This is a list of British television related events from 1991.
Events January 1 January The Independent Television Commission (ITC) replaces the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA). On the same day, the Broadcasting Act 1990 takes effect, thus beginning the deregulation of British television and radio. New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include the network television premieres of the science fiction drama SpaceCamp and the 1987 cult vampire film The Lost Boys. 3 January The sitcom The Brittas Empire makes its debut on BBC1, starring Chris Barrie and Pippa Haywood. The first episode is called Laying the Foundations. The puppet Gordon the Gopher returns to television with a 13-episode series on BBC1. 7 January – BBC1 launches the local news programme BBC East Midlands Today for the East Midlands region. News coverage for the area had previously been provided by a seven-minute opt out from the Birmingham-based Midlands Today. 8 January The opening episode of the second season of Twin Peaks makes its UK debut on BBC2. The children's arts and crafts series Bitsa makes its debut on BBC1. 14 January – The US sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring Will Smith, makes its debut on BBC2 as part of the DEF II programming strand. 17 January–2 March – Most regular programming is suspended to bring live coverage of the Gulf War after Allied Forces launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. Over the coming weeks, there is extended coverage of events in the Persian Gulf. On BBC1, in addition to extended and additional news bulletins, a special daytime news analysis programme War in the Gulf, presented by David Dimbleby, is broadcast, although as the war progresses the length of each programme and frequency of broadcast is scaled back. ITV also broadcasts additional news and discussion programmes about the war, including all-night coverage during the early stages of the conflict and Channel 4 broadcasts a two-hour special programme at midnight as well as Saturday editions of The Channel 4 Daily. Some coverage, particularly in the earlier part of the war, comes from CNN. Sky News presents round-the-clock coverage and UK viewers are also able to watch rolling coverage on CNN. 18 January – BBC2 airs a special edition of Arena in which playwright Arthur Miller meets ANC leader Nelson Mandela. In the show, Mandela talks for the first time about his life and experiences from a personal standpoint. 19 January The 17 January edition of Top of the Pops is broadcast, having been postponed from that date due to extended news coverage of the Gulf War. Debut of the comedy talk show The Full Wax on BBC1, starring Ruby Wax. 26 January – Oliver Reed appears on an edition of the late-night Channel 4 discussion programme After Dark discussing militarism, masculine stereotypes and violence to women. Reed drinks alcohol during the broadcast, leading him to become drunk, aggressive and incoherent. He refers to another member of the panel who has a moustache as a 'tache' and uses offensive language. After one hour, Reed returns from the toilet and getting more to drink, rolls on top of the noted feminist author Kate Millett. The show is briefly taken off the air following a hoax call to the station claiming that Channel 4 boss Michael Grade is furious.
February 12 February – A year after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, BBC2 airs an edition of its Assignment documentary strand in which journalist Donald Woods returns to South Africa to give his personal assessment of that country's future. 15 February – At the close of this day's programmes, the COW ident is seen for the final time on BBC1 after six years and the BBC2 'TWO' ident is also seen for the final time after five years. 16 February Both BBC1 and BBC2 receive new idents, both generated from laserdisc and featuring the BBC corporate logo introduced in 1986. BBC1 features a numeral '1' encased in a globe and BBC2 features eleven idents based around a numeral '2'. Also on this day, new idents for Open University programmes come into use. Matthew Kelly succeeds Bruce Forsyth as presenter of ITV's You Bet! 25 February – Debut of the children's series Radio Roo on BBC1, starring Wayne Jackman. 26 February – Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. As the war comes to its conclusion, television programming begins to return to normal.
March 1 March – The monopoly on listings magazines ends with the deregulation of TV listings. Before today, Radio Times published only BBC listings and TVTimes ITV only (and from 1982, Channel 4, including S4C in a pull-out supplement Sbec). However, from this day, they can carry listings for all channels. Newspapers are also allowed to publish 7-day listings for the first time, having previously been able to publish only the present day's (and two days on Saturdays). A raft of listings magazines and supplements starts up in the wake of the changes. 3 March – Following the conclusion of the Gulf War, the ITN Early Morning News is halved in length and now goes on the air at 5:30am. From this point, the ITN World News is no longer broadcast as part of the bulletin. 9 March – While appearing as a guest on the ITV chat show Aspel & Company, singer Rod Stewart takes off his shoes and tosses them into the audience. 15 March – BBC1 airs Comic Relief 1991. 18 March – ITV broadcasts World in Action Special: The Birmingham Six – Their Own Story, a documentary that airs four days after the release of the wrongly convicted 'Birmingham Six'."Public Issue Television: World in Action 1963–98" p. 106 It is later nominated for a BAFTA award.<ref>BAFTA Awards bafta.org'''' 1992 awards]</ref> 30 March – Frederick Wiseman's six and a half-hour documentary Near Death, on life in a Boston intensive care unit, is broadcast in full by Channel 4.
