# 2009 in British television

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
This is a list of events that took place in 2009 related to British television.

## Events
### January

| Date | Event |
| 1 January | Jonathan Creek returns with a special episode, the first episode of the series since 2004. |
| 1 January | "The Morning After", an episode of The Bill, airs on ITV1. It is a sequel to the series 20 episode "Dawn Morning Light". |
| 2 January | BBC 2W closes as part of plans to achieve 3% savings at BBC Cymru Wales. Consequently, the digital version becomes a simulcast of BBC Two on analogue with fewer Wales opt-outs. |
| 2 January | Celebrity Big Brother returns to Channel 4 for the first time since 2007, following the racism controversy that dominated that year's show. Participants include La Toya Jackson, Verne Troyer and Ulrika Jonsson. |
| 3 January | The BBC announce that 26-year-old Matt Smith is to replace David Tennant as The Doctor in sci-fi drama Doctor Who. Smith, who will take over in 2010, will be the youngest ever actor to play the title role. |
| 12 January | Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley host Countdown for the first time. |
| 14 January | Launch of the BBC's Persian language news channel. |
| 20 January | BBC One airs live coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. |
| 22 January | The Disasters Emergency Committee launches its Gaza Crisis Appeal following the recent conflict in the region. The BBC causes controversy by saying it will not be broadcasting the appeal as it would compromise its impartiality. Sky News join the BBC in deciding not to air the appeal, but it is screened by ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 on 26 January. |
| 23 January | Friday Night with Jonathan Ross returns after host Jonathan Ross finishes his 12-week suspension following his role in The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row. |
| 23 January | Ulrika Jonsson wins the sixth series of Celebrity Big Brother. |
| 26 January | UKTV Documentary is rebranded as "Eden". |
| 27 January | ITV confirms that five cast and crew from Heartbeat were injured in a tractor accident while filming on location in Grosmont, North Yorkshire. |
| 31 January | Singer Jade Ewen is selected as the United Kingdom's entrant to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in the final episode of the BBC's selection programme Eurovision: Your Country Needs You. Ewen will sing 'It's My Time', by Andrew Lloyd Webber, a song written specially for the contest. |

### February

| Date | Event |
| 2 February | A day of extreme snow in parts of Britain, the biggest in 18 years, causes many TV programmes to broadcast with limited presenters and live audience shortages as people are unable to reach the studios. In ratings terms, news coverage gets very high ratings with over seven million watching BBC News programmes. |
| 4 February | Carol Thatcher is axed from The One Show after she referred to a tennis player as a "golliwog" during a backstage conversation while filming for the programme. |
| 5 February | To coincide with the 20th anniversary of Sky's launch, at 6am Sunrise begins presenting from a new "multi-purpose" area of the Sky News Centre, formally known as the "shoebox". |
| 7 February | BBC Two screens the first part of Iran and the West, a landmark three-part documentary marking the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. |
| 9 February | ITV plc merges the ITV Thames Valley and ITV Meridian regions. |
| 10 February | George McGhee announces he is stepping down as BBC Controller of Programme Acquisition after six years, and will take a career break. His role will be temporarily filled by Sue Deeks, the current Programme Acquisition Head of Series. |
| 10 February | ITV airs an hour-long episode of Emmerdale showing the funeral of long-standing character Jack Sugden, who was killed off-screen due to the death of Clive Hornby, the actor who played him, the year before. The episode sees Sheila Mercier reprise her role as Jack's mother, Annie Sugden, who returns to the village of Emmerdale to attend his funeral, while the episode is dedicated to Hornby's memory. |
| 12 February | ITV plc merges the ITV Anglia regions. |
| 16 February | Five US is rebranded as Five USA. Also on this day, ITV plc merges the ITV West and ITV Westcountry regions. |
| 17 February | UKTV People is rebranded as "Blighty". |
| 19 February | ITV plc merges the ITV Yorkshire regions. |
| 23 February | ITV plc merges the ITV Central regions. |
| 23 February | Sky is criticised by Ofcom for allowing Domino's Pizza to sponsor The Simpsons because the deal breached the watchdog's rules banning the advertising of junk food while children's programmes are on air. |
| 23 February | Corpus Christi College, Oxford wins the 2008–09 series of University Challenge, beating the University of Manchester 275–190. Corpis Christi are later disqualified after one of their team members is found to have no longer been a student, and the title awarded to Manchester. |
| 24 February | An episode of EastEnders is screened consisting entirely of black actors, the first time an episode of the soap has featured an entirely black cast in its 23-year history. |
| 25 February | ITV plc merges the ITV Border and ITV Tyne Tees regions. |
| 26 February | Mat Follas wins the 2009 series of MasterChef. |
| February | ITV makes major cutbacks to its regional broadcasts in England. The separate sub-regional news programmes are merged into a pan-regional programme although more localised news continues to be broadcast as a brief opt-out during the early evening programme, and with the exception of a monthly political programme, all non-news regional programming in the English regions ends. |
| February | UTV's mid-morning weekday and lunchtime weekend UTV Live bulletins are axed when the station is permitted to reduce their weekly news output from five hours and twenty minutes to four hours. |

### March

| Date | Event |
| 2 March | UKTV History is rebranded as "Yesterday". |
| 2 March | Corpus Christi College, Oxford are disqualified as champions of the 2009 series of University Challenge after one of their contestants, Sam Kay, was found to no longer be a student. The runners-up, the University of Manchester, are declared champions in their place. |
| 2 March | ITV announces it is cutting 600 jobs after it reported a loss of £2.6 billion for 2008. The jobs will go from the company's Yorkshire studios in Leeds and from their headquarters in London. |
| 2 March | Emmerdale announces the introduction of British soap's first regular blind character. Kitty McGeever will make her debut as wayward character Lizzie Lakely next month. |
| 9 March | From this week, ITV's News at Ten programme returns to being aired five nights a week (having previously aired Monday to Thursday only since its return, with an 11 pm bulletin on Fridays). |
| 13 March | Highlights of Comic Relief 2009 include a spoof of Mamma Mia, and a re-imagining of The Office as an opera. The telethon raises a record total in excess of £57 million at the climax of their telethon, surpassing the amount raised during the 2007 telethon by over £17 million. |
| 16 March | Missing was broadcast as the first British Daytime serial on the BBC since Doctors since 2000. |
| 22 March | Ray Quinn and dance partner Maria Filippov win the fourth series of Dancing on Ice. |
| 23 March | STV relaunches its on-screen presentation. |
| 23 March | Scotland Today is relaunched as STV News at Six. |
| 25 March | ITV announces that it will postpone the broadcast of the 2009 National Television Awards until January 2010, and will axe the National Movie Awards. |
| 25 March | Fern Britton announces she is to quit This Morning after 10 years. |

