memories of 1980

Image by brizzle born and bred
1980 As the continued miniaturisation continues new technology allows for new consumer products that could never have existed to appear including Domestic Camcorders and Fax Machines , One other notable is the release of the Pac-Man arcade game. Politics enters the Olympic games with the boycott by the US of the Moscow Olympics and War breaks out between Iraq and Iran.

This was also a bad year for natural disasters including Mount St. Helens eruption on 27th March and a major heat wave in the US. Also the world tunes in to the answer of Who Shot JR? on the popular soap Dallas.

Life in Britain 1980

It was a time when Don McClean’s version of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ sat atop the singles chart, its glum chorus summing up a country struggling to emerge from the late-70s doldrums.

GDP had dropped by -1.8 per cent while unemployment, at 5.8 per cent or 1.56 million, While Britons got by on an average wage of £6,000 (the equivalent of about £19,000 today), petrol cost 28p a litre (90p), a pint of beer was 35p (£1.10), a loaf of bread 33p (£1.10) and a pint of milk 17p (54p).

At the month’s end, the pre-decimal sixpence was withdrawn from circulation. Later that summer, Alexandra Palace in London was part-destroyed by fire. The British Olympics team returned from Moscow with a medal haul – including five golds – that left them ninth in the table, below Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. The USSR finished top with 80 golds.

Earlier in the year, the first episode of Yes, Minister had been broadcast by the BBC and SAS officers ended a hostage crisis by storming the Iranian Embassy in London, killing five terrorists and free all the captives.

Political events were to prove emblematic of the coming decade. In June it was announed that nuclear weapons were to be stored at RAF Greenham Common, prompting years of protests from the CND.

In October, amid murmurs that she would be forced to make a U-turn in her economic policies, Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister, told the Conservative Party conference: "You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning."

In November, Ronald Reagan, the Republican former actor and Governor of California was elected US president, defeating by a landslide Jimmy Carter, who had presided over a sharp economic decline. Back in Britain, after the resignation of Jim Callaghan, Labour elected the left-winger Michael Foot as leader, opening a generation of in-fighting that would see them fail to retake power for another 17 years.

In sport, while England failed to progress past the group stages of the European football championships in Italy, there were also then-unknown reasons for long-term optimism: future stars Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Ashley Cole were all born during the year.

Meanwhile, the assassination in December of John Lennon outside his New York apartment building capped a year of terrible losses to British arts. Among others who died were the film-maker Sir Alfred Hitchcock, the photographer Sir Cecil Beaton, the actors Peter Sellers and Hattie Jacques, and the musician Ian Curtis.

1980 Rubik’s cube

You would pick up the Rubik’s Cube and turn it a few times. The goal was to make each side a solid color, as it was when you first took it out of the box. After a couple of hours, you realized you were mesmerized by the puzzle and yet no closer to solving it. This exact situation happened to millions of people in 1980 as the Rubik’s Cube became an obsession around the world.

Ernö Rubik is the one to praise or to blame, depending on how frustrated you got with the Rubik’s Cube. Ernö Rubik was born on July 13, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary.

Rubik combined the divergent talents of his parents (his father was an engineer who designed gliders and his mother was an artist and a poetess) to become both a sculptor and an architect.

Who shot J.R.?

21.5 million viewers tune in to watch the 1980–81 season premier of Dallas, which answers the question of Who shot J.R.?. At the time the audience figures are a record for a soap in Britain.

The question of who shot EastEnders’ Phil Mitchell was compelling the nation, but back in 1980 people were asking a similar question: Who shot JR? In 57 countries, 350 million people watched to see who gunned down the most notorious soap villain of them all – Dallas oil baron JR Ewing.

From the episode in March 1980 when he was shot, until the episode in November when the culprit was revealed, one question seemed to be on everyone’s lips: Who really shot JR Ewing? Ten gallon hats, t-shirts and posters emblazoned with ‘I shot JR’ logos could be found everywhere. Special JR bumper stickers reportedly outsold those supporting Carter or Reagan during US election year, and the appropriately named TR Dallas had a number one hit in Ireland with ‘Who Shot JR?’.

In Britain, William Hill stopped taking bets on the outcome and the film canisters containing the crucial episode were accompanied by an armed guard from Los Angeles to Heathrow Airport. Around 21.5 million viewers watched the episode screened on BBC One – a record viewing for a soap at that time.

So who did shoot JR? It was Kristen, but JR spared her because she was carrying his child. Kristen was played by actress Mary Crosby who was grateful for her new found notoriety.

