This is a list of British television-related events from 1983.
Events
January 1 January – Channel 4 airs One in Five, a late-night profile of homosexual lifestyles. This programme and The Eleventh Hour: Veronica 4 Rose, featuring two schoolgirls discussing lesbianism, lead to extreme criticism for the channel and an attempt by Conservative MP John Carlisle to have the channel banned. 3 January – Children's ITV launches as a new branding for the late afternoon programming block on ITV, replacing Watch It! 6 January The network television premiere of Richard Donner's 1978 blockbuster Superman: The Movie on ITV, starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando. Debut of The Irish R.M. on Channel 4. 14 January – TV-am broadcasts a special edition to advertisers ahead of its official launch on 1 February. 17 January – At 6:30am, Britain's first-ever breakfast television show, Breakfast Time, launches on BBC1. 29 January – Tom Keating On Painters is rebroadcast. 30 January – Channel 4 becomes the first broadcaster in the UK to show the Super Bowl live. 31 January – Channel 4 News introduces its current news theme "Best Endeavours" composed by Alan Hawkshaw. January BBC1 starts broadcasting a full afternoon service, consisting of regional programmes, repeats and old feature films. London Weekend Television drops in-vision continuity.
February 1 February – TV-am launches on ITV at 6am, with Daybreak and Good Morning Britain. 4 February – The US sitcom Cheers, starring Ted Danson and Shelley Long, makes its UK debut on Channel 4. 6 February – The Australian soap opera Sons and Daughters makes its UK debut when Central becomes the first ITV region to begin showing the programme. All other ITV regions soon follow suit. 7 February – BBC2's four-hour weekday transmitter shutdown resumes. It had been suspended for previous four months to assist riggers adjust aerials during the lead up to, and the launch of, Channel 4.Suspension of daytime BBC2 transmitter shutdowns 8 February – Minipops makes its debut on Channel 4. Though a ratings success, it is axed after only one series due to heavy media criticism. 14 February Granada faces an industrial dispute in which Coronation Street and World in Action are wiped out across the network. Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss TV series is first broadcast on BBC1. The Mr Men series is also broadcast on BBC1 for reruns; however, only 13 episodes are broadcast due to the first 13 Little Miss books released. 17 February – Woodland Animations introduces a new stop-motion animated series, Gran, on BBC1, following the success of Postman Pat, the same day as the final episode of the sitcom Tom, Dick and Harriet airs on ITV. 22 February – The US television series Knight Rider makes its debut on ITV with the feature-length pilot episode; the following episode is shown two nights later. However, scheduling of the show varies across ITV regions, with STV not broadcasting the hit series until 5 April. 23 February – After months of "will she or won't she?" drama, Deirdre Barlow (Anne Kirkbride) makes the choice to break up with Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) and reunite with her estranged husband Ken (William Roache) on Coronation Street. The episode is one of the highest-rated in the soap's history. 28 February TV-am cuts its Daybreak programme to 30 minutes, allowing Good Morning Britain to begin half an hour earlier. Original Daybreak presenters Robert Kee and Angela Rippon are both replaced, with Gavin Scot on weekdays and Lynda Barry on weekends. BBC1 begins broadcasting a 30-minute Ceefax slot prior to the start of Breakfast Time. It is called Ceefax AM.The History of Pages from Ceefax It is first mentioned in Radio Times on 21 March.
March 10 March – Debut of the cult US comedy series Police Squad! on ITV, starring Leslie Nielsen. 18 March – Amid falling ratings and mounting pressure from investors, Peter Jay steps aside as TV-am's Chief Executive allowing Jonathan Aitken (a sitting Conservative MP at this time) to take on the role. Angela Rippon and Anna Ford come out publicly to support Jay, referring to events as "treachery", unaware he has already left. 23 March – The BBC regrets that because of an industrial dispute at the printers next week's editions of Radio Times are in short supply, but copies will be available in the South West, West, North East, parts of the South and North of England, but no S4C listings in the Wales edition.
April 1 April – Roland Rat makes his first appearance on TV-am. Created by David Claridge and launched by TV-am children's editor Anne Wood to entertain younger viewers during the Easter holidays, Roland is generally regarded as TV-am's saviour, being described as "the only rat to join a sinking ship". 2 and 9 April – Two issues of Radio Times fail to be published, due to industrial action. 5 April – Debut of First Tuesday on ITV, the subject matter is mainly social issues and current affairs stories from around the world, with programmes being shown on the first Tuesday of the month. 7 April – ITV airs an evening of programmes under the banner of ITV's Channel Four Showcase. It includes both current and upcoming Channel 4 programmes. 9 April – The US police action series T. J. Hooker makes its UK debut on ITV, starring William Shatner. 10 April – ITV begins showing the two-part 1982 US mini-series World War III, starring David Soul and Rock Hudson. 12 April – Timothy Aitken succeeds his cousin Jonathan as chief executive of TV-am, due to the IBA rules regarding MPs operating a television station. 15 April – BBC2 launches the long-running showbiz programme Entertainment USA, presented by Jonathan King. 19 April – Angela Rippon and Anna Ford are axed from TV-am. Subsequently, Ford encounters Jonathan Aitken at a party in Chelsea and, in a parting shot over the terms of her dismissal, throws her glass of wine in his face. 29 April – Michael Parkinson is appointed to TV-am's board of directors. April – No. 73 launches nationally as ITV's Saturday morning children's show. It had been launched the previous year as a regional programme by TVS.
