This is a list of British television-related events from 2003.
Events
January 1 January – The Studio closes after nearly two years on the air. 2 January – BBC One airs Dot's Story, an EastEnders spin-off. It tells the story of Dot Branning's experiences as a wartime evacuee. 3 January – CITV celebrates its twentieth birthday with the CITV Birthday Bash. 4 January – ITV1 airs the first live edition of Blind Date, on which presenter Cilla Black announces she is quitting the show after 18 years. She later tells ITV bosses the programme should be shelved because of falling ratings which have dropped from 17 million at its peak to 4 million. 6 January Scottish and Grampian adopt the ITV celebrity idents package, introduced on 28 October 2002, albeit with their own logos attached and with idents featuring a lot more Scottish personalities alongside those of ITV1. Thomas & Friends makes a comeback on free-for-air television after a ten year absence, now airing Monday through Friday on CiTV. 11 January Girls Aloud singer and former Popstars: The Rivals contestant Cheryl Tweedy is involved in an altercation with a nightclub toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in The Drink nightclub in Guildford. She is subsequently charged with racially aggravated assault after allegedly calling Amogbokpa a "jigaboo" and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Debut of Channel 4's The Salon, a fly-on-the-wall series documenting events in a purpose-built beauty salon in London. The series airs for three months, before returning for a second run in October. It finishes in March 2004. Steven Spielberg's science-fiction miniseries Taken debuts on BBC Two. 13 January ITV1 soap Crossroads is relaunched under the stewardship of producer Yvon Grace and with a decidedly camp feel. However, Grace is criticised by fans for her ambivalence towards unresolved storylines from the 2001–2002 run. Tracy Shaw makes her final appearance on Coronation Street as her character Maxine Peacock is brutally murdered by serial killer Richard Hillman. 15 January – Launch of Ftn and UK Bright Ideas. 28 January – Los Angeles-based police drama Boomtown debuts on Five. 31 January – The Campaign Week website reports that TBWA have used characters from the 1970s children's television show Hector's House for an ad campaign relaunching Virgin One bank account as The One account. The campaign has been created on behalf of the Royal Bank of Scotland which bought the name from Virgin and AMP in July 2001.
February 1 February Postman Pat returns to CBeebies with a new series 6 years after the last series aired. The first episode is titled "Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket": in the episode, The children set off on a school outing to the old Greendale Station and are very excited when they discover Greendale's old forgotten steam train, the Greendale Rocket. Everyone volunteers to get the station refurbished and back to operational condition. Pat and Ted try to get the engine working again with a new friend Ajay and his family. BBC News airs coverage of The Space Shuttle Columbia explosion 3 February The Martin Bashir documentary Living with Michael Jackson is broadcast on ITV1. The revelations of Jackson's controversial personal life in the programme is one of the many factors that leads to his trial for child molestation. Launch of Channel U. 4 February – Channel 4 News airs an interview conducted by veteran politician Tony Benn with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. 6 February – Prime Minister Tony Blair appears on BBC Two's Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman and a live audience where he is questioned about the Iraq crisis. Blair is taken aback when Paxman asks him about his Christian faith and whether he and US President George W. Bush have prayed together. 8 February – Phil Mitchell is to leave EastEnders later this year as Steve McFadden takes a break from the show. 9 February – After a long delay, BBC Choice is replaced by BBC Three. The opening night is simulcast on BBC Two. 9–10 February – ITV1 screens the controversial two-part drama The Second Coming, set around the return to Earth of Jesus Christ in modern-day Manchester.Deans, Jason (10 February 2003). Six million attend ITV's Second Coming. Retrieved 30 May 2009.Gibson, Owen (11 February) 2003. Viewers lose faith in Second Coming. Retrieved 30 May 2009. 10 February – During an interview on ITV's This Morning, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees brands Graham Norton as scum after the comedian made a joke about the singer's late brother, Maurice on his Channel 4 chat show, V Graham Norton the day after his death. 12 February – In the weeks leading up to the Iraq War, the BBC screens a series of programmes examining the case for and against war. The centrepiece of this is Iraq Day: The Case For and Against War, a 90-minute programme on BBC One on that day. Presented by Peter Snow, the programme analyses the possible implications of a war in the Middle East and attempts to gauge public opinion on the subject with a viewers poll. 20 February – The 2003 BRIT Awards are held at London's Earls Court. Two of the acts, Ms. Dynamite and Coldplay, use their awards acceptance speeches to criticise plans for US-led military action in Iraq. 22 February – After an absence of six years, After Dark returns to television. 24 February 19.4 million watch Coronation Street as Richard Hillman confesses to the murder of Maxine Peacock. the highest rated show of the year. Mersey Television boss Phil Redmond criticises broadcasting watchdogs for forcing television to "dumb down" after the Independent Television Commission rules that episodes of Brookside that aired in November 2002 showing an armed siege had breached broadcasting regulations and were inappropriate for a pre-watershed audience. 26 February BBC Two airs a special edition of TOTP2 featuring live performances from US rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. ITV police drama series The Bill introduces a new theme tune and opening titles.
