1980

1980
The first episode of Hi-De-Hi! broadcast. Barry Norman's Films Of The Year included The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, The China Syndrome and Alien. The first UK TV showing of The Odessa File. Newcastle United, currently top of the second division, beat Sunderland three-one in the Tyne-Wear Derby. 'And we shall fight forever more/because of New Year's Day!' David Eady's Danger On Dartmoor - starring Marcus Evans, Simon Henderson, Debby Salter, Barry Foster, Patricia Hayes, Sam Kydd and Michael Ripper - premiered.

Radio 3 launched a new, extended teatime programme Mainly For Pleasure replacing Homeward Bound. The first episode of Our John Willie broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Horror Express. Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking - and much-delayed - Play For Today The Black Stuff broadcast on BBC2.
Nationwide launched The British Rock and/or Pop Awards in which viewers join Radio 1 listeners and readers of the Daily Mirror to vote for the 'Oscars' of the rock and/or pop world. Tomorrow's World asked if 'the age of the microprocessor' would bring 'horrendous unemployment or limitless leisure? Easy wealth or widespread poverty?' Bit or both as it turned out. Peter Powell hosted performances by Billy Preston & Syreeta, Kurtis Blow, Madness, The Pretenders, Doctor Hook, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and David Bowie on the first Top Of The Pops of the 1980s. Robert Holman's Chance Of A Lifetime broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Peter Ustinov & Natalie Wood At The Hermitage broadcast on BBC2. Tragically, so was Richard Stiloge. Workers at British Steel went on strike called by the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation. It was the first industry-wide steelworkers strike since 1926.
International Pro-Celebrity Golf featured Sean Connery partnering Lee Trevino. The first episode of The Asssassination Run broadcast. The Buggles' The Age Of Plastic, The RAH Band's 'Tokyo Flyer'/'Instrumental', The Flying Lizards' 'TV'/'Tube', Wah! Heat's 'Better Scream'/'Joe', The Fall's 'Fiery Jack'/Second Dark Age', 'Psykick Dancehall', Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes's 'Prayin'/'Your Love Is Taking Me On A Journey', Phyllis Hyman's 'You Know How To Love Me'/'Give A Little More' and The Mod-Dettes 'White Mice'/'Masochistic Opposite' released.
Fourth Division Halifax Town cause the upset of the FA Cup Third Round by beating Manchester City. Chester City won two-nil at Newcastle just hours after that bloody plank Bob Wilson had tipped The Magpies as his bet for a good cup run on Football Focus. The first episode of BBC2's Soul Of A Nation broadcast.
The first episodes of The Handicapped Family, Multi-Racial Britain and Inside Japan broadcast. Twelfth Night broadcast in BBC2's The BBC Television Shakespeare strand. The first episode of Blind Ambition broadcast. Trevor Francis was the guest presenter on Radio 1's Star Special. The first episodes of Family Fortunes and The Shillingbury Blowers broadcast on LWT.

The first UK TV showing of Thunderbolt & Lightfoot. The first episodes of That's The Way The Money Goes and Training Dogs The Woodhouse Way broadcast on BBC2. Lene Lovich featured on Rock Goes To College. At the age of forty four, songwriter Larry Williams was found dead in his Los Angeles home with a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators never determined whether his death was murder or suicide. The first episode of Keep It In The Family broadcast on LWT.
The first episodes of John Pitman's Decision and Flesh & Blood broadcast. The first episodes of Illusions Of Reality and Dilemmas broadcast on BBC2. Non-League Harlow Town beat Second Division promotion candidates Leicester City in an FA Cup Third Round replay. Australia beat England by six wickets in the second test at Sydney. Cozy Powell and Public Image Limited appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The first episode of Hollywood broadcast on Thames.
The first episodes of Woman In White and War School broadcast. Los Largos broadcast on BBC2. In Saudi Arabia, sixty three Islamist insurgents were beheaded for their part in the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca in November 1979.
Keep Smiling broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Nobel 1979 broadcast on BBC2.
The first episode of The Family Affair broadcast as part of the Francis Durbridge strand. A profile of Jethro Tull (the frightful flute-based prog-rock dinosaurs not the inventor of the seed drill) broadcast on BBC2. Joe Strummer appeared with John Tobler and Kid Jensen on Radio 1's Roundtable. Dan Hartman's 'Relight My Fire'/'Vertigo' and Funkadelic's '(Not Just) Knee Deep Parts 1 & 2' released.
Darts appeared on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. Pews broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand.
The first episode of Spy! broadcast. Operation Auca broadcast in the Everyman strand. The first episode of David Attenborough's Spirit Of Asia broadcast on BBC2. The Grand Prix season opened in Argentina; the race was won by Williams's Alan Jones, ahead of Jacques Laffite and Didier Pironi both driving Ligier-Ford's and Nelson Piquet in a Brabham. Family Favourites was broadcast on Radio 2 for the final time. The Beach Boys, The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Starship performed at a benefit concert at Oakland Coliseum for the people of Kampuchea. As if the people of Kampuchea hadn't suffered enough already. Joshua Nkomo, leader of the Zimbabwe African People's Union, returned to the country following his exile in neighbouring Zambia.

The first UK TV showing of A Question Of Guilt. Film 80 featured reviews of The Amityville Horror and Time After Time. The first episode of Is There Life After School? broadcast on BBC2. Patrick Uden's documentary Ghost Of The Amoco Cadiz broadcast in the Horizon strand. Chelsea lost to Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup Third Round. Indira Gandhi returned to power as Prime Minister of India.
Ray Bradbury - The Illustrated Man broadcast in the Omnibus strand. Company & Co broadcast on BBC2. The Ramones appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
Paul McCartney was extremely arrested at Tokyo airport for possession of half-a-pound of marijuana. The scheduled Wings' tour of the country (Macca's first in Japan since 1966) was immediately cancelled. The Chords' 'Maybe Tomorrow'/'I Don't Wanna Know', 'Hey Girl', The Revillos' 'Motorbike Beat'/'No Such Luck' and The Tourists' 'So Good To Be Back Home Again'/'Circular Fever' released.
Man Alive focused on Home Secretary William Whitelaw's ludicrous, recently announced 'short, sharp shock' plans for young offenders. The first episode of Watch This Space broadcast. David Hare's Dreams Of Living broadcast in the Play For Today strand.
The first UK TV showing of Where The Boys Are. Call Me Flicka broadcast on BBC2. The Almö Bridge, connecting the Swedish city of Tjörn to the mainland, collapsed after the Norwegian freighter MS Star Clipper struck the bridge arch. The Whispers' 'And The Beat Goes On'/'Can You Do The Boogie?', The Boomtown Rats' 'Someone's Looking At You'/'When The Night Comes', Lene Lovich's 'Angels'/'The Fly' and The Special AKA Live! EP ('Too Much Too Young', 'Guns Of Navarone', 'Longshot Kick The Bucket', 'The Liquidator', 'Skinhead Moonstomp') released.

Southampton's four-one victory over Manchester City featured on Match Of The Day. The first UK Indie Chart was published in Record Week, with Spizzenergi's 'Where's Captain Kirk?'/'Amnesia' topping the singles chart and Adam & The Ants' Dirk Wears White Sox at number one on the LP list. The Pretenders' eponymous debut LP was released. Jenson Alexander Lyons Button born in Frome.
