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That Was the Year That Was – 1988

Image by brizzle born and bred
1988 The Hubble Space Telescope Goes into operation to explore deep space and is still in full use today mapping our universe. A bomb is exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21st . Also Prozac is sold for the first time as an anti-depressant, some of the great movies that year included Rain Man, Die Hard and A Fish Called Wanda.

In the early 1980s, Britain had just begun to slough off its reliance on packet mash and tinned pineapple. With Delia, we discovered kiwi and cranberries; trend-setting restaurants proliferated and "seasonality" started to mean something again. The British tend to mainline on nostalgia, but who hankers for the traditional British culinary experience? Prawn cocktail, steaks that should have been sent to a burns unit, serviettes, frozen food, fondue, gateau festering on pudding trolleys, sliced bread…

In 1988, these were just some of our favourites. "Foreign" meant French. "Vegetarian" meant omelette. "Modern British" meant Garfunkel’s. Food wasn’t invented in Britain until 1987, the year the River Café opened in West London. In the provinces, it was later still. Nostalgia is a dish best served never.

Culinary innovations aside, 1988 boasts no seismic cultural shift – unlike, say, 1966 or 1977. It might have witnessed acid house’s Second Summer of Love, but for most people it was the year Bros stole hearts, Neighbours became must-see after-school viewing and England crashed out of the European Championships in the first round.

Before the deregulating 1990 Broadcasting Act, there was no satellite television in this country. In 1988, British film was in good shape, thanks to the artistically stimulating output of the still-new FilmFour. Spitting Image still mattered, thanks to unbeatable material from the Thatcher government, which was also being wound up by ITV’s documentary Death on the Rock. It was a time before the insane pressures of the global market, when films and TV programmes were made for their own sake, not pitched at demographics.

In 1988 the City of London was coming out of the Big Bang. The deregulation and competition that ensued has transformed London into the biggest international capital market, with banks such as HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland taking their place among the world’s best.

1988: when Kylie, Cliff and Ghostbusters ruled

Best-selling single

Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe & Wine

Best-selling album

Kylie Minogue’s Kylie

Highest-grossing movie

Rain Man

Oscar winner

Bernardo Bertolucci, who won nine Oscars for The Last Emperor.

Video game

Super Mario 3 is released. It goes on to sell 18m copies and spawn a television show.

The price of a pint of beer

Around £1

Children’s toys

Ghostbusters toys sell out – with the Slimer toy (complete with bubbles) particularly popular.

Births

Tinie Tempah

Alexandra Burke

Princess Beatrice

Michael Cera

Deaths

Divine

Kenneth Williams

Nico

Roy Orbison

Marriages

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick

Patsy Kensit and Dan Donavan

Michael J Fox and Tracy Pollan

Mike Tyson and Robin Givens

1988: Jumbo jet crashes onto Lockerbie

A Pan Am jumbo jet with 258 passengers on board has crashed on to the town of Lockerbie near the Scottish borders. Initial reports indicate it crashed into a petrol station in the centre of the town, between Carlisle and Dumfries, and burst into a 300-foot fireball. Hundreds are feared dead as airline officials said flight 103 was about two-thirds full with 255 adults and three children on board. Rescue teams have confirmed there are many casualties at the scene including townspeople who were on the ground. The Boeing 747 left London Heathrow at 1800 GMT bound for New York’s JFK airport. Shortly after 1900 the flight disappeared from radar screens at Prestwick Air Traffic Control Centre.

At 1908-hrs there were reports by the Civil Air Traffic Control Authorities of an explosion on the ground 15 miles north of the Scottish border. Details of the accident are still unclear but there are unconfirmed reports the plane has ploughed into cars and houses. An eyewitness said the aircraft has hit a central part of the town in a residential area. "There was just a terrible explosion, you just couldn’t describe it," he told the BBC. "It is just impossible to approach the town but at the time it went up there was a terrible explosion and the whole sky lit up. "It was virtually raining fire – it was just liquid fire."

Parts of the town are being evacuated and a hall has been converted into a refuge centre. Dumfries and Galloway Hospital, about 20 miles away, is on emergency alert.

Ambulances from southern Scotland and Cumbria have been sent to the scene. The RAF has sent personnel and helicopters from Scotland and Northern England, along with mountain rescue teams to help police. The A74 has been cordoned off after police reported several parked cars on fire. It is thought the plane would have been flying at about 31,000 ft over Lockerbie when it exploded.

