This is a list of British television related events from 1982.
Events January 1 January Associated Television (ATV) is restructured into Central Independent Television but still broadcasts in the Midlands. Television South (TVS) starts broadcasting to the South and South East of England, replacing Southern Television and Television South West (TSW) starts broadcasting to the South West, replacing Westward Television. The Bluebell Hill transmitter in Kent is transferred from Thames/LWT to TVS, to increase the size of TVS's new South East sub-region and the Kendal transmitter, covering much of southern Cumbria, is transferred from Granada to Border.Peter Fiddick "ITV's framework for survival in the eighties", The Guardian; 25 January 1980; p.2 Yorkshire Television extends its coverage on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, when transmitters covering Todmorden and Walsden are transferred from the Granada region.ITV's framework for survival in the eighties: Expectations of a harsh ... The Guardian 25 January 1980. In London, the Friday handover hour for Thames and LWT is moved from 7pm to 5:15pm. The network television premiere of Steven Spielberg's 1977 science-fiction epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind on ITV, starring Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut and Melinda Dillon. The network television premiere of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science-fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey on BBC1. 2 January The US action series The Fall Guy makes its UK debut on ITV, starring Lee Majors. The late night comedy show O.T.T., made by Central Independent Television, makes its debut on ITV, presented by Tiswas regulars Chris Tarrant, Lenny Henry and Bob Carolgees; the adult-oriented series runs for 12 episodes only, but gives Alexei Sayle his first high-profile television exposure. 3 January – The final edition of The Generation Game to be presented by Larry Grayson is broadcast on BBC1. It is a compilation of highlights of the previous series. The show will return with Bruce Forsyth presenting again in 1990. 4 January – Peter Davison makes his first full appearance as the Fifth Doctor in the Doctor Who serial Castrovalva. 7 January – BBC1 begins showing the US children's series Huckleberry Finn and His Friends, based on the stories by Mark Twain. 5 January – Let's Pretend, a television programme for preschoolers and the replacement programme for Pipkins, makes its debut on ITV. 8 January The Post-World War II era set family drama series Shine on Harvey Moon makes its debut on ITV, starring Kenneth Cranham. Launch of London Weekend Television's Friday evening magazine programme The Six O'Clock Show. Until December 1987, it includes a fifteen minute news bulletin produced by Thames and is called Thames Weekend News. 11 January – World snooker champion Steve Davis becomes the first player to make a maximum 147 break on television during ITV's coverage of the Lada Classic. January – John Birt replaces Michael Grade as Director of Programmes at London Weekend Television and makes major changes to output aimed at maximising audiences with some niche programming, such as arts and science, moving out of primetime to the schedule margins to make way for more entertainment shows at peak time.
February 3 February – The British television premiere of John Carpenter's 1978 slasher Halloween on ITV, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. February – The first ever 3D broadcast in the UK is shown by TVS. The programme includes excerpts of test footage shot by Philips in the Netherlands. Red/green 3D glasses are given away free with copies of TV Times, but the 3D sections of the programme are shown in monochrome.
March 2 March – The second TV adaptation of John Mortimer's play A Voyage Round My Father, produced by Thames for ITV, airs with Laurence Olivier as Mortimer's blind barrister father, Alan Bates as the young Mortimer, Elizabeth Sellars as the mother and Jane Asher as Elizabeth as well as blind actor Esmond Knight as a sighted judge. 5 March – The BBC is given permission by the Government to start broadcasting television programmes on two satellite channels from early 1986. However, the channels are not launched. 5 March – The network television premiere of the 1973 Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force on ITV, six months before the BBC shows the first Dirty Harry film. 21 March – The network television premiere of Michael Anderson's 1976 science-fiction thriller Logan's Run on BBC1, starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Peter Ustinov. 27 March – The final edition of the Saturday morning children's magazine show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop is broadcast on BBC1. 28 March – The network television premiere of the 1977 James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me on ITV, starring Roger Moore. The broadcast of the film is reportedly watched by 22 million viewers. 29 March – The US police drama Cagney & Lacey makes its UK debut on BBC1.
