This is a list of events that took place in 2018 relating to television in the United Kingdom.
Events January Date Event1BBC One welcomes 2018 with a concert by Nile Rodgers and Chic, celebrating their 40th anniversary. The programme pauses at midnight for the Chimes of Big Ben and fireworks display.New Year's Day highlights on BBC One include the TV adaptation of David Walliams' children's story Grandpa's Great Escape, and the debut episode of the BBC crime series McMafia.ITV airs the network television premiere of the James Bond film Spectre. The film is aired by ITV again on 6 January.The US sitcom Friends becomes available to Netflix viewers in the UK and Ireland as the web television provider makes all ten series available for streaming to its customers.2PBS in the United States begins simulcasting the BBC News programmes Beyond 100 Days and World News Today.Channel 5 launches the twenty-first series of Celebrity Big Brother with a female-only cast to mark the 100th anniversary of women over 30 being given the vote. The first male contestants will appear on the programme from 5 January.3Royal Mail announces plans to release a set of stamps featuring characters from Game of Thrones, which will be available from 23 January.ITV News at Ten is forced off the air as the studio is evacuated due to a fire alarm.4Figures indicate that The Great Christmas Bake Off, aired on Christmas Day 2017, was watched by an audience of 4.8 million, giving Channel 4 their largest Christmas Day viewership since modern records began in 2002.Debut of Derry Girls, a new six-part comedy from Channel 4 set in Derry, Northern Ireland. The broadcaster issued a "Derry glossary" ahead of the start of the series in order to help viewers understand some of the lingo used by the characters.5Stephen Fry says he will step down as presenter of the BAFTA Film Awards.The BBC announce they have dropped Ed Westwick from the cast of their adaptation of Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence following a number of sexual assault allegations made against him.A team of former students of Keble College, Oxford win the 2017–18 series of Christmas University Challenge, while their opponents from the University of Reading become the first team in the history of the programme to score nothing. The final score is 240–0.6Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford will present a weekly chat show for Channel 5, it is reported. The programme, scheduled to begin later in the year, has been provisionally titled What a Week with Eamonn & Ruth.7Carrie Gracie resigns from her post as BBC News's China editor over the BBC's gender pay gap controversy, and accuses the BBC of a "secretive and illegal" pay culture.Dancing on Ice returns to ITV for a tenth series, and following a four-year hiatus. Phillip Schofield returns to present alongside Holly Willoughby.8Matt Hancock is appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in a Cabinet reshuffle, replacing Karen Bradley.Riccardo Acerbi, a 56-year-old actor from the Lazio region of Italy is introduced by frozen food manufacturer Birds Eye as the latest actor to play Captain Birdseye.9Culture Secretary Matt Hancock urges the BBC to respond to allegations of pay inequality. His comments come on the same day that the Equality and Human Rights Commission signals its intention to write to the BBC over the gender pay gap controversy and after the resignation of Carrie Gracie.Joanna Lumley is confirmed as presenter of the 2018 BAFTA Film Awards, replacing Stephen Fry.10Figures indicate that the opening episode of Blue Planet II had the highest viewing audience of 2017, with 14 million tuning in to BBC One to watch the programme.A man whose bigamous marriage was discovered after his first wife saw him on a March 2016 edition of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway with another woman is jailed for six months by magistrates in Warrington, Cheshire.Debut of the four-part drama serial Kiri on Channel 4. The opening episode is well received by television critics, but attracts criticism from some social workers because of what they perceive as the programme's negative portrayal of their profession.14BBC One airs The Coronation, a documentary in which Queen Elizabeth II gives a rare insight into her personal experience of her coronation.15Anthony McPartlin announces that he will be divorcing from his wife Lisa Armstrong after being married for 11 years.Ski Sunday Celebrates 40 years of TV's skiing coverage.17Sunrise begins broadcasting from Studio 6 at Sky Studios. The new studio includes a virtual space to allow for segments away from the desk area, along with the weather.22Following the announcement of their engagement, Princess Eugenie and her fiancé Jack Brooksbank give their first interview to BBC One's The One Show.23Fox's £11.7bn bid to take full control of Sky is provisionally blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) amid concerns of plurality.The BBC confirms that Aled Jones will return to his presenting roles on BBC One's Songs of Praise and BBC Radio Wales after he was suspended in October 2017.26Six of the BBC's leading male presenters—Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine—have agreed to take pay cuts following the recent controversy over equal salaries at the broadcaster.The BBC announces plans for a classical music season, which will include Our Classical Century, a BBC Four series featuring major classical performances of the past one hundred years.27The day's edition of Blind Date features the game show's first gay contestant, a former Mr Gay UK, choosing from three other men with whom to go on a date.28At 10.00 pm ITV airs President Trump – The Piers Morgan Interview, an interview Piers Morgan recorded with Donald Trump at the 2018 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the programme, Trump tells Morgan that he "wouldn't call himself" a feminist, and would take a different approach to Brexit than that of British Prime Minister Theresa May.29Reality television star June Bernicoff announces she will not be returning to Channel 4's Gogglebox following the death late last year of her husband Leon.30A report prepared by the auditors PwC finds there is "no evidence of gender bias regarding pay decisions at the BBC, prompting a raft of angry criticism from women employed by the broadcaster.Professional dancer Brendan Cole announces he is leaving Strictly Come Dancing after being with the series since its outset. Cole says that the decision over his departure was made by the BBC and not himself.31While giving evidence to the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, former BBC China editor Carrie Gracie says the BBC cannot be trusted on equal pay, and accuses BBC management of lying to and briefing against her.Coronation Street actor Antony Cotton suffers two broken ribs while rehearsing for Dancing on Ice with dance partner Brandee Malto. He subsequently states his intention to continue participating in the series.