### April

| Date | Event |
| 1 April | Six TV is defunct in Oxfordshire and Southampton after only 10 years of localised airing. |
| 1 April | Trouble closes down after over 12 years of broadcasting and is replaced by Living +2. |
| 1 April | Channel 4 airs the 1,000th edition of Deal or No Deal. |
| 3 April | The BBC is fined £150,000 because of The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row. It is the biggest financial penalty ever imposed on the corporation for a single broadcast. |
| 4 April | The BBC receives 1,477 complaints following a remark made by sports presenter Clare Balding to the winning jockey at the 2009 Grand National. Referring to Liam Treadwell's teeth she suggested that he could "get them done" with his prize fund. Balding and the BBC later issued an apology. |
| 5 April | BBC One moves its Countryfile programme to a 7 pm slot on Sunday evenings. The Sunday morning slot previously occupied by the show is taken over by a new outdoors activity show called Country Tracks. |
| 6 April | Paramount Comedy 1 and Paramount Comedy 2 are rebranded to Comedy Central and Comedy Central Extra. |
| 7 April | BBC Two suffers its second worse peaktime viewing audience since 2001, with a share of 5.3%. |
| 7 April | The BBC confirms that Danniella Westbrook will return to EastEnders as Sam Mitchell later in the year. |
| 8 April | The BBC apologises after a link was accidentally posted on The Apprentice website revealing the identity of the candidate who would be fired in the evening's edition of the show. |
| 8 April – 9 September | Analogue services are switched off in the Westcountry region. |
| 10 April | Channel 5 broadcasts Australian live action children's series Hi-5 on their Milkshake! block for the final time after 6 years due to losing rights and constant presenter changes. |
| 10–12 April | To celebrate its 21st birthday, three new episodes of the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf are broadcast on Dave. Entitled Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, they are the first new episodes of the show since 1999. |
| 11 April | Unemployed 47 year old Susan Boyle made her Britain's Got Talent audition, performing I Dreamed A Dream out of the blue; her audition gained a lot of YouTube views overnight. |
| 23 April | ITV chief executive Michael Grade announces he will step down by the end of 2009 and will become non-executive chairman. |
| 25 April | Simon Amstell announces that he is to quit as host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks after acting as host since 2006. |
| 27 April | UTV launches a 30-minute late evening news and current affairs programme, UTV Live Tonight, which follows the News at Ten on weekday nights from Monday to Thursday. The programme incorporates the station's late news bulletin alongside extended political and business coverage. |
| 30 April | UKTV Style is rebranded as "Home". |

### May

| Date | Event |
| 6 May | After five Gurkha veterans who had applied for UK residency receive letters telling them their appeals have been rejected, the actress Joanna Lumley, who is the face of the Gurkha Justice Campaign, confronted the Minister for Immigration Phil Woolas at the BBC Westminster studios about the issue. After she pursues him around the studio, the pair hold an impromptu press conference in which she pressures him into agreeing to further talks over the issue. |
| 6 May | ITV announces that The South Bank Show is to end in 2010 after 32 years following Melvyn Bragg's retirement. |
| 8 May | It is announced that Richard and Judy's series on Watch, Richard and Judy's New Position, will end early due to poor ratings. The show launched in October 2008 with 100,000 viewers, but audiences have dropped as low as 8,000. The last episode will air on 3 July. |
| 12 May | BBC News Channel presenter Carrie Gracie discloses details of her annual salary during a heated debate on the MPs expenses row with Lord Faulks. The revelation breaks with the BBC's protocol of not divulging how much individual members of staff are paid. |
| 15 May | Three actors have been axed from Coronation Street, it is reported. Jonathan Dixon (Darryl Morton), Nikki Patel (Amber Kalirai) and Wanda Opalinska (Wiki Dankowska) will be leaving later in the year. |
| 16 May | The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest is held in Moscow, Russia, and sees Graham Norton taking on the role of presenter of the BBC's coverage following Terry Wogan's decision to step down in 2008. The contest is the first to have the result decided by a combination of panels of experts and televoting in order to reduce instances of countries voting for their neighbours. It is won by Norway's Alexander Rybak with "Fairytale". |
| 17 May | Actress Leslie Ash is to join the cast of Holby City as executive Vanessa Lytton, it is announced. The role sees her return to television five years after she contracted a hospital bug that left her partially paralysed. She will begin shooting her scenes in June and be seen on screen from October. |
| 18 May | Portland TV is fined £27,500 by Ofcom for a programme broadcast by adult channel Television X2 in September 2008 that the watchdog deemed showed material equivalent to BBFC R18 content. |
| 19 May | UKTV Gardens is replaced by Really. |
| 20 May | David Tennant finishes filming his tenure of Doctor Who as the Tenth Doctor. |
| 25 May | The Coach Trip returns to Channel 4 after 3 years of absence. |
| 27 May | Having originally planned to leave the series at the end of the year, Gray O'Brien, who plays Tony Gordon in Coronation Street has extended his contract. He will take a break to appear in pantomime before returning to film a dramatic exit storyline. |
| 28 May | EastEnders is to feature a storyline in which a male Muslim character has a gay relationship, it is reported. Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) will also be seen sharing an on screen kiss with Christian Clarke (John Partridge) after falling for him. |
| 28 May | BBC One airs Tourettes: I Swear I Can't Help It, a follow-up documentary to the 1989 Q.E.D. film John's Not Mad, dealing with people who have Tourette syndrome. |
| 30 May | Street dance troupe Diversity win the third series of Britain's Got Talent, beating bookies favourite Susan Boyle into second place. |

