1: 1926 On 26 January John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution, from his lab in Soho. The subject of the demonstration was Stooky Bill, Baird’s ventriloquist dummy, because the lighting generated too much heat for a human to bear.
2: 1930 Luigi Pirandello’s play The Man With the Flower in His Mouth, about a man dying of cancer, becomes the first drama shown on British television, broadcast live by the BBC.
3: 1933 The first revue show, entitled Looking In, airs. In the 1990s, a recording of its first four minutes are discovered – featuring actors Iris Kirkwhite, Anona Winn and Veronica Brady, making it the oldest surviving recording of broadcast television.
4: 1934 The first programme listed in the Radio Times – a show called Television: By the Baird Process – features an act called Cal McCord, The Comical, Cordial Cowboy.
5: 1936 The BBC launches the world’s first regular TV service, with government speeches followed by a variety show with singers and jugglers.
6: 1937 Children’s television begins with For Your Children. An early episode is entitled George Queen’s Pantomime Goose.
7: 1937 The BBC’s first televised coverage of Wimbledon. It lasts for about 30 minutes and is followed by programmes about gardening and puppets.
8: 1937 Football is televised for the first time, with a programme called Football at the Arsenal, a match between Arsenal and Arsenal’s reserve team.
9: 1938 The first quiz show! Called Spelling Bee, each episode pitted two groups against each other, including ‘under 16s v over 60s’, ‘regular viewers v television musicians’ and ‘Fleet Street v Rada’.
10: 1939 The outbreak of the second world war forces BBC television to shut down following a broadcast of Mickey’s Gala Premiere, a Disney cartoon.
11: 1946 BBC Television resumes with the exact same Mickey Mouse cartoon. “Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me?” asks announcer Jasmine Bligh by way of reintroduction.
12: 1946 Pinwright’s Progress, the first sitcom about a shop owner with ‘a pretty daughter and a hated rival’ starts.
13: 1947 The wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip necessitates a whole day of programming. The wedding is broadcast (without sound), as is a 15-minute cartoon entitled Up for the Wedding.
14: 1948 The opening ceremony of the London Olympics is broadcast. It lasts for 35 minutes.
15: 1950 Come Dancing, a knock-out competition between regional ballroom dancers, launches, first hosted by sports presenter Peter Dimmock.
16: 1950 Richard Dimbleby presents the first live televised report of the General Election results, which lasts over two hours. Labour won, and crowds formed in Trafalgar Square to watch the results on huge screens.
17: 1951 The Amos ’n’ Andy Show, aired on CBS, becomes the first show with an all-Black cast. It immediately becomes controversial, with the NAACP calling for its cancellation, on the basis that it “tends to strengthen the conclusion among uninformed and prejudiced people that Negroes are inferior, lazy, dumb and dishonest.”
18: 1953 The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II requires another full day of coverage. Between 1952 and 1954 the number of TV licences in the UK more than doubled; the coronation is cited as the driving factor.
19: 1954 The Grove Family, widely considered to be the first soap opera, debuts. It is committed to public service broadcast principles, with many storylines teaching the viewer how to secure their homes against burglars. Nevertheless, its catchphrase (“I’m weak from lack of nourishment”) somehow catches on.
20: 1955 ITV launches, bringing commercial television to the UK for the first time. Its first programme is a gala variety show from Guildhall.
21: 1955 On the same night, the first commercial is broadcast on British TV, for Gibbs SR Toothpaste.
22: 1955 The world’s first televised interracial kiss is broadcast, during a BBC production of Othello, between US actor Gordon Heath and British actor Rosemary Harris.
23: 1956 The Eurovision Song Contest is televised, broadcast across Europe from Lugano, Switzerland. Switzerland wins. The UK does not enter, preferring to broadcast a rival competition called The Festival of British Popular Songs.
24: 1957 The BBC begins broadcasting programmes for schools. Early episodes of For the Schools include programming about the Commonwealth, biology and horticulture.
25: 1957 The Royal Christmas message is broadcast on television for the first time.
26: 1958 Blue Peter debuts (‘Toys, model railways, games, stories, cartoons’ according to the Radio Times), following a programme called Mainly for Women that includes a segment entitled ‘What makes us fat?’.