"All of my life people have thought of me as Bing Crosby’s daughter. Now they’ll remember me as the person who shot JR," she said after the show.

SAS rescue ends Iran embassy siege "who dares wins"

This is what i liked about Thatcher she was not afraid to use the SAS. The SAS is unquestionably one of Britain’s most famous brands and without doubt the best in the world.

A LONG-LOST document has revealed how Margaret Thatcher was forced to pay for the rebuilding of Iran’s London embassy, destroyed by the SAS in a famous siege.

SAS veteran who led the heroic raid which ended the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege puts his medals up for sale for £25,000. Curry, now 62 and living in Hereford, the home of the SAS, has decided to sell his medals and memorabilia so they can be enjoyed by collectors.

Millions of people watched the rescue live on television as bank holiday entertainment on all three channels was interrupted to show the real-life drama unfold.

Terrorists seize Iran embassy and hostages in London leading to the British SAS storming embassy and releasing hostages.

The siege of the Iranian embassy in London has ended after a dramatic raid by SAS commandos. Five Iranian gunmen were killed and one was arrested.

Nineteen hostages were set free but one died and two were injured in the cross-fire.

It later emerged that during the SAS raid PC Trevor Lock had tackled the leader of the gunmen known as Salim and saved the life of an SAS soldier. He was awarded the George Medal for his actions. The excellent publicity provided by unprecedented live TV coverage of the event ensured the future of the SAS regiment was guaranteed. It had previously been under threat of disbandment.

The one surviving gunman, Fowzi Nejad, was sentenced to life imprisonment nine months later.

His fellow hostage-takers had opposed Ayatollah Khomeini and demanded freedom for the southern Iranian province of Khuzestan. But their cause was soon forgotten when war broke out between Iran and Iraq in late 1980 – a conflict that was to last eight years.

Although Iran had supported the SAS raid, it took about 13 years for a mutual compensation package to be agreed whereby the British government paid for the damage done to the Iranian embassy and Iran repaired the British embassy in Tehran damaged during the 1979 revolution.

Chris Cramer went on to become managing editor of CNN International.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2pJi2sOds

1980: John Lennon shot dead

John Lennon is shot dead outside his apartment building in New York City. His latest single, "(Just Like) Starting Over", subsequently becomes a number one hit.

John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before he laid in wait and killed him. Chapman pleaded guilty to gunning down Mr Lennon and is currently serving life in Attica prison near New York. In October 2004 he failed for the third time to secure his release.

He said he had heard voices in his head telling him to kill the world-famous musician. Twenty years after his death millions of fans paid tribute to Mr Lennon in his home town of Liverpool and in New York.

His widow launched a campaign against gun violence in the United States to mark the anniversary.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjU7VMj94ss

Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham Dies

On Sept. 25, 1980, at 32 years of age, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham passed away, inadvertently bringing an end to one of rock’s greatest bands.

The group’s final studio effort ‘In Through The Out Door’ had been released in Sept. 1979 after many delays. In May 1980, the group performed what would be their last European tour. That September, the band was in rehearsals at guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in advance of an American tour.

Bonham reportedly began drinking early in the day, continuing to consume copious amounts of alcohol well into the evening. Not long after the group’s rehearsals had wrapped up for the night, Bonham passed out in a drunken state and would never wake up.

In the weeks following Bonham’s untimely death, London newspaper The Guardian reported that Bonham had consumed “about 40 measures of vodka in 12 hours.” At the inquest of Bonham’s death, his assistant Rex King told the authorities how he and Page’s assistant Albert Hobbs had put Bonham to bed that evening.

On the morning of Sept. 25, Led Zeppelin’s road manager Ben Lefevre attempted to stir Bonham but noticed that something was indeed wrong with the drummer. After unsuccessfully searching for a pulse, Lefevre called an ambulance. A sample taken from Bonham’s bladder showed an alcohol level of 276 milligrams per hundered millilitres. Bonhams’s death was ruled accidental after it was determined that he died after inhaling his vomit.

Pathologist Dr. Edmund Hemstead reportedly said, ”This indicated he inhaled the vomit but didn’t die immediately as the result of that, and that he died some hours later due to the shocked state on inhaling vomit, during which time the alcohol in his blood would have broken down.”