### June

| Date | Event |
| 5 June | Ben Bradshaw is appointed as Culture Secretary following a Cabinet reshuffle, while Sir Alan Sugar is to sit in the House of Lords as the Government's Enterprise Tsar. The appointment leads to conflict of interest concerns because of Sugar's role on The Apprentice, with Bradshaw's shadow, Jeremy Hunt raising the matter in the House of Commons on 8 June. Bradshaw does not believe there will be a problem as Sugar's BBC role is a non-political one. |
| 7 June | Yasmina Siadatan wins the fifth series of The Apprentice. |
| 12 June | It is announced that Peter Sissons, who is thought to be Britain's longest serving newsreader, will retire in the summer after 45 years. |
| 15 June | ITV announces that it has axed the science fiction drama Primeval to concentrate on producing post-watershed drama. However, plans for two more series were revealed in September after ITV agreed a deal with UKTV. |
| 16 June | The long-awaited Digital Britain report is published. It makes a number of recommendations with regard to Broadband access, Internet use and Public Service Broadcasting. |
| 18 June | Analogue services in the Caldbeck, Cumbria, Dumfries & Galloway and the Isle of Man are switched off. |
| 18 June | The BBC confirms that Sir Alan Sugar will keep his role with The Apprentice as it feels his role as Enterprise Tsar will not compromise the broadcaster's impartiality. |
| 19 June | After nearly 27 years, Countdown is filmed at The Leeds Studios for the last time. Subsequent series were filmed at Granada Studios in Manchester until 2013 when it switched to filming in dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford. |
| 19 June | EastEnders begins airing a storyline in which Muslim character Syed Masood (Marc Elliott) begins a homosexual relationship with Christian Clarke (John Partridge). |
| 22 June | UKTV Food is rebranded as "Good Food". This was the last of the UKTV rebrands. |
| 23 June | Setanta Sports ceases broadcasting in the UK after going into administration. |
| 25 June | The BBC publishes the expenses of some of its top executives. Among the information to be revealed is that the corporation's Director General Mark Thompson claimed over £2,000 after cutting short his holiday in October 2008 to deal with the row over The Russell Brand Show phone calls controversy. |
| 25 June | Channel 4 feigns a power failure during the broadcast of an episode of TNT, starring Jack Whitehall and Holly Walsh, after a joke is made at the expense of Michael Jackson. At the time of broadcast, reports of Jackson's death were beginning to come through, so there had been no time to re-scrutinize any of the programming. Due to the time delay employed by many broadcasters, Channel 4 were able to, perhaps quite literally, pull the plug before the now-tasteless joke went public. |

### July

| Date | Event |
| 5 July | Reece Dinsdale, who plays Joe McIntyre in Coronation Street, has quit the soap because he did not wish to be typecast, the News of the World reports. |
| 6 July | Mecia Simson wins Cycle 5 of Britain's Next Top Model. |
| 7 July | A memorial service for the singer Michael Jackson, who died on 25 June, is broadcast live around the world, with an estimated audience of one billion. |
| 9 July | It is announced that Alesha Dixon will replace Arlene Phillips as one of the judges when Strictly Come Dancing returns for its seventh series later in the year. |
| 10 July | Jayne Middlemiss wins the 2009 series of Celebrity MasterChef. |
| 14 July | BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons announces that bonuses for the 10 most senior BBC executives will be suspended indefinitely. |
| 16 July | ITV repeats Martin Bashir's 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson. The programme draws 3.64m viewers (a 15.4% share of the audience). |
| 16 July | ITV announces that its news and information Teletext service will be discontinued within the next six months as a result of mounting losses and the inability to find a viable business model to continue. |
| 17 July | Fern Britton presents her last edition of This Morning after 10 years. |
| 17 July | It is announced that Teletext games magazine GameCentral will cease broadcasting in December, along with all other Teletext editorial content. |
| 22 July | The Caldbeck group of transmitters have their final analogue signals turned off, completing the digital switchover of the Border Television region. |
| 23 July | ITV moves Coronation Street from its long-standing Wednesday evening slot to Thursday at 8:30. There is also a second episode of Emmerdale replacing the Tuesday hour long episode, which reverts to 30 minutes. The Bill is also moved to a post-9pm slot to allow for more hard-hitting storylines. The changes are part of an overhaul of ITV's scheduling to make way for football coverage on Wednesdays. |
| 28 July | TV presenter Esther Rantzen confirms that she will run for Parliament in the Luton South constituency at the next general election. |
| July | STV announces that it is withdrawing more ITV programmes from its schedules, such as The Bill, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Lewis, instead preferring to concentrate on programming made within Scotland. |

### August

| Date | Event |
| 5 August | Channel 4 announces that it will axe its lunchtime news bulletin as part of a cost-cutting exercise as from December. The 8:00 pm More4 bulletin will also be scrapped. |
| 6 August | ITV sells its stake in the Friends Reunited website for £25m, having paid £125m for it in 2005. The sale occurs as the company announces losses of £105m in the first half of 2009 and a record decline in advertising revenue. |
| 12 August | Analogue services are switched off in the HTV Wales region. |
| 26 August | Channel 4 announces that Big Brother will end in 2010 after series 11. |
| 27 August | Mass production of televisions in the UK comes to an end after the last set rolls off the production line at Toshiba's plant in Plymouth. |
| 28 August | At the Edinburgh International Television Festival News Corporation Chairman James Murdoch delivers the MacTaggart Memorial Lecture in which he launches an attack on the BBC and UK media regulator Ofcom. |
| 31 August | Jetix rebrands as Disney XD after the full purchase of Jetix Europe by The Walt Disney Company. |

### September

| Date | Event |
| 4 September | Sophie Reade wins series nine of Big Brother. |
| 9 September | Westcountry Television completes the digital switchover process with the turning off of all analogue signals from the Caradon Hill transmitter |
| 19 September | British television premiere of the James Bond film Casino Royale on ITV1. |
| 20 September | Jimmy Mulville, the head of Hat Trick Productions, announced that a pilot for an American version of the long-running satirical panel game Have I Got News for You was to be made. |
| 21 September | A week after Danniella Westbrook's return to EastEnders, a spokesman for the soap confirms she will be leaving the series again at the end of the year, her character, Sam Mitchell, having been brought back for a few months as part of a specific storyline. |
| 22 September | ITV plc launches legal proceedings against STV (its Channel 3 counterpart in Scotland) for a quoted unpaid debt of £38 million from network programming contributions, following STV's practice of dropping a number of network programmes on the STV franchise. At the same time, STV claims it is also following procedures against ITV plc, for up to £40 million owed to STV under its advertising sales agreements. |
| 29 September | ITV announces that it has struck a deal between Watch, Impossible Pictures, German broadcaster Pro7 and BBC Worldwide to produce two new series of Primeval for transmission in 2011. |
| 30 September | The Freeview service is upgraded requiring 18 million households to retune their television sets. The changes lead to several hundred complaints from people who have lost channels as a result of retuning their equipment. |