In total 259 people aboard the flight and 11 on the ground died in the crash which took place 38 minutes after take-off. The debris from the aircraft was scattered across 845 square miles and the impact reached 1.6 on the Richter scale. The subsequent police investigation was the biggest ever mounted in Scotland and became a murder inquiry when evidence of a bomb was found.

Two men accused of being Libyan intelligence agents were eventually charged with planting the bomb. Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following an 84-day trial under Scottish law, at Camp Zeist in Holland. His alleged accomplice, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty. In 2002 Al Megrahi’s appeal against conviction was rejected.

1988: IRA gang shot dead in Gibraltar

The IRA has confirmed the three people shot dead by security forces in Gibraltar yesterday were members of an active service unit. They are reported to have planted a 500lb car bomb near the British Governor’s residence. It was primed to go off tomorrow during a changing of the guard ceremony, which is popular with tourists.

The three – two men and a woman – were shot as they walked towards the border with Spain. Security officers say they were acting suspiciously and the officers who carried out the shootings believed their lives were in danger. The three dead have been named as Daniel McCann, 30 and Sean Savage, 24, both known IRA activists and Mairead Farrell, 31, the most senior member of the gang who had served 10 years for her part in the bombing of a hotel outside Belfast in 1976.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night military personnel had opened fire on three terrorist suspects. It said no weapons had been found at the scene. The shooting happened in mid-afternoon. One eyewitness said he had seen a man in jeans holding a pistol in both hands. He said the man was only four feet from one of those he killed. Police sealed off the area for several hours after the shooting. A robot was brought in to defuse the car bomb and troops patrolled the streets. Local residents were warned to stay indoors. The terrorists’ target was the band and guard of the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, which arrived in Gibraltar recently after a tour of duty in Northern Ireland.

Army intelligence officers have been expecting an IRA attack on a military target for some months after a series of setbacks for the Provisionals. Reports say 20 members of the IRA have been killed in the past 15 months. The Independent’s Ireland correspondent, David McKittrick, said 1987 was "a bad year" for the IRA. They lost eight active service members in an SAS ambush in Country Antrim. He has raised speculation yesterday’s killings in Gibraltar may also have been the work of the SAS.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7MBqTw2vl0

1988: Three shot dead at Milltown Cemetery

A gunman has killed three mourners and injured at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar. It is understood he also threw four grenades into the crowd of 10,000 people gathered around the Republican plot at Milltown Cemetery in Roman Catholic west Belfast. The casualties have been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast in a fleet of private vehicles and 10 ambulances. Eyewitness reports describe mourners gripped with panic, screaming and shouting while others collapsed to the floor.

The initial shot was mistaken for an IRA salute as the dead, Mairead Farrell, 31, Daniel McCann, 30, and Sean Savage, 23, were buried. But shortly after 1300 GMT as the last of the three coffins was lowered into the joint grave, another shot was fired. Another shot was quickly followed by two blasts 50 yards away which is said to have sent black smoke and earth into the air. Several more shots were fired amid a burst of what is thought to be grenades.

Funeral stewards made repeated appeals for calm as the course of reconciliation in Northern Ireland faced another setback. There are some reports the man was then pursued by hundreds of youths oblivious to the danger.

The Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King, has condemned the attacks and appealed for calm, echoing calls from other political quarters including Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. But Mr Adams accused the RUC of collusion in the attack. The RUC had agreed to stay away from the funeral after representations from the Roman Catholic church and political leaders. The Ulster Defence Association, the largest of the Protestant paramilitary organisations, denied any part in the attack. It added the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters had no part in today’s events either.

The funerals were for three IRA members shot dead by British special forces in Gibraltar, where they were planning an attack on the British garrison. A lone loyalist gunman, Michael Stone, was chased by mourners at the cemetery but was arrested by police. The east Belfast man had been active on the fringes of loyalist para-militarism before the Milltown killings and was ultimately sentenced for a total of six murders when he eventually came to trial. The Ulster Freedom Fighters member was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years imprisonment by the trial judge.

