later changing its name to Out, the show aired for four series before being axed in 1992.^[7]
• 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) who exited in May 1988. The character falls into a canal after being shot, but the character's exact fate is left unconfirmed. He would make a return to the show in 2003.
• 24 February – Debut of the children's game show Fun House on Children's ITV, presented by Pat Sharp.
• 25 February – The long-awaited WBA Heavyweight title fight between Britain's Frank Bruno and the USA's Mike Tyson is held at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Because of the time difference between Britain and the US, 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.^[8]
• February
  • Channel 4 begins broadcasting in NICAM digital stereo, initially from the Crystal Palace transmitting station, prior to a national transmitter-by-transmitter roll-out during 1990.
  • Anglia and Central reschedule Emmerdale Farm to 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

March

• 2 March
  • My Brother David, an edition of the BBC2 schools series Scene is first broadcast 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.^{[9][10][11][12]}
  • After much publicity, a two-minute advert for Pepsi featuring Madonna's latest 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 his first post-EastEnders role.
• 9 March – On Top of the Pops, comedian Lenny Henry joins regular presenter Nicky Campbell for a special Comic Relief edition of the programme.
• 10 March – On the second Red Nose Day, BBC1 airs the eight-hour telethon, A Night of Comic Relief 2.^[13]
• 15 March
  • BBC1 airs John's Not Mad,^[14] 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.^[15]
  • Debut of the drama series Children's Ward on Children's ITV.
• 16 March – Debut of the children's sitcom Mike and Angelo on Children's ITV.
• 17 March – Channel 4 launch the Friday night chat show Clive Anderson Talks Back.
• 31 March – The last Oracle on View transmission takes place on Channel 4.
• March
  • The Independent Broadcasting Authority recommends that the headquarters of a fifth channel should be situated outside London, preferably at a location north of Birmingham.^[16]
  • The Children's Channel launches free-to-air on Astra 1A,^[17] airing from 5am to 10am on weekdays and from 5am to 12pm on weekends, time-sharing with Lifestyle.

April

• 1 April
  • Five Star appear on CBBC's Going Live! to promote their latest single With Every Heartbeat. During a live phone-in, a teenage caller verbally abuses them and asks why they are "so fucking crap". Presenter Sarah Greene quickly cuts off the call as the tirade continues.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} On 23 September 2019, an individual claiming to be Eliot Fletcher, the caller, apologises to the band for the incident via a social media account.^[23] However, doubt is then cast on the authenticity of the apology after several other people claim to be the notorious caller.^[24]
  • Discovery Channel Europe launches. The channel broadcasts via Intelsat and on cable systems.
• 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 much more popular The Big Breakfast.
  • The Australian children's series The Bartons makes its UK debut on BBC1.^[25]
• 4 April – TUGS, a children's model animated series made by Clearwater Features, the company behind the first two series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends) makes its debut on Children's ITV, the same day as the final episode of Hill Street Blues is broadcast on Channel 4.
• 8 April – The US action series MacGyver makes its UK debut on BBC1, starring Richard Dean Anderson.
• 15 April – The date of the Hillsborough disaster. The BBC'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 the extreme emotional impact on the general British population.
• 20 April – John Leslie becomes the first Scottish presenter of Blue Peter on BBC1.^[26]
• 21 April – BBC2's 25th anniversary. Programming 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.^[27]
• 24 April
  • The BBC's Ceefax 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.^[28]
• 27 April – BBC2 airs the 40 Minutes documentary Inside Broadmoor, a film showing life inside Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire.^[29]

May

• 1 May – The network television premiere of the 1984 science-fiction sequel Star Trek III: The Search for Spock on BBC1, starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley.
• 2 May – ITV airs an edition of the First Tuesday documentary strand investigating the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War called Four Hours in My Lai which is later shown in the US as part of the Frontline series with the title Remember My Lai.^[30]
• 6 May – Yugoslavia's Riva win the 1989 Eurovision Song Contest with Rock Me.
• 20 May – Debut of the game show That's Showbusiness on BBC1, presented by Mike Smith.
• 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.^[31]
  • ITV airs 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