### October

| Date | Event |
| 1 October | London mayor Boris Johnson makes a cameo appearance in BBC One soap EastEnders. The episode is watched by 8 million viewers. |
| 2 October | Mock the Week announces that two new series are being made, but Frankie Boyle will no longer appear on the show. |
| 2 October | Channel TV is fined £80,000 by Ofcom over their part in the television phone-in scandal involving the British Comedy Awards. |
| 10 October | It is confirmed that Red Dwarf will be commissioned a full series following the success of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth. It will be recorded in 2010 for Dave. |
| 11 October | It is announced that there are plans to adapt the Douglas Adams Dirk Gently novels for television. |
| 12 October | Following its direct-to-DVD special, Hero of the Rails, children's TV show, Thomas & Friends transforms into full CGI animation instead of the usual toy models that were used from 1984 to 2008. |
| 13 October | Teletext Ltd confirms that GameCentral will continue as a website and mobile service after it is dropped from the television service in December. |
| 14 October | Andrew Newman, head of entertainment and comedy at Channel 4 leaves his job to go to work for Objective Productions after working for the TV channel for over 10 years. |
| 19 October | Alison King makes her return to Coronation Street as Carla Connor. |
| 22 October | British National Party leader Nick Griffin makes a controversial first appearance on Question Time after being invited onto the show by the BBC. The edition attracts eight million viewers, twice the programme's usual audience. The programme also results in a large number of complaints to the BBC, while Griffin himself makes a formal complaint to the corporation for the way he believes he was treated on the show. |
| 22 October | Steve Groves wins the second series of BBC Two's MasterChef: The Professionals. |
| 22 October | ITV announces plans to drop the "bongs" of Big Ben from the opening credits of News at Ten. Also confirmed are plans to relaunch the Tonight programme in January 2010 with Julie Etchingham as its new presenter. |
| 26 October | The second and final series of Numberjacks begins on CBeebies. |
| 28 October | It is announced by the BBC that Barbara Windsor is to leave EastEnders in 2010 after 16 years. |

### November

| Date | Event |
| 4 November | Analogue BBC2 switched off in the Granada Television region. |
| 5 November | Graham Cole makes his final appearance as Tony Stamp in The Bill. |
| 10 November | The BBC confirms that the next series of The Apprentice will be delayed from Spring 2010 to avoid clashing with the general election. |
| 18 November | Former Asda chief executive Archie Norman is appointed as chairman of ITV from January 2010. |
| 20 November | The Peter Kay's All Star Animated Band music video made its debut on that year's Children in Need, featuring over 50 children's TV characters past and present. It took 2 years to create the finished result. |
| 21 November | Athlete Jade Johnson pulled out of Strictly Come Dancing due to a knee injury she suffered in the previous week's dress rehearsal where she was given a bye to that night and chose to withdraw. |
| 24 November | Virgin Media enters into a strategic partnership with TiVo. Consequently, Virgin Media will be the exclusive distributor of TiVo services and technology in the United Kingdom. |
| 24 November | UK airdate of the Ugly Betty episode "In the Stars" which features a cameo appearance from English singer Adele. The episode airs on E4 first, before being shown on Channel 4 on 30 November. |
| 26 November | ITV takes full ownership of the breakfast TV service GMTV after purchasing Disney's 25% share in the channel. |

### December

| Date | Event |
| 2 December | The Winter Hill transmitter has its remaining analogue signals turned off, completing the digital switchover process in the Granada Television region. Freeview HD begins transmission marking the worldwide operational debut of the DVB-T2 standard. |
| 4 December | TV chef Gino D'Acampo wins the ninth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. It is later reported that D'Acampo and fellow contestant Stuart Manning will face criminal charges after they captured, killed and cooked a rat, while ITV apologises for the incident and says it will tighten up security on the show. Charges against the pair, who turned to the rodent as a source of food to give themselves more protein after being put on reduced rations of rice and beans, are later dropped because production staff gave them permission to eat it. In February 2010, ITV are fined A$3,000 over the incident by a Court in New South Wales. |
| 8 December | Actor Mark Eden, who played Coronation Street villain Alan Bradley returns to Blackpool to unveil a plaque marking the 20th anniversary of the character's demise. Alan was killed off on 8 December 1989 in a storyline that saw him being hit by a Blackpool tram outside the town's The Strand Hotel. |
| 11 December | CBeebies airs the last ever episode of Numberjacks. |
| 13 December | BBC One airs an interview Fern Britton recorded with Tony Blair as part of her Fern Britton Meets... series. During the programme, the former Prime Minister says that it would have been right to remove Iraqi president Saddam Hussein even without evidence he had weapons of mass destruction. |
| 13 December | Footballer Ryan Giggs is named this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year. |
| 13 December | Joe McElderry wins the sixth series of The X Factor. |
| 16 December | ITV closes its news and information service on Teletext, leaving the ITV channel(s) without such a service for the first time in 35 years. |
| 19 December | BBC sports presenter Chris Hollins and his dancing partner Ola Jordan win the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing. |
| 23 December | Singer Boy George loses a High Court battle to overturn a ruling by the Probation Service that he could not appear on the final series of Celebrity Big Brother. |
| 25 December | The Royle Family returns for another Christmas special, attracting an audience of 10.2 million. The most watched show of the day is EastEnders, which overnight figures suggest is seen by 10.9 million. |
| 26 December | BBC Two airs a television film adaptation of Hamlet, starring David Tennant in the eponymous role. |