Led Zeppelin issued a brief statement declaring they would not continue as a band without their departed drummer, and apart from a handful of charity shows they have kept their word. The most recent of these events, a full-length 2007 concert at London’s O2 arena, was released as the 2012 live album ‘Celebration Day.’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAgHGKY2Z0Y

1980 Yorkshire Ripper Murders

24 September – 34-year-old Singapore born doctor Upadhya Bandara is attacked and injured in Headingley, Leeds; the Yorkshire Ripper is believed to have been responsible.

Before she had lost consciousness, she had seen her attacker and described him as about aged 25, 5′ 4" in height, with black hair and a full beard and moustache. Due to the lack of any stab wounds, and the use of a ligature, the attack was not considered to be a Ripper attack. The attack was, however, linked to the murder of Marguerite Walls and the police believed they had a new killer to contend with.

5 November – Theresa Sykes, a 16-year-old Huddersfield mother of a young baby, is wounded in a stabbing near her home in the town. The Yorkshire Ripper is believed to be responsible.

This attack was at first not thought to be a Yorkshire Ripper attack, but later the police would change their minds. The 8:00 pm time of this attack would also help lead to the downfall of Peter Sutcliffe eight weeks later after he was arrested in Sheffield, when, for the first time, his alibi for this attack and his wife Sonia’s recollection of the night did not coincide.

17 November – University student Jacqueline Hill, aged 20, is murdered in Headingley, Leeds.

Jacqueline Hill was the last known victim of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.

1980 Timeline

2 January – Workers at British Steel go on a nationwide strike over pay called by the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, which has some 90,000 members among British Steel’s 150,000 workforce, in a bid to get a 20% rise. It is the first steelworks strike since 1926.

19 January – The first UK Indie Chart is published in Record Week.

20 January – The British record TV audience for a film is set when some 23,500,000 viewers tune in for the ITV showing of the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), starring Roger Moore who is at this time in the process of filming For Your Eyes Only.

21 January – MS Athina B is beached at Brighton.

28 January – Granada Television airs a controversial edition of World in Action on ITV, in which it alleges that Manchester United F.C. chairman Louis Edwards has made unauthorised payments to the parents of some of the club’s younger players and has made shady deals to win local council meat contracts for his retail outlet chain.

14 February – Margaret Thatcher announces that state benefit to strikers will be halved.

14 – 23 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, United States, and win one gold medal (Robin Cousins for figure skating).

17 February – British Steel announces that more than 11,000 jobs will be axed at its plants in Wales by the end of next month.

25 February – First episode of the popular political television sitcom Yes Minister broadcast by the BBC.

Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards dies from a heart attack at the age of 65, just weeks after allegations about his dealings with Manchester United and his retail outlet chain.

10 March – An opinion poll conducted by the Evening Standard suggests that six out of 10 Britons are dissatisfied with Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, who now trail Labour (still led by James Callaghan, the former prime minister) in the opinion polls.

20 March – Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station, was forced to cease transmission when the ship on which it was based sank.

25 March – The British Olympic Association vote to defy the government, and send athletes to the Olympic Games to be held in Moscow, USSR in the summer.

Robert Runcie enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.

26 March – The budget raises tax allowances and duties on petrol, alcohol and tobacco.

31 March – British Leyland agrees to sell the MG cars factory at Abingdon to a consortium headed by Aston Martin-Lagonda when the plant closes this autumn.

National Heritage Act sets up the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Vauxhall, the British division of General Motors, launches the Astra, a front-wheel drive hatchback which replaces the recently discontinued Viva and is based on the latest Opel Kadett. Although the car is currently produced in West Germany and Belgium, there are plans for British production to commence at the Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire next year.

1 April – The steelworkers’ strike is called off.

4 April – Alton Towers Resort is opened by Madame Tussauds in Staffordshire.

10 April – The UK reaches agreement with Spain to re-open its border with Gibraltar.

18 April – Zimbabwe becomes independent of the United Kingdom.

22 April – Unemployment stands at a two-year high of more than 1.5million.

30 April – The Iranian Embassy Siege begins. A six-man terrorist team calling itself the "Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan" (DRMLA) captures the Embassy of Iran in Prince’s Gate, Knightsbridge, central London, taking 26 hostages.

1 May – British Aerospace privatised.

3 May – Liverpool win the Football League First Division title for 12th time.

5 May – The SAS storm the Iranian Embassy building, kill 5 out of the 6 terrorists and free all the hostages.

6 May – The BBC’s Ceefax teletext service, launched in 1974, is rebranded as Orbit.

10 May – West Ham United win the FA Cup with a 1–0 victory over Arsenal in the final at Wembley Stadium. Trevor Brooking scores the only goal of the game to make West Ham United only the second team from the Second Division to have won the trophy in postwar years. It is West Ham’s third FA Cup triumph.