• 3 June – Sky Television and The Walt Disney Company come to an arrangement which allows to broadcast movies for a five-year period, this agreement comes a few weeks after plans to create a full-time channel were scrapped, although the channel itself eventually launched on 1 October 1995.
• 5 June
  • BBC2 broadcasts a special 90-minute programme Climate in Crisis to mark United Nations' World Environment Day was presented by Michael Buerk and David Attenborough, which predicts the Earth's greatest threat within rising temperatures and sea levels will already be changing our planet from averting catastrophe in the year 2050, as well as studio guests including Sir Shridath Ramphal and Jonathon Porritt with an exclusive interview of HRH Prince Charles voices his concerns.
  • Channel 4 airs the network television premiere of David Lynch's 1984 science-fiction epic Dune, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis, Max von Sydow, Jürgen Prochnow, Everett McGill, Sean Young, Siân Phillips, José Ferrer, Freddie Jones, Patrick Stewart, Dean Stockwell, Alicia Witt and Sting.
• 19 June – For the first time, BBC2 broadcasts during the morning when not showing Daytime on 2. Programmes begin at 10am as opposed to lunchtime.
• 22 June
  • John Craven presents his final edition of the children's news programme John Craven's Newsround. After his departure, 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 and David Owen.^[32]
  • Debut of the Channel 4 miniseries Traffik, a drama about the illegal drugs trade.

July

• 10 July
  • The music magazine series The O-Zone makes its debut on BBC1.^[33]
  • ITV introduces a second daily airing of Home and Away.
  • On the Channel 4 game show Countdown, the set receives a redesign and Carol Vorderman is promoted to being the show's co-host alongside Richard Whiteley.
• 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.^[34]
• 19 July
  • Debut of the game show Interceptor on ITV, hosted by former tennis player and Treasure Hunt sky-runner Annabel Croft with the eponymous Interceptor played by actor Sean O'Kane. The series would run for seven episodes until it ended on 1 January 1990 with the New Year special.
  • The BBC documentary series 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.
• 28 July – London Weekend Television's current affairs programme Friday Now! is axed after ten months on air due to poor ratings. From the Autumn, it is replaced by Six O'Clock Live.
• 31 July
  • Sky Channel is rebranded as Sky One and confines its broadcasting to the UK and Ireland.
  • Premiere ceases broadcasting due to losses of around £10 million and increased competition from Sky Movies to thank the viewers as well as a few businesses that helped with the channel's transmission.

August

• 18–20 August – Michael Aspel presents Murder Weekend, a five-part televised murder mystery series for ITV. The show, devised and written by Joy Swift sees celebrities attempting to solve a murder, with viewers also invited to identify the suspect.^[35]
• 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.^[36]
• 26 August – ITV airs Michael Lindsay-Hogg's science-fiction mystery television movie Murder on the Moon, starring Brigitte Nielsen, Julian Sands, Gerald McRaney, Jane Lapotaire, Celia Imrie and Brian Cox. It focuses about the American and Soviet mining companies teamed up with several human settlements exploited the satellite's resources to survive as the investigators between NASA and KGB are forced to solve a case together.
• 27 August
  • Launch date of the first Marcopolo Satellite which will serve as a platform for British Satellite Broadcasting that will launch the following year.
  • ITV airs Don Boyd's biographical television movie Goldeneye, starring Charles Dance as Ian Fleming which focuses about the life of the James Bond author, although it is not to be confused with a later film version of the same name.
• 28 August
  • The network television premiere of Ron Howard's 1985 American science-fiction drama Cocoon on ITV, starring Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Steve Guttenberg and Jessica Tandy.
  • BBC1 airs News '39, a week of news-style programmes hosted by Sue Lawley, marking the 50th anniversary of the start of World War II. Each edition was presented in news format reporting on events as if they were occurring in this present time. The bulletin ends on 3 September.

