1980s

1980
- Debut of Margaret Thatcher’s ‘truly favourite programme.’ In 1984, the PM performs in her own sketch with Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington to mark the 20th anniversary of the National Viewers and Listeners Association
- The oil tycoon is shot at the end of the second series of US soap Dallas, promoting a national obsession over who pulled the trigger and even a BBC report.
- Women police officers have been on Britain’s streets since the 1949, but it isn’t until the 1980s that TV really takes notice
- Telethons come to the UK for the first time with the BBC’s appeal show. Comic Relief follow in 1988
- 6 US embassy aides escape from Iran with Canadian help
- US diplomatic ties with Iran
- Ronald Reagan elected president in Republican sweep
- Ted Turner launches CNN, the first all news network

1981
- Lord Scarman’s report following the Brixton race riots leads to the introduction of the Police Complaints Authority and other measures aimed at improving trust improving trust between the police and ethnic minority communities
- A worldwide TV audience of 750 million watch the Royal wedding which features the first Buckingham Palace ‘balcony kiss’
- The Supreme Courts rules to allow television cameras in the courtroom

1982
- Roger Graef and Charles Stewart’s fly-on-the-wall series for the BBC following the Thames Valley Police is broadcast a year after the 1981 race riots
- Falklands War
- Channel 4 launches
- ‘The Young Ones’ sitcom full of topical references to Thatcher’s government, police brutality and the Bomb.
- ‘Brookside’ The show’s continual use of the word ‘pissing’ and ‘bollocks’ lead to tabloids to dub the new station ‘Channel Swore’

1983
- Terrorist explosion kills 237 US marines in Beirut
- BBC 1 Breakfast Time a month later TV AM begins on ITV

1984
- The longest industrial dispute in British history begins over proposed pit closure in Yorkshire. Miners return to work in 1985 after national campaigns of support, pitched battles with police and 10,000 arrests.
- Micheal Buerk reports broadcasts from Ethiopia about the famine
- Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as a state religion.
- 300 Three hundred slain as Indian Army occupies Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (June 6).
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 killed in anti-Sikh riots; son Rajiv succeeds her (Oct. 31).
Toxic gas leaks from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000 (Dec. 3).

1985
- Eastenders begins at 7pm then moves to a later time after various complaints of it often containing gritty subject matter
- Gorbachev become Soviet Leader
- The Home Secretary Leon Brittan asks the BBC governors to stop the broadcast of At Edge of the Union an edition of Real Lives about extremists in Northern Ireland.

1986
-Nuclear disaster in Ukraine more than 10,000 dead.
- 5 years after the first cases of Aids were discovered. John Hurt narrates the ‘Don’t die of ignorance’
-Spain and Portugal join European Economic Community
- US supreme courts bars racial bias in trial jury selection.
- US supreme courts reaffirms abortion rights.

1987
- Women are able to become priests in the Church of England
- ‘Rising star of the New Right’ The series spans Thatcher and major governments and often pre-empts the sex scandals and other embarrassments that plague the Tories in the late 80’s
- Prime Minister Thatcher wins rare third term in Britain.
-US supreme courts rules must admit women
- Fatal Attraction the film is released.

1988
- The government fails to prevent the broadcast of ITV’s investigative documentary about the British Special Forces’ controversial killings of 3 IRA gunmen in Gibraltar. The Sun newspaper had a headline ‘Storm as SAS Telly Trial’
- Benazir Bhutto first Islamic woman prime minister

1989
- Neelema and Kiran were born
- Channel 4 helps cement its reputation as the broadcaster most attuned to multicultural Britain, with a sitcom ‘Desmonds’ set in Peckham.
- Sky launches the UK’s first satellite television service.
- ‘Blackadder goes forth’ sitcom set during the First World War set in the trenches.
- Fall of the Berlin Wall
-Salman Rushdie's novel Satanic Verses is published and sparks immediate controversy. Islamic militants put a price on his head.