April 1 April – Sue Lawley interviews Prime Minister John Major for ITV. 7 April ITV airs the first Prime Suspect series, starring Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. Comedy drama The Darling Buds of May makes its debut on ITV, starring David Jason, Pam Ferris and Catherine Zeta Jones. The final episode of the sitcom Brush Strokes is broadcast on BBC1. 8 April The Power Station, one of the channels to have survived the BSB merger with Sky, closes down at 4am after it was decided that the American MTV would be used as the music channel on BSkyB's Astra satellite service. the 5th series of ITV Central's The Cook Report began with Roger Cook investigating the Hot Dog Wars. Channel 4's three-week Banned season features a series of films and programmes which have previously been banned from British television or cinema. The season includes the network television premieres of Scum, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Sebastiane. There is also a second broadcast of the controversial 1988 Thames documentary Death on the Rock which investigated the shooting of three members of the IRA by the SAS in Gibraltar. The season proves to be controversial and Channel 4 is investigated by the Obscene Publications Squad and referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. 9 April Derek Nimmo makes a cameo appearance in Australian soap Neighbours as an eccentric English aristocrat, the episode having debuted in Australia on 26 February 1990. Central Television takes back over production of the Children's ITV strand, with Tommy Boyd becoming the new in-vision presenter. 12 April – Debut of the children's game show Finders Keepers on Children's ITV, presented by Neil Buchanan. 15 April — BSB's films channel The Movie Channel launches on the Astra 1B satellite. 16 April – The network television premiere of Monty Python's Life of Brian as part of Channel 4's Banned season. 20 April – The Sports Channel on BSB is rebranded as Sky Sports. 29 April – On an edition of Terry Wogan's evening chat show Wogan and amid howls of laughter from the studio audience, footballer-turned-public speaker David Icke claims that he is "the son of God" and that Britain will be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes. He later says that he had been misinterpreted and that he had used the term "the son of God" to mean an "aspect" of the Infinite consciousness. The interview proves devastating for him. The BBC is later criticised for allowing the interview to go ahead, with Des Christy in The Guardian calling it a "media crucifixion." 30 April – Debut of the long-running snooker-based game show Big Break on BBC1, presented by Jim Davidson.
May 3 May – The Girl from Tomorrow, a 12-part Australian children's series about a girl from the future who finds herself trapped in 1990 makes its UK debut on BBC1. 4 May – Sweden's Carola wins the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest (staged in Rome and broadcast by the BBC in the UK) with "Fångad av en stormvind". The British entry, "A Message to Your Heart" sung by Samantha Janus, finishes in 10th place. 5 May – BBC1 airs the final season of the US drama series Dallas, this time being shown on Sunday afternoons just two days after the final episode has been aired in the US. 6 May Eurosport briefly closes after the competing Screensport channel had filed a complaint to the European Commission over its corporate structure. The Movie Channel begins broadcasting 24 hours a day. Previously the channel has been on air from early afternoon until the early hours of the next morning. The network television premiere of the 1987 gangster thriller The Untouchables on BBC1, starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro. 8 May – The first terrestrial television showing of Matthew Robbins' 1981 dark fantasy adventure Dragonslayer on ITV, starring Peter MacNichol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson and John Hallam. 13 May – ITV airs an edition of World in Action making allegations of malpractice in the Irish beef processing industry. The programme leads to the establishment of the Beef Tribunal which is to become Ireland's longest public inquiry at this time. 20 May – The final episode of ThunderCats is broadcast on BBC1. 22 May – Eurosport resumes broadcasting after TF1 Group steps in to replace BSkyB as their joint owners. 27 May – The network television premiere of the 1987 parody film Dragnet on BBC1, starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks. May – Midweek Sports Special ends after 13 years when all the English regions opt out for their own midweek sports shows. The programme continues in London as Thames Sports Special.
June 10 June Postman Pat begins airing on ABC in Australia along with Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends sister show Tugs. The popular drama series Soldier Soldier makes its debut on ITV, starring Robson Green and Jerome Flynn. 13 June – An edition of BBC2's The Late Show is the final programme to be broadcast from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios. 16 June – BBC1 airs Cry Freedom, Richard Attenborough's acclaimed film about South African journalist Donald Woods. It is shown in two parts with the second aired on 23 June. 18 June – BBC2 airs the concluding episode of David Lynch's drama Twin Peaks. 20 June – The murder of Harry Collinson, the planning officer for Derwentside District Council, takes place at Butsfield, County Durham while television news crews are filming for a news item about a planning dispute. At the time of the murder, the Derwentside District Council is involved in the dispute with Albert Dryden over the erection of a building by Dryden on green belt land without planning permission and as television crews are filming, Dryden aims a handgun, a .455 Webley Mk VI revolver at Collinson and shoots him dead. As the journalists and council staff flee, Dryden opens fire again, wounding television reporter Tony Belmont and Police Constable Stephen Campbell. Dryden is convicted of Collinson's murder following a trial in April the following year. Additionally, he is also convicted of the attempted murder of council solicitor Michael Dunstan and the wounding of Campbell and Belmont. He is sentenced to life imprisonment.