This is a list of British television-related events in 2005.

Events

January 1 January Sky takes over production of Five News from ITN. The first scheduled Sky produced news programme had been due to air on 3 January, but two shorter bulletins for 1 and 2 January are hastily added to provide updates following the 2004 Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami. Fox Kids UK finally rebrands to Jetix, as part of a global rebranding package by ABC Cable Networks Group. The first programme shown is Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!. 5 January – Desperate Housewives makes its initial UK debut, at 10:00pm on Channel 4. Overnight figures indicate it achieves an audience of 4.4 million viewers, becoming the second highest rating debut for an American series in the channel's history, behind ER in 1995. 8 January – Jerry Springer: The Opera, featuring Jesus, Mary and God as guests on The Jerry Springer Show, airs on BBC Two, despite protests from Christian Voice and other groups. 10 January Christian Voice confirms plans to launch a private blasphemy prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer: The Opera. The group subsequently attempts to prosecute BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, but their bid is rejected by the High Court. An attempt to overrule that decision is also rejected in December 2007. Vote for Me, a contest to find an independent Parliamentary candidate, makes its debut on ITV. 11 January – Debut of the six-part BBC Two documentary series Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution' which tells the story of Auschwitz concentration camp. The final part is aired on 15 February. 14 January – ITV's Vote for Me contest is won by former lawyer and convicted fraudster Rodney Hylton-Potts, who presents a "cabbies manifesto" that includes halting immigration, scrapping the Human Rights Act and legalising all drugs. However, the programme is soon caught up in controversy because of the winning candidate's extreme political views. Hylton-Potts goes on to stand against Conservative leader Michael Howard as a candidate for Folkestone and Hythe at the general election, but comes in seventh place and loses his deposit. 21 January – The auction channel bid-up.tv is rebranded as bid.tv. 23 January – Happy Mondays dancer Mark Berry, known professionally as Bez wins the third series of Celebrity Big Brother. 26 January – Debut of The Rotters' Club on BBC Two, a three-part adaptation of Jonathan Coe's novel of the same name about growing up in 1970s Birmingham, scripted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. 27 January – Holocaust Memorial Day and the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp are observed in the UK. BBC Two and BBC News 24 air Auschwitz Remembered, a special news programme providing coverage of memorial events.

February 3 February – An audience member on the evening's edition of Question Time uses the show's final question to propose to his girlfriend, who says yes. It is the first time a marriage proposal has occurred on the programme in its 25-year history. 8 February – Teachers' TV, run by the Department for Education and Skills, launches on Sky Digital (channel 686) and Freeview. 9 February – The Africa-based BBC journalist and producer Kate Peyton is killed in a shooting incident in Mogadishu, Somalia while reporting on that country's nascent peace process. 16 February – The first series of the UK version of The Apprentice with businessman Alan Sugar debuts on BBC Two. 18 February – Adele Silva will reprise her role as Emmerdale temptress Kelly Windsor five years after leaving the series, it is reported. 19 February – EastEnders celebrates its 20th anniversary on the air, airing a special episode in which Dirty Den Watts is killed by his new wife Chrissie. 14.34 million watch the episode (shown on 18 February). It is the UK's second highest rated programme of 2005 (the first is an episode of Coronation Street three days later). 21 February – MasterChef relaunches as MasterChef Goes Large. 22 February – Eamonn Holmes announces he will step down from his role as a GMTV presenter after twelve years. 23 February – UKTV Style Gardens, a channel dedicated to gardening programmes, launches. 24 February – ITV airs another episode of its police drama The Bill to feature a storyline in which characters are killed off in a fire at Sun Hill police station. Computer generated imagery is used because producing a real explosion and fireball ripping through the station corridors is not possible. 26 February – Sound TV, known pre-launch as The Great British Television Channel, launches on Sky Digital (588). It closes in the Autumn.