## Debuts
### BBC

| Date | Debut | Channel |
| 2 January | The Legend of Dick and Dom | CBBC |
| 2 January | Around the World in 80 Faiths | BBC Two |
| 3 January | A History of Scotland | BBC Two |
| 3 January | Richard Hammond's Blast Lab | CBBC |
| 3 January | Eurovision: Your Country Needs You | BBC One |
| 3 January | Total Wipeout | BBC One |
| 5 January | Half Moon Investigations | BBC One |
| 5 January | The Diary of Anne Frank | BBC One |
| 5 January | Scoop | CBBC |
| 6 January | Paradise Cafe | CBBC |
| 6 January | Grow Your Own Drugs | BBC Two |
| 6 January | Oz and James Drink to Britain | BBC Two |
| 8 January | Life of Riley | BBC One |
| 8 January | Victorian Farm | BBC Two |
| 9 January | The Oracle with Max Keiser | BBC World News |
| 12 January | Million Dollar Traders | BBC Two |
| 14 January | The City Uncovered | BBC Two |
| 14 January | The Secret Life of Elephants | BBC One |
| 15 January | Undercover Princes | BBC Three |
| 18 January | Hunter | BBC One |
| 20 January | Cowards | BBC Four |
| 23 January | LifeSpam | BBC Three |
| 25 January | Being Human | BBC Three |
| 27 January | Naked | BBC Three |
| 30 January | The Site |
| 31 January | The Old Guys | BBC One |
| 1 February | Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life | BBC One & BBC Two |
| 2 February | Moses Jones | BBC Two |
| 7 February | Iran and the West | BBC Two |
| 8 February | Victorian Farm | BBC Two |
| 10 February | Grandpa in My Pocket | CBeebies |
| 11 February | Nature's Great Events | BBC One |
| 12 February | We Need Answers | BBC Four |
| 14 February | The Bottom Line | BBC News |
| 15 February | The Victorians | BBC One |
| 19 February | Britain's Best Drives | BBC Four |
| 26 February | Margaret | BBC Two |
| 6 March | Rocket Science | BBC One |
| 12 March | I've Never Seen Star Wars | BBC Four |
| 12 March | Baroque! From St Peter's to St Paul's | BBC Four |
| 14 March | The Lost World of Communism | BBC Two |
| 15 March | Yellowstone | BBC Two |
| 16 March | Missing | BBC One |
| 16 March | A Question of Genius | BBC Two |
| 16 March | Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle | BBC Two |
| 20 March | Genius | BBC Two |
| 27 March | The Real Swiss Family Robinson | BBC One |
| 31 March | All the Small Things |
| 5 April | Five Minutes of Heaven | BBC Two |
| 6 April | Timmy Time | Cbeebies |
| 7 April | The Speaker | BBC Two |
| 16 April | Horrible Histories | CBBC |
| 18 April | Winging It | BBC Two |
| 18 April | Tonight's the Night | BBC One |
| 24 April | Reggie Perrin | BBC One |
| 26 April | Best: His Mother's Son | BBC Two |
| 4 May | Martha Speaks | CBBC | 10 May | South Pacific | BBC Two |
| The Incredible Human Journey | | | 10 May | | BBC Two |
| 11 May | Propertywatch |
| 11 May | Waybuloo | Cbeebies |
| 16 May | Transmission Impossible with Ed & Oucho | CBBC |
| 18 May | Moving On | BBC One |
| 31 May | Empire of Cricket | BBC Two |
| 2 June | Mary Queen of Charity Shops | BBC Two |
| 6 June | Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow | BBC One |
| 6 June | Totally Saturday | BBC One |
| 7 June | Hope Springs | BBC One |
| 16 June | Occupation | BBC One |
| 16 June | Personal Affairs | BBC Three |
| 18 June | Psychoville | BBC Two |
| 8 July | Taking the Flak | BBC Two |
| 8 July | Getting On | BBC Four |
| 13 July | League of Super Evil | CBBC |
| 14 July | Freefall | BBC Two |
| 17 July | As Seen on TV | BBC One |
| 21 July | The Truth About Crime | BBC One |
| 21 July | Desperate Romantics | BBC Two |
| 23 July | The Rat Pack | BBC One |
| 27 July | Bang Goes the Theory | BBC One |
| 27 July | Knowitalls | BBC Two |
| 29 July | Breaking The Mould | BBC Four |
| 30 July | We Are Klang | BBC Three |
| 30 July | My Life as an Animal | BBC Three |
| 5 August | Roy | CBBC |
| 6 August | The Funny Side Of... | BBC Two |
| 8 August | The Football League Show | BBC One |
| 15 August | Walk on the Wild Side | BBC One |
| 20 August | Tough Guy or Chicken? | BBC Three |
| 24 August | Pointless | BBC Two |
| 4 September | Happy Hollidays | BBC One |
| 5 September | My Almost Famous Family | CBBC |
| 6 September | Last Chance to See | BBC Two |
| 7 September | Dennis & Gnasher | CBBC |
| 7 September | Gigglebiz | CBeebies |
| 7 September | Land Girls | BBC One |
| 8 September | Lost Land of the Volcano | BBC One |
| 9 September | Crash | BBC One |
| 10 September | Off the Hook | BBC Three |
| 10 September | Lunch Monkeys | BBC Three |
| 14 September | Home Time | BBC Two |
| 14 September | The Cut | BBC Two |
| 19 September | Merlin: Secrets and Magic | BBC Three |
| 27 September | By Any Means 2 | BBC Two |
| 29 September | Electric Dreams | BBC Four |
| 4 October | Emma | BBC One |
| 6 October | It's Only a Theory | BBC Four |
| 8 October | Micro Men | BBC Four |
| 10 October | The Well | BBC Two |
| 12 October | Life | BBC One |
| 13 October | Around the World in 80 Days | BBC One |
| 13 October | Inside Life | CBBC |
| 21 October | Gary: Tank Commander | BBC Two |
| 21 October | Defying Gravity | BBC Two |
| 22 October | Russell Howard's Good News | BBC Three |
| 28 October | Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain | BBC Two |
| 31 October | The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson | BBC One |
| 1 November | Garrow's Law | BBC One |
| 2 November | Into the Storm | BBC Two |
| 9 November | Miranda | BBC Two |
| 16 November | Enid | BBC Four |
| 23 November | Mouth to Mouth | BBC Three |
| 23 November | Paradox | BBC One |
| 29 November | Fern Britton Meets... | BBC One |
| 30 November | Rip Off Britain | BBC One |
| 30 November | Margot | BBC Four |
| 2 December | Big Top | BBC One |
| 14 December | Move Like Michael Jackson | BBC Three |
| 20 December | Return to Cranford | BBC One |
| 23 December | Victoria Wood's Mid Life Christmas | BBC One |
| 28 December | The Day of the Triffids | BBC One |
| 30 December | The Turn of the Screw | BBC One |

### ITV

| Date | Debut | Channel |
| 3 January | Demons | ITV |
| 4 January | Above Suspicion | ITV |
| 29 January | Paris Hilton's British Best Friend | ITV2 |
| 31 January | The Feelgood Factor | ITV |
| 31 January | Good Arrows | ITV4 |
| 2 February | Whitechapel | ITV |
| 3 February | Ladies of Letters | ITV3 |
| 21 February | The Colour of Money | ITV |
| 22 February | Piers Morgan's Life Stories | ITV |
| 23 February | Law & Order: UK | ITV |
| 25 February | FM | ITV2 |
| 27 February | Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder | ITV |
| 2 March | Bookaboo | CITV |
| 16 March | Taste the Nation | ITV |
| 19 March | The Justin Lee Collins Show | ITV2 |
| 1 May | Boy Meets Girl | ITV |
| 4 May | Compulsion | ITV |
| 18 May | Divided | ITV |
| 26 May | The Hour | ITV |
| 30 May | Mumbai Calling | ITV |
| 29 June | The Chase | ITV |
| 12 July | Monday Monday | ITV |
| 13 July | The Fuse | ITV |
| 23 July | Made in Scotland | STV |
| 26 July | Whatever It Takes | ITV |
| 17 August | Peter Andre: Going It Alone | ITV2 |
| 22 August | The Cube | ITV |
| 27 August | What Katie Did Next | ITV2 |
| 30 August | Wuthering Heights | ITV |
| 20 September | Trinity | ITV2 |
| 19 October | Murderland | ITV |
| 9 November | Collision | ITV |
| 11 December | Mister Eleven | ITV |
| 20 December | The Fattest Man in Britain | ITV |
| 31 December | Sleep with Me | ITV |