September

• 1 September
  • The first ITV generic look is introduced.
  • Launch of London Weekend Television's Friday evening news magazine programme Six O'Clock Live.^[37]
• 3 September – BBC1 airs the television film Bomber Harris, a drama based on the life of Arthur Harris and starring John Thaw in the eponymous role.^[38]
• 5 September – Carol Smillie makes her debut as hostess on ITV's Wheel of Fortune who replaces Angela Ekaette.
• 8 September – Debut of Challenge Anneka on BBC1, presented by Anneka Rice.
• 10 September – BBC1 launches 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.^[39]
• 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.^[40]
  • Debut of the children's series Bodger & Badger on BBC1, starring Andy Cunningham.
• 14 September
  • Peter Sissons takes over as the presenter of Question Time as the series returns after its Summer break.^[41]
  • The children's stop-motion animated series Postman Pat makes its debut in Ireland on Network 2 as part of Dempsey's Den. The animated series The Adventures of Spot also begins airing in Ireland on that day with an Irish language being dubbed called Echtrai Bhrain.
• 15 September – Ceefax AM is broadcast for the final time.
• 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.^[42][43][44]
• 26 September – Debut of Capital City, a series about investment bankers produced by Euston Films for Thames on ITV. Thames spent 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 programme 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.^[45]
• 28 September
  • Sybil Ruscoe and Jenny Powell are the first female duo to present Top of the Pops on BBC1.^[46][47]
  • BBC1 debuts Blackadder Goes Forth, the final instalment of this saga is set in 1917 on the Western Front in the trenches during World War I, with Rowan Atkinson reprises the role once again as Captain Edmund Blackadder.

October

• 1 October
  • The largest entertainment company in Britain as HIT Entertainment which was originally a Jim Henson production company called Henson International Television launches. They specialise in acquiring rights and distributing television series for children such as Thomas & Friends, Bob the Builder, Barney & Friends, Fireman Sam, Pingu, Angelina Ballerina and The Wiggles.
  • BBC2 airs the network television premiere of Birdy, Alan Parker's 1984 drama which is based on William Wharton's 1978 novel of the same name starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage, with the soundtrack score by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel.
• 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 lineup of erotic programmes. The station changed its name to RTL 4 in 1991.^[48]
  • Breakfast Time is relaunched as Breakfast News on BBC1.
• 4 October – Jeremy Paxman makes his first regular appearance as presenter of BBC2's Newsnight. He would be in that role until 2014.
• 11 October
  • Debut of Around the World in 80 Days on BBC1, a seven-part series in which Michael Palin circumnavigates the world, following the route taken by Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg.^[49] The series concludes on 22 November.^[50]
  • Launch of the second generation of the Rover 200. Part of its promotion includes an advert in which a man halts his lover's wedding to someone else before the pair drive off together in that car, accompanied by the track "Up Where We Belong".
• 16 October – Debut of the sitcom Birds of a Feather on BBC1, starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph.
• 20 October – ITV introduces a third weekly episode of Coronation Street which airs on Fridays at 7:30pm.
• 29 October – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appears on ITV's The Walden Interview with Brian Walden. His tough stance with Thatcher during the programme is one of the things that helps to contribute to her downfall the following year.^[51][52]

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.^[53]
• 2 November – The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, Goodbyeee is broadcast on BBC1.^[54] With one of the moving endings ever seen on British television, it is aired nine days before Remembrance Day. The final scene was also voted the ninth most memorable moment of all time in a poll for The Observer and Channel 4 on 11 September 1999.
• 7 November – MTV Europe broadcasts the live programme from East Berlin which were succeeded in both hotels and conference centres that gave access to the channel for the first time, two days before the wall came down to paving the way for German reunification.
• 8 November – The teenage drama series Byker Grove makes its debut on BBC1.^[55]
• 9 November – The last episode of the soap Emmerdale Farm which aired under its original title.
• 14 November – The long-running soap Emmerdale Farm changes its name to Emmerdale after 17 years.
• 16 November – Debut of Tony Robinson's children's comedy series Maid Marian and Her Merry Men on BBC1.^[56]
• 19 November–26 November – Prince Caspian becomes the second Narnia book to be aired as a television serial on BBC1 in two parts.^[57][58]
• 20 November – The Ceefax service is relaunched to focus on news, sport and current affairs. The magazine elements are significantly reduced and are mainly restricted to the weekend.^[59]
• 20–24 November – TVS pilots a 30-minute late-night edition of its news programme Coast to Coast called Coast to Coast Late.^[60]
• 21 November – Television coverage of proceedings in the House of Commons begins.
• 22 November
  • Following the commencement of televised coverage of the House of Commons the previous day, BBC2 launches a breakfast round-up of yesterday's proceedings. This is preceded by the 8am bulletin from Breakfast News.^[61] Previously, the only BBC2 breakfast output was programmes from the Open University. Their programmes continue to be shown on BBC2 at breakfast, but in an earlier timeslot.
  • 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.^[62]
• 26 November – BBC1 debuts The Ginger Tree, a four-part television adaptation of Oswald Wynd's 1977 novel of the same name starring Samantha Bond, Daisuke Ryu and Adrian Rawlins. The serial ends on 17 December.
• 29 November – Debut of four-part serial Blackeyes on BBC2 which is written and directed by Dennis Potter, adapted from the novel of the same name, starring Gina Bellman as an attractive model with Michael Gough in a key role as her uncle, described the series theme as the objectification of "young and attractive women as consumer goods in a way that brutalizes both sexes". The serial continues on 20 December.