16 May – Inflation has risen to 21.8%.

27 May – Inquest into the death of New Zealand born teacher Blair Peach (who was killed during a demonstration against the National Front last year) returns a verdict of misadventure, resulting in a public outcry.

28 May – Nottingham Forest retain the European Cup with a 1–0 win over Hamburger SV, the West German league champions, in Madrid. The winning goal is scored by Scotland international John Robertson. The European Cup has now been won by an English club for the fourth successive year, as Liverpool won it for two consecutive years before Forest’s first victory last year.

June – British Leyland launches its Morris Ital range of family saloons and estates, which are a reworking of the nine-year-old Marina that was one of Britain’s most popular cars during the 1970s. Production is expected to finish by 1984 when an all-new front-wheel drive model is added to the range, and sales begin on 1 August – the same day that the new W-registered cars go on sale.

The UK economy slides into recession.

6 June – Two Malaysian men are jailed for 14 years after being found guilty of running a drug smuggling ring in London which generated millions of pounds.

12 June – Gail Kinchen (a pregnant 16-year-old) and her unborn baby are accidentally shot dead by a police marksman who entered the Birmingham flat where her boyfriend David Pagett is holding her hostage at gunpoint.

17 June – Secretary of State for Defence, Francis Pym reveals to the House of Commons that US nuclear cruise missiles would be located at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire and the disused RAF Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire.

19 June – Gunmen attack the British embassy in Iraq; three unknown attackers are shot dead by Iraqi security forces.

24 June – Unemployment is announced to have reached a postwar high of 1,600,000.

26 June – The Glasgow Central by-election is held, with Labour retaining its hold on the seat despite a swing of 14% to the Scottish Nationalist Party.

30 June – The pre-decimal sixpence coin is withdrawn from circulation.

1 July – MG’s Abingdon car factory looks set to close completely this autumn as Aston Martin fails to raise the funds to buy it from British Leyland.

8 July – Miners threatening to strike demand a 37% pay increase, ignoring pleas from Margaret Thatcher to hold down wage claims.

10 July – Alexandra Palace in London gutted by fire.

19 July – 3 August – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Moscow and win 5 gold, 7 silver and 9 bronze medals.

22 July – Unemployment has hit a 44-year high of nearly nearly 1.9million.

29 July – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announces the introduction of Enterprise Zones as an employment relief effort in some of regions of Britain which have been hardest hit by deindustrialisation and unemployment.

Britain is now in recession for the second time in five years following two successive quarters of economic contraction, which worsened from 0.9% in the first quarter of the year to 1.8% in the second quarter.

11 August – Margaret Thatcher visits the Harold Hill area of East London to hand of the keys to the 12,000th council tenants in Britain to buy their home under the right to buy scheme. However, she is met by jeering from neighbours of the family.

15 August – 37 people die as a result of fires started by arson at adjacent London nightclubs.

28 August – Unemployment now stands at 2million for the first time since 1935. Economists warn that it could rise to up to 2.5million by the end of next year.

1 September – Ford launches one of the most important new cars of the year – the mark 3 Escort, which is a technological innovation in the small family car market, spelling the end of the traditional rear-wheel drive saloon in favour of the front-wheel drive hatchback, and following a trend in this sector of car which is being repeated all over Western Europe. An estate version is also available.

9 September – Bibby Line’s Liverpool-registered ore-bulk-oil carrier MV Derbyshire sinks with the loss of all 44 crew south of Japan in Typhoon Orchid following structural failure. At 91,655 gross tons, she is the largest UK-registered ship ever lost.

11 September- The Marlborough diamond is stolen in London.

12 September – Marlborough diamond thieves Joseph Scalise and Arthur Rachel are arrested in Chicago after getting off a British Airways flight in the city. However, the stolen diamond has not been found.

13 September – Hercules, a bear which had gone missing on a Scottish island filming a Kleenex advertisement, is found.

21 September – First CND rally at RAF Greenham Common.

24 September – 34-year-old Singapore born doctor Upadhya Bandara is attacked and injured in Headingley, Leeds; the Yorkshire Ripper is believed to have been responsible.

3 October – The 1980 Housing Act comes into effect, giving council house tenants of three years’ standing in England and Wales the right to buy their home from their local council at a discount.