February Date Event1Blue Peter celebrates its 5000th episode, launching a new Diamond Badge to mark the occasion.2Drag queen Courtney Act wins series 21 of Celebrity Big Brother.6BBC Weather launches with a new look during the BBC News at One, with data now provided by MeteoGroup.7Mel Giedroyc and Måns Zelmerlöw present the 2018 edition of Eurovision: You Decide on BBC Two, where SuRie, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, is chosen to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest.Media reports suggest the revived series of The Generation Game will be shorter than originally envisaged, with two rather than four episodes. The programme is being presented by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.8Channel 4 announces a celebrity Stand Up to Cancer edition of The Great British Bake Off.9BBC One broadcasts the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea.1221st Century Fox pledges to maintain the independence of Sky News for five years if it is given the go-ahead for its £11.7million takeover of the news channel. However, Fox wouldn't guarantee funding for the service beyond the five-year period.Comedian Steve Coogan is set to return as his alter-ego Alan Partridge as filming begins on a new BBC series featuring the character, This Time with Alan Partridge.14BT and Sky have agreed a £4.4bn three-year deal to show live Premiership football matches from 2019 to 2022, but the amount falls short of the £5.1bn deal struck in 2015.15BBC News Online reports that BBC One is planning a new Saturday evening talent show titled The Greatest Dancer, and that will see the singer Cheryl acting as a mentor to contestants. A pilot filmed a few days earlier, but not scheduled for broadcast, features Alesha Dixon and Jordan Banjo as presenters, but it is thought unlikely they would present the series.16A HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tax tribunal rules against former BBC Look North presenter Christa Ackroyd, who has been engaged in a long-running legal battle with HMRC over the nature of her employment contract with the BBC. She is one of a number of BBC presenters employed through contracts with personal service companies, and faces a £420,000 tax bill after losing the case.18Joanna Lumley presents the 2018 BAFTA Film Awards, having taken over the role from Stephen Fry. Jennifer Lawrence's curt dismissal of Lumley's gushing introduction that precedes Lawrence presenting an award provokes criticism of both actresses on social media, and calls for Fry to return next year.20Channel 4 airs the documentary Working with Weinstein in which fresh allegations of inappropriate behaviour are made against the film producer Harvey Weinstein.21Jack Whitehall presents the 2018 Brit Awards from The O2, London, and which are broadcast live on ITV.22The government confirms that the annual cost of a television licence will rise by £3.50 from £147 to £150.50 on 1 April.The High Court orders Channel 5 to pay a couple £10,000 each in damages for distress caused by the broadcast of footage of them being evicted from their home. The footage was taken for the documentary series Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away!, and was shown as many as thirty five times, but the couple had not given their permission for it to be aired. The court rules that the couple's privacy outweighed Channel 5's freedom of expression.Guests on the day's edition of This Morning include the recently ousted leader of the UK Independence Party Henry Bolton and his girlfriend Jo Marney whose controversial SMS messages about Prince Harry's fiancé Meghan Markle led to Bolton's political downfall.23BBC Four broadcasts a special one-off live edition of The Old Grey Whistle Test to mark thirty years since the original series came to an end. The three-hour programme is presented by Bob Harris.Danny Miller, who plays gay character Aaron Dingle in ITV's Emmerdale, criticises Twitter for its response to complaints he made about homophobic tweets he received in relation to the soap.Comedian Stephen Fry reveals that he is recovering from surgery for prostate cancer, having been undergone the operation in January.Brighton hairdresser and Gogglebox star Chris Butland-Steed announces he is leaving the series to pursue a career in television.24Take Me Out celebrates its 100th episode with an anniversary special.Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway returns for its fifteenth series. But viewers start to spark concern over Ant McPartlin looking a bit red faced.26Former Emmerdale actress Roxanne Pallett joins York's Minster FM to present the breakfast programme alongside Ben Fry.BBC One airs The Vicar of Dibley episode "Love and Marriage" in tribute to the actress Emma Chambers who played Alice Tinker, and who died on 21 February.27US cable TV giant Comcast makes a £22.1bn bid for Sky, challenging the existing offer from 21st Century Fox.28A new feed of ITV3 is launched on Freeview, on Channel 788.
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