2000 In British Television

This is a list of British television related events from 2000.

Events

January

*1 January
**'' 2000 Today'', the marathon 28-hour live broadcast to celebrate the dawn of the new millennium, ends at 1:30pm.
**Launch of ''Castaway 2000'' on BBC One, a reality television show billed as a bold experiment for the new millennium. Thirty-six men, women and children from the British public, are placed on Taransay for a year. Taransay is a remote Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides and the group must build a sustainable self-sufficient community. The programme ends on New Year's Day 2001.
**Channel 4 airs '' The Biggest Breakfast Ever'', an eight-hour overnight millennium special with Johnny Vaughan and Liza Tarbuck. The channel's New Year's Day schedule also includes a contemporary version of ''Cinderella'' starring Kathleen Turner.
** ITV airs the final episode of ''Gladiators'', the ending was dedicated to the LWT videotape editor Clayton Parker who died in a car accident at the age of 45 in February 1999.
*2 January
**Provisional viewing figures suggest BBC One's millennium coverage was watched by 12.8 million viewers as the New Year was welcomed in at midnight, more than twice the usual audience for New Year television. ITV's coverage was seen by 4.1 million.
**BBC One airs a millennium special of its garden makeover series '' Ground Force'' in which Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh travel to the South African village of Qunu to design and build a garden for the former President Nelson Mandela.
**Sarah Lancashire returns to '' Coronation Street'' as Raquel Watts for a special one-off episode in which she is reunited with husband Curly ( Kevin Kennedy). The episode is watched by an average of 17.5 million viewers, peaking at 18.6 million.
*3 January – The highest rated UK programme of the year so far is recorded, an episode of '' Coronation Street'' that gets 18.96 million viewers.
*6 January – Following a brief return to the series during 1999, Gillian Taylforth leaves her '' EastEnders'' role as Kathy Beale.
*7 January
**The long-running BBC children's programme '' Blue Peter'' reunites two former presenting teams to dig up the time capsules they buried for the year 2000 in 1971 and 1984.
**A brand new stop-motion animated series for preschoolers ''Yoho Ahoy'' is first broadcast on BBC One.
*12 January – A police officer charged over the crash that left television presenter Sheena McDonald in hospital is acquitted following a hearing at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court.
*17 January – BBC Two begins a four-part adaptation of '' Gormenghast'', Mervyn Peake's series of fantasy novels. The series, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers is launched with a massive publicity campaign, but is panned by critics and loses 40% of its viewership by the third episode. Figures indicated that the first episode is watched by 4.2 million, a healthy audience for a BBC Two programme, but that by the third episode, aired on 31 January, has fallen to 2.5 million.
*18 January
**ITV sports commentator Steve Smith is reprimanded by the Independent Television Commission for calling a French rugby player a "stroppy little frog" after he threw the ball at an opponent during a World Cup match between France and Fiji in October 1999.
**Retired Naval Officer Peter Lee becomes the biggest winner to date on ITV's ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' after winning £500,000. He is also the first person to have the opportunity to answer the £1 million question which concerns the location of Durham County Cricket Club, but takes the money after being unsure of the answer. The show would have its first £1 million winner in November.
**The BBC confirms that Danniella Westbrook will leave '' EastEnders'' for the second time in four years, her character, Sam Mitchell only having returned to the series in 1999.
*19 January – Former ''Brookside'' actress Gabrielle Glaister is to join '' Coronation Street'' where she will play Debs Brownlow, the younger sister of Natalie Barnes (Denise Welch).
*23 January – Helen Flanagan takes over the role of '' Coronation Street'' character Rosie Webster from Emma Collinge who had played Rosie since she was ten days old. Collinge left the series to devote more time to gymnastics.
*25 January – Fiona Bruce presents her first episode of ''Crimewatch'' alongside Nick Ross, following the murder of her predecessor Jill Dando.
*27 January
**Channel 4's ''The 11 O'Clock Show'' is criticised by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for including a reference to murdered television presenter Jill Dando which would have caused "widespread public offence". Channel 4 says that the item which aired on 26 October 1999, was meant to be a criticism of the high cost of the murder investigation and the ratings war between BBC One and ITV.
**BBC One broadcasts the final episode of '' Dinnerladies''.
*31 January – Carlton Kids ceases broadcasting after 14 months on the air.

