1 January – In the early hours of the morning, BBC2 airs the first Hootenanny which began late the previous evening. The annual New Year's Eve music show is hosted by Jools Holland and the first edition includes performances from Sting, the Gipsy Kings and Sly and Robbie.[1]
2 January – BBC2 begins a repeat run of the 1960s US series The Fugitive.[2]
3 January
TCI acquires a 60.4% stake in Flextech.[3] This gives the company a 25% stake in UK Gold.[4]
Sky One moves E Street back to the 6:30pm weekday timeslot with the afternoon repeat shown the following day at 12:30pm, while Paradise Beach moves to 6pm and 12pm, thus creating an "Aussie Soap Hour" on the channel.
5 January – The Empath, an episode of the US sci-fi series Star Trek, is shown for the first time in the UK on BBC2, having not been seen on British television since the series original run on BBC1.[7][8]
7 January
The Times reports that merger talks between Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees have collapsed because it has proved impossible to reach an agreement on a suitable structure for the new company. Also, Anglia have withdrawn from the proposed alliance with London Weekend Television, making an LWT take over of YTV impossible.[9]
ZZZap! returns for a new series on ITV with a new character called Daisy Dares You, played by Deborah McCallum; the part of Tricky Dicky and Smart Arty's segments have been updated with him using a magic pen to draw pictures that come to life.
BBC2 show the network television premiere of the cult Japanese science-fiction animated film Akira.
10 January
The Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm makes its debut in the rest of the UK when BBC2 begins airing episodes daily from Mondays to Thursdays.[11] The series, shown with English subtitles, airs on BBC2 for three months,[12] and on an experimental basis.[13]
The classic children's series Rainbow is relaunched with a new format, made by Tetra Films by for HTV. However, the new series is not well received and is axed a year later and subsequently replaced by Rainbow Days.
16 January – The first episode of the archaeology series Time Team is broadcast on Channel 4, presented by Tony Robinson.
19 January
Whom Gods Destroy, an episode of the US sci-fi TV series Star Trek, is shown on BBC2 for the first time in the UK having not been seen on British television since the series original run on BBC1.[17][8]
20 January – BBC1 airs an edition of Question Time from Birmingham which includes a confrontation between Jeffrey Archer and David Starkey over the age of homosexual consent.
27 January – The popular sitcom Absolutely Fabulous returns for a second series, now being shown on BBC1.
Following a review of the broadcasting ban on Irish terrorist-related organizations conducted by Heritage Secretary Peter Brooke, the Major government decides to maintain the status quo.[18]
The US sitcom Home Improvement debuts in the UK on Channel 4, two years and five months after its American debut.[19]
7 February – Granada Television increases its takeover bid for London Weekend Television to £774 million. However, the LWT board once again rejects the offer.[20]
12–27 February – The BBC provides live and recorded coverage of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games from Norway. The majority of the coverage is shown on BBC2.
18 February – Flextech buys a 20% stake in HTV, thereby clearing the company's debts.[22]
19 February – The Independent reports that Anglia has been bought by MAI (owners of Meridian).[23] MAI subsequently merges with United Newspapers to form United News and Media.
20 February
Debut of the children's consumer affairs series Short Change on BBC1.
25 February – LWT accepts a £770 million takeover bid from Granada, resulting in the departure of Greg Dyke and Sir Christopher Bland from the broadcaster.[24]
28 February
HTV's main evening news programme Wales at Six is replaced by Wales Tonight.
The ITC decides to readvertise the Channel 5 broadcasting licence, but must first seek confirmation that the frequencies it planned to allocate to the channel are still available.[25]
Pages from Ceefax broadcasts adopt the Level 2 teletext graphics. The change sees a significant expansion to the number of pages shown and title pages for each section return. However, the new expanded Pages from Ceefax broadcasts are confined to the 15 minutes prior to the start of programmes which often is insufficient time to show the entire sequence which is now between 40 and 50 pages in length.