But he was released in 2000, despite massive outrage, after serving 12 years under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In November 2006 he had his release licence suspended after he was arrested for bursting into Stormont claiming to have a bomb. He was charged with attempting to murder Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and with possessing an imitation firearm.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFfhkdHIVgA

Corporals Wood and Howes killed by IRA 1988

When two corporals in the British Army inadvertently drove into the midst of a republican funeral, their car was set upon by the crowd. They were dragged out and beaten before being shot dead by members of the IRA. These brutal killings marked the conclusion of a period of 14 days that was to prove one the darkest of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. The incident was filmed by television cameras and the images have been described as some of the "most dramatic and harrowing" of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhfgQOLSrTQ

1988 Timeline

January – Elizabeth Butler-Sloss becomes the first woman to be appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal.

3 January – Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest serving British prime minister this century, having been in power for eight years and 244 days.

4 January – Sir Robin Butler replaces Sir Robert Armstrong as Cabinet Secretary, on the same day that Margaret Thatcher makes her first state visit to Africa when she arrives in Kenya.

5 January – Actor Rowan Atkinson launches the new Comic Relief charity appeal.

7 January – Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock calls for a further £1.3 billion to made available for the National Health Service.

9 January – One of the worst incidents of football hooliganism this season sees 41 suspected hooligans arrested at the FA Cup third round tie between Arsenal and Millwall at Highbury.

11 January – The government announces that inflammable foam furniture will be banned from March next year.

14 January – Unemployment figures are released for the end of 1987, showing the 18th successive monthly fall. Just over 2,600,000 people are now jobless in the United Kingdom – the lowest total for seven years. More than 500,000 of the unemployed found jobs during 1987.

22 January – Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting the rape and murder of two girls in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986, the first conviction for murder in the UK based on DNA fingerprinting evidence.

22 January – Peugeot’s 405 saloon, winner of the European Car of the Year award, goes on sale in Britain.

23 January – David Steel announces that he will not stand for the leadership of the new Social and Liberal Democratic Party.

24 January – Arthur Scargill is re-elected as leader of the National Union of Mineworkers by a narrow majority.

28 January – The Birmingham Six lose an appeal against their convictions.

1 February – Victor Miller, a 33-year-old warehouse worker from Wolverhampton, confesses to the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough, who was found dead in Worcestershire last month.

3 February – Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more cash for the National Health Service.

4 February – Nearly 7,000 ferry workers go on strike in Britain, paralysing the nation’s seaports.

5 February – The first BBC Red Nose Day raises £15 million for charity.

7 February – It is reported that more than 50% of men and 80% of women working full-time in London are earning less than the lowest sum needed to buy the cheapest houses in the capital.

13 – 28 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, but do not win any medals.

15 February – Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Employment, announces plans for a new training scheme which the government hopes will give jobs to up to 600,000 people who are currently unemployed.

16 February – Thousands of nurses and co-workers form picket lines outside British hospitals as they go on strike in protest against what they see as inadequate NHS funding.

26 February – Multiple rapist and murderer John Duffy is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released.

1 March – British Aerospace launches a takeover bid for the government-owned Rover Group, the largest British-owned carmaker.

3 March – The SDP merges with the Liberal Party to create the Social and Liberal Democratic Party. Its interim leaders are David Steel and Robert Maclennan. The merger means that the Liberal Party has ceased to exist after 129 years.

4 March – Halifax Building Society reveals that year-on-year house prices rose by 16.9% last month.

6 March – Operation Flavius: A Special Air Service team of the British Army shoots dead three unarmed members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Active Service Unit in Gibraltar.

7 March – Margaret Thatcher announces a £3 billion regeneration scheme to improve a series of inner city areas by the year 2000.

9 March – It is revealed that the average price of a house in Britain reached £60,000 at the end of last year, compared to £47,000 in December 1986.

10 March – The Prince of Wales narrowly avoids death in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday in Switzerland. Major Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, is killed.

15 March – Chancellor Nigel Lawson announces that the standard rate of income tax will be cut to 25p in the pound, while the maximum rate of income tax will be cut to 40p from 60p in the pound.

16 March – Milltown Cemetery attack: Three men are killed and 70 are wounded in a gun and grenade attack by loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone on mourners at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast during the funerals of the three IRA members killed in Gibraltar.

17 March – The fall in unemployment continues with just over 2,500,000 people now registered as unemployed in the UK. However, there is a blow for the city of Dundee, when Ford Motor Company scraps plans to build a new electronics plant in the city – a move which ends hopes of 1,000 new jobs being created for this city which has high unemployment.