December

• 3 December – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, another Narnia story, is aired as a four-part serial on BBC1.^[63] The serial continues on 24 December.^[64]
• 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 three of Survival, is broadcast on BBC1. The long-running show would be off the air for 16 years until it was revived in 2005 with the only new material during this time being an American telemovie in 1996.
  • The first terrestrial television showing of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 psychological horror classic The Shining on ITV, based on Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers and Danny Lloyd. This was the American theatrical cut of the film, running 25 minutes longer than the version previously released in the UK.
• 8 December – Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) is fatally run over by a Blackpool tram on Coronation Street, getting the soap's biggest ever audience at almost 27 million viewers, a record that remains to this day.^[65][66]
• 11 December – Debut of The Art of Landscape on Channel 4, a programme that shows slowly changing sceneries, animations and landscapes accompanied by music. Initially lasting for three hours, it is broadcast throughout the morning when ITV Schools was off air, from March 1990, the slot is reduced to 30 minutes and aired prior to The Channel Four Daily. After disappearing from the schedule in early 1991, it makes a one-off return in August 1997.^[67]
• 17 December – The network television premiere of John Hughes' 1985 American fantasy comedy Weird Science on BBC2, starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Kelly LeBrock and Bill Paxton.
• 24 December
  • ITV show the 1984 made-for-television version of A Christmas Carol, starring George C Scott.
  • The network television premiere of the ghost story The Woman in Black on ITV, based on Susan Hill's acclaimed novella.^[68]
  • The network television premiere of Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy adventure Labyrinth on BBC1, starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly.
  • The iconic British Airways Face advert is first aired. It was made by advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, having been written by Graham Fink and Jeremy Clarke, with Hugh Hudson as director which also often considered to became a television commercial classic.
• 25 December
  • Christmas Day highlights on BBC1 include the network television premieres of the Paul Hogan's 1986 smash hit comedy Crocodile Dundee and the John Cleese film Clockwise.^[69]
  • Debut of Noel's Christmas Presents on BBC1, presented by Noel Edmonds.
  • Christmas Day highlights on ITV include the network television premieres of The BFG and Down and Out in Beverly Hills.^[68]
  • The children's series Playbus is renamed Playdays. The show's name is changed after the BBC received a complaint from the National Playbus Association.
• 26 December – Boxing Day highlights on ITV include the network television premieres of the blockbuster 1983 Star Wars sequel Return of the Jedi, starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, as well as the 1986 comedy film Ruthless People starring Danny DeVito.^[68]
• 28 December – Paul Gambaccini guest presents a special end-of-decade edition of Top of the Pops with Mike Read.^[70]
• 29 December – Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) confronts her husband Ken (William Roache) on Coronation Street before throwing him out, ending their decade-long television marriage.
• 31 December
  • The network television premiere of Peter Yates' 1983 British/American science-fiction fantasy adventure Krull on BBC1, starring Kenneth Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis, Alun Armstrong, David Battley, Bernard Bresslaw, Robbie Coltrane and Liam Neeson.
  • BBC1 says goodbye to the 1980s with Clive James on the 80s, a special two-hour programme reviewing the decade.^[71]
  • BBC2 has its own review of the 1980s, with The Late Show Eighties, featuring highlights of 1980s rock music.^[72]
  • The animated special Granpa, based on the 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 animated Christmas special The Snowman is shown on Channel 4 at 6:30pm.
• December
  • The controversial Broadcasting Bill is introduced into Parliament by the Government. It will pave the way for the deregulation of commercial television.^[73]
  • A hearing at the Appeal Court upholds the broadcasting ban.^[74]