4 March – The network television premiere on BBC2 of Laurel Avenue, the acclaimed US miniseries that tells the story of an eventful weekend in the lives of an extended African American family living in St. Paul, Minnesota.[26] The second part is shown on 6 March.[27]
25 March – Lynne Perrie makes her final appearance as Coronation Street battleaxe Ivy Tilsley. The press later speculates that Perrie's decision to have plastic surgery without consulting her bosses was the reason for her departure, though Perrie denied this, insisting that she felt that her character had simply run its course. Ivy's death occurs off-screen the following year.
26 March – ITV's darts-based game show Bullseye is moved from Sunday afternoons to Saturday evenings.
2 April – Chris Evans opens the Saturday before Easter edition of Don't Forget Your Toothbrush with the words "It’s that time of the year again when we remembered Jesus was crucified and it’s that time of the week when we remember that Spurs probably have been too". The comments attract a complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Commission, which is subsequently upheld by the watchdog.[31]
14 April – American rock singer Meat Loaf guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[36]
16 April – BBC2 celebrates its 30th birthday four days early with an evening of programmes selected and introduced by former controller David Attenborough. Among them are episodes of Elizabeth R and The Barry Humphries Show, a 1967 documentary about politics in India and a new episode of Call My Bluff.[37]
18 April – The game show Blockbusters is relaunched on Sky One.
3 May – Channel 4 starts airing Brookside on Tuesdays instead of Mondays, which means the soap is now seen on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
6 May – BBC1 broadcasts special live coverage for the opening of Channel Tunnel, as Queen Elizabeth II travels to Calais by train to be greeted by president François Mitterrand, to open the French terminal; they then journey on the Shuttle to Folkestone as they inaugurate the British end of the venture.
The European Commission of Human Rights rejects a legal challenge brought by the National Union of Journalists seeking to take the British government to court for breach of freedom of expression under the European Convention of Human Rights over the broadcast ban on Irish terrorist-related organisations.[39][40]
The death of Labour Party leader and Leader of the Opposition John Smith who suffered a massive heart attack. This evening's edition of the BBC Nine O'Clock News is extended to an hour, meaning the following programme due to air at 9:30pm and coincidentally called Cardiac Arrest is postponed. Panellists on the evening's edition of Question Time, include George Robertson and Menzies Campbell as they depart from the usual political debate to pay tribute to Smith.
2 June – BBC1 airs a special D-Day edition of Blue Peter in which Anthea Turner travels to France to tell the story of the Normandy landings during World War II.[47]
3 June – The original airdate of an episode of Have I Got News for You in which panellist Ian Hislop is suffering from appendicitis during recording. Having spent most of that day in hospital awaiting treatment, he had temporarily discharged himself to record the episode, before returning to undergo surgery.
5–10 June – Sue Lawley presents News '44, a series of news bulletin-style programmes to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
6 June
Due to a failed satellite link, BBC1 is unable to broadcast a remembrance concert marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Instead, it is forced to show recorded highlights of D-Day commemoration events and a repeated Wildlife on One documentary about racoons. The concert, featuring Dame Vera Lynn and other stars from the QE2 off the Normandy port of Cherbourg, is recorded and shown three days later.[48]
Scottish actor Mark McManus, best known for his portrayal of Glaswegian detective Jim Taggart, dies aged 59.[49] The Taggart series continues under this name following his death without recasting the character.
12 June – The Independent on Sunday reports that Cable & Wireless are in the final stages of establishing a television service in the remote British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, a nation that has not previously had access to television. Because of this, the introduction of television to the island is to be the subject of a study by British psychologist Dr. Tony Charlton of Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education to determine its effects on the island's culture and way of life.[51]
16 June – Angus Deayton guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[52]
17 June–17 July – The 1994 FIFA World Cup takes place in the United States but the BBC and ITV only show the majority of group stage matches in highlight form with viewers having to tune in to satellite channel Eurosport to see live coverage of those games.
19 June – The final episode of the long-running magazine programme That's Life!, presented by Esther Rantzen, is broadcast on BBC1 after twenty one years on the air.[54]
20 June – The BBC's Arabic television service is launched with funding from the Saudi Arabian Mawarid Group.
26–27 June – ITV airs the network television premiere of Kevin Costner's 1990 American western epic Dances with Wolves, which is showing over two consecutive nights.