The Joy Adamson Story broadcast. The West Indies beat England by two runs in the opening final of the Benson & Hedges Tri-Nations Series at the MSG. The British record TV audience for a film was set when some twenty three million viewers watched the ITV showing of Live and Let Die. Names is for tombstones, baby. Richard Thompson appeared on Radio 1's Star Special. President Carter informed the United States Olympic Committee that he wanted the USOC not to participate in the Summer Olympic Games, scheduled to open in Moscow in July, as a response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
The first UK broadcast of The Lynda Carter Special. The Specials' concert at Colchester Institute filmed the previous month featured on Rock Goes To College ending in a mass stage-invasion of moon-stomping teenagers during 'The Skinhead Symphony'. On especially loved the bit where Terry Hall tried to brain some loud-mouth in the audience with a tambourine! American spy Christopher Boyce, convicted in 1977 of selling classified documents to the Soviet Union, escaped from the federal prison in Lompoc, California, where he was serving a forty-year sentence for treason-related naughtiness. Boyce eluded capture for almost two years, committing seventeen bank robberies before being arrested by US Marshals in August 1981. His story became the basis for the 1985 film The Falcon & The Snowman. MS Athina B was beached at Brighton close to the town's Palace Pier. The ship became a temporary tourist attraction, with the Volk's Electric Railway opening out of season to cash in on the large number of sightseers.
The West Indies clinched the Tri-Nations Series beating England by eight wickets at Sydney.

The Undertones were in session on The John Peel Show. At his annual State of the Union Address to Congress, President Carter announced a change in American foreign policy, defining what the press referred to as 'The Carter Doctrine', which was summed up in a single sentence: 'An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.' Lene Lovich was the subject of a profile on BBC2's Arena.
Mike Read presented Top Of The Pops featuring Buggles, The Nolans, Barbara Dickson, Matchbox, The Regents, The Pretenders, The Specials, Sheila B Devotion and The Boomtown Rats. Brian Glover's Thicker Than Water broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The first episode of Together broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of Breakaway broadcast in the Francis Durbridge strand. Paul McCartney was released from The Slammer in Japan and deported from the country by authorities unimpressed with his pot-smoking ways. Ironically, this occurred on the same day that Guildford's The Vapors' 'Turning Japanese'/'Here Comes The Judge' came out. The two events were - probably - unrelated. On Friday Night ... Saturday Morning host Ned Sherrin reflected that, as the programme was being broadcast, Macca was on a flight back to the UK and would be home 'in time for his Sunday joint.' The Whispers' 'And The Beat Goes On'/'Can You Do The Boogie?', Marianne Faithfull's Broken English, Queen's 'Save Me'/'Let Me Entertain You', The Korgis' 'I Just Can't Help It'/'O Maxine', Robin Trower's 'Victims Of The Fury'/'One In A Million', Rocky Sharpe & The Replays Featuring The Top-Liners' 'Martian Hop'/'A Fool In Love With You' and Cliff Richard's 'Carrie'/'Moving In' released.
Highlights of the FA Cup Fourth Round included Chester's two-nil victory over Millwall, Liverpool winning two-nil at Nottingham Forest, Watford's four-three defeat of Harlow Town and West Ham United's three-two win at Orient. John Challen's Lifelike broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Israel and Egypt established diplomatic relations. Egypt opened its ports and airports to Israeli planes and ships. In return, Israel completed its withdrawal of troops from two-thirds of the Sinai Peninsula that it had been occupying since 1967. Frank Sinatra performed at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro before his largest audience ever, one hundred and forty thousand, with an eighteen-song set.
Cliff Richards & The Shadows broadcast. Disguised as a Canadian film crew, four US diplomats and their spouses used fake passports to escape from Tehran, boarding a Swissair Flight and flying to Zürich. On 4 November 1979, five members of the group had escaped from the back of the US Embassy compound during a rainstorm as it was being taken over by student demonstrators and were joined by a sixth who had been working in a nearby office. For almost three months, they were protected by Kenneth Taylor, the Canada's Ambassador to Iran and in the home of Canada's chief immigration officer, John Sheardown. Antonio Mendez of the CIA's Office of Technical Service provided the fake passports, along with disguise materials and clothing 'to match what might be expected of a film crew' and then escorted the Americans to Mehrabad Airport. The event would be dramatised in the 2012 movie Argo. Robert Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union, returned to the country after more than four years in exile to run in the upcoming national erections and was greeted in Salisbury by a crowd of two hundred thousand. ZANU won the control in parliamentary erections and Mugabe became the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe in April. Frank Zappa hosted Radio 1's Star Special. The first UK broadcast of Hart To Hart and the first episodes of Pig In The Middle and The Spoils of War on LWT.
The first edition of Newsnight broadcast on BBC2. Its launch has been delayed for four months by the Association of Broadcasting Staff, the main BBC trade union. Granada Television broadcast a controversial episode of World In Action, which alleged that Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards made unauthorised payments to the parents of some of the club's younger players and was involved in 'shady deals' to win local council meat contracts for his retail outlet chain. The Coca-Cola Company announced that it would cease sweetening its beverages with sucrose from cane sugar and began substituting high-fructose corn syrup, which caused a slight, but noticeable, change in the flavor. The first UK broadcast of Nightmare At Pendragon's Castle.
Omnibus profiled Chuck Berry. The first UK TV showings of The Private Files Of J Edgar Hoover on BBC2's Movie Showcase. The Rubik's Cube made its international debut at The British Toy and Hobby Fair at Earl's Court.
Sportsnight featured highlights of the Brazilian Grand Prix, won by Renault's René Arnoux. Arena presented the extraordinary story of Tim Page, war photographer and Viet'nam legend - a tale first told in Michael Herr's celebrated book, Dispatches.
Michael Hastings' Murder Rap broadcast in the Play For Today strand. And Then We Sever broadcast on BBC2.

Ian Wooldridge's Mister Packer & The Poms broadcast. The debut of Play Your Cards Right on LWT. Cunningly, the BBC scheduled an appearance by Bruce Forsyth on International Pro-Celebrity Golf opposite it on BBC2. Peter Gabriel's 'Games Without Frontiers'/'The Start', 'I Don't Remember', The Psychedelic Furs' 'Sister Europe'/'****', Linton Kwesi Johnson's 'Di Black Petty Booshwah'/'Straight To Madray's Head', Rachel Sweet's 'Fool's Gold'/'I've Got A Reason', Wreckless Eric's 'A Popsong'/'Reconnez Cherie', The Gap Band's 'The Boys Are Back In Town'/'Steppin (Out)', Michael Jackson's 'Rock With You'/'Get On The Floor' and Dave Edmunds' 'Singing The Blues'/'Boys Talk' released.
Match of The Day featured West Bromwich Albion's three-one win at Manchester City, Aston Villa's defeat of Crystal Palace and the second division game between Leicester City and Newcastle United. The Newcastle Trades Council Centre for the Unemployed featured on BBC2's Open Door.
Birdwatch and Somebody We Know broadcast. Ben Turner born in Hackney.
The Ramones' collaboration with Phil Spector, End Of The Century and the single 'Baby, I Love You'/'High Risk Insurance' released.
Blue Moon broadcast in the Omnibus strand. Terence Feely's Miss Lorelei Brown broadcast in BBC2's Company & Co strand. Blondie's 'Atomic'/'Die Young Stay Pretty' and The Brothers Johnson's 'Stomp'/'Let's Swing' released.