BBC1

• 2 January – Precious Bane (1989)
• 3 January – Greenclaws (1989–1990)
• 4 January – Tom's Midnight Garden (1989)
• 5 January – Dooby Duck's Disco Bus (1989–1992)
• 6 January – Making Out (1989–1991)
• 22 January – Campion (1989–1990)
• 26 January – Joint Account (1989–1990)
• 28 January – Midnight Caller (1988–1991)
• 15 February – The Country Boy (1989)
• 19 February – Laura and Disorder (1989)
• 9 March – A Touch of Spice (1989)
• 2 April – May to December (1989–1994)
• 3 April – The Bartons (1988)
• 6 April – Tricky Business (1989–1991)
• 7 April – The Justice Game (1989–1990)
• 8 April – MacGyver (1985–1992, 2016–2021)
• 2 May – Take Me Home (1989)
• 12 May – Jumping the Queue (1989)
• 20 May – That's Showbusiness (1989–1996)
• 9 July – Chelworth (1989)
• 8 September – Challenge Anneka (1989–1995, 2006)
• 10 September – Screen One (1989–1998)
• 13 September
  • Bodger & Badger (1989–1999)
  • Fantastic Max (1988–1990)
• 14 September
  • The Poddington Peas (1989)
  • Penny Crayon (1989–1990)
  • Clockwise (1989–1991)
• 19 September – The Paradise Club (1989–1990)
• 28 September – Blackadder Goes Forth (1989)
• 2 October – Breakfast News (1989–2000)
• 5 October – Bluebirds (1989)
• 11 October – Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
• 16 October – Birds of a Feather (1989–1998 BBC, 2014–2020 ITV)
• 29 October – Mother Love (1989)
• 6 November – Happy Families (1989–1990)
• 8 November – Byker Grove (1989–2006)^[75]
• 16 November
  • Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989–1994)
  • Victoria Wood (1989)
• 19 November – Prince Caspian/The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989)
• 26 November – The Ginger Tree (1989)
• 25 December – Noel's Christmas Presents (1989–1999)
• 28 December – The New Yogi Bear Show (1988)
• 29 December – Commercial Breakdown (1989–2008)

BBC2

• 4 January – The Dark Angel (1989)
• 13 January – A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995)
• 1 March – Shadow of the Noose (1989)
• 3 April – Chris and Crumble (1989)
• 26 April – Shalom Salaam (1989)
• 12 May – KYTV (1989–1993)
• 19 May – Tygo Road (1989–1990)
• 9 June – I, Lovett (1989–1993)
• 16 June – Mornin' Sarge (1989)
• 10 July – The O-Zone (1989–2000)
• 19 September – Look and Read: Through the Dragon's Eye (1989)
• 4 October – Nice Work (1989)
• 22 October – The Smoggies (1988–1991)
• 1 November – Summer's Lease (1989)
• 29 November – Blackeyes (1989)
• 31 December – The Late Show (1989–1995)^[76]