27: 1960 Coronation Street starts. Its first episode primarily consists of everyone mocking Ken Barlow for being a snob.
28: 1963 The assassination of John F Kennedy. It is claimed that 93% of all American households watched his funeral on television.
29: 1963 Doctor Who debuts, with the episode An Unearthly Child. The show was almost cancelled immediately afterwards, due to a combination of high production costs and low ratings. Some things never change.
30: 1964 BBC Two launches disastrously, thanks to a power cut. Its opening programming is a news show that runs without audio for three minutes, before returning midway through an item about a bus conductress fired for using a racist epithet.
31: 1964 Top of the Pops debuts, and features a performance by the Rolling Stones.
32: 1964 Match of the Day kicks off, with Kenneth Wolstenholme and Walley Barnes presenting a match between Liverpool and Arsenal.
33: 1965 Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan becomes the first person to swear on television, after using the word “fuck” during a live broadcast of the satirical late-night show BBC-3. After threats of lawsuits – and one letter to the Queen stating that Tynan “ought to have his bottom smacked,” the BBC apologises.
34: 1966 The World Cup Final. A five-hour spectacular of previews, interviews, analysis then the match itself, which remains Britain’s most-watched television event of all time with an audience of over 32 million.
35: 1967 BBC Two becomes the first channel in Europe to regularly broadcast in colour, starting with coverage of Wimbledon.
36: 1967 The second episode of Dutch experimental programme Hoepla contains what is thought to be the first televised instance of full-frontal nudity, with performer Phil Bloom reading a newspaper naked. The shot is followed by a screen showing the broadcaster’s postal address, for viewers who wished to cancel their memberships.
37: 1967 Our World airs. The first live multinational multi-satellite television production, it had content from 14 different nations with footage of shrimp farms, the world’s first underwater cable car and a performance by The Beatles. It is watched by between 400 and 700 million people.
38: 1968 The Forsyte Saga, a minor hit on BBC Two, moves to BBC One and becomes so huge that clergymen and pub landlords complain that TV is robbing them of business.
39: 1969 Royal Family, a then-unprecedented documentary about the day-to-day lives of the Windsors, debuts. Spooked by how unvarnished it was, the Queen banned it from being shown on television, although it is now on YouTube.
40: 1969 The Apollo 11 moon landing, sometimes referred to as the single greatest moment in television history, is watched by a reported 650 million people worldwide. The BBC augments its coverage with a debate show about whether going to the moon is in man’s best interests, and an astronomy programme called The Violent Universe. Meanwhile, ITV has David Frost’s Moon Party, which features Cilla Black.
41: 1970 The first same-sex kiss is broadcast during a BBC production of Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, between Ian McKellen and James Laurenson. Three months later, the first female same-sex kiss follows, during a BBC adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Roads to Freedom, between Alison Fiske and Consuela Chapman.
42: 1971 The Open University shows its first lecture, about maths.
43: 1972 Ceefax, the world’s first teletext information service, launches, offering viewers a chance to read weather reports, breaking news and TV listings. The technology would peak in 1993 with Channel 4 Teletext’s daily Bamboozle quiz.
44: 1973 BBC Two debuts Jacob Bronowski’s epic documentary The Ascent of Man, a 13-parter tracking scientific advances from agriculture to human cloning.
45: 1973 BBC Two debuts Open Door, a series that allows people and groups to discuss issues without editorial input from the BBC. In total, 253 episodes are broadcast over the course of a decade; the eighth – a discussion between four trans women – is thought to be the first time a show is dedicated to the trans community
46: 1974 The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali forges the way for international sports coverage, being shown live in 50 countries and introducing viewers to the concept of pay-per-view.
47: 1975 Fawlty Towers starts on BBC Two. Now regarded as one of the finest sitcoms ever made, it nevertheless garnered a scathing review from The Spectator’s Richard Ingrams. Incandescent, John Cleese would go on to write an episode where a Mr Ingrams would be caught with a blow-up doll.