### Channel 4

| Date | Debut | Channel |
| 13 February | Free Agents | Channel 4 |
| 5 March | Red Riding | Channel 4 |
| 22 March | Chris Moyles' Quiz Night | Channel 4 |
| 6 April | Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant | Channel 4 |
| 4 May | Endgame | Channel 4 |
| 11 May | Find Me a Family | Channel 4 |
| 17 May | The Unloved | Channel 4 |
| 25 May | The Operation: Surgery Live | Channel 4 |
| 7 July | You Have Been Watching | Channel 4 |
| 17 July | True Blood | Channel 4 |
| 9 September | Derren Brown: The Events | Channel 4 |
| 30 September | Ruth Watson's Hotel Rescue | Channel 4 |
| 7 October | When Boris Met Dave | More4 |
| 6 November | Campus | Channel 4 |
| 9 November | The Execution of Gary Glitter | Channel 4 |
| 12 November | Misfits | E4 |
| 13 November | PhoneShop | Channel 4 |
| 24 November | Cast Offs | Channel 4 |
| 27 November | The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret | Channel 4 |
| 29 November | The Queen | Channel 4 |

### Five

| Date | Debut | Channel |
| 23 March | Wordplay | Five |
| 6 April | Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom | Five |
| 7 August | You're Nicked! | Five |
| 14 September | Live from Studio Five | Five |
| 5 September | Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps | Five |
| 28 October | Britain's Best Brain | Five |

### Other channels

| Date | Debut | Channel |
| 5 February | No Signal! | FX |
| 16 February | Oops TV | Sky 1 |
| 9 March | Toyboize | Dave |
| 12 April | Skellig | Sky 1 |
| 12 April | Olivia Lee: Dirty, Sexy, Funny | Comedy Central |
| 10 May | Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened | G.O.L.D. |
| 31 May | The Take | Sky 1 |
| 6 July | Four Weddings | Living |
| 28 September | Jungle Junction | Playhouse Disney |
| 1 October | Industrial Junkie | Quest |
| 4 October | Tarrant Lets the Kids Loose | Watch |
| 21 October | Grouchy Young Men | Comedy Central |
| Undated | Bunny Maloney | Kix |
| Undated | Clang Invasion | Pop |
| Undated | Magi-Nation | Pop |
| Undated | Nanoboy | Pop |
| Undated | Toopy and Binoo | Tiny Pop |
| Undated | Lab Rats Challenge | Pop |
| Undated | SamSam | Pop |
| Undated | G2G | Pop Girl |

## Channels
### New channels

| Date | Channel |
| 20 January | Investigation Discovery |
| 5 February | Living2 +1 |
| 16 February | ITV West Country |
| 25 February | ITV Tyne Tees & Border |
| 20 March | Discovery Shed |
| 19 May | Really |
| 1 July | Wedding TV Asia |
| 1 August | Nicktoons Replay |
| 3 August | ESPN |
| 3 August | ESPN HD |
| 3 August | True Entertainment |
| 30 September | Quest |
| 26 October | Viva |
| 16 November | CBS Action |
| 16 November | CBS Drama |
| 16 November | CBS Reality |
| 14 December | E4 HD |

### Defunct channels

| Date | Channel |
| 2 January | BBC 2W |
| 5 February | Trouble +1 |
| 8 February | ITV Thames Valley |
| 15 February | Westcountry Television |
| 25 February | Border Television |
| 1 April | Six TV (Oxford & Southampton) |
| 1 April | Trouble |
| 1 April | Real Estate TV |
| 19 May | UKTV Gardens |
| 15 June | Simply Movies |
| 23 June | Setanta Sports News |
| 23 June | Setanta Golf |
| 23 June | Rangers TV |
| 23 June | Celtic TV |
| 31 July | Nicktoonsters |
| 3 August | Showcase TV |
| 7 August | Arsenal TV |
| 26 October | TMF |
| 16 November | Zone Reality |
| 16 November | Zone Romantica |
| 16 November | Zone Thriller |

### Rebranded channels

| Date | Old Name | New Name |
| 26 January | UKTV Documentary | Eden |
| 26 January | UKTV Documentary +1 | Eden +1 |
| 16 February | Five US | Five USA |
| 16 February | Five US +1 | Five USA +1 |
| 17 February | UKTV People | Blighty |
| 24 February | Dave +1 | Dave ja vu |
| 2 March | UKTV History | Yesterday |
| 2 March | UKTV History +1 | Yesterday +1 |
| 16 March | Channel U | Channel AKA |
| 16 March | Fizz | Starz TV |
| 6 April | Paramount Comedy 1 | Comedy Central |
| 6 April | Paramount Comedy 2 | Comedy Central Extra |
| 30 April | UKTV Style | Home |
| 30 April | UKTV Style +1 | Home +1 |
| 22 June | UKTV Food | Good Food |
| 22 June | UKTV Food +1 | Good Food +1 |
| 1 July | MTV One | MTV |
| 1 July | MTV One +1 | MTV +1 |
| 31 August | Jetix | Disney XD |
| 31 August | Jetix +1 | Disney XD +1 |
| 30 November | Living2 | Livingit |
| 30 November | Living2 +1 | Livingit +1 |

## Television shows
### Changes of network affiliation

| Programme | Moved from | Moved to |
| Harry & Paul | BBC One | BBC Two |
| The Thick of It | BBC Four | BBC Two |
| Fun House | ITV1 | Challenge |
| Formula One | ITV1 | BBC One |
| Gavin & Stacey | BBC Three | BBC One |
| The Graham Norton Show | BBC Two | BBC One |
| Torchwood | BBC Two | BBC One |
| Masterchef | BBC Two | BBC One |
| Out of the Blue | BBC Two | Fiver |
| The Biggest Loser | Living | ITV1 |
| Classic EastEnders | UKTV Gold | Watch |
| Hi-5 | Channel 5 & Cartoonito (Australian version) | Cartoonito & CITV (UK version) |
| House | Five | Sky1 |
| Fireman Sam | Five | CITV |
| King of the Hill | Channel 4 & Sky1 | E4 |

### Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

| Programme | Date(s) of original removal | Original channel | Date of return | New channel(s) |
| The Krypton Factor | 20 November 1995 | ITV | 1 January 2009 | N/A (Same channel as original) |
| Minder | 10 March 1994 | ITV | 4 February 2009 | Five |
| Grand Prix Highlights | 13 October 1996 | BBC One BBC Two | 27 March 2009 | BBC Three |
| Minder | 10 March 1994 | 4 February 2009 | Five |
| Red Dwarf | 5 April 1999 | BBC Two | 10 April 2009 | Dave |
| The Biggest Loser | 27 December 2006 | Living | 27 April 2009 | ITV |
| Born to Be Different | 2004 13 September 2007 | Channel 4 | 28 April 2009 | N/A (Same channel as original) |
| The Chart Show | 22 August 1998 | ITV | 10 May 2009 | Channel 4 |
| Coach Trip | 30 June 2006 | Channel 4 | 25 May 2009 | N/A (Same channel as original) |
| Shooting Stars new series | 15 December 2002 | BBC Choice | 26 August 2009 | BBC Two |

## Continuing television shows
### 1920s

| Programme | Date |
| BBC Wimbledon | 1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present |

### 1930s

| Programme | Date |
| Trooping the Colour | 1937–1939, 1946–2019, 2023–present |
| The Boat Race | 1938–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present |

### 1950s

| Programme | Date |
| Panorama | 1953–present |
| The Sky at Night | 1957–present |
| Blue Peter | 1958–present |

### 1960s

| Programme | Date |
| Coronation Street | 1960–present |
| Songs of Praise | 1961–present |
| University Challenge | 1962–1987, 1994–present |
| Doctor Who | 1963–1989, 1996, 2005–present |
| Match of the Day | 1964–present |
| The Money Programme | 1966–2010 |

### 1970s

| Programme | Date |
| Emmerdale | 1972–present |
| Mastermind | 1972–present |
| Newsround | 1972–present |
| Last of the Summer Wine | 1973–2010 |
| Arena | 1975–present |
| One Man and His Dog | 1976–present |
| The Krypton Factor | 1977–1995, 2009–2010 |
| Top Gear | 1977–present |
| Ski Sunday | 1978–present |
| Antiques Roadshow | 1979–present |
| Question Time | 1979–present |

### 1980s

| Programme | Date |
| Children in Need | 1980–present |
| Timewatch | 1982–present |
| The Bill | 1984–2010 |
| Channel 4 Racing | 1984–2016 |
| Thomas & Friends | 1984–present |
| EastEnders | 1985–present |
| Comic Relief | 1985–present |
| Casualty | 1986–present |
| Fireman Sam | 1987–1994, 2005–2013 |
| ChuckleVision | 1987–2009 |
| This Morning | 1988–present |
| Red Dwarf | 1988–1999, 2009, 2012–present |
| The Simpsons | 1989–present |

### 1990s

| Programme | Date |
| Have I Got News for You | 1990–present |
| Heartbeat | 1992–2010 |
| A Touch of Frost | 1992–2010 |
| ITV News Meridian | 1993–present |
| Shooting Stars | 1993–2002, 2009–2011 |
| Time Team | 1994–2013 |
| The National Lottery Draws | 1994–2017 |
| Top of the Pops 2 | 1994–2017 |
| Hollyoaks | 1995–present |
| Never Mind the Buzzcocks | 1996–2015 |
| Silent Witness | 1996–present |
| Y Clwb Rygbi, Wales | 1997–present |
| Midsomer Murders | 1997–present |
| Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | 1998–2014 |
| Bob the Builder | 1998–present |
| Bremner, Bird and Fortune | 1999–2010 |
| British Soap Awards | 1999–2019, 2022–present |
| Holby City | 1999–2022 |

### 2000s

| Programme | Date |
| The Weakest Link | 2000–2012, 2017–present |
| Big Brother | 2000–2018 |
| Real Crime | 2001–2011 |
| I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! | 2002–present |
| Harry Hill's TV Burp | 2002–2012 |
| Spooks | 2002–2011 |
| Daily Politics | 2003–2018 |
| QI | 2003–present |
| New Tricks | 2003–2015 |
| Peep Show | 2003–2015 |
| Politics Show | 2003–2011 |
| The Royal | 2003–2011 |
| This Week | 2003–2019 |
| Doc Martin | 2004–2022 |
| Hustle | 2004–2012 |
| Shameless | 2004–2013 |
| Strictly Come Dancing | 2004–present |
| The X Factor | 2004–2018 |
| The Andrew Marr Show | 2005–2021 |
| Come Dine with Me | 2005–present |
| It's Me or the Dog | 2005–2012 |
| Deal or No Deal | 2005–2016 |
| Dancing on Ice | 2006–2014 |
| Hotel Babylon | 2006–2009 |
| Numberjacks | 2006–2009 |
| Robin Hood | 2006–2009 |
| That Mitchell and Webb Look | 2006–2010 |
| Torchwood | 2006–2011 |
| Waterloo Road | 2006–2015 |
| Gavin & Stacey | 2007–2010 |
| The Sarah Jane Adventures | 2007–2011 |
| Would I Lie to You? | 2007–present |
| M.I. High | 2007–2014 |
| Outnumbered | 2007–2014 |
| The Tudors | 2007–2010 |
| Trapped | 2007–2010 |
| Skins | 2007–2013 |
| Britain's Got Talent | 2007–present |
| Ashes to Ashes | 2008–2010 |
| The Inbetweeners | 2008–2010 |
| Merlin | 2008–2012 |
| Only Connect | 2008–present |
| Survivors | 2008–2010 |
| Wallander | 2008–2016 |