February

*1 February
**Greg Dyke takes over as Director-General of the BBC.
** Carlton World ceases broadcasting after 14 months on the air.
*3 February – Joe Absolom makes his final '' EastEnders'' appearance in a dramatic storyline that sees his character, Matthew Rose get his revenge against Steve Owen after Rose was wrongly convicted of the manslaughter of Owen's girlfriend.
*5 February – An episode of ''Casualty'' in which the character Amy Howard (played by Rebecca Wheatley) is persuaded to attend a singing audition. The song she performs, Stay with Me Baby is subsequently released as a single by Wheatley who had been a singer prior to her acting career.
*7 February – Director-General of the BBC Greg Dyke launches his "Cut the Crap" initiative, a drive to cut red tape at the BBC. Staff are issued with yellow cards bearing the phrase "Cut the crap, make it happen" which they are encouraged to brandish at meetings if they feel inertia is getting in the way of creativity.
*10 February – '' Coronation Street'' confirms that Jane Danson who plays Leanne Battersby will leave the soap later in the year.
*11 February – Debut of ''Reach for the Moon'' on ITV, starring Lynda Bellingham.
*12 February – BBC One airs ''When Changing Rooms Met Ground Force'', a crossover edition of its two popular design and makeover shows, '' Changing Rooms'' and '' Ground Force''.
*13 February – BBC Two airs ''Gimme Some Truth'', a documentary featuring footage of John Lennon as he recorded his 1971 album ''Imagine''.
*15 February – BBC One airs a one-off quiz, ''A Question of EastEnders'' to celebrate the soap's 15th anniversary.
*18 February – Kevin Pallister leaves ''Emmerdale'' as Graham Clark.
*19 February – '' EastEnders'' celebrates its 15th anniversary on BBC One.
*23 February – The first episode of the children's drama '' Hero to Zero'' is broadcast on BBC One.
*24 February – ''The Guardian'' reports that Australian soap '' Home and Away'' will move from ITV to Channel 5 after the latter paid £40 million for the broadcast rights. It is the first time the channel has poached a programme from its rival.
*27 February – BBC One airs the first episode of '' Monarch of the Glen''.
*28 February – Having decided not to adopt the 1999 ITV generic look, Scottish and Grampian launch a new on-screen logo.

March

*1 March – Carlton Select closes, with Carlton's two other channels, Carlton Cinema and Carlton Food Network expanding their broadcasting hours in the wake Carlton Select's demise.
*2 March – The axe falls on some '' EastEnders'' characters, including Ricky Butcher.
*4 March – ITV broadcasts '' The Brit Awards 2000'', hosted by Davina McCall.
*5 March – Former Take That singer Gary Barlow makes his acting debut in the 150th episode of '' Heartbeat'', playing a hitchhiker named Mike Shannon.
*7 March – '' Coronation Street'' confirms that television presenter Naomi Russell will join the series to play factory worker Bobbi Lewis.
*11 March – ITV broadcasts ''The Lookalikes Agency''.
*12 March – ITV airs the drama ''Hero of the Hour'', starring Ross Kemp.
*13 March – Debut of ''The Blind Date'', a two-part ITV drama starring Zara Turner.
*15 March – ITV will scrap its afternoon showing of ''Home and Away'' from 27 March after losing the soap to Channel 5, but it will continue to air in the early evening slot.
*16 March – The Britt Allcroft Company best known for producing the first five series of ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' acquires the rights to the long-running children's arts and crafts programme ''Art Attack'' and other works from The Media Merchants company run by the host of the series Neil Buchanan and Tim Edmunds.
*17 March – To mark the re-release of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film ''A Clockwork Orange'', FilmFour airs ''Return of A Clockwork Orange'', a documentary discussing the controversy surrounding the film. It is also shown the following day on Channel 4.
*19 March – Debut of ''Seeing Red'', an ITV drama based on the book of the same name by Coral Atkins and starring Sarah Lancashire and Richard Dillane.
*21 March – Channel 5 broadcasts the network premiere of ''Metro'', starring Eddie Murphy.
*22 March – The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee issues a report calling on ITV to restore '' News at Ten'' after finding that the broadcaster has seen a drop in ratings since the programme was dropped in 1999.
*24 March – Paul Loughran leaves ''Emmerdale'' after six years when his character Butch Dingle dies in a bus crash.
*26 March – Debut of '' Doctors'', BBC One's new daily serial set in a doctors' surgery. The first episode is broadcast at 6:35pm on a Sunday evening, before continuing on weekdays at 12:30pm.
*27 March – The BBC announces plans to establish an annual bursary at a college in Falmouth for students wishing to train in broadcast journalism as a "living tribute" to TV presenter Jill Dando.
*28 March
**In its annual report, the Independent Television Commission praises Channel 5 for reducing the amount of "tacky" sex shows included in its scheduling, while ''5 News'' and the channel's films and factual programming are also praised. However, the watchdog criticises the amount of low budget programming shown, particularly in the early hours of the morning. The ITC also has warm words for Channel 4, in particular for the "freshness and innovation" of its programming.
**BBC Two's Spring and Summer season will see actor John Alford, jailed in 1999 for drug offences, make his return to television as a taxi passenger in a ten-minute short titled ''Talk Radio'', it is reported. Other highlights include the comedy ''Coupling'' and '' Rhona'', the first British sitcom about a lesbian.
*29 March – The Broadcasting Standards Commission reprimands '' EastEnders'' for episodes screened in December 1999 that featured characters attending a stag and hen weekend in Amsterdam which showed drinking, drug taking and sexual innuendo. An episode of '' Goodness Gracious Me'' aired in February is also criticised for a sketch in which mango chutney was spread on communion bread, something that several viewers felt was disrespectful to the Eucharist.
*30 March – UK Arena is renamed UK Drama.