April 2 April – The Falklands War begins as Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. Both the BBC and ITV broadcast additional and extended news bulletins throughout the conflict. 3 April The final edition of the children's Saturday morning series Tiswas is broadcast on ITV. It has been shown, albeit originally as a regional show made by ATV, since 1974. The network television premiere of Michael Crichton's 1979 heist comedy The First Great Train Robbery on ITV, starring Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down. 6 April – ITV debuts The Human Race, a six-part series produced for Thames Television and presented by English anthropologist Desmond Morris, as he travels all over the world and rifles film archives to show the vast diversity of human culture and behaviour. The series ends on 11 May. 12 April – The network television premiere of the film The Boys from Brazil starring Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, Lilli Palmer is shown on ITV. 14 April – Actor Arthur Lowe gives a live interview on BBC's Pebble Mill at One.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: He collapses in the evening and dies the following day. 15 April – BBC2's start time moves to the later time of 5:10pm with transmissions beginning with a single Open University programme with regular programmes now beginning at 5:40pm. For the past six months, BBC2 has been starting its weekday broadcasts at the earlier time of 3:55pm. 16 April – Debut of game show Odd One Out on BBC1, presented by Paul Daniels. 17 April – The BBC launches its first Summer Saturday morning magazine show, Get Set. However, unlike its winter counterpart, the summer shows air for the first half of the morning only. This allows for an earlier start to Grandstand to accommodate live test cricket and on the weeks that cricket is not being shown, a feature film is broadcast from around 11am until the start of Grandstand at 12:30pm. 24 April – The 27th Eurovision Song Contest is held in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The contest is presented by Jan Leeming and won by Germany's Nicole with "Ein bißchen Frieden". 26 April – The Satellite Channel launches, but to be able to view the channel in the UK a satellite dish approximately 10 feet (3 meters) wide is required due to the satellite on which the channel is broadcast.
May 1 May – The US soap opera Dynasty makes its UK debut on BBC1. 4 May – The long-running live evening chat show Wogan makes its debut on BBC1, presented by Terry Wogan. It will be shown three times a week from 1985 and will continue until July 1992. 9 May – BBC1 airs live coverage of the London Marathon for the first time. It had aired highlights of the event under the International Athletics strand the previous year. 26 May – The network television premiere of Don Taylor's 1978 horror sequel Damien: Omen II on ITV, starring William Holden. 28 May–2 June – The BBC and ITV provide extensive live coverage of Pope John Paul II's visit to the UK. 31 May – ITV premiers the 1973 animated film Charlotte's Web 1973 film.
June 12 June – The network television premiere of Philip Kaufman's 1978 science-fiction horror remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers on ITV, starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy. 14 June – The Falklands War ends after Argentina surrenders. 17 June – The US musical high school drama Fame makes its UK debut on BBC1. 20 June – The BBC relaunches its Sunday morning programme for the Asian community, and changes the title to Asian Magazine. 22 June – ITV shows Ray Harryhausen's 1977 fantasy adventure film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
July 11 July – The network television premiere of Ridley Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror Alien on ITV, starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton. 26 July – Alasdair Milne succeeds Ian Trethowan as Director-General of the BBC.
August 2 August – Test broadcasts commence for Channel 4 and S4C. These mainly consist of showing the IBA's testcard ETP-1 between 9am and 8pm. 19 August – Final broadcast of Welsh language serial Pobol Y Cwm shown on BBC1 in England on some transmitters as the series would move to S4C when the channel launches in November along with other Welsh language programmes. The series would make a brief return on BBC TV with a trial run for a network screening in 1994.
September 4 September – Debut of The Late, Late Breakfast Show on BBC1, presented by Noel Edmonds. 8 September – The network television premiere of Don Siegel's 1971 American thriller Dirty Harry on BBC1, starring Clint Eastwood. 19 September – Clive James on Television makes its debut on ITV in which Australian-born TV critic and journalist Clive James looks at bizarre television shows from around the world. 20 September – The BBC Schools computer-generated ident launches. 23 September – HTV launches a weekly current affairs programme Wales This Week. 25 September – ITV screens the 1979 feature length made for TV movie Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
October 1 October – BBC2’s weekday daytime four-hour transmitter shutdown is suspended for the next four months. This is to assist riggers adjust aerials during the lead up to, and the launch of, Channel 4.Suspension of daytime BBC2 transmitter shutdowns 2 October – The first edition of Saturday morning children's show Saturday Superstore is broadcast on BBC1. Hosted by Mike Read, Sarah Greene and Keith Chegwin, it adopts a similar format to its predecessor, Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. 3–9 October – As part of its coverage of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, the BBC airs a two-hour breakfast programme called Breakfast with Brisbane. It includes regular news summaries and is the first time the BBC has broadcast a scheduled news bulletin at breakfast and comes three months ahead of the launch of their own breakfast television programme Breakfast Time. Other coverage of the Games consists of highlights programmes aired at lunchtime and early evening. 6 October – BBC1 starts airing season 6 of the US drama series Dallas. 10 October – Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting Liverpool-set drama Boys from the Blackstuff makes its debut on BBC2, starring Bernard Hill as the downtrodden character Yosser Hughes. The final episode is shown on 7 November. 17 October – The network television premiere of Peter Brook's 1963 adventure Lord of the Flies on BBC2. 23 October – ITV begins showing the Japanese science-fiction marionette series Star Fleet, with the theme tune written and performed by Paul Bliss.