3 February – An edition of the live morning ITV discussion show The Time, The Place abruptly ends ten minutes early after an item about men's fashion featured a black male model wearing a skirt while another black man in the audience starts complaining that the show is racist, eventually making his way onto the stage.[6][7]
10 February – After a pilot episode was broadcast in December 1993, the first full series of The Mrs Merton Show starts on BBC2, presented by Caroline Aherne as the titular character.[9]
14 February – Sky One hosts Sky's first telethon, to raise money for the Variety Club.
16 February – Cable channel Wire TV is sold to Mirror Television, owned by the parent company of the Daily Mirror newspaper.[10] It plans to launch Sportswire as a full-time channel and replace Wire TV with a new channel called L!VE TV.
19 February – The 10th anniversary of the launch of the soap EastEnders on BBC1. As part of the celebrations, the first 25 episodes from 1985 are repeated each day at 10am during February and March, starting from episode one on Monday 20 February[11] and ending on Friday 26 May.[12] while selected episodes from 1985 and 1986 are also repeated on BBC1 on Fridays at 8:30pm for a short while. Billed as The Unforgettable EastEnders the episodes aired are as follows:
17 February: The identity of the father of Michelle Fowler's baby is revealed in October 1985.[13]
24 February: Michelle and Lofty's wedding day in September 1986.[14]
3 March: Den Watts hands Angie divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986, an episode originally watched by more than 30 million viewers.[15]
10 March: Two-hander episode featuring Dot and Ethel from July 1987.[16]
BBC2 airs a documentary about the Rev. W. Awdry called The Thomas the Tank Engine Man as part of their Bookmark series. It is narrated by Hilary Fortnam, Awdry's daughter, and includes a look at the Thomas merchandise, the success of Thomas, images from the original Railway Series books with stock narration by John Gielgud, interviews with several people such as Mr Awdry himself, fans of Thomas, Awdry's son Christopher, children's author and poet Michael Rosen, various people who worked on the books and toys, Brian Sibley who also wrote the Reverend's autobiography, the people behind the television broadcasts and rights of Thomas in Japan and the producers of the television series Britt Allcroft and David Mitton, plus a special behind the scenes peek of the 100th episode Thomas and the Special Letter and Mr Awdry criticising the third series episode Henry's Forest.
27–28 February – Sky One airs Episode 404 of E Street, the final episode of the Australian soap, splitting the hour-long edition into two half-hour episodes.
4 March – Channel 4 airs "Pot Night", eight hours of programming dedicated to cannabis.[21]
11 March – Channel 4 begins airing a rerun of the Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which made its debut on ITV on 11 November 1983. Also this day sees the debut of "Red Light Zone", a season of "late-night programming focusing on sex, the sex industries and sexual tourism". The strand runs weekly for eight weeks.[22]
15 March – As part of the Modern Times series, BBC2 airs Death on Request, a Dutch documentary showing a doctor giving a terminally-ill patient a lethal injection of drugs.[23] The programme is criticized by groups opposed to euthanasia.
16 March – Lenny Henry guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[24]
17 March – The Night of Comic Relief, the 1995 Comic Relief telethon is broadcast on BBC1.[25]
24 March
Following the recent death of James Herriot (Alf Wight), BBC1 airs A Tribute to James Herriot in which Robert Hardy introduces a 1980 episode of the series All Creatures Great and Small, which was based on Herriot's memoirs as a Yorkshire vet.[26]
The final episode of The Word is broadcast on Channel 4 after five years on the air.
The action/science-fiction series Bugs makes its debut on BBC1.[31]
The US medical drama series Chicago Hope makes its UK debut on BBC1.[32]
3 April – A Scottish Court imposes a prohibition on BBC Scotland airing an edition of Panorama that includes an interview with Prime Minister John Major amid concerns it could affect local elections to be held on 6 April. However, the edition is broadcast in England and Wales.
10 April – Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken calls a televised press conference three hours before the transmission of a World in Action film, Jonathan of Arabia, demanding that allegations about his dealings with leading Saudis to be withdrawn.[33] He promises to wield "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play ... to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism."[34] After launching a subsequent libel case against the makers of the film, Aitken is sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjuring himself.[35]
13 April – Phill Jupitus guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[36]
1 May – ITV airs what is billed as a one-off episode of Boon. The episode, Thieves Like Us, was originally due to air at the end of series 7 in 1992/93.