The first episode of God's Wonderful Railway broadcast. Australia beat England by eight wickets in the third and final test in Melbourne. Greg Chappell scored a century for the home team whilst Ian Botham replied with one for the tourists (Graham Gooch was run out one short of what would have been his first test hundred). Wayne Larkins made his test debut in a match in which Dennis Little took eleven wickets. At Wembley, England beat The Republic of Ireland two-nil in a European Championship qualifier. Kevin Keegan scored both goals. West Bromwich Albion's Bryan Robson made his inernational debut. The trial of serial killer John Wayne Gacy began in Chicago. Gacy, suspected of the murder of twenty seven victims between 1972 and 1978, would be found extremely guilty and executed in the electric chair in 1994.
Vampire broadcast in the Wildlife On One strand and Instant Enlightenment Including VAT in the Play For Today strand. The Chords' performed 'Maybe Tomorrow' on Top Of The Pops. Scientists announced the discovery of the earliest-known primate ancestor of human beings, with remains of Aegyptopithecus, described by the New York Times as 'the oldest ape-human evolutionary link found so far' and dated to thirty million years ago. And, speaking of dinosaurs, Pink Floyd's The Wall Tour opened at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
David Bowie and his wife, Angie, filed for a long-overdue divorce. Bowie got custody of their nine-year-old son, Zowie (Duncan). Squeeze's 'Another Nail In My Heart'/Pretty Thing', Elvis Costello & The Attractions' 'I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down'/'Girls Talk', The Lambrettas' 'Poison Ivy'/Runaround', Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark's 'Red Frame/White Light'/'I Betray My Friends', Solos' 'Talking Pictures'/'One Way Love', 'Psychic Eric', Martha & The Muffins' 'Echo Beach'/'Teddy The Dink', Leonard Rossiter & The Rigsbyettes' 'Rising Damp'/'Damp Disco', UB40's 'Food For Thought'/'King', Jeff Christie's 'Both Ends Of The Rainbow'/'Turn On Your Lovelight', EJ Chandler's 'I Can't Stand To Lose You'/'Believe In Me', Stiff Little Fingers' 'At The Edge'/'Running Bear', 'White Christmas' and The Selecter's 'Three Minute Hero'/'James Bond' released. Ha! ha! De Killa! Kenneth Fowles' The Perils Of Mandy - starring Gloria Brittain, Terry Francis and Derrick Slater - premiered.
Liverpool's five-three victory at Norwich was the highlight of a Match Of The Day episode featuring three matches and fifteen goals. The best of which, an outrageous volley by Norwich's Justin Fashanu would, ultimately, win the 'Goal Of The Season' competition. The Enigma broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Joe Jackson featured on Radio 1's In Concert.
An eight-year-old boy on a camping trip in Washington State found roughly three thousand dollars of the two hundred thousand bucks in marked bills which had been paid to the notorious skyjacker DB Cooper in November 1971. He parachuted from the Boeing 727 somewhere over Oregon after being paid the cash. No trace of 'Cooper', nor his actual identity, has ever be found (although speculation has been rife). Lancashire beat Gloucestershire in rugby union's Thorn County Championship Final.

The first UK TV showing of Shimmering Light. Secret Affair featured on Rock Goes To College. Mod-tastic. Three former Nazi Gestapo officers were sentenced to jail terms after being convicted of assisting in the mass murder of seventy thousand Jews during World War II. All three had overseen the arrest and deportation of Jewish residents in Vichy France. All three had lived freely in West Germany after the war, beyond the reach of prosecution until the statute of limitations for war crimes was extended. The first episode of Jukes Of Piccadilly broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of Isla & The Farm On The Hill and Tell Me On A Sunday broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's Propaganda With Facts broadcast. Public Image Limited played memorable - and menacing - versions of 'Poptones' and 'Careering' on The Old Grey Whistle Test introduced by a visibly shaken Annie Nightingale. The Opening Ceremony for the 1980 Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, New York, even as Western nations were planning to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow. The first UK TV showing of French Connection II. Peggy Taub, The Learned Goat & Other People ... broadcast in the Arena strand.
Austria's Leonhard Stock won the men's downhill at the Winter Olympics. That Awful Thatcher Woman announced that state benefit to strikers will be halved. She really was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, that one. The Beat's 'Hands Off ... She's Mine'/'Twist & Crawl' released. Getcha 'ands off me daw-tah!
The British In Love broadcast on BBC2. Elvis Costello's Get Happy!!, Liquid Gold's 'Dance Yourself Dizzy (Parts 1 & 2)', Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Refugee, Kiss' '2000 Man'/'I Was Made For Lovin' You', 'Sure Know Something', Orange Juice's debut 'Falling & Laughing'/'Moscow Olympics', Punishment Of Luxury's 'Laughing Academy'/'Baby Don't Jump', The Three Degrees' 'Without You'/'Magic In The Air' and Talking Heads' 'I Zimbra'/'Paper' released. It was a busy day for Elvis who was appearing on Top Of The Pops with The Attractions playing 'I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down' and he was Kid Jensen's guest on Radio 1's Roundtable. In Vanuatu, at the time still known as The New Hebrides, followers of John Frum's cargo cult on the island of Tanna seceded as the nation of Tafea.
Rocky Sharpe & The Replays were on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. Which was, almost certainly, a punishment for the committing of some unknown crime ('I sentence you, Rocky Sharpe & The Replays, to spend two hours in the company of Noel Edmonds.' 'Aw, have a heart, Judge!') The first episode of Free To Choose broadcast on BBC2. The longest traffic jam in history took place in France, backing up vehicles for over one hundred miles on the A6, the multi-lane highway between Lyon and Paris. Thousands of vacationing skiers were reported to be returning from French Alps. Slowly. Highlight of the FA Cup Fifth Round included Everton's five-two victory over Wrexham and Watford's three-nil win at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The first episode of The Controversialists broadcast. Highlights of The Fifteenth Cambridge Folk Festival. Neil Innes was the host of Radio 1's Star Special. British Steel Corporation announced that more than eleven thousand jobs would be axed at its plants in Wales by the end of the following month. The first winter ascent of Mount Everest was accomplished by the team of Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy of Poland.
Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev won their third successive Pairs Figure Skating Olympic gold. A documentary filmed at The Clash's recent concert at Dundee featured on Nationwide. The final episode of The Goodies - War Babies - before their, ultimately disastrous, move to LWT broadcast. The Ruts were in session on The John Peel Show ('Staring At The Rude Boys', 'Demolition Dancing', 'In A Rut', 'Secret Soldiers'). The first episode of Rushton's Illustrated broadcast on Thames.
Sir Roy Shaw, the Secretary-General of the Arts Council, talked to Robert McKenzie about the problems facing the arts in the light of public spending cuts on Platform One. Jailed former Nixon aide John John Ehrlichman was Ludovic Kennedy's guest on the first episode of BBC2's Change Of Direction. The Selecter performed on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Bon Scott, the singer of AC/DC, died in London after a night of, reportedly, heavy drinking. Although common folklore cites pulmonary aspiration of vomit as the cause of death, the official cause was listed as "Acute alcohol poisoning" and "Death by Misadventure". England won a one-off test against India in Bombay by ten wickets. The match was a personal triumph for Ian Botham - just announced as Mike Brearley's forthcoming replacement as England captain - who scored a century and took thirteen wickets. Graham Stevenson made his test debut. The first episode of Take The High Road broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of Open Secret broadcast. Sweet Charity shown in BBC2's Midweek Musical strand. The Hard Way broadcast on Thames.