48: 1977 The Queen’s silver jubilee. BBC One broadcasts Silver Jubilee Day of Celebration, including services, a nationwide outside broadcast and a Commonwealth address. ITV broadcasts Jubilee! A Right Royal Celebration, which isn’t as fun as it sounds.
49: 1977 Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television run Good Morning Calendar and Good Morning North from 8.30am for nine weeks – the UK’s first breakfast TV shows.
50: 1979 BBC Two debuts the landmark wildlife series Life on Earth, in which David Attenborough tracks the evolution of life. It is best known for an unexpected encounter between Attenborough and a gorilla named Poppy.
51: 1980 Dallas reveals who shot JR, and 350 million globally tune in (spoiler: it was Kristin Shepard).
52: 1980 ITV broadcasts the James Bond film Live and Let Die, and more people watch it than any other film in the entire history of British TV.
53: 1981 The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Both BBC One and ITV dedicate much of the day to the ceremony, drawing 28.4 million – the seventh biggest British audience of all time.
54: 1982 SATV, Europe’s first-ever satellite channel, launches regular transmission. It mainly consists of old ITV shows like Within These Walls and Please Sir!
55: 1982 Channel 4 launches with Countdown, Brookside and a ‘film on Four’ called Walter, starring Ian McKellen.
56: 1983 The breakfast show wars begin in earnest. On 17 January, the BBC debuts Breakfast Time with Frank Bough, Selina Scott and The Green Goddess. On 1 February, ITV debuts TV-am, with David Frost, Anna Ford and, later, Roland Rat.
57: 1984 BBC Two shows the landmark anti-war film Threads. It is called ‘one of the most terrifying programmes ever shown on British television.’
58: 1985 EastEnders debuts on BBC One with a storyline about a heroin addict beating up a pensioner and visibly less home security advice than had been seen on The Grove Family.
59: 1985 Live Aid, a 16-hour transatlantic charity concert, is watched by 1.5 billion worldwide.
60: 1986 On Christmas Day, Den serves Angie with divorce papers on EastEnders and, discounting sports and special events, nobody in the UK has ever watched anything in greater numbers.
61: 1989 The fall of the Berlin Wall is broadcast live by NBC.
62: 1989 Television cameras are allowed to film inside the House of Commons for the first time. The first televised speech was by Eastbourne MP Ian Gow, who used the opportunity to complain about all the cameras.
63: 1989 Doctor Who comes to an end after a 26-year run, with the episode Survival: Part Three, due to waning interest.
64: 1990 The BBC debuts MasterChef, a competition where home cooks are given two and a half hours to create a winning meal.
65: 1990 The Simpsons is first shown in the UK. Starting a tradition that would frustrate British fans, it begins with the last episode of season one, not the first. The tale of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie is now the longest-running cartoon in the history of television, and has been highly influential in the fields of comedy, animation and people not thinking things are as funny any more.
66: 1992 BBC airs Ghostwatch, a one-off Halloween docudrama about a haunted house. Because it was presented as unscripted, and starred big BBC names like Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene, it fooled many viewers into thinking it was real. The fallout was so huge – a suicide and two cases of PTSD were blamed on the show – that it has never been repeated.
67: 1994 Friends debuts on NBC, and becomes the 15th most-watched television show of the week.
68: 1996 Only Fools and Horses bows out (for the first time) with the Christmas special Time On Our Hands, which is watched by 24.3 million people.
69: 1997 Channel 5 launches, with a Spice Girls performance, the soap Family Affairs and a one-off medical comedy entitled Hospital! And Prisoner: Cell Block H.
70: 1997 The death of Princess Diana. The announcement of her death, and subsequent coverage, would dominate television for the following week. Commercial channels dropped advertising for much of the day of her funeral, which would become the second most-watched broadcast in all of British television.
71: 1998 Come Dancing ends after 48 years, due to waning interest.
72: 1999 Bhutan becomes the last country on Earth to get television, following a government ban. Three years later, the country’s crime rate had spiked, with some commentators linking the two events.
73: 2000 A year after the original version aired in the Netherlands, the British Big Brother airs on Channel 4, giving us reality television, Nasty Nick and the Craig Phillips Christmas song At This Time of Year in one fell swoop.