April

*3 April – BSkyB airs the first interactive TV advert for the cooking sauce Chicken Tonight. Viewers are offered the option of pushing the Red Button to visit Sky's interactive TV service Open where they can order a money-off voucher and a recipe book and to browse through recipes.
*12 April – ITV broadcasts the second Pride of Britain Awards which attracts an audience of 10.2 million. The figures prove to be a surprise for the broadcaster and are higher than those achieved by the 2000 BRIT Awards which had 8.8 million viewers and the BAFTA Awards that aired on Sky One which had a viewership of 100,000.
*14 April – Former MI5 Officer David Shayler who fled from the UK after passing secret documents to the ''Mail on Sunday'', appears as a guest on '' Have I Got News for You''. Because he faces arrest if he returns to the UK, his contribution is recorded via satellite from a studio in France which affected the timing of the comedy on that edition.
*17 April
**A former researcher on ''The Vanessa Show'' wins libel damages against '' The Mirror'' newspaper after it published an article in February 1999 claiming she knew many of the guests she had hired for the show were fakes.
**The shopping channel Ideal World is launched.
*20 April – After twelve years as Ricky Butcher, Sid Owen makes his final appearance in ''EastEnders'' where his character is seen leaving for Europe in a lorry.
*28 April – Channel 4 confirms that Liza Tarbuck will leave ''The Big Breakfast'' to return to acting after the presenter broke the news on the programme's website. She will leave in August at the end of her year-long contract.
*30 April – Guinness's 1999 Surfer advertisement is voted No. 1 in a poll of the top 100 greatest television adverts of all time in a show for Channel 4.

May

*1 May
**ITV's Day of Promise, a series of special programmes throughout the day hosted by Eammon Holmes, Carol Vorderman and Danielle Nicholls. The day is part of a 12-month campaign in which people around Britain are asked to make a simple pledge to do something positive for the first year of the new millennium. Among the programmes aired that day include the first celebrity edition of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?''.
**Formal broadcasting of pay-per-view (PPV) service ONrequest begins.
*4 May – ''Coronation Street'' confirms that Charles Lawson who plays Jim McDonald, is to be written out of the series when his contract ends in October.
*9 May – Durham University wins the 1999–2000 series of ''University Challenge'', beating Oriel College, Oxford 325–135.
*13 May
**Four senior television figures, Alastair Burnet, David Nicholas, Geoffrey Cox and Nigel Ryan have written to the Independent Television Commission accusing ITV of ruining its reputation by replacing ''News at Ten'' with "weak series, entertainment trivia and mildly pornographic programmes", it is reported.
**Denmark's Olsen Brothers win the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest with Fly on the Wings of Love.
* 17 May – The completion of NTL's purchase of Cable & Wireless’ cable assets takes place. two months after the sale was cleared by the Competition Commission.
*18 May – The Independent Television Commission rejects proposals by ITV to improve promotion of its news bulletins and increase spending on evening programming. The broadcaster's nightly news bulletin has suffered a drop in ratings since '' News at Ten'' was axed last year.
*20 May – Gary Mullen, performing as Freddie Mercury wins the eleventh series of ''Stars in Their Eyes''.
*22 May – Following a hearing at Inner London Crown Court, former '' Changing Rooms'' designer Liz Wagstaff is sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for deceiving friends and colleagues out of £54,000 by claiming she needed the money for specialist cancer treatment.
*24 May – BBC Two airs a special edition of '' TOTP2'' featuring performances from Bon Jovi.
*30 May – Six cast members of ITV's ''The Bill'' are to leave the series, it is reported. They include Peter Ellis who plays Chief Superintendent Brownlow and Billy Murray who plays Detective Sergeant Don Beech.
*May
**The licence to run Channel 5's teletext service is awarded to Teletext Ltd and is valid for ten years from 1 July 2002.
**The BBC announce that Ainsley Harriott will succeed Fern Britton as the presenter of ''Ready Steady Cook''.