Robin Cousins won Britain's first - and only - 1980 Winter Olympic gold in the Men's Singles Figure Skating. David Hopkins' That Crazy Woman broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The first UK TV broadcast of How To Score ... A Movie with John Williams on BBC2. Bon Scott’s inquest heard the rock singer died from acute alcohol posioning. A nuclear test report which claimed Israel and South Africa possessed fusion technology was denied by both countries. One or two people even believed them.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's eponymous debut LP, David Bowie's 'Alabama Song'/'Space Oddity', Secret Affair's 'My World'/'So Cool', Purple Hearts' 'Jimmy'/'What Am I Gonna Do?', The Skids' 'Animation'/'Pros & Cons', The GT's 'Boys Have Feelings Too'/'Be Careful' and Bad Manners' 'Ne-Ne-Na-Na-Na-Na-Nu-Nu'/'Holidays' released. The United States Olympic ice hockey team defeated the Soviet Union, four-three, in the Semi-Finals of the Winter Olympics, in what became known as The Miracle On Ice. To much gormless bellowing of 'You-Ess-Ay' by Ted Nugent lookalikes, obviously. The first episode of The Local Affair broadcast in the Francis Durbridge strand. Robert Lowell: A Life Study broadcast in BBC2's The Lively Arts strand.
Amii Stewart was the guest on The Little & Large Show. The poor girl. Trouble With Gregory broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand.
Rockin' Ronnie Wood and his missus were arrested for cocaine possession on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. They were freed after spending five days in The Joint due to the inability of authorities to prove the cocaine in the apartment belonged to either of them or, you know, someone else. The Selecter's Too Much Pressure released. Annie Lennox featured on Radio 1's Star Special. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan became the front runner for the Republican Party presidential nomination after paying for a debate between himself and the previous front runner, former CIA Director George Bush. American speed skater Eric Heiden became the first person to win five individual gold medals at the Winter Olympics, winning the ten thousand metres speed skating event in a world record time. Hanni Wenzel of Liechtenstein won her second gold medal, completing the slalom and giant slalom double. She also won a silver in the women's downhill behind Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria. Hanni's younger brother, Andreas, also took silver in the men's giant slalom with Ingemar Stenmark of Sweden winning gold making this Liechtenstein's most successful Olympics.
The first episode of the popular BBC2 political sitcom Yes Minister broadcast. An Evening With Anthony Newley broadcast on BBC2. The first UK TV showing of The Spiral Staircase. Stiff Little Fingers were in session on The John Peel Show ('No Change', 'I Don't Like You', 'Fly The Flag', 'Doesn't Make It All Right'). As were The Cockney Rejects ('The Greatest Cockney Rip Off', 'I Wanna Be A Star', 'Block Buster'). Manchester United chairman Louis Edwards died from a heart attack just weeks after allegations about his business dealings had emerged. The Sergeants Coup in Surinam ousted the government of Prime Minister Henck Arron, after dissatisfaction over working conditions and pay. Serial killer Christine Falling committed the first of six murders of people entrusted to her care, five of them children. She was finally apprehended in 1982.
The first UK TV broadcast of The Osmonds. Tuning In - a profile of Karlheinz Stockhausen - broadcast in the Omnibus strand (postponed from its original scheduled date, 22 January). The first UK TV showing of Opening Night in BBC2's Movie Showcase strand. The Old Grey Whistle Test featured highlights from a concert performed by The Knack - 'one of the most successful bands to emerge from the American new wave.' Or, slightly more accurately, 'rather one-dimensional Beatles copyists who made a couple of half-way decent singles and that was about it' - filmed in the Gusman Theatre, Miami, in October 1979.
The British Rock & Pop Awards broadcast, presented by Dave Lee Travis and Sue Lawley. Winners included Kate Bush, Paul McCartney (Daily Mirror Readers' Award for the Outstanding Pop Personality), The Police, Gary Numan and Jerry Dammers (Radio 1's Disc Jockeys' Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Pop Music, presented by John Peel). The programme was simultcast by Radio 1. Squeeze's Argybargy released.
The first episode of Sweet Nothings broadcast. Echoes: Germany & Holocaust broadcast on BBC2. The Psychedelic Furs were in session on The John Peel Show ('Soap Commercial', 'Susan's Strange', 'Mac The Knife').

The first UK broadcast of The Young Maverick. DH Lawrence: A Portrait broadcast on BBC2. Magazine's A Song From Underneath The Floorboards, John Foxx's 'Underpass'/'Film One', M's 'That's The Way The Money Goes'/'Satisfy Your Lust (Before You Go Bust)', Sparks' 'When I'm With You'/'Instrumental', Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson's 'The Bottle (Drunken Mix)'/'Sober Mix' and UK Subs' 'Warhead'/'The Harper', 'I'm Waiting For The Man' released. Stanislaw Jedryka's Zielone Lata - starring Tomasz Jarosinski, Agnieszka Konopczynska, Krzysztof Kiersznowski and Anna Chodakowska - premiered.
Everton lost two-one at home to Liverpool. During the game their legendary former striker Dixie Dean died from a heart attack in the stands, aged seventy two. Manchester United's title hopes were effectively ended by a six-nil thrashing at Ipswich Town with goalkeeper Gary Bailey having a particular nightmare. The first UK broadcast of Holocaust on BBC2. Horrifyingly, Wishbone Ash featured on Radio 1's In Concert. Get yer hair cut. Patti Smith married the former MC5 guitarist Fred Sonic Smith.
The first episodes of The Secretary & Her Boss and The History Of Mister Polly broadcast. The first UK broadcast of the TV movie Hanging By A Thread. An Evening With James Galway broadcast on BBC2. The first episode of The Further Adventures Of Oliver Twist broadcast on LWT.
The first in-vision Ceefax transmissions were broadcast. Three thirty-minute transmissions were shown at various points during weekday daytime closedown on both BBC1 and BBC2. Elvis Costello & The Attractions were in session on The John Peel Show ('High Fidelity', 'Possession', 'Beaten To The Punch', 'B Movie'). The Audi Quattro, a four-wheel drive sporting coupe, was launched in West Germany.
The Great Grange Hill Debate broadcast. The first episode of Writers & Places broadcast. Buzz Aldrin appeared on BBC2's Change Of Direction discussing the depression he suffered upon returning to Earth after going to the Moon. The Reels' 'Prefab Hearts'/'Spot The Ridge' released.
Race Day broadcast on BBC2.
Kate, The Good Neighbour broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The Magic Of A Dartmoor Wood broadcast on BBC2.
The first UK TV showing of One Of Those Things. Stiff Little Fingers' 'Nobody's Heroes'/'Tin Soldiers', Siouxsie & The Banshees' 'Happy House'/'Drop Dead', 'Celebration', Little Mac & The Boss Sounds' 'In The Midnight Hour'/'You Can't Love Me', Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon's 'Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache'/'Dancin' Master', Lene Lovich's 'What Will I Do Without You?'/'Joan', The Feelies' 'Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except Me & My Monkey)'/'Original Love', Dirty Looks' 'Lie To Me'/'Rosario's Ashes', Any Trouble's 'Yesterday's Love'/'Nice Girls' and Genesis's 'Turn It On Again'/'Behind The Lines (Part 2)' released. Michael Apted's Coal Miner's Daughter - starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones - premiered.
The Best Of Friends broadcast on BBC2's Playhouse strand. Iran began the break of diplomatic relations with neighbouring Iraq, recalling its ambassador from Baghdad and expelling Iraq's ambassador from Tehran. The Tbilisi Rock Festival began, the first state-sanctioned music festival in the Soviet Union. It featured no one you've ever heard of ... and plenty of guitar-based rock! Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool and West Ham United progressed to the FA Cup Semi-Finals with victories over Watford, Ipswich, Spurs and Aston Villa respectively.
Gone For Soldier broadcast on BBC2.