6 October – Deregulation of express coach services.

8 October – British Leyland launches the Austin Metro, a small hatchback which uses much of the Mini’s mechanical design but an entirely different body which offers more space and practicality. Production of the 21-year-old Mini, however, is set to continue for the foreseeable future, although it is expected to be scaled back along with that of the larger Austin Allegro.

9 October – Gloagtrotter of Perth, Scotland, trading as GT Coaches, begins operation of a coach service from Dundee to St Pancras, London, as The Stage Coach, origin of the Stagecoach Group.

10 October – Margaret Thatcher makes her famous "The lady’s not for turning" speech to the Conservative Party conference after party MP’s warn that her economic policy was responsible for the current recession and rising unemployment.

15 October – James Callaghan, ousted as prime minister by the Conservative victory 17 months ago, resigns as Labour Party leader after four and a half years.

Former prime minister Harold Macmillan, 86, criticises Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies, claiming that she has "got the wrong answer" to the economic crises which she inherited from Labour last year. Her economic policies are also criticised by union leaders, who blame her policies for rising unemployment and bankruptcies, and warn that this could result in civil unrest.

17 October – Elizabeth II makes history by becoming the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican.

22 October – Lord Thomson announces that The Times and Sunday Times will be closed down within five months unless a buyer is found.

24 October – MG car production ends after 56 years with the closure of the plant in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, where more than 1.1million MG cars have been built since it opened in 1924.

28 October – Margaret Thatcher declares that the government will not give in to seven jailed IRA terrorists who are on hunger strike in the Maze Prison in hope of winning prisoner of war status.

5 November – Theresa Sykes, a 16-year-old Huddersfield mother of a young baby, is wounded in a stabbing near her home in the town. The Yorkshire Ripper is believed to be responsible.

10 November – Michael Foot is elected Leader of the Labour Party.

13 November – George Smith, a security guard, is shot dead when the van he is guarding is intercepted by armed robbers in Willenhall, West Midlands.

17 November – University student Jacqueline Hill, aged 20, is murdered in Headingley, Leeds.

19 November – Police investigating the murder of Jacqueline Hill establish that she was probably the 13th woman to be killed by the Yorkshire Ripper.

23 November – Despite the economy now being in recession and the government’s monetarist economic policy to tackle inflation being blamed for the downturn, the government announces further public spending cuts and taxation rises.

8 December – John Lennon is shot dead in New York.

10 December – Frederick Sanger wins his second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, jointly with Walter Gilbert, "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids".

14 December – Thousands of music fans hold a 10-minute vigil in Liverpool for John Lennon.

18 December – Michael Foot’s hopes of becoming prime minister in the next general election are given a boost by an MORI poll which shows Labour on 56% with a 24-point lead over the Conservatives.

An UFO is allegedly sighted near RAF Woodbridge. This and its subsequent sightings would be part of what was later known as the Rendlesham Forest incident, the most well known UFO incident to occur in Britain.

28 December – The Independent Broadcasting Authority award contracts for commercial broadcasting on ITV. TV-am is awarded the first ever breakfast TV contract, and is set to go on air by 1983.

Inflation has risen to 18% as Margaret Thatcher’s battle against inflation is still in its early stages.

Britain becomes self-sufficient in oil.

Alton Towers begins development as a theme park.

The economy contracts throughout the year, shrinking by 4% overall with the greatest decline occurring in the second quarter of the year at 1.8%.

1980 in British Music

1 January – Cliff Richard is appointed an MBE by Elizabeth II.

16 January – Paul McCartney is arrested in Tokyo for possession of a half pound of marijuana. The remaining part of McCartney’s tour has to be cancelled.

25 January – Paul McCartney is released from a Japanese jail and ejected from the country by Japanese authorities.

8 February – David Bowie and his wife of nearly 10 years, Angie, file for divorce. Bowie gets custody of their 9-year-old son, Zowie.

30 April – The Roger Daltrey film, McVicar, opens in London.

18 May – Ian Curtis, vocalist of pioneering post-punk group Joy Division, hangs himself in his Macclesfield home. His death comes just days before Joy Division are scheduled to begin their first U.S. tour.

16 September – Kate Bush becomes the first British female artist to reach No.1 in the album charts.

20 September – Ozzy Osbourne’s breakthrough debut album Blizzard of Ozz is released in the UK.

25 November – ABBA score the last of their nine number one singles in the UK Charts.

December – Duran Duran signs with EMI after finalizing its lineup and touring as a support act for Hazel O’Connor.

