1990 in British television

January

January – ITV networks Emmerdale to 19:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

1 January – Mr. Bean debuts on ITV.

February

11 February – Live coverage is aired of the African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela's release from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa.

13 February – The US science fiction series Quantum Leap makes its British television debut on BBC2.

20 February – Steve McFadden makes his first appearance as the EastEnders character Phil Mitchell. Ross Kemp debuts as Phil's brother, Grant in an episode aired two days later.

March

20 March – Chancellor John Major delivers the first budget to be shown on television.

25 March – British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) launches on cable in the UK as a rival to Sky Television which launched the previous year.

26 March – The science fiction soap Jupiter Moon makes its debut on the Galaxy channel. 150 episodes are commissioned, but only 108 are aired before the series is cancelled in December.

27 March – BBC 1 airs the first of two flashback episodes of EastEnders as part of the storyline in which Diane Butcher (played by Sophie Lawrence) ran away from home. The episodes show Frank Butcher (Mike Reid) going to meet his teenage daughter at King's Cross railway station after she contacted him following a three-month absence. Scenes showing Frank waiting for Diane and their subsequent reunion are interspersed with flashbacks to January showing her leaving home and living rough on the streets. Sophie Lawrence did research among real homeless people for the storyline.

28 March – ITV broadcasts the Granada Television documentary drama, Who Bombed Birmingham?. The programme, which looks at the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings and the conviction of the Birmingham Six names several people believed to have actually been behind the bombings.

April

3 April – ITV airs the First Tuesday documentary Sonia's Baby, the story of a woman's fight with the medical establishment to have a test tube baby using her late husband's sperm.

14 April – BBC2 begins showing the 91-part 1988 Indian serial, Mahabharat, a dramatisation of the epic poem the Mahabharata. The programme is shown in Hindi with English subtitles, and repeated the following day in a late night slot on BBC1.

16 April – BBC1 airs Wogan on Ice, a special edition of Terry Wogan's chat show that gives viewers a rare chance to see ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performing together. The pair, who achieved success during the 1984 Winter Olympics, are appearing together in the UK for the first time since 1985.

29 April – BSB launches on satellite television.

May

10 May – The Broadcasting Bill receives its third reading in the House of Commons and is passed with 259 votes to 180.

19 May – Helen Rollason becomes the first female presenter on BBC1's Grandstand.

22 May – ITV airs "Trojan Horse", an episode of The Bill in which the character PC Ken Melvin (played by Mark Powley) is killed off while trying to park a booby trapped car, when a bomb explodes.

27–28 May – ITV stages its second nationwide Telethon.

28 May – ITV airs a special edition of Coronation Street as part of its Telethon in which Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) returns for a special visit.

June

8 June–8 July – The BBC and ITV provide television coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

15 June – The very first edition of Art Attack with Neil Buchanan is shown on Children's ITV.

July

2 July –

ITV broadcasts Tom McGurk's film Dear Sarah, a play about Giuseppe Conlon's letters to his wife, Sarah after he was convicted as one of the "Maguire Seven" for allegedly making IRA bombs.

Channel 4 quiz show Countdown celebrates its 1000th edition.

5 July – The Tavernier family make their EastEnders debut; parents Celestine and Etta (played by Leroy Golding and Jacqui Gordon-Lawrence), their children Clyde (Steven Woodcock), Hattie (Michelle Gayle) and Lloyd (Garey Bridges), and grandfather Jules (Tommy Eytle).

6 July – Channel 4 introduced a third weekly episode of its soap Brookside, airing on a Friday evening. The soap now airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

7 July – In Rome, on the eve of the final of the 1990 FIFA World Cup the Three Tenors sing together for the first time. The event is broadcast live on television and watched worldwide by millions of people. Highlight is Luciano Pavarotti's performance of Nessun Dorma from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.

19 July – MPs vote to make televised proceedings of the House of Commons a permanent feature.

21 July – Debut of ITV's Stars in Their Eyes, a series presented by Leslie Crowther in which members of the public impersonate their favourite singers.