The first UK TV showing of Fuzz. Voyager 1 and 2's Encounter With Jupiter was covered on Horizon. An opinion poll conducted by the Evening Standard suggested that six out of ten Britons were jolly dissatisfied with Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, who now trailed Labour in most of the opinion polls. The Cure were in session on The John Peel Show ('A Forest', 'Seventeen Seconds', 'Play For Today', 'M'). The first episode of Fox broadcast on LWT.
Graham Sutherland: The Artist On Film broadcast in the Omnibus strand. The first episode of Michael Wood's In Search Of Boadicea broadcast on BBC2.
Sportnight featured highlights from The World Figure Skating Championships from Dortmund. The first episode of Philip Mackie's dramatisation of Therese Raquin - starring Kate Nelligan - broadcast on BBC2. In Arena's Rudies Come Back Or The Rise & Rise of Two-Tone, Adrian Thrills interviewed The Specials and The Selecter. The first episode of The Setbacks broadcast in the Help! strand on Thames.
Buses broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The premiere of Jack Hazan and David Mingay's Rude Boy featuring The Clash. Dexys Midnight Runners were in session on The John Peel Show ('Tell Me When My Light Turns Green', 'Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache', 'The Horse', 'Geno').
Jim Watt retained his World Lightweight Championship at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, beating Northern Ireland's Charlie Nash on a split decision. Sibonga: Name Of Destiny broadcast on BBC2. The Jam's 'Going Underground'/'The Dreams of Children', The Stranglers' 'Bear Cage'/'Shah A Go-Go', Jona Lewie's 'You'll Always Find Him In The Kitchen At Parties'/'Bureaucrats', Wreckless Eric's 'Broken Doll'/'I Need A Situation', Fischer-Z's 'So Long'/'Hiding', The Bodysnatchers' 'Lets Do Rock Steady'/'Ruder Than You', Eddie & The Hot Rods' 'At Night'/'You Better Run', 'Looking Around', Smart Alec's 'Scooter Boys'/'Soho' and Deutsch-Amerikanische-Freundschaft's 'Kebabtraume'/'Gewalt' released. The Pope appealed for the release of Annabel Schild, the fifteen year old British girl kidnapped in Sardinina in 1979. Chinese leader Deng Xioping was expected to step down. Delhi police were reported to have used bamboo staves to break up a demonstraion of blind marchers. British Aerospace sucessfully tested its new Seawolf anti-missile missle. Six members of the SPG were named as suspects in the death of Blair Peach. Lord Belstead Under-Secretary at the Home Office predicted fifteen million Britons would survive an all-out nuclear strike on Britain, though twice as many may survive if they followed advice in the Government's handbook, Protect & Survive. Rival gangs of punks and skinheads went on the rampage at Neasden tube station. The Science Museumk marked the fiftieth anniversary on the invention of television with a special exhibition.
Ken Dodd appeared on Parkinson. Don Taylor's In Hiding broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Wolverhampton Wanderers beat Nottingham Forest, who had won the trophy in the previous two seasons, in the League Cup Final thanks to a goal from Andy Gray after Peter Shilton collided with his teammate, David Needham. Dexys Midnight Runners' 'Geno'/'Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache' released. Former US President Gerald Ford announced that he would not run for the Republican Party nomination for the presidential erection, reversing earlier comments that he didn't believe front-runner Ronald Reagan would be able to win defeat President Carter. England beat Scotland thirty-eighteen at Murrayfield to win the Five Nations championship, the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam - a feat they hadn't achieved since 1957. MP Sir William Elliott called for one thousand fines after a petrol-bomb was thrown at a football match between Newcastle and West Ham. The game ended in a goalless draw. Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant - starring Edward Woodward and Bryan Brown - premiered.
The first UK TV broadcast of Goldie & Liza Together. The Face Behind The Face broadcast on BBC2.
The first UK TV showing of Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol. Just Nola Rae broadcast on BBC2. Killing Joke ('Change', 'Tomorrow's World', 'Complications') and The Revillos ('Scuba-Scuba', 'You Were Meant For Me', 'Rock-A-Boom', 'Voodoo') were in session on The John Peel Show.
Joy Division's 'Atmosphere'/'Dead Souls' released in France on the Sordide Sentimental label as Licht Und Blindheit. Imported in huge quantities into the UK (due, in no small part, to being played regularly by John Peel on his Radio 1 show) it was eventually given a British release (on Factory) in May after the death of Ian Curtis. The first episode of Time Of My Life broadcast. Europeans broadcast on BBC2. Sophia Jane Myles born in London.
The first UK TV showing of Maneaters Are Loose! Two goals from Trevor Franics and a John Robertson penalty enabled Nottingham Forest to a superb three-one victory in Berlin against BFC Dynamo to make the European Cup Semi Final. The first episode of The Silicon Factor broadcast on BBC2. Elvis Presley's autopsy results were subpoenaed during the trial of Doctor George Nichopoulous, who would later be found very guilty of over-prescribing drugs to Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and other clients. President Carter invited Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin and Egypt's President Anwar Sadat to return to the White House in separate discussions over the creation of an autonomous Palestinian homeland on the West Bank and Gaza. Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station, was forced to cease transmission when MV Mi Amigo, the ship on which it was based, ran aground and sank off the Thames Estuary. The lifeboat Helen Turnbull rescued the crew of four before Mi Amigo went down. Robert Runcie was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Mike Read presented performances from The Bodysnatchers, Squeeze, Sad Cafe, The Lambrettas, Barbara Dickson, Shakin' Stevens, Martha & The Muffins, UB40 and The Jam on Top Of The Pops. The first episode of James Burke: The Real Thing broadcast. The first episode of In The Making broadcast on BBC2. In Washington State, Mount St Helens resumed volcanic activity after being dormant for over one hundred and twenty years. The first event was a minor 4.2 magnitude tremor below its North side, detected by an observatory in Newport, Washington. Located less than twelve miles from Cougar in Skamania County, the volcano vented steam on 27 March and steadily increased its activity, ending with a massive eruption on 18 May that would kill fifty seven people. Claude Pierson's Initiation Perverse premiered.

The first episode of Vikings! broadcast on BBC2. Madness's Work, Rest & Play EP ('Night Boat To Cairo', 'Deceives The Eye', 'The Young & The Old', 'Don't Quote Me On That'), Adrian Gurvitz's 'New World'/'Time Is Endless', Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Zimbabwe'/'Survival' and The Selecter's 'Missing Words/'Carry Go Bring Come' released. Currency returned to Cambodia, five years after the former Khmer Rouge government had created a 'moneyless society' as part of its Democratic Kampuchea revolution which required all residents to give and receive rice in payment for goods and services ('You'll work harder with a gun in your back for a bowl of rice a day').
Manchester United won the Manchester derby, Mickey Thomas scoring the only goal of the game. Elsewhere in the top-flight, Derby County and Bristol City shared six goals, Liverpool beat Brighton and Nottingham Forest won at home to UEFA Cup hopefuls Southampton. The day's high scorers in the Football League were Third Division Colchester United, who smashed six past Brentford. Rottingdean broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. The Jam's 'Going Underground' entered the UK singles chart at number one, the first time such a feat had occurred since 1973.
The Ghost Sonata broadcast in the Festival strand. The Totonero scandal, a match-fixing scheme implicating twenty seven players in Italy's top two levels of professional football (Serie A and Serie B), was revealed partway through the season after two investors filed a complaint with the national prosecutor. Eleven players of defending Italian Serie A champion, AC Milan were arrested in their dressing room after their one-nil win over Torino, along with the club president, Felice Colombo. Four players for SS Lazio were arrested at the end of the matches played that day. Eight of the sixteen Serie A clubs were implicated in some way and, although the accused players were eventually acquitted, five of the Serie A teams were penalised at the end of the 1980 season. Notably, both Milan and Lazio were relegated to the second-division. Numerous players were also given bans including one of two years for the Azzurri's star striker, Perugia's Paolo Rossi. Gary Glitter appeared on Radio 1's Star Special. Stephen Poliakoff's Bloody Kids broadcast on LWT.
