This is a list of British television related events from 1990.
Events January 1 January New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include the network television premiere of the 1985 romantic drama Out of Africa, starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep as well as the 1982 musical sequel Grease 2. Debut of the iconic sitcom Mr. Bean on ITV, starring Rowan Atkinson as the titular character. 2 January Granada's flagship nightly news programme Granada Reports is rebranded as Granada Tonight. The first episode of the sixth T-Bag series airs in which Georgina Hale debuts as Tabatha Bag, the second T-Bag. The 30-minute weekday 6am Ceefax slot returns to BBC1, but rather than the special pages used for Ceefax AM, the content is the same as for all other Ceefax broadcasts. For the first time, Emmerdale is networked across almost all of ITV, airing at 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 3 January – The US animated series Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles makes its debut on BBC1. The show's original US title, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is changed for the UK because of controversy surrounding ninjas and related weapons such as nunchaku. The intro sequence is heavily edited because of this, replacing the word ninja with hero or fighting, using a digitally faded logo instead of the animated blob and removing any scenes in which the character Michelangelo wields his nunchaku. Scenes of Michelangelo using his nunchaku are likewise edited out of the episodes themselves, leading the American producers to drop the weapons from the series entirely, in order to make the show more appropriate for the international market. 4 January – Debut of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave on BBC1, starring Richard Wilson. 6 January The US action drama series Baywatch, starring David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson, makes its UK debut on ITV. Made by NBC, the series proves popular with British viewers with audience figures regularly reaching 13 million. When NBC cancels the series after its first season, ITV teams up with an international consortium of broadcasters to sponsor the show for further seasons. The series comes to an end in 2001, following an eleven-year run. Debut of Jekyll & Hyde on ITV, a made-for-television film starring Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd. 8 January – The popular classic children's song Nellie the Elephant has been spawned into a five-minute animated cartoon series on ITV, featuring the voices of singer Lulu and Tony Robinson. The first episode is called Nellie and the Ghost and was shown every Monday until 9 April with the episode Nellie Rescues Mrs Maple's Moggy. The series will return on 5 September with Nellie Goes Ballooning and will be shifted onto a Wednesday timeslot. The last three episodes will be broadcast in January 1991 with the final one being shown on 21 January. 9 January – The Secret Cabaret, an innovative and shocking magic-based programme hosted by magician Simon Drake, makes its debut on Channel 4. 14 January – The Observer reports that TVS have started searching for a buyer for a 49% stake in US production company MTM Enterprises which it bought in 1988."TVS seeks buyer for 'Hill Street' stake" The Observer 14 January 1990; 24 January–3 February – The BBC broadcasts the 1990 Commonwealth Games. BBC1 stays on the air all night to provide live coverage. This is the first time that BBC1 has provided full live coverage of an overseas Commonwealth Games with around 12 hours of live action broadcast each day. 27 January – The final episode of Bob's Full House is broadcast on BBC1. 31 January – The network television premiere of the James Bond film A View to a Kill on ITV, starring Roger Moore, Tanya Roberts, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Walken and Grace Jones. January Chrysalis Television takes over the contract to produce LWT News.
February 2 February – The BBC Schools gay-themed television film Two of Us is given its first daytime showing on BBC2. It is shown in two parts, on consecutive Friday lunchtimes. The channel had previously shown the film late at night in March 1988. 5 February – Sky Movies is fully encrypted and becomes Sky's first pay channel. 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. Sky Movies broadcasts its first special event, the boxing fight between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas. 13 February – The US science-fiction series Quantum Leap makes its UK debut on BBC2, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. 15 February – The hugely popular game show The Crystal Maze makes its debut on Channel 4, presented by Richard O'Brien. 19 February – The documentary series Cutting Edge makes its debut on Channel 4. 20 February – Steve McFadden makes his first appearance as the EastEnders character Phil Mitchell. Ross Kemp's debut as Phil's brother, Grant would air two days later.