74: 2001 9/11. It has been reported that a billion people worldwide either saw the attacks live or through television news.
75: 2001 Pop Idol debuts on ITV. American Idol, X Factor, Fame Academy, The Voice, The Masked Singer and countless imitators would soon follow.
76: 2001 Brass Eye’s Paedogeddon special – which satirised media coverage of child abuse stories – is met with complaints, ministerial intervention and a tabloid campaign against the show’s creator Chris Morris.
77: 2001 MasterChef ends after 11 years, due to waning interest.
78: 2002 Channel 5 changes its name to Five. To save further entries, it subsequently changes its name back to Channel 5, then just 5.
79: 2004 Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl halftime performance – in which her right breast was accidentally exposed for less than a second – led to broadcaster CBS being fined $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission.
80: 2004 Strictly Come Dancing, a revamped version of Come Dancing with better production values, launches in the hope that it will find a younger and larger audience.
81: 2005 Doctor Who, a revamped version of Doctor Who with better production values, launches in the hope that it will find a younger and larger audience.
82: 2005 MasterChef Goes Large, a revamped version of MasterChef with better production values, launches in the hope that it will find a younger and larger audience.
83: 2005 YouTube launches. The first video uploaded is of one of the creators at his local zoo; an innocuous start for a platform that would eventually kill traditional television.
84: 2006 Guy Goma, a French-Congolese man hoping for a job in the BBC’s IT department, is inadvertently interviewed live on BBC News 24 after being mistaken for a technology journalist. His bewildered reaction instantly goes viral on YouTube.
85: 2007 British TV becomes engulfed in a call-in scandal, in which viewers were encouraged to call premium-rate telephone numbers to take part in competitions they couldn’t win and votes they could no longer influence. Shows sanctioned by Ofcom included Blue Peter, GMTV, Richard & Judy, Children in Need and I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
86: 2007 The BBC launches iPlayer, a digital streaming service designed to free audiences from the tyranny of scheduled television. Other channels would quickly follow suit.
87: 2007 Niche rental service Netflix, famous for sending DVDs to subscribers by post, launches a video streaming service.
88: 2009 Susan Boyle, an ordinary-looking Scottish woman, wows the audience of Britain’s Got Talent with her unexpectedly powerful singing voice. Her audition goes viral on YouTube.
89: 2011 Dystopian sci-fi drama Black Mirror debuts on Channel 4, with an episode about the prime minister being forced to have sexual intercourse with a pig (an act that former prime minister David Cameron would be accused of apeing). When it is dropped after a handful of episodes, Netflix picks it up and transforms it into a global success.
90: 2012 The opening ceremony of the London Olympics is broadcast. It lasts for almost four hours.
91: 2013 Netflix wins its first Emmy, for House of Cards. It is the first time an online-only television series has ever won an Emmy.
92: 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a televised statement announcing that the UK is being put into Covid lockdown. Simulcast across the bulk of terrestrial and news channels, it becomes the ninth most-watched event in British television history.
93: 2021 An episode of Good Morning Britain, in which Piers Morgan reacts to Meghan Markle’s claims that she has been the subject of racism from the royal family, breaks the record for complaints received by Ofcom. In total 58,000 complaints were received, although they were all rejected.
94: 2021 Korean drama Squid Game becomes Netflix’s most-watched show ever, a record it still holds.
95: 2022 The Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations are shown, with the BBC’s blanket coverage including concerts and specials, and ITV’s including a horse show called A Gallop Through History.
96: 2022 Four months later the Queen dies, and her state funeral becomes one of the most-watched events in television history.
97: 2024 Gavin & Stacey, a BBC Three sitcom that began in 2007, bows out on BBC One with a special that draws 19.11 million viewers, making it the most-watched comedy in 17 years.
98: 2025 YouTube becomes the most-watched streaming service in the world.
99: 2025 Netflix reveals that it has used generative AI to create special effects for its Argentinian sci-fi series The Eternaut, in a bid to make production faster and cheaper. It is a first for the platform.
100: 2025 Channel 4 airs a Dispatches episode entitled Will AI Take My Job? It is presented by Aisha Gaban, the UK’s first (but probably not last) host to be created with generative AI.