2 May
Closing date for applications to run Channel 5. Four bids are received, from New Century TV Ltd (British Sky Broadcasting, Goldman Sachs, Granada Group, Hoare Govett, Kinnevik, Polygram, Really Useful Group and TCI International) who bid £2,000,000, Virgin TV Ltd with a bid of £22,002,000, UKTV (CanWest Global Communications Corp., Scandinavian Broadcast System SA, SelectTV Plc, The Ten Group Ltd) who bid £36,261,158 and Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd (MAI (now United News and Media Plc), CLT/UFA, Pearson Plc, Warburg Pincus & Co) with a bid of £22,002,000.[41]
Debut of News '45, a news bulletin-style programme presented by Sue Lawley to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day on BBC1.
4 May – Whigfield guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[42]
8 May
The 50th anniversary of VE Day is widely marked with a series of television programmes.
9 May – The US/Canadian police comedy drama Due South makes its UK debut on BBC1.[44]
11 May – Channel 4 screens a shortened version of the controversial film The Maltese Double Cross – Lockerbie, which disputes the conclusion reached by the official investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, instead advancing the theory that the bomb was introduced onto the aircraft by an unwitting drug mule, Khaled Jafaar, in what the filmmaker claims is a CIA-protected suitcase. The film draws criticism from some American relatives of the victims, who accuse Channel 4 of giving air-time to what they claim as "Libyan propaganda."[45]
15 May – Bruce Gyngell, the former chairman of the breakfast station TV-am, becomes Yorkshire–Tyne Tees Television's managing director.[46]
22 May – The toy shop format of Rainbow is broadcast for the final time as it is axed due to poor reception. It is to be replaced a year later with Rainbow Days.
25 May–24 June – ITV provides coverage of the 1995 Rugby World Cup from South Africa as the first Rugby World Cup to be held entirely in one country, since it was banned during the apartheid regime.
31 May
Debut of the new twice-weekly soap Castles on BBC1, focusing on the lives of the middle-class Castle family. The series attracts a relatively poor peak time audience of 3.2 million, leading the corporation's head of Drama, Charles Denton to brand it a failure.[48] It is cancelled after 26 episodes with the last episode airing on 20 August.[49]
Cable channel Wire TV is closed by its new owner as part of a plan to split it into two separate channels: L!VE TV which would replace Wire, with their evening Sportswire programming block launching as a full-time service.
SelecTV launches on cable. Broadcasting drama, comedy and entertainment, the channel airs on weekdays between 17:00 and 00:00 and at the weekend between 12:00 and 00:00.
Sportswire does not launch following TCI (owners of Telewest) and NYNEX making a deal with British Sky Broadcasting which includes a clause that the cable operators will not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky.
2 June – The new British adult pay-per-view service Television X – The Fantasy Channel is launched, which broadcasts between 10.00pm and 5.30am.
5 June
Granada's Night Time presentation is dropped after seven years.
ITN's Early Evening News is revamped with a new look inspired by News at Ten. The new titles are produced by Lambie-Nairn. The new look is rolled out across weekend and overnight bulletins by July, having been introduced on the lunchtime bulletin in March.
12 June – Mirror Group Newspapers launches the cable channel L!VE TV.[50] It broadcasts continuous live programming from its base on the 24th floor of London's Canary Wharf with output containing a rolling mix of celebrities, interviews, reviews, lifestyle features and reports from events and happenings across the UK.
15 June – Michelle Gayle guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[51]
22 June – Prime Minister John Major's intention to resign and stand in a Conservative Party leadership election is announced on screen as England are playing France in the Rugby World Cup third place play off.
29 June – Debut of Gaytime TV on BBC2, the BBC's first gay magazine programme.[52]
June – TCI, owner of Telewest and NYNEX, does a deal with BSkyB, which includes a clause that the cable operators do not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This marks the end of Cable Program Partners One (CPP1) which had been set up to try to provide alternative content to the satellite-dominated multi-channel environment of the time and causes the collapse of sports channel Sportswire days before its launch as a sister channel to L!VE TV.
3 July – Bell Cablemedia is formed when a number of cable companies, including Jones Cable UK, merge.
6 July – Wendy Lloyd guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[53]
8 July
BBC1 repeats the documentary Girl Friday, in which Joanna Lumley spends nine days on a desert island with just a basic survival kit and a film crew.[54]
15 August – Sue Lawley presents News '45: VJ Day on BBC1 to mark the 50th anniversary of VJ Day and the conclusion of World War II.