Barry Norman reviewed Murder By Decree on Film 80. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were in concert at Oxford Polytechnic on Rock Goes To College. The Chords were in session on The John Peel Show ('Tumbling Down', 'Happy Families', 'Far Away').
Home Movies broadcast in the Omnibus strand. The first episodes of BBC2's A Question Of Guilt, The Great Egg Race and The Past At Work broadcast. The British Olympic Association voted to defy the government and send athletes to the Olympic Games. And thus, effectively, told Thatch to eff right off with her shrill bossy-boots ways. Which was funny. The unmanned Soviet transport spacecraft Soyuz T-1 returned to Earth, two days after being undocked by remote control from the Salyut Six space station.
Supremely unfunny Northern comedienne Victoria Wood was profiled on BBC2's Arena. Geoffrey Howe's latest budget raised tax allowances and duties on petrol, alcohol and tobacco. Soon giving Not The Nine O'Clock News something else to take the piss out of. England beat Spain two-nil in a friendly international in Barcelona. Tony Woodcock and Trevor Franics were on target. Scotland's vastly underwhelming European Championship Qualifying campaign came to an end with a four-one victory over Portugal at Hampden Park. Kenny Dalglish, Andy Gray, Archie Gemmill and debutant Steve Archibald were on-target. Archibald's Abderdeen team-mate, Alex McLeish also played for the national side for the first time.
Peter Powell presented Top Of The Pops performances from Liquid Gold, Genesis, Brothers Johnson, Doctor Hook, Judas Priest, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Dooleys, John Foxx, The Detroit Spinners and The Jam. Infamously Paul Weller, fearing that The Jam could be perceived as having sold out by releasing such a popular single as 'Going Underground', appeared wearing a Heinz Tomato Soup apron - an apparent reference to The Who Sell Out. However, he was persuaded to wear the apron backwards by BBC producers who feared censure for allowing product placement. The first episode of The One-Armed Bandit Murder broadcast on BBC2. The Pretenders' majestic 'Talk Of The Town'/'Cuban Slide' released. Sweet James Honeyman-Scott playing every chord with a plectrum plucked straight from Heaven. The first (and only) Aston Martin Bulldog, intended to one of the fastest production cars ever, was introduced to the public at the village of Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire. The Silver Thursday market crash occurred in the United States commodity markets after brothers Nelson, William and Lamar Hunt attempted to corner the silver market, after months of buying and selling to pay a particular price for silver on a future date.
The first episode of Five To One broadcast on BBC2. The Undertones' 'My Perfect Cousin'/'Hard Luck (Again)', 'I Don't Wanna See You Again', Bunk Dogger & The Dogs' 'People Of All Nations'/'Headlining', XTC's 'Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down'/'Ten Feet Tall', The Teardrop Explodes' 'Treason (It's Just A Story)'/'Read It In Books', Lew Lewis' '1-30 2-30 3-35'/'The Mood I'm In', Killing Joke's 'Wardance'/'Pssyche' and Q-Tips' 'SYSLJFM (The Letter Song)'/'The Dance' released. Many of these featured on Radio 1's Roundtable in which Kid Jensen and Tommy Vance were joined by Rob Halford of Judas Priest ('in his silly leather hat, together they could take on all the world'). The Talpiot Tomb, claimed in a 2007 documentary to be 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus', was discovered by construction workers who were excavating a site to build an apartment complex in East Jerusalem.
Forty-to-one shot Ben Nevis ridden by American Charlie Fenwick won The Grand National. Adrian Juste on his Radio 1 show featured a sketch in which the horse's owner tells the jockey 'I've got A Pony on it, the wife's got A Monkey on it.' To which Fenwick replied 'gee, where am I gonna sit?' A performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia broadcast on BBC2.
The first UK TV showing of Funny Lady. The Magic Circle Show broadcast on BBC2. Phil Lynott presented Radio 1's Star Special. Siouxsie & The Banshees' 'Christine'/'Eve White Eve Black' released. An adaptation of Why Didn't They Ask Evans broadcast on LWT.

The Dooleys, Buggles and Shakin' Stevens featured on the latest episode of Cheggers Plays Pop. The second series of Not The Nine O'Clock News began on BBC2. Radio 1's broadcast hours were cut back. The station started broadcasting on weekdays an hour later (because, let's face it, an hour less of future convicted sex offender Dave Lee Travis was never a bad thing at any time) and Saturday evening programming ended. The station simulcasted Radio 2 during this additional downtime. British Leyland agreed to sell their MG factory at Abingdon to a consortium headed by Aston Martin-Lagonda. Vauxhall, the British division of General Motors, launched the Astra, a front-wheel drive hatchback which replaced the recently discontinued Viva and was based on the Opel Kadett.
Windhover broadcast in the Omnibus strand. The Old Grey Whistle Test featured highlights from Rory Gallagher's concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Geordie's Brian Johnson became the new singer with AC/DC replacing the late Bon Scott. The steelworkers' strike was called off. Syrian Special Forces began the Siege of Aleppo to suppress the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, an anti-government movement that had started with strikes in March.
The first UK TV showings of Deadman's Curve and, on BBC2, Man Of La Mancha. The St Pauls Riot erupted in Bristol after local fuzz raided the Black & White Café on suspicion of narcotics sales and arrested some people. For 'being black in an untoward manner.' Probably. At the height of the riot, three thousand people, both black and white, ran amok. Nineteen policemen were injured along with six rioters. The first episode of Noah's Castle broadcast on Thames.
The Vanishing Army broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Europe's Time Bomb broadcast on BBC2. The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the Viking 2 lander had ceased operating after having sent data from the Utopia Planitia on Mars for over years. A spokesman said that the last 'useful' transmission had been on 31 January. Kosmos 1171, a Soviet satellite intended solely as a target for an anti-satellite weapon, was launched into orbit from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. Between 18 and 20 April Kosmos was used for three unsuccessful attempts to intercept and destroy the orbiting target, after which it was given a self-destruct order. And failed that task too. It remained in orbit until well into the Twentieth Century.
The first UK TV showing of The Land That Time Forgot. Captain Beaky's World Of Words & Music and A Different Drummer broadcast on BBC2. Violet Carson made her final appearance as Ena Sharples on Coronation Street. Alton Towers Resort was opened by Madame Tussauds in Staffordshire. Elvis Costello & The Attractions' 'High Fidelity'/'Getting Mighty Crowded', Magazine's 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)'/'The Book', John Foxx's 'No-One Driving'/'Glimmer', 'Mister No' and The Cure's 'A Forest'/'Another Journey By Train' released.
Oxford beat Cambridge in the Boat Race by a canvas, the closest finish in over a century. The Cambridge crew included Hugh Laurie of Selwyn College. The first episode of The Val Doonican Music Show broadcast. The first episode of Discoveries broadcast on BBC2. The long-running American police drama Hawaii Five-O came to an end after twelve series and two hundred and seventy nine episodes. In the finale, Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) was finally able to capture his archnemesis, Wo Fat (played by Khigh Dhiegh), who had been introduced in the first episode in September 1968. Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Bill Berry and Mike Mills played their first gig as an - at the time, unnamed - band, a birthday party for their friend, Kathleen O'Brien, at an Episcopal church in Athens, Georgia. Two weeks later, they first performed under the name REM, at the Coffee Club 11-11 in Athens.