12 July – To coincide with the 2,000th episode of Neighbours, BBC1 airs Ramsay Street Revisited, an omnibus of the first five episodes of the soap from 1985.[69]
14 July
Stephen Dorrell, the Secretary of State for Heritage, announces that Channel 35, one of the two frequencies planned for use by a fifth channel, will not be available. The ITC expresses concern over this, but still views Channel 5 as a viable option since 60% of the UK will still be covered by the remaining frequency.[25]
BBC1 debuts The Human Animal, a six-part nature documentary series written and presented by Desmond Morris, described as "a study of human behaviour from a zoological perspective". Morris travels the world, filming the diverse customs and habits of various regions while suggesting common roots.[77] The series ends on 31 August.[78]
BBC1 airs The Best of 'Allo 'Allo!, a special 50-minute episode featuring a compilation of clips from the series linked by new scenes including Gorden Kaye and Carmen Silvera in which René and Edith reminisce about the events of the war.[83]
The fourth episode of BBC1's The Human Animal includes sexually explicit scenes when it depicts a couple making love by using tiny endoscopic cameras placed inside both bodies to show intimate orifices. It also depicts the insertion of a man's erectpenis into a woman's vagina and the subsequent orgasm. More than 12 million viewers watch the programme.
18–28 August – The BBC broadcasts coverage of the 1994 Commonwealth Games from Victoria, Canada.[86] Only the athletics events are shown live with all other sports, including swimming, restricted to highlights.
19 August – Sky Sports 2 launches, initially as a weekend-only service.
25 August – Malcolm McLaren guest-presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[88]
27 August – BBC2 presents a night of programming dedicated to ATV.[89]
29 August – Debut of veterinary-based television series Animal Hospital on BBC1, presented by Australian entertainer and singer Rolf Harris.[90]
31 August – The Provisional IRA announced a "cessation of military operations" and declares its complete ceasefire from midnight in Northern Ireland on both television and radio.
1 September – Claire Sturgess guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[91]
2 September – Television entertainer Roy Castle, who became best known to British viewers as the long-running presenter of the BBC children's series Record Breakers, dies from lung cancer at the age of 62.
UK Gold introduces new idents as part of the total rebrand which is based on the forging of bullion bars, with the station's logo appearing to have been stamped into gold.
The Children's BBC idents receive a refresh with new 3D graphics.
The Learning Channel launches on Astra satellite and timeshares with Discovery, broadcasting daily from 9am until 4pm. Discovery extends its broadcast hours by two hours and is now on air between 4pm and 2am.
14 September – The fantasy drama The Wanderer makes its debut on Sky One, starring Bryan Brown, Tony Haygarth, Kim Thomson and Otto Tausig. Every episode brings a new adventure about the story of long-ago brothers slowly unfolding to the present-day with searches for an ancient grave, a magic stone and a lost book of power. The series continues on 7 December.
15 September – The ITC announces its decision to readvertise the Channel 5 licence.[25]
16 September
The restrictions that prevents radio and television broadcasting the voices of members of some Irish political and military groups are lifted in the wake of the Provisional IRA's ceasefire declaration.[95][96]
17 September – BBC2 airs the first edition of Top of the Pops 2, a spin-off showing footage from present day editions of Top of the Pops as well as material from the series archive.[98]
19 September
Release of The Cranberries single "Zombie", a song written about the 1993 IRA bombing in Warrington. The video is banned by the BBC because it contains images from the Troubles; instead, an edited version that focuses on the band's performance footage is released.[99]
BBC2 launches a weekday afternoon business, personal finance and consumer news programme Working Lunch,[100] which broadcasts for 42 weeks per year.
