This is a list of British television related events from 1987.
Events January 1 January – New Year's Day highlights on BBC1 include the network television premiere of Local Hero and the film To Have and Have Not. 2 January The Japanese-American animated series ThunderCats makes its UK debut on BBC1. The network television premiere of the 1982 Steven Spielberg-produced supernatural horror film Poltergeist on BBC1, starring JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson. 3 January Closedowns reappear on Yorkshire Television when its experiment with 24-hour television, which had begun last August and had consisted of a simulcast of music video channel Music Box, is put on hiatus. The US sitcom Perfect Strangers makes its British debut on BBC1. 5 January – EastEnders is sold to Australia and goes to air on ABC along with In Sickness and In Health. 6 January The Guardian reports that Central has acquired the European division of the American production company Filmfair for £1.5million. Filmfair goes on to produce several of the station's networked children's series before being sold on to the Storm Group (Caspian) in 1991. Inspector Morse, based on the books by Colin Dexter, makes its debut on ITV with John Thaw in the title role; the series will run until 2000 and generate spin-offs. 7 January – Ben Elton's comedy series Filthy Rich & Catflap premieres on BBC2. 9 January – The Friday night chat show The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross makes its debut on Channel 4. 12 January – The five-part Australian World War I drama Anzacs makes its UK debut on BBC1, starring Paul Hogan. 13 January – Yorkshire Television becomes the second ITV region to launch a Jobfinder service. It broadcasts for an hour after closedown.Television and radio. The Times (London, England), Friday, 30 January 1987; pg. 43 16 January The Zircon affair becomes public knowledge when The Guardian reports that the government ordered the BBC to shelve a documentary in the Secret Society series about the Zircon satellite. Two days later, documentary maker Duncan Campbell is subject to an injunction preventing him from discussing or writing about the programme's content, but he subsequently writes an article about the episode for the New Statesman magazine. During a live trailer shown on ITV for the Channel 4 music show The Tube, presenter Jools Holland uses the phrase "be there or be ungroovy fuckers". The programme is taken off air for three weeks as a result. 29 January Alasdair Milne is forced to resign as Director-General of the BBC by the newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors, Marmaduke Hussey. His deputy, senior BBC accountant Michael Checkland, becomes acting D-G. A strike by set designers means that Crimewatch UK is, this month, broadcast from the Grandstand studio.
February 5 February – The 200th edition of the sports quiz A Question of Sport is broadcast on BBC1. At this occasion, Princess Anne appears on the programme, a matter of weeks after team captain Emlyn Hughes mistook a picture of her on a horse for jockey John Reid. The episode gains a record audience of nineteen million viewers. 10 February – ITV begins showing the American legal drama series L.A. Law, starring Harry Hamlin. 15 February – Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears makes its UK television premiere on ITV. 21 February – An apparently inebriated Oliver Reed appears on the ITV chat show Aspel & Company where he stumbles and lurches around the set. 24 February – The sitcom Hardwicke House, set in a dysfunctional comprehensive school, makes its debut on ITV. However, the series is badly received by critics and viewers and is abruptly cancelled after just two episodes are shown, the second being broadcast the following evening. The remaining five episodes, although recorded and scheduled are never transmitted. 26 February – Michael Checkland is formally appointed as Director-General of the BBC. 27 February – The BBC and ITV begins a week of programming aimed at educating people about the AIDS virus. Highlights include AIDS – The Facts on BBC1, a short programme of facts and figures covering frequently asked questions about the disease and First AIDS, an ITV comedy-sketch show produced by London Weekend Television and featuring Mike Smith, Jonathan Ross and Emma Freud.
March 3 March – BBC1 begins showing the Rock and roll themed drama series Tutti Frutti, starring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson. 5 March – Channel 4 shows Neil Jordan's 1984 fantasy horror film The Company of Wolves. 6 March – BBC1 airs The Elephant Man, David Lynch's acclaimed 1980 film about Joseph Merrick, starring Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt. 9 March Debut of Central's Intimate Contact, a drama dealing with the issue of AIDS. Debut of the comedy sketch series French and Saunders on BBC2, written by and starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. 21 March – Opportunity Knocks returns after a decade-long break on BBC1. It is presented by Bob Monkhouse and airs under the title Bob Says Opportunity Knocks.