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop presented its 'Star Awards 1980'. A Celebration Of Sean O'Casey broadcast on BBC2. Post-it Notes, invented by scientist Spencer Silver and promoter Art Fry, went on sale for the first time in the United States.
Jasper Carrott appeared on Over The Moon. Mastermind International broadcast. Doctor Hook had their own show on BBC2 with guest Kate Bush. Steve Wright hosted Radio 1's Breakfast Show for the first time. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed additional economic sanctions, after the Ayatollah Khomeini rejected any plan to transfer the US Embassy hostages from the control of students to the custody of the Iranian government. President Carter ordered all of Iran's diplomats to leave the country, sent US Marshals to close all Iranian consulates and barred almost all American exports to Iran. Prior to Carter's announcement, State Department official Henry Precht, director of the department's Office of Iranian Affairs, summoned Iran's charge d'affaires, Ali Agah, to his office and presented him with the expulsion orders. Agah told reporters afterward that the staff had been 'treated disrespectfully.' When Agah's aide, Mohammed Lavassini, insisted that the Iranian government was 'providing protection' to the American hostages, Precht allegedly replied 'Bullshit!'
The pilot episode of Radio Active - The Oxford Revue - broadcast on Radio 4 featuring Helen Atkinson-Wood, Angus Deayton and Philip Pope among others. Bugs & Daffy & Chuck & Porky broadcast in the Omnibus strand. Ain't Many Angels broadcast on BBC2.

The first UK TV showing of With This Ring. The Silver Tassie broadcast on BBC2. ITV broadcast the critically acclaimed Death Of A Princess, a drama about a princess from a fictitious Middle-Eastern Islamic nation and her lover who were publicly executed for adultery. It was based on the true story of the late Princess Misha'al bint Fahd al Saud and its transmission caused a great deal of controversy, provoking an angry response from the Government of Saudi Arabia. Within days, the event was - hilariously - satirised by Not The Nine O'Clock News. Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric and his sister Bint al-Huda al-Sadr, opponents of the regime of Saddam Hussein, were executed in Najaf for their role in leading the Shia Muslim uprising against the Ba'ath Party. Soyuz Thirty Five was launched with cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin and entered with the unoccupied Salyut Six space station. Popov and Ryumin spent more than six months in space as the 'resident crew' and remained at the station until 11 October, while other crews arrived and departed.
Gilly Fraser's Not For The Likes Of Us broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The Seven Burnhams By The Sea broadcast on BBC2. The UK reached agreement with Spain to re-open its border with Gibraltar.
The first episode of The Comics broadcast on BBC2. Paul McCartney's 'Coming Up'/'Lunch Box Odd Socks', The Ruts' 'Staring At The Rude Boys'/'Love In Vain', The Average White Band's 'Let's Go Round Again (parts 1 & 2)', New Musik's 'This World Of Water'/'Missing Persons', 'Tell Me Something New', Boney M's 'My Friend Jack'/'I See A Boat (On The River)', Humble Pie's 'Fool For A Pretty Face'/'You Soppy Pratt', The Korgis' 'Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime'/'Dirty Postcards' and The Beat's 'Mirror In The Bathroom'/'Jackpot' released. Hearing Macca's new song in New York, John Lennon was, by his own admission, jealous that his former partner had released 'something pretty good 'for the first time in a while and, immediately, hatched plans to return to recording himself after five years of 'retirement.' Mohammed Mustafa Ramadan, a Libyan reporter for the BBC's Arabic Service, was shot and killed in London as he left prayer at the Regent's Park Mosque by two gunmen, Ben Hassan al-Masri and Nagib Mufta Gasmi. The death was the first after Libya's government newspaper, Green March, announced Muammar Gaddafi's latest deranged campaign against expatriates who had fled Libya, whom it labeled as 'stray dogs.' The first episode of The Gentle Touch - Killers - broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showing of Cave In!. The first episode of Russ Abbott's Madhouse was broadcast on ITV. Although, tragically, it was not the last. The first episodes of Grapevine and Armchair Critics broadcast on BBC2. Wreckless Eric and Original Mirrors featured on Radio 1's In Concert.
The first episode of The Swish Of The Curtain broadcast. The first UK broadcast of Olivia Newton John. The first UK TV showings of The Student Prince and Bad Company on BBC2. The musical Grease closed its run of three thousand three hundred and eighty eight performances making it, at that time, the longest running show on Broadway. Days after his twenty third birthday, Spanish golfer Severiano Ballesteros became the youngest winner of the US Masters Tournament. Dennis Waterman presented Radio 1's Star Special. And sang the theme song. Probably. The first episode of Cribb - Swing Swing Together - broadcast on LWT.
The Lambrettas featured on Cheggers Plays Pop. The first UK TV showing of Halls Of Anger. The first episode of Tony Soper's Bird Spot broadcast on BBC2. India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi survived an assassination attempt in New Delhi when a man threw a knife at her from close quarters. The six-inch blade grazed one of her bodyguards but Gandhi herself was uninjured. At the Fifty Second Academy Awards, Kramer Versus Kramer won the Oscar for Best Picture and its star, Dustin Hoffman won Best Actor. Sally Field was the Best Actress for the title role in Norma Rae. Iron Maiden released their debut, self-titled, LP. It was 'orrible. The first episode of Young At Heart broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of The Enigma Files broadcast on BBC2. Orchstral Manoeuvres In The Dark performed 'Messages' and 'Dancing' on The Old Grey Whistle Test. All Clouds Are Clocks broadcast in the Omnibus strand. American Secretary of State Cyrus Vance argued with President Carter over the scheduled - but still extremely secret - rescue attempt of Americans held hostage in Tehran. According to observers at the meeting, Vance said that diplomatic solutions hadn't been exhausted and that the rescue attempt would likely result in a loss of life for some of the fifty hostages. Vance also pointed out that there were other Americans living in Iran who could be taken hostage even if the diplomats were rescued. After Defense Secretary Harold Brown asked Vance, 'When do you expect the hostages to be released?' and Vance could offer no reply, Carter reaffirmed his decision and Vance 'tendered his resignation, to be effective after the mission had been completed.' French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist and screenwriter Jean Paul Sartre died aged seventy four.
The first UK TV showing of Swan Song. Much Ado About Shakespeare, Barry Cunliffe's Chronicle film Bathwaters and the Arena documentary Dedicated Followers Of Fashion broadcast on BBC2. West Ham United beat Everton two-one at Elland Road to reach the FA Cup final. In the other semi-final replay, Arsenal and Liverpool drew again. The Teardrop Explodes were in session on The John Peel Show ('Thief Of Baghdad', 'The Poppies In The Fields', 'When I Dream').
The first UK broadcast of Taxi. The Executioner broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Town ... Town broadcast on BBC2. As the official 'guests of State', Bob Marley & The Wailers performed at Zimbabwe's Independence festival at Harare's Rufaro Stadium. A riot quickly ensued so the police fired tear gas into the crowd. The band were affected too, as were Ziggy and Stephen Marley who were attended the show with their father. The first episode of The Nesbitts Are Coming broadcast on Thames.