August

10 August – Debut of Channel 4's music show The Word.

18 August – BSB's second Marcopolo Satellite is launched.

25 August – The first series of Stars in Their Eyes is won by Maxine Barrie performing as Shirley Bassey.

31 August – BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Miracles, Jim Kouf's 1986 comedy starring Tom Conti and Teri Garr.

September

2 September – The long-running animated series The Simpsons is broadcast in the United Kingdom for the first time, making its début on Sky1. Call of the Simpsons is the first episode to be shown on Sky.

5 September – New BBC building at White City opens.

7 September – After an eight-year absence, The Generation Game returns on BBC1 with Bruce Forsyth as returning host and Rosemarie Ford as hostess.

9 September – As part of the Screen One series, BBC1 screens the groundbreaking comedy drama Frankenstein's Baby which explores the subject of male pregnancy.

23 September – Debut of the Screen One drama Sweet Nothing, which deals with subject of homeless young people in London.

24 September – Joan Bunting wins the 1990 series of MasterChef.

30 September – The BSB channel Galaxy airs the pilot episode of Heil Honey I'm Home!, a controversial sitcom featuring a fictionalised Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The show attracts much criticism and is cancelled after one episode. Several other episodes were recorded, but none have ever been broadcast.

October

2 October – The First Tuesday documentary Swing Under the Swastika airs on ITV. The programme looks at jazz music under the Nazi regime and is narrated by Alan Plater.

18 October – The day's edition of BBC 1's Question Time from Edinburgh becomes the first edition of the programme to feature six panellists after delays require the last minute substitution of two guests. Tony Benn, Margaret Ewing, Andrew Neil and Malcolm Rifkind were originally scheduled to appear, but Menzies Campbell and Magnus Linklater are drafted in when Benn and Neil are late. Benn and Neil then arrive 20 minutes into the programme, and join the discussion.

23 October – David Lynch's critically acclaimed serial drama Twin Peaks receives its British television debut at 9.00pm on BBC2.

29 October – Debut of Keeping Up Appearances, a sitcom starring Patricia Routledge on BBC1.

30 October – Debut of The Sentence, an eight-part BBC2 documentary series looking at life inside Glen Parva Young Offenders Institute near Leicester, Europe's largest prison of its type. It is the first time a television crew has been access to the prison.

November

2 November – BSB merges with Sky Television, becoming British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). Of BSB's five channels, only two, The Movie Channel and The Sports Channel, remain on air long term, though both are eventually renamed. Galaxy is closed with its transponders handed over to Sky One, Now is replaced in the most part with Sky News and The Power Station remains on air until 8 April 1991 before being replaced by MTV.

9 November – The Word is moved from 6pm to a late night timeslot.

11 November – At 10.40pm ITV airs an ITN News special in which Trevor McDonald talks to Saddam Hussein. In his first interview with a British broadcaster since his country's invasion of Kuwait in August, the Iraqi President calls for talks and attempts to link the ongoing Gulf crisis with the Palestinian issue.

18 November–23 December – The BBC's serialisation of the Chronicles of Narnia concludes with the fourth and final story, The Silver Chair, being aired in six parts.

20 November –

Broadcaster John Sergeant's famous encounter with Margaret Thatcher on the steps of the British embassy in Paris. He was waiting for Thatcher in the hope of hearing her reaction to the first ballot in the party leadership contest of 1990, only to be pushed aside by her press secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham, when Thatcher emerges from the building. Sergeant later wins the British Press Guild award for the most memorable broadcast of the year.

BBC1 airs The Maze – Enemies Within, an Inside Story special looking at life inside Northern Ireland's Maze Prison.

Episode of Emmerdale in which Malandra Burrows (as Kathy Merrick) sings "Just This Side Of Love", a song later released by Burrows as a single. Released on 26 November, the song enters the UK Singles Chart at #44, before spending eight weeks in the top 60 and peaking at #11 on 22 December.