19 March – Corporals killings in Belfast: British Army corporals Woods and Howes are abducted, beaten and shot dead by Irish republicans after driving into the funeral cortege of IRA members killed in the Milltown Cemetery attack.

29 March – Plans are unveiled for Europe’s tallest skyscraper to be built at Canary Wharf. The office complex will cost around £3 billion to build and is set to open in 1992.

9 April – The house price boom is reported to have boosted wealth in London and the south-east by £39 billion over the last four years, compared with an £18 billion slump in Scotland and north-west England.

10 April – Golfer Sandy Lyle becomes the first British winner of the US Masters.

21 April – The government announces that nurses will receive a 15% pay rise, at a cost of £794 million which will be funded by the Treasury.

24 April – Luton Town FC beat Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup final at Wembley 3-2. The match was won in the 92nd minute with a goal by Brian Stein after Luton had come back from being 2-1 down and goalkeeper Andy Dibble saving a penalty in the 79th minute. Luton scorers Brian Stein and Danny Wilson. Attendance 96,000

May – The first 16-year-olds sit General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, replacing both the O-level and CSE. The new qualifications are marked against objective standards rather than relatively.

2 May – Three off-duty British servicemen are killed in The Netherlands by the IRA.

6 May – Graeme Hick makes English cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match.

7 May – The proposed Poll tax, which is expected to come into force next year, will see the average house rise in value by around 20%, according to a study.

14 May – Wimbledon F.C., who have been Football League members for just 11 seasons and First Division members for two, win the FA Cup with a 1–0 win over league champions Liverpool at Wembley. Lawrie Sanchez scored the winning goal in the first half, while Liverpool’s John Aldridge missed a penalty in the second half. In Scotland, Celtic beat Dundee United 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final with two late goals from Frank McAvennie to complete the Scottish double.

19 May – Unemployment is now below 2,500,000 for the first time since early 1981.

House prices in Norwich, one of the key beneficiaries of the current economic boom, have risen by 50% in the last year.

24 May – Local Government Act becomes law. The controversial Section 28 prevents local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Local authorities are also obliged to outsource more services, and dog licences are abolished (except in Northern Ireland).

Albert Dock in Liverpool reopened by Prince Charles as a leisure and business centre including the Tate Liverpool art museum.

31 May – the BBC controversial film, Tumbledown is broadcast despite Ministry of Defence concern.

2 June – U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes a visit to Britain.

11 June – Some 80,000 people attend a concert at Wembley Stadium in honour of Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner who turned 70 on that day and has been in prison since 1964.

15 June – Five British soldiers are killed by the IRA in Lisburn.

16 June – More than 100 English football fans are arrested in West Germany in connection with incidents of football hooliganism during the European Championships.

18 June – England’s participation in the European Football Champions ended when they finished bottom of their group having lost all three games.

23 June – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC television studios during the six o’clock bulletin of the BBC News.

July – The Freeze art exhibition is held at Surrey Docks in London Docklands, it is organised by Damien Hirst and is considered significant in the development of the Young British Artists.

5 July – The Church of England announces that it will allow the ordination of women priests from 1992.

6 July – Piper Alpha disaster oil rig in the North Sea explodes and results in the death of 167 workers.

A contractor’s relief driver pours 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment plant near Camelford in Cornwall, causing extensive pollution to the local water supply.

18 July – Paul Gascoigne, 21-year-old midfielder, becomes the first £2 million footballer signed by a British club when he leaves Newcastle United and joins Tottenham Hotspur.

28 July – Paddy Ashdown, MP for Yeovil in Somerset, is elected as the first leader of the Social and Liberal Democratic Party.

28 July – Paddy Ashdown an ex-Royal Marine commando is elected leader of the Social Democrats and Liberal Democrats.

29 July – Most provisions of the Education Reform Act come into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Act introduces Grant-maintained schools and Local Management of Schools, allowing schools to be taken out of the direct control of local government; a National Curriculum with Key Stages; an element of parental preference in the choice of schools; published league tables of school examination results; controls on the use of the word ‘degree’ by UK institutions; and abolition of tenure for new academics.