March 3 March – Five airs Take Two: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See, the "rebuttal video" issued in response to the Martin Bashir documentary Living with Michael Jackson. Having previously been aired on Sky One, this airing of the programme is watched by 2.4 million viewers, enjoying a 9.8% audience share. 5 March – BBC One airs Mandela: The Living Legend, a two-part documentary series whose film crew had six months of unprecedented access to Nelson Mandela. The second part airs on 12 March. 7 March Singer George Michael makes his first appearance on BBC One's Top of the Pops in 17 years, with a cover of Don McLean's protest song The Grave, but runs into conflict with the show's producers for an anti-war, anti-Blair T-shirt worn by some members of his band. EastEnders announces the casting of a new family, the Ferreiras who will be the first Asian family to join the soap for a decade. They will move to Albert Square in the Summer. 8 March – Debut of ITV1's Reborn in the USA, a reality show in which ten British pop acts of the 1980s and 1990s tour the United States in the hope of reviving their careers. Those participating in the series include Sonia Evans, Leee John, Michelle Gayle and Tony Hadley. The show has already prompted controversy after Mark Shaw of Then Jericho decided to quit the series shortly before it went on air. 9 March Teletext's often surreal and acerbic games magazine, Digitiser is published for the final time after ten years on air. The magazine is replaced the following day by GameCentral which features less of the humour favoured by its predecessor. The 1982 American horror slasher film Friday the 13th Part III makes its UK television debut on ITV1 as part of the channel's Sunday night lineup. 10 March – Channel 4 is reprimanded by the Independent Television Commission for showing a documentary in which a Chinese artist appeared to eat a stillborn baby which the watchdog felt demonstrated a "lack of respect for human dignity". Graham Norton is also criticised for his joke about the late Maurice Gibb. 11 March – The BBC ends the deal with Sky Digital under which BBC channels are carried exclusively by Sky, meaning that satellite viewers will be able to watch BBC content without a viewing card. The changes will take effect from 30 May. 12 March ITV announces that Cat Deeley will take over as presenter of the junior version of Stars in Their Eyes because regular host Matthew Kelly will be busy touring as part of a stage production when the series is scheduled to be recorded. The climax to the Richard Hillman plot in Coronation Street is aired in which the serial killer attempts to kill himself and his wife Gail Platt and her children by driving their people carrier into the local canal. The conclusion marks the exit of the actor Brian Capron, who played Richard, from the soap. 13 March – Dog Breath, an advertisement for Wrigley's X-cite gum, becomes the most complained-about television advert in British history. It is withdrawn four days later after over 700 complaints. 14 March – Highlights of BBC One's 2003 Comic Relief fundraiser include Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, the Red Nose Special and Rowan Atkinson and Lenny Henry in the spoof documentary Lying to Michael Jackson. 19 March Procter & Gamble announces it is ending its Daz Doorstep Challenge advertising campaign after ten years, feeling it is "old fashioned". It will be replaced with the soap-opera style campaign Cleaner Close. BBC Three airs American Psycho, Mary Harron's black comedy based on the novel of the same name by Brett Easton Ellis. 20 March As the 2003 invasion of Iraq begins, many broadcasters adjust their regular schedules to provide up to date coverage of unfolding events. BBC One's news programmes are all slightly extended in length in addition to blanket coverage on BBC News 24 across each day. One day earlier, ITV moves its main evening bulletin forward by an hour to 9pm, anchored by Trevor McDonald live from nearby Kuwait, and abandons its usual overnight schedule to provide a through the night simulcast of the ITV News Channel during the war. George McGhee is appointed as Controller of BBC Programme Acquisition and will take up the position from early April. 22 March – ITN journalist Terry Lloyd is killed while covering the events of the Iraq War after he and his team of two cameramen and an interpreter are caught in a crossfire during fighting near the Shatt Al Basra Bridge in Basra. between US and Iraqi forces. His body and that of his Lebanese interpreter, Hussein Osman, are recovered and it is later discovered they were both shot by United States forces. 23 March – The Truth, the season nine finale of The X-Files and the last episode in the series original run, makes its terrestrial television debut on BBC Two. 26 March – BBC defence correspondent Paul Adams criticises BBC News coverage of the Iraq war in a memo to bosses, describing the coverage as painting an untruthful picture. 28 March – Debut of Extraordinary People on Five, each programme follows the lives of people with a rare medical condition and/or an unusual ability, many of these people do activities previously thought impossible for people in their condition. 30 March – Channel 4 News reporter Gaby Rado is found dead in Iraq, having apparently fallen from the roof of the Abu Sanaa hotel in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah. His death is believed to be unconnected to the ongoing military campaign in that country. 31 March Birkbeck, University of London wins the 2002–03 series of University Challenge, beating Cranfield University 180–155. Carlton Cinema goes off the air and is the last Carlton channel to close.
April 5 April – BBC Two launches The Big Read, a nationwide search for Britain's favourite book. The project is designed to encourage the nation to read, while people will be asked to vote for their favourite novel. 7 April