22 November – Following Margaret Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister, the evening's edition of Question Time, broadcast from London's Barbican Centre, is transmitted in two parts, with two different panels. The first part features Enoch Powell, David Owen, James Callaghan and Simon Jenkins, while Michael Howard, Nigel Lawson, Paddy Ashdown and Roy Hattersley are the panellists for the second part.

25 November – Episode three of the ninth series of Spitting Image concludes with a film showing footage of Britain's homeless crisis over which plays a parody of Dionne Warwick's 1964 song "Walk on By". The piece is introduced as one of the legacies of Margaret Thatcher's government, and is rare for the series in that no puppets were used.

November – The Broadcasting Act 1990 receives Royal Assent. The Act paves the way for the deregulation of the British commercial broadcasting industry, and will have many consequences for the ITV system.

December

1 December – With the media watching, the two ends of the service tunnel of the Channel Tunnel are joined together, linking Britain and France for the first time since the Ice Age. A handshake then takes place between Englishman Graham Fagg and Frenchman Phillippe Cozette, after which British and French workers board trains to complete the first journey between the two countries.

2 December – ITV screens a repeat of Episode One of Coronation Street as the soap approaches its 30th anniversary.

7 December – BBC2 broadcasts Your Move, a pioneering interactive show in which the home audience are invited to play chess against grandmaster Jonathan Speelman using telephone voting to select each move.

9 December –

Cilla Black hosts Happy Birthday Coronation Street, an evening of entertainment on ITV to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the long–running soap.

The Greek language channel Hellenic TV – the UK's first foreign-language service to be given a broadcast licence by the Independent Television Commission – goes on air in London.

25 December –

Steven Spielberg's 1982 science fiction adventure E.T. makes its British television debut on BBC1.

Channel 4 airs The Coronation Street Birthday Lecture, a talk delivered by Labour politician Roy Hattersley in which he discusses aspects of the soap in front of an invited audience, which includes some Coronation Street cast members. The programme also includes some classic clips from the series.

26 December –

ITV airs a made-for-television adaptation of R. D. Blackmore's historical romance Lorna Doone. The film, produced by Thames Television, is noted for its choice of filming location, footage having been shot near Glasgow rather than in the novel's Exmoor setting.

British television premiere of My Left Foot, Jim Sheridan's biopic of the writer Christy Brown, which is aired by ITV.

31 December – New Year's Eve highlights on BBC1 include the network television premiere of the romantic comedy Roxanne, a modern retelling of Edmond Rostand's 1897 verse play Cyrano de Bergerac.

BBC1

4 January – One Foot in the Grave (1990–2000)

26 March – Turnabout (1990–1996)

21 April – The 8:15 from Manchester (1990–1991)

26 May – Takeover Bid (1990–1991)

28 June – Waiting for God (1990–1994)

2 July – MasterChef (1990–2001, 2005–present)

29 October – Keeping Up Appearances (1990–1995)

BBC2

28 September – Have I Got News for You (1990–present)

3 October – The Mary Whitehouse Experience (1990–1992)

8 November – Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990–1998)

ITV

1 January – Mr. Bean (1990–1995)

1 January – Nellie the Elephant (1990–1991)

7 February –

El C.I.D. (1990–1992)

No Job for a Lady (1990–1992)

28 February – Spatz (1990–1992)

6 March – Chancer (1990–1991)

16 April – You've Been Framed! (1990–present)

22 April – Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993)

23 April – Families (1990–1993)

1 May – The Upper Hand (1990–1996)

1 June – The $64,000 Question (1990–1993)

15 June – Art Attack (1990–2007 ITV, 2011–present Disney)

21 July – Stars in Their Eyes (1990–2006, 2015)

3 September – Rosie and Jim (1990–2000)

7 September – The Piglet Files (1990–1992)

25 September – The Dreamstone (1990–1995)

26 September – How 2 (1990–2006)

29 December – The Widowmaker

Channel 4

February – Cutting Edge (1990–present)