June

*2 June – Johnny Vaughan confirms he will step down as co-presenter of ''The Big Breakfast'' in early 2001.
*4 June
**13-year-old '' Coronation Street'' character Sarah Platt (played by Tina O'Brien) gives birth to a baby daughter called Bethany, a storyline which intensifies a national public and media frenzy surrounding the topic of teenage pregnancy.
**Marjorie Lang wins the 2000 series of ''MasterChef''.
*6 June – Channel 5 airs the one-off game show ''Naked Jungle'' as part of its Naturism Week. The show features presenter Keith Chegwin and contestants completing a number of puzzle-type tasks in a jungle environment. The programme sparks a debate about nudity on television and is mentioned in the House of Commons where Culture Secretary Chris Smith questions the quality of British television content.
*8 June – After 11 years, '' Home and Away'' is shown on ITV for the final time. It returns on Channel 5 on 16 July 2001. The show's year-long absence occurs because of a clause in ITV's contract preventing it from being broadcast for at least a year after its ITV run ends.
*10 June–2 July – Euro 2000 is held jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands.
*15 June
**Patsy Palmer makes her post-''EastEnders'' debut in one-off detective drama ''McCready and Daughter'', while former ''Coronation Street'' actress Sarah Lancashire stars in the legal sitcom ''Chambers''.
**BBC Two airs a special edition of '' TOTP2'' dedicated to ABBA.
*20 June – A failure at a substation in Shepherd's Bush causes a power cut at BBC Television Centre and leads to major disruption to BBC television and radio services.
*28 June – The Broadcasting Standards Commission upholds twelve viewer complaints about the London Weekend Television documentary ''Aircraft Emergencies'' which showed slow motion footage of air crashes against the backdrop of dramatic music. The Commission felt the programme was too voyeuristic and would have added to the distress of those involved in the incidents.
*29 June – It is announced that Lisa Riley will leave her role as ''Emmerdale''s Mandy Dingle in the Autumn.

July

*1 July – C-Day in the United Kingdom. From that day, most commercial broadcasters begin broadcasting adverts, promotions, and idents in 16:9 widescreen ratio.
*3 July – ITV announce that ''Emmerdale'' will air five nights a week from the Autumn.
*6 July – The first episode of the new police procedural drama '' Burnside'' is broadcast on ITV.
*11 July – Eric Richard who plays the long-serving Sergeant Bob Cryer in ''The Bill'' is to leave the series, it is reported.
*14 July – The reality show '' Big Brother'' debuts in the UK on Channel 4.
*17 July – ITV launches a £500,000 advertising campaign fronted by Jerry Springer which was aimed at repositioning ITV2 as a general entertainment channel. When it launched in December 1998, the channel had promoted itself as a younger alternative to ITV.
*20 July – The Independent Television Commission says it will issue a "legally binding" directive to ITV to move its 11pm news bulletin forward an hour if it does not restore ''News at Ten''. The ITC have been concerned about the 11pm bulletin's low ratings.
*22 July – The ten part popular culture series '' I Love the '70s'' debuts on BBC Two with ''I Love 1970'' where each edition was dedicated to a different year of the decade, the series concludes on 23 September with ''I Love 1979''.
*27 July – ITV says it will apply for a High Court judicial review into the ITC's decision to order it to move its 11pm news bulletin.
*28 July – BBC One introduces its daytime soap '' Doctors'' into the evening schedule with the first of seven weekly episodes planned to air in the Friday 7pm slot. The episodes are shown in that slot up to Friday 1 September, with the final episode of the run airing at 7:00pm on Thursday 7 September.