## Ending this year

| Date | Programme | Channel(s) | Debut(s) |
| 6 February | Plus One | Channel 4 | 2007 |
| 7 February | Demons | ITV | 2009 |
| 12 February | Victorian Farm | BBC Two | 2009 |
| 26 February | Get 100 | BBC One, BBC Two & CBBC | 2007 |
| 5 March | The Green Green Grass | BBC One | 2005 |
| 6 March | In the Night Garden... | BBC Two & CBeebies | 2007 |
| 11 March | Minder | Five | 1979, 1991 & 2009 |
| 20 March | Going for Gold | BBC One & Five | 1987 & 2008 |
| 29 March | Yellowstone | BBC Two | 2009 |
| 1 April | FM | ITV | 2009 |
| 3 April | Moving Wallpaper | ITV | 2008 |
| 11 April | The Colour of Money | ITV | 2009 |
| 12 April | Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder | ITV | 2009 |
| 12 April | Gladiators | ITV & Sky 1 | 1992 & 2008 |
| 27 April | Hell's Kitchen | ITV | 2004 |
| 5 May | Born to Be Different | Channel 4 | 2003, 2006 & 2009 |
| 10 May | Shipwrecked | Channel 4 | 1999 & 2006 |
| 17 May | Pulling | BBC Three | 2006 |
| 21 May | The Justin Lee Collins Show | ITV2 | 2009 |
| 22 May | Boy Meets Girl | ITV | 2009 |
| 25 May | The Omid Djalili Show | BBC One | 2007 |
| 31 May | Beat the Star | ITV | 2008 |
| 27 June | Robin Hood | BBC One | 2006 |
| 3 July | Richard & Judy's New Position | Watch | 2008 |
| 9 July | Katie & Peter | ITV2 | 2007 |
| 12 July | Kingdom | ITV | 2007 |
| 24 July | The Fuse | ITV | 2009 |
| 26 July | Hope Springs | BBC One | 2009 |
| 4 August | The Truth About Crime | BBC One | 2009 |
| 9 August | Don't Forget the Lyrics! | Sky 1 | 2008 |
| 14 August | Hotel Babylon | BBC One | 2006 |
| 17 August | The Street | BBC One | 2006 |
| 23 August | Jam & Jerusalem | BBC One | 2006 |
| 25 August | Desperate Romantics | BBC Two | 2009 |
| 31 August | Wuthering Heights | ITV | 2009 |
| 22 September | Lost Land of the Volcano | BBC One | 2009 |
| 12 October | Blue Murder | ITV | 2004 |
| 15 October | Katy Brand's Big Ass Show | ITV2 | 2007 |
| 25 October | Emma | BBC One | 2009 |
| 31 October | The Well | BBC Two | 2009 |
| 2 November | Murderland | ITV | 2009 |
| 8 November | By Any Means 2 | BBC Two | 2009 |
| 12 November | Wife Swap | Channel 4 | 2003 |
| 12 November | How Clean Is Your House? | Channel 4 | 2003 |
| 13 November | Collision | ITV | 2009 |
| 17 November | Around the World in 80 Days | BBC One | 2009 |
| 24 November | It's Only a Theory | BBC Four | 2009 |
| 11 December | Numberjacks | BBC Two & CBeebies | 2006 |
| 12 December | Hole in the Wall | BBC One | 2008 |
| 14 December | Life | BBC One | 2009 |
| 18 December | Golden Balls | ITV | 2007 |
| 18 December | The Paul O'Grady Show | ITV & Channel 4 | 2004 |
| 18 December | Trisha Goddard | ITV & Five | 1998 |
| 18 December | More4 News | More4 | 2005 |
| 27 December | Return to Cranford | BBC One | 2009 |
| 29 December | The Day of the Triffids | BBC One | 2009 |
| 30 December | Big Top | BBC One | 2009 |

## Births

| Date | Name | Cinematic Credibility |
| 16 March | Lillia Turner | British actress (EastEnders) |

## Deaths

| Date | Name | Age | Broadcast credibility |
| 1 January | Edmund Purdom | 84 | Actor |
| 11 January | David Vine | 73 | Sports presenter |
| 13 January | Patrick McGoohan | 80 | Actor (The Prisoner, Danger Man, Columbo) |
| 16 January | John Mortimer | 85 | Barrister, writer, novelist and dramatist (Rumpole of the Bailey) |
| 18 January | Tony Hart | 83 | Children's TV presenter |
| 18 January | Kathleen Byron | 88 | Actress (Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, The House in the Square) |
| 24 January | Diane Holland | 78 | Actress (Hi-de-Hi!) |
| 24 January | Reg Gutteridge | 84 | Boxing commentator |
| 26 February | Wendy Richard | 65 | Actress (EastEnders, Are You Being Served?) aka Pauline Fowler |
| 27 February | Sharat Sardana | 40 | Comedy scriptwriter (Goodness Gracious Me) |
| 10 March | Derek Benfield | 82 | Actor (The Brothers, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, First of the Summer Wine) |
| 14 March | Terence Edmond | 69 | Actor (Z-Cars) |
| 18 March | Natasha Richardson | 45 | Actress |
| 22 March | Jade Goody | 27 | Reality TV star (Big Brother) |
| 24 March | Timothy Brinton | 79 | British broadcaster and Conservative Party politician |
| 8 April | Lennie Bennett | 70 | Comedian and game show host (Punchlines) |
| 18 April | Stephanie Parker | 22 | Actress (Belonging) |
| 20 May | Lucy Gordon | 28 | Actress |
| 28 May | Terence Alexander | 86 | Actor |
| 31 May | Danny La Rue | 81 | Entertainer |
| 20 June | Colin Bean | 83 | Actor (Dad's Army) |
| 22 June | Steve Race | 88 | Pianist and television presenter (My Music) |
| 1 July | Mollie Sugden | 86 | Comedy actress (Are You Being Served?, Grace & Favour, The Liver Birds, Coronation Street) |
| 12 July | Donald MacCormick | 70 | Broadcast journalist and presenter (Newsnight) |
| 13 July | Vince Powell | 80 | Sitcom writer (Love Thy Neighbour) |
| 24 July | Harry Towb | 83 | Actor |
| 16 August | Laurie Rowley | 68 | Comedy writer (The Two Ronnies, Not the Nine O'Clock News) |
| 29 August | Simon Dee | 74 | Television interviewer and radio disc jockey |
| 13 September | Felix Bowness | 87 | Actor (Hi-de-Hi!) |
| 14 September | Keith Floyd | 65 | Chef (Saturday Kitchen) |
| 15 September | Troy Kennedy Martin | 77 | Screenwriter (Z-Cars, Edge of Darkness) |
| 16 September | Brian Barron | 69 | BBC journalist and war correspondent |
| 18 September | Peter Denyer | 62 | Actor (Please Sir!) |
| 30 September | Robert S. Baker | 87 | Producer (The Saint) |
| 16 November | Edward Woodward | 79 | Actor (Callan, The Equalizer) |
| 2 December | Maggie Jones | 75 | Actress (Coronation Street) aka Blanche Hunt |
| 5 December | Garfield Morgan | 78 | Actor (The Sweeney) |
| 24 December | George Cowling | 89 | Britain television's first weather presenter |