May 1 May – Debut of Alfresco on ITV, starring Robbie Coltrane, Ben Elton (the principal writer), Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Siobhan Redmond and Emma Thompson. It is named after the Italian word meaning "in the fresh air" because it is filmed entirely on location, unusual for a comedy sketch show of the time. It runs for two seasons. 2 May – From this day, Ceefax pages are broadcast during all daytime downtime although BBC2 continues to close down fully for four hours after Play School. Teletext transmissions also begin on Channel 4 at around this time. Shown on weekday afternoons, they consist of two magazines – 4-Tel on View and Oracle on View – and are shown in fifteen minute bursts which are repeated several times each day prior to the start of each day's transmissions. 4 May – Jack Scott retires from the Met Office and presents his final national forecast for BBC Weather after 14 years, then joining Thames News as its weatherman for five years. 5 May – Top of the Pops celebrates its 1000th edition. The programme is also broadcast on BBC Radio 1 to allow viewers to listen to the programme in stereo. 11 May – Peter Adamson makes his last appearance as Len Fairclough on Coronation Street. 17 May – Engineering Announcements is broadcast on ITV for the final time. 23 May – TV-am's new look begins as Daybreak is axed, with Good Morning Britain extending to start at 6:25am. Commander David Philpott is moved to present the weather at the weekends only, with Wincey Willis becoming the new weekday weather presenter. 24 May – Engineering Announcements is shown on Channel 4 and S4C for the first time. The channel transfer sees the bulletin broadcast twice, with a lunchtime repeat beginning on this day. The programme continues to be shown on Tuesdays. 30 May – The morning broadcast of Play School moves to the earlier time of 10.30am.
June 9–10 June – BBC1 and ITV broadcast coverage of the 1983 General Election. 10 June – Channel 4 screens Alan Clarke's controversial 1979 film version of his borstal set drama Scum, starring Ray Winstone. The showing attracts criticism and so-called video nasties moral crusader Mary Whitehouse privately prosecutes Channel 4 for the screening of the film.Scum at 40: still the daddy 15 June – The first episode of The Black Adder starring Rowan Atkinson, the first in the successful Blackadder series of sitcoms, is broadcast on BBC1, also featuring Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny and Brian Blessed. 24 June BBC Schools programmes under the title For Schools, Colleges are broadcast for the final time on BBC1 ahead of its move to BBC2 in the Autumn. Bob Monkhouse presents his last episode of Family Fortunes on ITV. 25 June – The network television premiere of the 1979 Dracula film on ITV, starring Frank Langella and Laurence Olivier. 27 June – The shareholders of Satellite Television agree a £5 million offer to give News International 65% of the company.
July 6 July – Screened on BBC2, Maggie Wadey's powerful drama The Waiting War dramatises the conflict of the Falklands War via the experiences of three navy wives in Portsmouth whose husbands were aboard HMS Sheffield. 10 July – ITV screens Alan Clarke's controversial drama Made in Britain, starring Tim Roth as a young skinhead. 16 July – Debut of The Mad Death on BBC1. The three-part series examines the effects of an outbreak of rabies in the United Kingdom and is noted for its occasionally chilling content. 21 July – The last edition of Junior Pot Black on BBC2 in which John Parrott wins his second title. Among the players for this series was 14 year old Stephen Hendry who was making his TV debut and would lose in the semi-finals. It would be another eight years before the series would make a return. 22 July – The hit US action-adventure series The A-Team makes its UK debut on ITV, with the feature-length pilot. The full series commences a week later on 29 July. Starring Mr. T as B. A. Baracus, George Peppard as "Hannibal" Smith, Dirk Benedict as Templeton Peck (played by Tim Dunigan in the pilot) and Dwight Schultz as "Howling Mad" Murdock.
August 5 August – After 14 years on the air, the final edition of Nationwide is broadcast on BBC1. 16 August – ITV broadcasts a police procedure drama called Woodentop as part of its Storyboard series. It would later be turned into a series and renamed The Bill, commencing on 16 October 1984 and lasting until 31 August 2010. 26 August – The Big Match becomes a nationally networked programme, as ITV move away from regional highlights. However, after the second weekend of the season highlights coverage is knocked off the air til February by an industrial dispute involving videotape editors. 27–28 August – BBC2 Rocks Around the Clock for the first time by broadcasting non-stop music programmes all day and also all night. 29 August – The game show Blockbusters is launched on ITV, presented by Bob Holness and features sixth-form students as contestants.
September 3 September – BBC1 begins showing the US comedy detective series Remington Steele, starring future 007 Pierce Brosnan. Although the series would run for five seasons in the US, the BBC broadcasts only the first. 5 September Filmation's fantasy adventure cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe makes its world premiere on Children's ITV. ITV launches the espionage drama Reilly, Ace of Spies, starring Sam Neill. BBC1 screen part one of a four-part presentation of Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Shown over consecutive nights, this is a specially re-edited version of both Godfather films, incorporating previously unseen material and presented in chronological order from 1901 to 1959. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. 6 September – ITV broadcasts Killer. It would later be turned into a series and renamed Taggart.