31 July – Economists warn that the house price boom is likely to end next year.

1 August – A British Army soldier is killed by IRA terrorists at Inglis Barracks in North London.

2 August – Everton F.C. pay £2.3 million for West Ham United striker Tony Cottee, 22, breaking the national record set six weeks ago by Paul Gascoigne’s transfer.

8 August – The first child (a girl) of TRH The Duke and Duchess of York is born at Portland Hospital in London. She was fifth in line to the throne until the birth of Prince George of Cambridge on the 22 July 2013. She is currently sixth in line.

14 August – Scunthorpe United F.C.’s Glanford Park is opened; the first new stadium to be built by a Football League club since the 1950s. Their last game at their original ground, Old Showground, was on 18 May.

18 August – Ian Rush becomes the most expensive player to join a British club when he returns to Liverpool F.C. for £2.7 million after a year at Juventus in Italy.

20 August – Six British soldiers are killed by an IRA bomb near Belfast. 27 other people are injured.

22 August – New licensing laws allow pubs to stay open all day in England and Wales.

The Duke and Duchess of York’s 14-day-old daughter is named Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.

29 August – 14-year-old Matthew Sadler becomes Britain’s youngest international chess master.

31 August – Postal workers walk out on strike over a dispute concerning bonuses paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East.

3 September – Economic experts warn that the recent economic upswing for most of the developed world is almost over, and that these countries – including Britain – face a recession in the near future.

9 September – The England cricket team’s tour to India is cancelled after Captain Graham Gooch and seven other players are refused visas because of involvement in South African cricket during the apartheid boycott.

13 September – Royal Mail managers and Union of Communication Workers representatives agree a settlement to end the postal workers strike.

17 September – 2 October – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and win 5 gold, 10 silver and 9 bronze medals.

24 September – The house price boom is reported to be slowing as a result of increased mortgage rates.

30 September – A Gibraltar jury decides that the 3 IRA members killed on 6 March were killed "lawfully".

October – Vauxhall launches the third generation of its popular Cavalier family saloon.

9 October – Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor John Smith, 50, is hospitalised with a heart attack in Edinburgh.

12 October – As Pope John Paul II addresses the European Parliament, Ian Paisley heckles and denounces him as the Antichrist.

13 October – The House of Lords rules that extracts of the banned book Spycatcher can be published in the media.

18 October – Jaguar unveils its new Jaguar XJ220 supercar at the Motor Show. It is set go into production in 1990, costing £350,000 and being the world’s fastest production car with a top speed of 220 mph.

27 October – Three IRA supporters are found guilty of conspiracy to murder in connection with a plot to kill Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Tom King.

28 October – British Rail announces a 21% rise in the cost of long distance season tickets.

2 November – Victor Miller is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Stuart Gough.

4 November – Margaret Thatcher presses for freedom for the people of Poland on her visit to Gda?sk.

9 November – The government unveils plans for a new identity card scheme in an attempt to clamp down on football hooliganism.

15 November – The Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker, says that the national testing will place great emphasis on grammar.

30 November – A government report reveals that up to 50,000 people in Britain may be HIV positive, and that by the end of 1992 up to 17,000 people may have died from AIDS.

A bronze statue of former prime minister Clement Attlee, who died in 1967, is unveiled outside Limehouse Library in London by fellow former prime minister Harold Wilson.

3 December – Health minister Edwina Currie provokes outrage by stating that most of Britain’s egg production is infected with the salmonella bacteria, causing an immediate nationwide fall in egg sales.

6 December – The last shipbuilding facilities on Wearside, once the largest shipbuilding area in the world, are to close with the loss of 2,400 jobs.

10 December – James W. Black wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment".

12 December – 35 people are killed in a collision between three trains at Clapham in London.

15 December – Unemployment is now only just over 2,100,000 – the lowest level for almost eight years.

16 December – Edwina Currie resigns as Health minister.

19 December – The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes its house price survey, revealing a deep recession in the housing market.

PC Gavin Carlton, 29, is shot dead in Coventry in a siege by two armed bank robbers. His colleague DC Leonard Jakeman is also shot but survives. One of the gunmen gives himself up to police, while the other shoots himself dead.

20 December – The three-month-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York is christened Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.

21 December – Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway killing a total of 270 people – 11 on the ground and all 259 who were on board. It is believed that the cause of the explosion was a terrorist bomb.