21 September – University Challenge returns after a seven-year absence and two years after a special edition was shown; this revived series on BBC2 is presented by Jeremy Paxman.[102]
22 September – BBC1 airs the Inside Story documentary Silent Twin – Without My Shadow, a film about June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twins who became known as "The Silent Twins" because they communicated only with each other.[103]
Claire Sturgess makes her second appearance as a guest presenter on Top of the Pops.[106]
Chris Evans presents his final edition of The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 after two years as one of the show's original presenters which coincides with the second anniversary of the series.
30 September – Launch of the UK version of the music channel VH1.
3 October – Two new channels, Sky Soap and Sky Travel go on the air. Both broadcast for a few hours during weekday daytime.
5 October – The children's arts and crafts series SMart makes its debut on BBC1.[107]
6 October
The Central-produced soap Revelations makes its debut on ITV, a series about a clergyman and his family written by Russell T. Davies. The show, which is aired only in some ITV regions, runs for two series and features Davies' first gay character, a lesbian vicar named Joan, played by Sue Holderness who comes out during a two-hander episode with another female character.
The children's series Brum returns for a new series on BBC1.[108]
9 October – Debut of Seaforth, an epic love story beginning in World War II Yorkshire, starring Linus Roache and Lia Williams.[110] The series concludes on 4 December.[111]
17 October – The Morning on BBC1, a new weekday morning schedule of magazine, chat and entertainment programmes introduced by Mo Dutta, begins airing. The lineup includes Good Morning with Anne and Nick.[112]
To coincide with the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of Lord Lucan following the murder of his children's nanny, ITV airs The Trial of Lord Lucan, a production by Granada which sees a fictional dramatization of how a trial against the peer might proceed.[120]
The BBC apologises after its Ceefax service mistakenly reports the death of the Queen Mother. The item, described as a rehearsal script, is on screen for 30 seconds before being removed.[122] The Queen Mother dies on 30 March 2002.
The final episode of the children's adventure game show Knightmare is broadcast on ITV.
The final episode of the fourth series of Fireman Sam is broadcast on BBC1.[124] It is also the final episode animated by Bumper Films and narrated by John Alderton.
Series 10 of ITV's The Cook Report begins with an investigation into the controversial topic of cot deaths.
18 November – Debut of The Trial, a series of documentaries airing on BBC2[126] which were filmed largely inside Scottish courts in 1993 and early 1994. Filming of the series is possible because of the Criminal Justice Act 1925, the legislation banning photography in British courts does not apply in Scotland.
The US series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles makes its UK debut on BBC1. It initially airs on Sunday afternoons before switching to an early Saturday evening slot from January 1995.[128][129]
The original airdate of the Everyman episode Portrait of a Serial Killer on BBC1 in which Lionel Dahmer talks about discovering that his son Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer.[130]
26 November – BBC1 shows 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.[131]
December – The final encrypted BBC Select broadcasts take place although the service will continue broadcasting unencrypted programmes for the next ten months.[132]
1 December – The character Lily Savage guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[133]
3 December – Comedian Larry Grayson makes his final television appearance at the Royal Variety Performance, recorded on 28 November. He has been absent from television for some years and makes a reference to this during his act, commenting to the audience, "They thought I was dead!". He dies a month later.[134][135]
8 December – Neneh Cherry guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[136]
15 December – Damon Albarn of Blur guest presents an edition of Top of the Pops.[137]
The final episode in the original run of the children's series Brum is broadcast on BBC1, but the show will return with a revamped series in 2001 and will continue being repeated on the BBC. It is also Toyah Willcox's final episode as narrator.
One of the most famous moments in British television history occurs during ITV's Catchphrase: uncovering the answer "snake charmer" to the bonus round puzzle is done in such a way that causes the audience, the contestants and the host, Roy Walker, to laugh uncontrollably as it appears that Mr. Chips and the snake are doing something sexual.
31 December
New Year's Eve highlights on BBC1 include Barbra Streisand – The Concert, a performance given by the singer at Ponds, California earlier in the year.[148]
New Year's Eve highlights on BBC2 include Plague and the Moonflower, a musical drama about the human race's abuse of the planet.[149] There is also a special end-of-year edition of TOTP2 featuring highlights of the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops.[150]