March 3 March – Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opens RTÉ's new studios in London, based at Millbank opposite the Houses of Parliament. 4 March – Channel 4 signs a £1m deal with Appletiser to sponsor repeat episodes of Friends during 2005. 5 March – Cat Deeley presents her final edition of CD:UK, after 6 years. 10 March – BBC One airs an edition of Question Time from Changhai, China, as part of the BBC's China Week. 11 March – BBC One airs the tenth Comic Relief fundraiser. Highlights include a crossover between Antiques Roadshow and The Vicar of Dibley, as well as specials of Little Britain and Blind Date. 17 March – ITV signs up Jerry Springer to present a daytime talk show to replace Trisha. 19 March – Ahead of the return of Doctor Who later in the month, BBC Two airs a "Doctor Who Night", with three programmes celebrating the series. The Story of Doctor Who features cast and crew, including Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy discussing the original series. Some Things You Need to Know About Doctor Who provides a bitesize guide to the programme. Finally John Humphrys presents a Doctor Who special of Mastermind in which fans answer questions about the series. 20 March BBC Director General Mark Thompson announces BBC staff of 27,000 will be cut by 3,780. Actress Kim Medcalf, who plays Sam Mitchell in EastEnders speaks to the Sunday Mirror about her decision to leave the series, and her plans to focus on stage acting. Her final scenes will be filmed in May and her final onscreen appearance will be in November. 23 March – Five announces plans to move its Trisha Goddard show to a morning slot from April to rival ITV's forthcoming The Springer Show. 26 March Nine years after its last new episode and sixteen years since its last regular run, Doctor Who returns to BBC One for a new series, the twenty-seventh in total since 1963. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper star. An average 10.81 million viewers, over 40% of the watching audience, tune in, winning its timeslot and making it No. 3 BBC show and No. 7 across all channels for the week. The premiere episode of the revival, "Rose", written by Russell T Davies, goes on to become the UK's seventh highest rated programme of 2005. Gordon Hendricks, performing as Elvis Presley wins the sixteenth and final series of Stars in Their Eyes. He is the second Elvis impersonator to win the contest. Stars in Their Eyes continues until the following year, with a final junior series and a number of celebrity specials. 30 March As a test trial, the small Welsh towns of Ferryside and Llansteffan have their analogue television signals switched off. The trial proves a success and the digital switchover fully begins two and a half years later in Cumbria. Only days after his having debuted as the Ninth Doctor, the BBC announces that Christopher Eccleston will be leaving Doctor Who after only one season. A UK version of Pakistan's Geo TV is launched on Sky Digital EPG 838.

April 1 April – Thomasina Miers wins the 2005 series of MasterChef Goes Large. 2 April – Digital channel BBC Four broadcasts a live re-make of the famous 1953 science-fiction drama The Quatermass Experiment. The production is the first live drama broadcast by the BBC for over twenty years, and draws BBC Four's second highest audience to date, with an average of 482,000 viewers. 4 April – BBC Four airs Speak No Evil – The Story of the Broadcast Ban, a documentary recalling the 1988 broadcasting restrictions imposed by the Government of Margaret Thatcher on organisations in Northern Ireland believed to support terrorism. 5 April – It is reported that Ofcom may fine ITV Central for broadcasting a pre-recorded late Central News bulletin for the East Midlands.ITV faces live news fine Jason Deans, The Guardian, 5 April 2005 8 April – 13.03 million viewers watch Ken Barlow tie the knot with Deirdre Rachid on Coronation Street, one day before the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Camilla Parker Bowles (7.36 million viewers watch). The scheduling move echoes Ken and Deirdre's first wedding, which occurred two days before Charles's wedding to Diana in 1981, and which also beat the Royal wedding in the television ratings. 11 April – ITV1 refreshes its daytime schedule under the brand name ITV Day, which features established programmes such as This Morning and Loose Women joined by a whole host of new shows over the coming months. The ITV Lunchtime News is also extended to an hour as part of the schedule refresh. 14 April – The BBC removes advice from its website warning that Doctor Who is too scary to be watched by children under the age of eight, describing the statement as "a mistake". 16 April – David Tennant is announced as the Tenth Doctor. 18 April – Launch of the teleshopping channel iBuy. 23 April – Celebrity Wrestling debuts on ITV1. It lasts for four weeks on Saturday evenings, before the second half of the series is demoted to Sunday mornings due to low ratings and poor reviews from critics. 27 April – Eamonn Holmes presents his final edition of GMTV after twelve years with the broadcaster. 28 April – BBC One airs a special election edition of Question Time, featuring the leaders of the three main political parties. Tony Blair (Labour), Michael Howard (Conservative) and Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrats) are each questioned for 30 minutes by the audience.

May 3 May – The Sun reports that Labour Party chiefs are concerned that the 5 May episode of EastEnders in which Dot Cotton learns to drive could distract viewers from voting. 4 May – Tim Campbell, a 27-year-old transport manager with London Underground, wins the first series of The Apprentice. His prize is a £100,000 job with Alan Sugar's firm, Amstrad. 5–6 May – Coverage of the 2005 general election is shown on British television. The Labour Party attains a third successive general election victory. 7 May – Family Affairs wins Best Storyline at the British Soap Awards for a story in which a couple discover a family friend has been abusing their daughter. 9 May – Corpus Christi College, Oxford wins the 2004–05 series of University Challenge, beating University College London 250–140. 13 May – To celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II in 2006, Rolf Harris is to create an oil portrait of her as part of a special edition of his BBC One show Rolf on Art, it is announced. The programme airs on New Year's Day 2006. 16 May – BBC Weather relaunches, changing from 2D to 3D graphics. ITV launches Love Island, a rival to Big Brother. This appears to be a ratings flop. 19 May – Eamonn Holmes has signed a deal with Sky News to present their early morning programme Sky News Sunrise, it is reported. 21 May – Greece's Helena Paparizou wins the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest (staged in Kyiv) with "My Number One". 23 May – Over one-third of BBC staff join a strike in response to proposed job cuts at the corporation. 26 May – BBC One airs a special edition of Question Time from Paris, France, ahead of the French referendum on the European Constitution. 29 May – BBC One airs the final edition of Breakfast with Frost after a twelve-year run.