Inflation remains low for the seventh year running, now standing at 4.9%.

1988 in British television

4 January – BBC1 moves the repeat episode of Neighbours to a 5:35pm evening slot, the decision to do this having been made by controller Michael Grade on the advice of his daughter.

6 January – All ITV regions network Emmerdale Farm in the Wednesday and Thursday 6.30pm slot.

11 January – The first episode of the game show Fifteen to One airs on Channel 4.

25–29 January – TV-am airs a week of live broadcasts from Sydney to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary.

5 February – Comic Relief airs its Red Nose Day fundraiser on BBC1.

13–28 February – The 1988 Winter Olympics are held in Calgary, Alberta and broadcast to television audiences around the world.

15 February – Red Dwarf makes its debut on BBC2.

20 February – London’s Burning makes its debut as a regular series on ITV, having been developed from Jack Rosenthal’s original 1986 film.

19 March – Two off-duty British soldiers are killed after stumbling into an IRA funeral procession in Belfast. Footage of the incident is captured by journalists and widely broadcast.

22 March – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tells the House of Commons that journalists have a "bounden duty" to assist the police investigation into the corporals killings by handing over their footage. Many have refused to do so fearing it could place them in danger.

23 March – Film of the corporals killings is seized from the BBC and ITN under the Prevention of Terrorism and Emergency Provisions Acts.

4 April – The original series of Crossroads airs for the last time on ITV. It returns in 2001 before being axed again in 2003.

6 April – ITV’s chart show The Roxy airs for the last time.

15 April – The Pogues perform their controversial hit Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six – a song expressing support for those convicted over the Guildford and Birmingham pub bombings – on the Ben Elton Channel 4 show Friday Night Live. The song is cut short, however, by a commercial break.

28 April – ITV broadcasts Death on the Rock, a hugely controversial episode of Thames Television’s This Week current affairs strand, investigating Operation Flavius, which resulted in the SAS killing three members of the IRA in Gibraltar on 6 March.

16 May – The youth strand DEF II is launched on BBC2.

30 May – Debut of Charles Wood’s screenplay Tumbledown about the experiences of Scots Guard Robert Lawrence, who was left paralysed after being shot in the head by a sniper at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown during the Falklands War.

8 June – Television presenter Russell Harty dies aged 53.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch announces to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts his intention to launch a new news service. Sky News is launched at 6.00pm on 5 February 1989.

11 June – The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert is staged at Wembley Stadium, London, and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. It was broadcast on BBC 2.

23 June – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC studios during a six o’clock bulletin of the BBC News.

19 July – The Bill broadcasts the first episode of its fourth season and switches to a year-round serial format.

3 August – Brookside is moved from Tuesdays to Wednesdays which means the soap can now be seen on Mondays and Wednesdays.

31 August – ITV airs a version of The Hound of the Baskervilles starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke.

8 September – Channel 4 drops plans to invite Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to appear on an edition of its late night discussion programme After Dark following

objections from other contributors.

17 September–2 October – The 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea and broadcast to television audiences around the world.

30 September – Television presenters Mike Smith and Sarah Greene are seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Gloucestershire.

3 October – The magazine programme This Morning makes its debut. It is presented by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan until 2001.

19 October – Home Secretary Douglas Hurd issues a notice under clause 13 of the BBC Licence and Agreement to the BBC and under section 29 of the Broadcasting Act 1981 to the Independent Broadcasting Authority prohibiting the broadcast of direct statements by representatives or supporters of 11 Irish political and military organisations. The ban lasts until 1994, and denies the UK news media the right to broadcast the voices, though not the words, of all Irish republican and Loyalist paramilitaries. The restrictions – targeted primarily at Sinn Féin – means that actors are used to speak the words of any representative interviewed for radio and television.

25 October – As the 25th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy approaches ITV airs the two part documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy, a film which explores discrepancies and inconsistencies in the US Government’s official version of events.

2 November – In the House of Commons, an amendment introduced by the opposition Labour Party condemning the government’s decision over the broadcasting ban as "incompatible with a free society" is rejected, despite some Conservative MPs voting with Labour.

Evacuation, an episode of ITV’s The Bill features one of the series early prominent events – an explosion at Sun Hill police station.

8 November – BBC1 airs Episode 523 of Neighbours featuring the wedding of Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell, which is watched by 20 million viewers.