ITV

• 6 January
  • Round the Bend (1989–1991)
  • Hot Dog (1989–1991)
  • High Street Blues (1989)
• 7 January – Superboy (1988–1992)
• 8 January – Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–2013)
• 13 January – A Bit of a Do (1989)
• 16 January – Press Gang (1989–1993)
• 25 January – Young Charlie Chaplin (1989)
• 8 February – Flying Squad (1989–1990)
• 11 February – Home and Away (1988–present)
• 12 February – Find a Family (1989–1991)
• 15 February – Mr. Fixit (1989)
• 18 February – Woof! (1989–1997)
• 21 February – Hitman (1989)
• 24 February
  • Fun House (1989–1999)
  • A Quiet Conspiracy (1989)
• 26 February
  • Forever Green (1989–1992)
  • Forever Knight (1989–1992)
• 6 March – Winners and Losers (1989)
• 13 March
  • The Labours of Erica (1989–1990)
  • Keynotes (1989–1992)
• 15 March
  • EMU-TV (1989)
  • Children's Ward (1989–2000)
• 16 March – Mike and Angelo (1989–2000)
• 21 March – Bradley (1989)
• 1 April – Ghost Train (1989–1991)
• 2 April – The Heroes (1989)
• 4 April – TUGS (1989)
• 6 April – Rolf's Cartoon Club (1989–1993)
• 12 April – No Strings (1989)
• 14 April
  • Windfalls (1989)
  • Grim Tales (1989–1991)
  • Surgical Spirit (1989–1995)
• 17 April – When Will I Be Famous? (1989)
• 23 April
  • Tanamera – Lion of Singapore (1989)
  • Capstick's Law (1989)
• 2 May – The Bubblegum Brigade (1989)
• 20 May – Brian Conley: This Way Up (1989–1990)
• 21 May – A Tale of Two Cities (1989)
• 26 May – Sob Sisters (1989)
• 3 June – Young, Gifted and Broke (1989)
• 5 June
  • The Nineteenth Hole (1989)
  • Huxley Pig (1989–1990)
• 6 June – Sounds Like Music (1989–1990)
• 7 June
  • Everybody's Equal (1989–1991)
  • Split Ends (1989)
• 11 June
  • We Are Seven (1989–1991)
  • Tales of Sherwood Forest (1989)
• 12 June – Rules of Engagement (1989)
• 16 June – After the War (1989)
• 5 July – Bangers and Mash (1989)
• 11 July – Somewhere to Run (1989)
• 19 July – Interceptor (1989–1990)
• 23 July – Back Home (1989)
• 26 July – Anything More Would Be Greedy (1989)
• 2 August – Garfield and Friends (1988–1994)
• 18 August – Murder Weekend (1989)
• 20 August – The Fifteen Streets (1989)
• 27 August – Goldeneye (1989)
• 2 September – Saracen (1989)
• 5 September – French Fields (1989–1991)
• 10 September – It's Stardust (1989–1990)
• 13 September – The Best of Magic (1989–1990)
• 15 September – Act of Will (1989)
• 25 September – Streetwise (1989–1992)
• 26 September – Capital City (1989–1990)
• 27 September – Wisdom of the Gnomes (1987–1988)
• 1 October – Close to Home (1989–1990)
• 4 October
  • Take the Plunge (1989)
  • Confessional (1989)
• 8 October – Goals on Sunday (1989–1992)
• 2 November – The Riddlers (1989–1998)
• 6 November – About Face (1989–1991)
• 8 November – The Free Frenchman (1989)
• 15 November – All Change (1989–1991)
• 2 December – Frederick Forsyth Presents (1989–1990)
• 8 December – Stay Lucky (1989–1993)
• 21 December – The Shell Seekers (1989)
• 24 December – The Woman in Black (1989)
• 25 December – The BFG (1989)
• 26 December – K.T.V (1989–1992)
• 27 December – Till We Meet Again (1989)
• 28 December – The Tailor of Gloucester (1989)
• Unknown
  • Satellite City (1988)

Channel 4

• 1 January – The Dog It Was That Died (1989)
• 5 January – Desmond's (1989–1994)
• 17 March – Clive Anderson Talks Back (1989-1996)
• 18 January – Thirtysomething (1987–1991)
• 27 January – Roseanne (1988–1997)
• 14 February – Out on Tuesday (aka Out) (1989–1992)
• 20 February – Behaving Badly (1989)
• 3 April – The Channel Four Daily (1989–1992)
• 8 April – The World of David the Gnome (1985)
• 23 April – The Henderson Kids (1985–1987)
• 23 May – Absolutely (1989–1993)
• 30 May – Prisoners of Childhood (1989)
• 11 June – The Manageress (1989–1990)
• 22 June – Traffik (1989)
• 20 August
  • The Wonder Years (1988–1993)
  • The Endless Game (1989)
• 17 October – Sticky Moments (1989–1990)
• 11 November – 4 Play (1989–1991) (Anthology)
• 31 December – Granpa (1989)
• Unknown – Club X (1989)

Sky Channel/One

• 5 February
  • Dolly (1987–1988)
  • Spearfield's Daughter (1986)
• 6 February – Sky Star Search (1989–1991)
• 3 September – 21 Jump Street (1987–1991)
• 15 October – Amerika (1987)
• 24 October – Dick Francis Mysteries (1989)
• Unknown – My Little Pony (1986–1987)

Sky News

• 6 February – Sunrise (1989–2019)

New channels

Defunct channels

Rebranded channels

Changes of network affiliation

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

• Watch with Mother (1952–1975) (1987, 1989, 1993 VHS Only)