April 3 April – Debut of the panel game show Through the Keyhole on ITV, presented by David Frost with Loyd Grossman. 6 April – Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends makes its debut in Australia on ABC within the Barley the Clown strand. 9 April The children's animated series The Adventures of Spot, based on the books by Eric Hill and narrated by Just Good Friends actor and singer Paul Nicholas, makes its debut on BBC1. The children's animated series The Raggy Dolls makes its debut in Australia on ABC. 11 April – Jan Leeming presents her final bulletin for BBC News. 18 April – The final edition of the Saturday morning children's show Saturday Superstore is broadcast on BBC1. 20 April – The network television premiere of the 1983 thriller WarGames on BBC1, starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy and Dabney Coleman. 23 April Channel 4 starts broadcasting into the early hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays when it launches Nightime.C4 / Channel 4 Nighttime first TX & Closedown −1987 One of the programmes is the discussion show After Dark which is broadcast live and with no scheduled end time. Yorkshire extends broadcasting into the early hours on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights by introducing a Through Till Three strand. 24 April – The final episode of the music series The Tube is broadcast on Channel 4. 25 April The Australian soap opera Prisoner: Cell Block H makes its debut on Central. This is believed by many viewers to be the series debut on British television, but in fact it has been running in the Yorkshire region since 1984. Central is the first region to conclude the series, in December 1991. Central becomes the first station to keep its transmitters on air all night when it launches More Central. Programmes are shown into the early hours with the rest of the night filled by its Jobfinder service which airs from closedown until the start of TV-am. The US sitcom ALF makes its UK debut on ITV. 28 April – BBC television programming in Hindi and Urdu finishes after more than 20 years following the transmission of the final editions of Asian Magazine and Gharbar. A new programme for the Asian community will be launched later in the year but will be broadcast in English. 28 April – ITV shows the network premiere of the 1984 comedy film Police Academy, starring Steve Guttenberg and Kim Cattrall.
May
1 May – Launch of the late-night discussion programme After Dark on Channel 4 which is broadcast live and is notable for having no scheduled end time. 3 May – The youth show Network 7 makes its debut on Channel 4. It is shown live at Sunday lunchtime. 9 May – Ireland's Johnny Logan wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, held in Brussels and broadcast on BBC1, with "Hold Me Now". 10 May – ITV airs Escape from Sobibor, a made-for-television film telling the story of the mass escape from the Sobibór extermination camp during World War II, the most successful uprising by Jewish prisoners of German extermination camps. 14 May – Two television reporters, Michael Buerk from the BBC and Peter Sharp from ITN, are expelled from South Africa as a result of their coverage of university demonstrations. 22 May – 20 June – The BBC airs coverage of the first Rugby World Cup from Australia and New Zealand. This is the only time that they have shown the tournament. 31 May – The final episode of the children's fantasy series Super Gran airs on ITV.
June 1 June – Live presentation of Children's ITV is launched and are presented by former Central announcers Gary Terzza and Debbie Shore.Timeline: CITV from start to finish 8 June – BBC2 shows the Moonlighting episode "I Am Curious... Maddie" in which, after two years of romantic tension, Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepard finally make love following a huge argument. 9 June – Debut of the Tyne Tees-produced chart show The Roxy, presented by David Jensen and Kevin Sharkey. The show is intended as a stablemate for the Independent radio hit parade The Network Chart Show following a similar format to the BBC's Top of the Pops, but its Newcastle upon Tyne location impinges on its ability to secure live performances. It also suffers from poor ratings because it does not have a regular slot on the ITV network and is cancelled in April 1988. 11–12 June – Coverage of the results of the 1987 General Election is shown on BBC1 and ITV. 19 June – Screening of The Grand Knockout Tournament, an It's a Knockout special featuring members of the British Royal Family alongside sporting and other celebrities. Also known as It's a Royal Knockout, the event attracts much media derision and is deemed to have been a failure, although it raises £1 million for charity. 22 June – The BBC's lunchtime children's block moves from BBC1 to BBC2. It is shown slightly earlier, at 1:20pm. 27 June – Family Fortunes returns to ITV after a 2-year break, with new presenter Les Dennis who goes on to become the show's longest-serving host until 2002. The new series also sees the debut of the short-lived coloured game board. 29 June – Schools programmes are broadcast on ITV for the last time. The service will be transferred to Channel 4 from September to allow ITV to launch a regular daytime schedule.
July 5 July – Watching, Jim Hitchmough's comedy about a mismatched couple and starring Paul Bown and Emma Wray, makes its debut on ITV. 7 July – Jeremy Isaacs, Chief Executive of Channel 4, announces that advertising revenue for the channel for 1986–87 has exceeded costs for the first time since its launch, providing a £20m profit. 16 July – Channel 4 shows the first day-long coverage of women's cricket in the UK when England play Australia at Lord's."Briefing", The Times page 31, 8 July 1987 Coverage begins at 10.45 am and finishes at 6.30 pm, with breaks for the lunch and tea intervals. However, only the late-night highlights are shown in Wales, where S4C show Glamorgan against Pakistan instead."Television and radio", The Times page 23, 16 July 1987 17 July – ITN's News at One airs for the last time, it also marks Leonard Parkin's retirement from newsreading. 18 July – After a hiatus of a year, BBC1 starts showing the US crime series Miami Vice again, with the second season's feature-length episode The Prodigal Son. 20 July ITV's lunchtime news programme moves to a 12:30pm slot. Consequently, News at One ends after eleven years on the air. Also pre school children's programmes and other programmes previously shown between 12 and 1:00pm move an hour earlier to 11 to 12:00am as the new series of long running game show Winner Takes All airs at the old slot time of 12:00pm now hosted by Geoffrey Wheeler replacing Jimmy Tarbuck. 22 July – ITV's investigational show The Cook Report airs its first edition. 25 July – A new weekly programme for the Asian community, Network East, makes its debut on BBC2. Broadcast in English, the show replaces Asian Magazine and Gharbar which had ended three months earlier.