4 December – Led Zeppelin disbands following the death of drummer John Bonham.

8 December – John Lennon is shot dead outside his apartment building in New York City. His latest single, "(Just Like) Starting Over", subsequently becomes a number one hit.

Number-one Singles

"Another Brick in the Wall" – Pink Floyd
"Brass in Pocket" – The Pretenders
The Special AKA Live! – The Specials
"Coward of the County" – Kenny Rogers
"Atomic" – Blondie
"Together We Are Beautiful" – Fern Kinney
"Going Underground / Dreams of Children" – The Jam
"Working My Way Back to You" – The Detroit Spinners
"Call Me" – Blondie
"Geno" – Dexys Midnight Runners
"What’s Another Year" – Johnny Logan
"Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H)" – Johnny Mandel
"Crying" – Don McLean
"Xanadu" – Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra
"Use It Up and Wear It Out" – Odysssey
"The Winner Takes It All" – ABBA
"Ashes to Ashes" – David Bowie
"Start!" – The Jam
"Feels Like I’m in Love" – Kelly Marie
"Don’t Stand So Close to Me" – The Police
"Woman in Love" – Barbra Streisand
"The Tide Is High" – Blondie
"Super Trouper" – ABBA
"(Just Like) Starting Over" – John Lennon
"There’s No-one Quite Like Grandma" – St. Winifred’s School Choir

Television

20 January – The British record TV audience for a film is set when some 23,500,000 viewers tune in for the ITV showing of the James Bond film Live and Let Die, released in 1973 and starring Roger Moore who is now in the process of filming his fifth film as the spy.

24 January – The IBA reappoints most ITV franchises.

25 February – first episode of the popular political sitcom Yes Minister broadcast by the BBC.

4 April – Violet Carson makes her last appearance as Ena Sharples on Coronation Street.

9 April – ATV airs the critically acclaimed Death of a Princess, a drama documentary about a young princess from a fictitious Middle-Eastern Islamic nation and her lover who are publicly executed for adultery. The drama is believed to be based on the true story of Princess Masha’il and its showing causes a great deal of controversy, provoking an angry response from the Saudi Arabian government.

5 May – Both the BBC and ITV interrupt their scheduled programming to broadcast the SAS assault during the Iranian Embassy siege. The coverage was to launch the careers of several journalists, such as the BBC’s Kate Adie, while cameraman David Goldsmith and his team received a BAFTA for their coverage.

6 May – The BBC’s five-year-old Ceefax service is rebranded as Orbit.

November – The first annual Children in Need charity appeal organised by the BBC.

21 November – 21.5 million viewers tune in to watch the 1980–81 season premier of Dallas, which answers the question of Who shot J.R.?. At the time the audience figures are a record for a soap in Britain.

9 December – The single drama The Flipside of Dominick Hide is first broadcast as part of the Play for Today series on BBC1.

9 December – 20th anniversary of the first episode of Coronation Street.

28 December – A shake-up of broadcasting franchises paves the way for the launch of breakfast television. TV-am is awarded the contract to begin transmission in 1983.

Also, it is announced that TSW will replace Westward and TVS will replace Southern. ATV must restructure the company to create a separate East and West Midlands service, and reduce the shareholding of its parent body to 51% by February 1981.

30 December – The BBC announce their intention to launch their own breakfast television service to compete with TV-am, which was announced two days earlier.

Breakfast Time is launched on BBC1 on 17 January 1983, two weeks before TV-am.

BBC1

1 January – Hi-de-Hi! (1980–1988)
14 July – Watchdog (1980–present)
30 August – Juliet Bravo (1980–1985)
November – Children in Need (1980–present)

BBC2

7 January – Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way (1980)
30 January – Newsnight (1980–present)
25 February – Yes Minister (1980–1988)
1 November – Did You See…? (1980–1993)

ITV

6 January – Family Fortunes (1980–1985, 1987–2002, 2006–present)
1 February – Play Your Cards Right (1980–1987, 1994–1999, 2002–2003)
19 February – Take the High Road (1980–2003)
11 April – The Gentle Touch (1980–1984)
6 May – Cockleshell Bay (1980–1986)
13 May – Into the Labyrinth (1980–1982)
8 December – Button Moon (1980–1988)

Popular Films

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Superman II
Nine to Five
Raging Bull
Coal Miner’s Daughter