17 August – ITV airs the 2,000th episode of Emmerdale.
27 August – Speaking at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Michael Mansfield QC, one of Britain's leading barristers, calls for television cameras to be admitted into English courts to help demystify the legal process and restore public confidence in it.[58]
Dyke TV, the first television series aimed at lesbians, makes its debut on Channel 4.[52]
The game show Raise the Roof makes its debut on ITV; it is presented by Bob Holness, and contestants can win a house worth £100,000. However, the series is not a success and it is axed in January 1996.
10 September – BBC Wales relaunches its rugby union coverage under the name of Scrum V. It replaces Rugby Special Wales.
11 September
The children's stop-motion animated series Oakie Doke makes its debut on BBC1.[60]
The final edition of the long-running dance competition Come Dancing is broadcast on BBC1, although special editions would air until 1998.
12 September
The children's animated series Oscar's Orchestra, featuring the voice of Dudley Moore, makes its debut on BBC1.[61] The series is designed to inspire children with the delights of classical music and incorporates orchestral works from famous composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Debut of the sitcom Is It Legal? on ITV and later on Channel 4.
Pride and Prejudice, the massively popular TV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, makes its debut on BBC1.[62] The six-part serial finishes on 29 October.[63]
STV acquires a 20% stake in HTV worth £36 million as part of a deal with Flextech.[66]
Janet Street-Porter resigns from L!VE TV and is replaced by Kelvin MacKenzie who axes the rolling content and replaces it with programmes that quickly earn it a reputation as tabloid television.
The BBC Select name for overnight educational programming is used for the final time.[67]
Six years after it was originally planned, the British version of the Disney Channel goes on the air.
The Sci-Fi Channel launches. However, its full schedule, 8am to 2am, is only available to cable viewers as satellite subscribers are only able to see the channel for a few hours each day as it shares transponder space with a number of other channels.
The UK's first Christian channel, Christian Channel Europe, launches. It broadcasts for three hours each day, between 4am and 7am.
7–28 October – Cable channel L!VE TV broadcasts matches from the 1995 Rugby League World Cup. It shows many of them exclusively, because, apart from the opening game, the BBC does not show any live matches until the semi-final stage.
8 October
BBC2 airs the final edition of The Trial of O. J. Simpson as coverage of the trial draws to a conclusion.[68]
The BBC's subscription service BBC Select ends after three years on the air.
9 October – Launch of The Learning Zone, an education service shown overnight on BBC2.
12 October – ITV airs Bait, an episode of The Bill that concludes a three-part story and sees the exit of the character Jo Morgan, played by Mary Jo Randle, who is shot while trying to warn June Ackland (Trudie Goodwin) of an impending attack on her car.
15 October – The final edition of Challenge Anneka is broadcast on BBC1.
16 October
After 25 years as Coronation Street landlady Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) makes her final regular appearance in the soap. She briefly returns to the show in 2002 and 2003 and stars in a spin-off series, Coronation Street: After Hours, in 1999. At the time of her departure, Goodyear has recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural National Television Awards.
ITV airs a five-part documentary every weekday celebrating 40 years of their children's input since the launch of the network in 1955, Simply the Best: CITV.
22 November – After Virgin TV challenges the ITC's decision to award the licence to run the UK's fifth television channel to Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd, the High Court grants leave for a judicial review into the decision.[41]
2–3 December – Channel 4 airs "Soap Weekend", a weekend of programming dedicated to soap operas with documentaries and classic episodes of series including EastEnders, Neighbours and Brookside.[21]
December – Channel 4 airs the documentary Sex with Paula, in which Paula Yates talks to celebrities about their love lives. Originally made in 1986, the programme was deemed to be unsuitable for audiences at the time, owing to its perceived message of promiscuity at the height of the AIDS epidemic.[21]
^Jessica (26 January 2017). "H. R. SHAH CONFERRED PADMA SHRI". AVS TV Network – bollywood and Hollywood latest News, Movies, Songs, Videos & Photos – All Rights Reserved. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
^Rees, Jasper (11 March 1995). "Red hot and British". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
^Urwin, Rosamund (1 November 2020). "BBC says sorry to Diana's brother Earl Spencer for interview 'deceit'". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 7 November 2020. Spencer is understood to have told Davie that he has records of all his meetings and conversations with Bashir. These are alleged to show that Bashir told Diana fantastical stories to win her trust and that he used the fake bank statements to garner his first meeting with her.(subscription required)
^Hayward, Anthony (8 January 1995). "Obituary: Larry Grayson". The Independent. Independent Print Limited. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