August

*1 August – The ITN News Channel launches. It is a joint venture between ITN and NTL.
*4 August – Liza Tarbuck presents her final edition of ''The Big Breakfast''. Later that same day, it is confirmed that Denise van Outen will return to the show to co-host with Johnny Vaughan from 11 September until he leaves in early 2001.
*6 August – The BBC are considering a reorganisation of their digital channels to replace BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge with BBC Three and BBC Four, it is reported. The new channels would launch in February 2003 and March 2002 respectively.
*14 August _
**The first episode of the game show ''The Weakest Link'' is broadcast on BBC Two, presented by Anne Robinson.
** The first episode of ''Ready Steady Cook'' was presented by Ainsley Harriott is broadcast on BBC Two.
*16 August – Sophie Long, an aspiring broadcast journalist from Weston-super-Mare is awarded the first Jill Dando bursary, it is reported. After later graduating from Falmouth College of Arts, she is taken on by the BBC.
*17 August – Big Brother contestant Nick Bateman is evicted after attempting to influence voting on the reality show.
*25 August – Delivering the annual MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, BBC Director-General Greg Dyke announces plans to move the BBC Nine O'Clock News to 10pm, ending the bulletin's 30-year run in the 9pm time slot. The change would take place in October.
*26 August – Ian Wright presents the pilot of ''This is My Moment'', a singing talent show made by Granada Television. Members of the public were invited to call a premium-rate phoneline to audition for the show, 60 of whom were chosen to perform in front of a panel at Granada Studios. Of those, five were then selected to appear on the show. The public are encouraged to vote for their favourite act, with the number of calls determining the overall prize money.
*28 August
**The BBC is to buy the Steven Spielberg produced World War II drama '' Band of Brothers'', the most expensive television series made to date. It will air on BBC One in 2001.
**The first episode of the countryside drama '' Down to Earth'' is broadcast on BBC One, starring Pauline Quirke and Warren Clarke.
*30 August
**'' EastEnders'' announces the arrival of the Slater family who will join the soap in mid-September as a replacement for the Di Marco family.
**ITV announces plans to resurrect '' Crossroads'' with an updated format in 2001. The channel will also launch a London-based soap to rival ''EastEnders'' which is provisionally titled ''Trafalgar Road''.

September

*1–2 September – Sky One hosts a special weekend dedicated to celebrating the tenth anniversary of ''The Simpsons'' in the UK.
*3 September – Channel 4 airs the network television premiere of ''Elizabeth'', Shekhar Kapur's 1998 biographical period drama with Australian actress Catherine Blanchett as the title role of Queen Elizabeth, as well as British stars include Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough and John Gielgud in his last feature film appearance.
*5 September – The BBC has given its permission for ''Teletubbies'' to be used in promotional material for a controversial windfarm in Wales in order to help win over critics.
*7 September – Gretchen Franklin makes her final '' EastEnders'' appearance as Ethel Skinner. The character is involved in a controversial euthanasia storyline after asking her friend Dot Cotton (June Brown) to help her end her life because she has terminal cancer.
*11 September
** Granada Media plc agrees to acquire 45% of Irish commercial broadcaster TV3 from the channel's original consortium as part of a deal giving TV3 the right to simulcast programming with ITV.
**BBC One airs Episode 2000 of '' EastEnders''.
*12 September
**As the fuel protests begin to affect motorists and businesses, Sky News introduces its news ticker and regular updates to keep viewers informed of events concerning the developing crisis. BBC News and ITV News begin regular updates the following day. Through the duration of the crisis, the rolling news channels see an increase in viewers, while audiences for bulletins on BBC One and ITV increase by as much as 50 percent, their highest since the Kosovo War.
**Debut of '' Jailbreak'', a reality show described as Channel 5's answer to ''Big Brother'', in which contestants can win £100,000 by escaping from a mock prison. The three-week show, presented by Craig Charles, Ruth England and Charlie Stayt is criticised by prisoners' groups. Roberta Woodhouse, Hannah Davies and Laura Hawkins become the first contestants to escape on 23 September.
*13 September – Peter Salmon, current Controller of BBC One is appointed the broadcaster's new Director of Sport.
*14 September – Lorraine Heggessey is appointed Controller of BBC One, becoming the first woman to hold the post. She will take over from present Controller, Peter Salmon on 1 November.
*15 September
**The first series of Big Brother is won by Craig Phillips. He announces that he will be giving his £70,000 prize to his friend Joanne Harris who has Down syndrome to pay for her heart and lung transplant.
**After eleven years on the air, the final edition of ''Breakfast News'' is broadcast on BBC One.
*15 September–1 October – The BBC broadcasts the 2000 Olympic Games with live coverage on BBC One from late evening until the following lunchtime. BBC Two provides alternative live mid-morning coverage during the first week.
*18 September
**Launch of The Community Channel, a free-to-air television channel wholly owned by Media Trust and supported by major broadcasters including the BBC
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