13 November–18 December – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, is aired as a six-part TV serial by the BBC, featuring actors including Ronald Pickup, Barbara Kellerman and Michael Aldridge.

23 November – The BBC science fiction series Doctor Who celebrates its 25th anniversary and begins the three part serial Silver Nemesis.

24 November – Frank Ruse, a left-wing Labour councillor for Liverpool City Council accompanies Liverpool’s Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra to London for an appearance on Blue Peter. He is given a Blue Peter badge, but later receives a BBC headed letter requesting its return. The letter (later discovered to be a forgery) claims the programme had been approached by the office of Labour leader Neil Kinnock expressing concern that a councillor with hard-left views had been given a Blue Peter badge. Upon receiving the returned badge, the BBC writes back to Ruse stating that it had not sent the letter. The incident prompts Ruse to start an enquiry to find out who sent the hoax letter.

26 November – Tugs a children’s model animated series made by Clearwater Features (the company behind the first two seasons of Thomas the Tank Enigne & Friends) debuts on ITV.

1 December – ITV’s ORACLE Teletext service launches Park Avenue, a teletext based soap opera. It is written by Robert Burns and runs until ORACLE loses its franchise at the end of 1992.

3 December – Comedian Steve Tandy wins New Faces of ’88.

11 December – Launch date of the Astra Satellite. The satellite will provide television coverage to Western Europe and is revolutionary as one of the first medium-powered satellites, allowing reception with smaller dishes than has previously been possible.

13 December – Central airs the final episode of Sons and Daughters making it the first ITV region to complete the series.

22 December – BBC1 airs Civvy Street, a spin-off episode of EastEnders set during World War II.

25 December – The final edition of It’s a Knockout to air on BBC1 is another celebrity special, It’s a Charity Knockout From Walt Disney World, featuring teams of celebrities from the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. The series returns to S4C in 1991.

26–30 December – As part of a Christmas special, Channel 4 soap Brookside airs five episodes over five consecutive days.

Ulster Television in Northern Ireland is the last in the ITV network to begin 24-hour transmission.

BBC1

3 January – First of the Summer Wine (1988–1989)
3 May – 4 Square (1988–1991)
30 May – Tumbledown
3 September – Noel’s Saturday Roadshow (1988–1990)
12 September – Stoppit and Tidyup (1988)
18 September – On the Record (1988–2002)
17 October – Playdays (1988–1997)
20 October – Charlie Chalk (1988–1989)
29 December – You Rang, M’Lord? (1988–1993)

BBC2

15 February – Red Dwarf (1988–1999, 2012–present)
9 May – DEF II (1988–1994)
18 October – Colin’s Sandwich (1988–1990)

ITV

4 January – After Henry (1988–1992)
20 February – You Bet! (1988–1997)
London’s Burning (1988–2002)
16 April – All Clued Up (1988–1991)
19 July – Wheel of Fortune (1988–2001)
26 July – I Can Do That (1988–1991)
3 September – The Hit Man and Her (1988–1992)
6 September – Count Duckula (1988–1993)
3 October – This Morning (1988—present)
24 November – Children’s Ward (1988–2000)
26 November – TUGS (1988–1989)
1 December – Park Avenue on ORACLE (1988–1992)
3 December – How to Be Cool (1988)[14]

Channel 4

11 January – Fifteen to One (1988–2003, 2013–present)
23 September – Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988–1998)

Charts Number-one singles

"Always on My Mind" – Pet Shop Boys
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" – Belinda Carlisle
"I Think We’re Alone Now" – Tiffany
"I Should Be So Lucky" – Kylie Minogue
"Don’t Turn Around" – Aswad
"Heart" – Pet Shop Boys
"Theme from S-Express" – S’Express
"Perfect" – Fairground Attraction
"With a Little Help from My Friends" – Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg
"Doctorin’ the Tardis" – The Timelords
"I Owe You Nothing" – Bros
"Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You" – Glenn Medeiros
"The Only Way Is Up" – Yazz and the Plastic Population
"A Groovy Kind of Love" – Phil Collins
"He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother" – The Hollies
"Desire" – U2
"One Moment in Time" – Whitney Houston
"Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)" – Enya
"First Time" – Robin Beck
"Mistletoe and Wine" – Cliff Richard

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