15 February – The Crystal Maze (1990–1995)

9 August – Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998)

10 August – The Word (1990–1995)

Sky One

2 September – The Simpsons (1990–present) (Repeated on BBC1 & BBC2 from 1996–2004 & Channel 4 from 2004–present)

1940s

Come Dancing (1949–1998)

1950s

Panorama (1953–present)

This Week (1956–1978, 1986–1992)

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)

World in Action (1963–1998)

Top of the Pops (1964–2006)

Match of the Day (1964–present)

Mr. and Mrs. (1964–1999)

Jackanory (1965–1996, 2006)

Sportsnight (1965–1997)

The Money Programme (1966–2010)

The Big Match (1968–2002)

1970s

Rainbow (1972–1992, 1994–1995)

Emmerdale (1972–present)

Newsround (1972–present)

Last of the Summer Wine (1973–2010)

That's Life! (1973–1994)

Wish You Were Here...? (1974–2003)

Arena (1975–present)

Jim'll Fix It (1975–1994)

One Man and His Dog (1976–present)

Grange Hill (1978–2008)

The Paul Daniels Magic Show (1979–1994)

Antiques Roadshow (1979–present)

Question Time (1979–present)

1980s

Children in Need (1980–present)

Bergerac (1981–1991)

'Allo 'Allo! (1982–1992)

Wogan (1981–1992)

Brookside (1982–2003)

Countdown (1982–present)

Timewatch (1982–present)

Right to Reply (1982–2001)

Good Morning Britain (1983–1992, 2014–present)

First Tuesday (1983–1993)

Highway (1983–1993)

Blockbusters (1983–93, 1994–95, 1997, 2000–01, 2012)

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (1984–present)

Wide Awake Club (1984–1992)

Spitting Image (1984–1996)

The Bill (1984–2010)

Channel 4 Racing (1984–2016)

Busman's Holiday (1985–1993)

EastEnders (1985–present)

The Cook Report (1985–1998)

Crosswits (1985–1998)

Telly Addicts (1985–1998)

Comic Relief (1985–present)

Bread (1986–1991)

Brush Strokes (1986–1991)

Naked Video (1986–1991)

Boon (1986–1992, 1995)

Every Second Counts (1986–1993)

Lovejoy (1986–1994)

The Raggy Dolls (1986–1994)

Beadle's About (1986–1996)

The Chart Show (1986–1998, 2008–2009)

Casualty (1986–present)

Going Live! (1987–1993)

Watching (1987–1993)

The Time, The Place (1987–1996)

Allsorts (1987–1995)

Going for Gold (1987–1996, 2008–2009)

Chain Letters (1987–1997)

ChuckleVision (1987–2009)

All Clued Up (1988–1991)

I Can Do That (1988–1991)

After Henry (1988–1992)

Park Avenue (1988–1992)

Count Duckula (1988–1993)

You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–1993)

You Bet! (1988–1997)

Playdays (1988–1997)

London's Burning (1988–2002)

On the Record (1988–2002)

Fifteen to One (1988–2003, 2013–present)

This Morning (1988–present)

Tricky Business (1989–1991)

The Channel Four Daily (1989–1992)

Absolutely (1989–1993)

KYTV (1989–1993)

Press Gang (1989–1993)

Birds of a Feather (1989–1998, 2014–present)

A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995)

Desmond's (1989–1994)

Mike and Angelo (1989–2000)

The Simpsons (1989–present)

Ending this year

Opportunity Knocks (1956–1978, 1987–1990)

Juke Box Jury (1959–1967, 1979, 1989–1990)

Blankety Blank (1979–1990, 1997–2002)

All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1990)

Don't Wait Up (1983–1990)

Bob's Full House (1984–1990)

Home to Roost (1985–1990)

Howards' Way (1985–1990)

Connections (1985–1990)

Colin's Sandwich (1988–1990)

Noel's Saturday Roadshow (1988–1990)

The Poddington Peas (1989–1990)

Campion (1989–1990)

The Labours of Erica (1989–1990)

The Paradise Club (1989–1990)

Births

1 March – Harry Eden, actor

16 May – Thomas Brodie-Sangster, actor