March 4 March – The Observer newspaper reports that it has formed a partnership with Central to create Central Observer, making environmental themed films for British Satellite Broadcasting and other terrestrial channels with funding from the charity Television Trust for the Environment. 12 March Ahead of the first free legislative election in the German Democratic Republic, BBC1 airs an edition of Panorama in which Fred Emery reports from the GDR and West Germany on the opportunities and strains facing the Germans. The final episode of Blankety Blank presented by Les Dawson is broadcast on BBC1, the series is officially cancelled later in September , although it would return in 1997 with Lily Savage as its host. 20 March – Chancellor John Major delivers the first budget to be broadcast on television. 25 March – British Satellite Broadcasting launches on cable as a rival to Sky Television which launched the previous year. Its five BSB channels are launched one-by-one over the space of five days, with The Movie Channel being the first to go on air. 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 following BSB's merger with Sky. Debut of the game show Turnabout on BBC1, presented by Rob Curling. 27 March – BBC1 airs the first of two flashback episodes of EastEnders as part of a 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 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 airs the Granada 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. 31 March – Opportunity Knocks returns to BBC1 for the 1990 series with its original title and with Les Dawson as host.
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. 6 April – The Australian children's science-fiction comedy Round the Twist makes its UK debut on BBC1. 10 April – The UK's first Asian TV channel TV Asia launches and becomes Europe's first entertainment and information channel for the South Asian community from the Indian subcontinent. It initially broadcasts through the night during Sky One's downtime. 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 is repeated the following day in a late-night slot on BBC1. Debut of You've Been Framed! on ITV, presented by Jeremy Beadle. 16 April BBC1 airs Nelson Mandela – an International Tribute, a concert held at Wembley Stadium in honour of Nelson Mandela. The concert features a number of prominent musicians, including Anita Baker, Tracy Chapman, Stanley Clarke, Natalie Cole, George Duke, Peter Gabriel and Patti LaBelle. Nelson Mandela himself is also in attendance. 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. 17 April – The Channel Four Daily is revamped in a bid to attract more viewers. Some of the segments are changed and the programme starts 30 minutes later, at 6:30am. 19 April – Original airdate of a French and Saunders episode featuring the sketch "Modern Mother and Daughter", which forms the basis of the hugely popular sitcom Absolutely Fabulous that starts in 1992. 21 April The BBC reverts to airing just one summer Saturday morning magazine show and replaces On the Waterfront and UP2U with a new show, The 8.15 from Manchester, named after its start time and broadcast location. The final episode of You Bet! presented by Bruce Forsyth is broadcast on ITV. 29 April – British Satellite Broadcasting launches on satellite television.
May 5 May – Italy's Toto Cutugno wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 from Yugoslavia with "Insieme: 1992"; the programme is notable for a technical fault with Spain's entry from Azucar Moreno. 6 May – Original airdate of the Everyman episode A Game of Soldiers, a documentary which concerns a group of soldiers exploring their feelings about being trained to kill. 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 of 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 while trying to park a car when a bomb inside explodes. 25 May – The anarchic cult comedy series Vic Reeves Big Night Out makes its debut on Channel 4, starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. 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 1 June – The game show The 64,000 Question makes its debut on ITV, presented by Bob Monkhouse. 2 June – The revived series of Opportunity Knocks ends its run on BBC1 after four series with the 1990 final which will be officially confirmed in September. 4 June – The government announces that the copyright on TV and radio listings will end on 1 March 1991 meaning that, from this date, any publication (including newspapers) will be able to publish 7-day listings, having previously been able to publish only the present day's listings (and two days on Saturdays). 8 June–8 July – The BBC and ITV provide television coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. 15 June – The long-running children's arts and crafts series Art Attack makes its debut on Children's ITV, presented by Neil Buchanan. 16 June – Pages from Ceefax is shown after 10am for the final time and as from 19 June, BBC2 begins broadcasting programmes when Daytime on Two is not on the air at 10am rather than at lunchtime. 20 June – Archie Macpherson commentates his last football match for BBC Scotland with the Scotland v Brazil World Cup match in Italy which Brazil win 1–0 leaving Scotland eliminated from the finals. He is replaced by Jock Brown (who has commentated the same match on STV) as main commentator when Sportscene returns on 25 August. Brown is replaced by Gerry McNee for Scotsport which is shown the following day.