The second UK broadcast of the extraordinary TV movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden - starring Elizabeth Montgomery - in the Late Film strand. It had previously been shown as a stand-alone in 1978. James Robson's The Dig broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. John Bradbury and Lynval Golding of The Specials and Andy Peebles joined Kid Jensen on Radio 1's Roundtable. Kate Bush's 'Breathing'/'The Empty Bullring', Yachts' 'There's A Ghost In My House'/'Revelry', 'Yachting Type', Showaddywaddy's 'Always & Ever'/Cool Cool Cat', Dalek I's 'Dalek I Love You (Destiny)'/'Happy', 'This Is My Uniform' and The Chords' 'Something's Missing'/'This Is What They Want' released.
The twenty fifth Eurovision Song Contest was held in The Hague after the previous year's winners, Israel, declined to host the event. The contest was won by Johnny Logan, representing Ireland with 'What's Another Year?' 'Love Enough For Two' by Prima Donna for Great Britain came third. Dispassionate Belgian electro-pop outfit Telex had hoped to come last with their subversively banal song, 'Euro-Vision', but they gained enough points to beat the entries of both Morocco and Finland (largely thanks to being awarded ten points by Portugal who, seemingly, didn't - or, perhaps, did - get the joke). The Undertones and A Certain Ratio appeared on Radio 1's In Concert. A Day On The Hustings broadcast on BBC2. The body of Jeanette Woods, the first of six prostitutes murdered in Detroit in 1980, was found. Donald Murphy was arrested two days after attempting to kill a seventh woman and would confess to all six murders, though he was only tried and convicted for the last two killings. Shayetet Thirteen Israeli commandos carried out Operation Meta'h Gavoha, raiding the base of a guerrilla organization in Southern Lebanon which was believed to be planning an attack on a community in Israel.
The first episode of Good For Business broadcast. The White Bird Passes and Joan Armatrading: Rock Over Europe broadcast on BBC2. Mickey Dolenz hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
Suzi Quatro, Dexys Midnight Runners and Showaddywaddy featured on Cheggers Plays Pop. What were they thinking of? Daisy broadcast on BBC2. Pete Townshend's Empty Glass, The Undertones' Hypnotised and The Ramones' 'Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll High Radio?'/'I Want You Around' released. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark were in session on The John Peel Show ('Pretending To See The Future', 'Enola Gay', 'Dancing', 'Motion & Heart'). A plot to destroy an El Al airliner in mid-flight was foiled when Israeli security agents at the Zurich airport seized a German citizen with a time-bomb placed in his carry-on luggage.
John L Gardner defeated Belgium's Rudy Gauwe by a technical knockout to win the vacant European Heavyweight boxing championship. The Philpott File: Inside A Multinational broadcast on BBC2. Unemployment stood at a two-year high of one-and-a-half million. The Cure's Seventeen Seconds released.
The first episode of Lena broadcast. Nottingham Forest lost the second leg of their European Cup semi-final to Ajax Amsterdam, but still reached the final for the second year running with a two-one aggregate victory. Blondie's 'Call Me'/'Instrumental' released. Monochrome Set were in session on The John Peel Show.
Steve Wright presented performances by Smokie, Paul McCartney, The Cure (their TV debut), The Undertones, Johnny Logan and Blondie on Top Of The Pops. Ian McEwan's The Imitation Game broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Western bankers and officials of Poland's government met at the Hotel Victoria in Warsaw to discuss additional loans. The bankers made it clear that before the country could borrow more money, Poland would have to stop its subsidies to maintain artificially low prices on consumer goods. On 1 July, the Polish government announced a system of gradual - but continuous - price rises, particularly for meat, triggering the series of strikes which would lead to government recognition of the Solidarność Movement.

The first episode of The Sun Trap and Terry Wogan Meets JR broadcast. Happy broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Paul Weller and Ian Hunter featured on Radio 1's Roundtable. Human League's Holiday 80 EP ('Rock 'N' Roll'-'Nightclubbing'/'Being Boiled', 'Dancevision'), Hot Chocolate's 'No Doubt About It'/'Gimme Some Of Your Loving', Graham Parker's 'Stupefaction'/'Paralysed', Rocky Sharpe & The Replays Featuring The Top-Liners' 'A Teenager In Love'/'You've Gone Away', Sparks' 'Young Girls'/'Just Because You Love Me' and Echo & The Bunnymen's 'Rescue'/'Simple Stuff' released. Desert One, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, was aborted after a sandstorm and mechanical problems grounded one of the rescue helicopters. As one of the remaining copters was attempting to lift off from the landing site, it collided with a transport plane, killing eight US troops. All one hundred and forty six people aboard Dan-Air Flight 1008 from Manchester to Tenerife, crashed into a mountain on the Canary Islands, La Esperanza, while in a holding pattern awaiting landing. Aspiring cartoonist Matt Groening was published for the first time when his comic strip Life In Hell was printed in an alternative weekly newspaper, the Los Angeles Reader.
The first UK TV broadcast of the Dallas spin-off Knot's Landing. The first episode of BBC2's The Levin Interviews broadcast. Derby County, twice champions in the 1970s, were relegated from the First Division with one match remaining. Liverpool's goalless draw at Crystal Palace put them on the verge of retaining the title. Wilko Johnson 's Solid Senders and Nine Below Zero featured on Radio 1's In Concert.
The first episode of Buccaneer broadcast. An Experience Of India broadcast on BBC2. Paul Jones hosted Radio 1's Star Special. A group of followers of Leland Jensen, leader of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant, went with him to a fallout shelter in Missoula, Montana, three days before the expected fulfillment of his prophecy of an 29 April nuclear holocaust. Jensen's prophecy, surprisingly, did not come to pass and the group left the shelter on 1 May. The following week another member of the sect, Charles Gaines, told reporters that the prediction had failed because of 'a misinterpretation of Biblical time references.' Jensen revised his forecast for the end of the world to 7 May, predicting that the nuclear war would begin between 6am and 8am. Oddly, again it didn't.
The first UK TV showing of The Midnight Man. Feelifax broadcast on BBC2.
The first episode of Hannah broadcast. Bristol City lost five-two at Southampton to take the - unwanted - final First Division relegation spot along with Bolton Wanderers and Derby County. Alfred Hitchcock died aged eighty.
Six terrorists calling themselves the Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan captured the Embassy of Iran in Prince's Gate, Knightsbridge, taking twenty six hostages. The Roger Daltrey film, McVicar, premiered in London. Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'/'These Days' released. Athletic Spizz 80 were in session on The John Peel Show. Barnum, a Broadway musical production based on the life of circus showman PT Barnum, premiered at the St James Theatre for the first of eight hundred and fifty four performances. With lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, the play won three TONY Awards, including one for Jim Dale and the first TONY nomination for Glenn Close.
The first episode of Bull Work broadcast. British Aerospace was privatised. Arsenal finally reached the FA Cup final after beating Liverpool one-nil in the FA Cup Semi-Final third replay at Highfield Road. Liverpool agreed a fee of three hundred thousand knicker for eighteen year old Chester City striker Ian Rush. An article by journalist Dan Rottenberg in Chicago magazine contained the first recorded use of the word 'yuppie' to refer to a 'young urban professional.' The first episode of For Maddie With Love broadcast on Thames.
Mary's Wife broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Squeeze's 'Pulling Mussles (From The Shell)'/'What The Butler Saw', The Three Degrees' 'Starlight'/'Set Me Free', Dirty Looks' 'Let Go'/'Accept Me', Black Nasty's 'Cut Your Motor Off'/'Keep On Stepping' and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's 'Messages'/'Talking Sides Again' released.
Liverpool clinched the First Division title beating Aston Villa four-one at Anfield. The result was rendered academic by Manchester United's two-nil defeat to Leeds United. Ipswich Town lost the unbeaten League run which they had maintained for over five months against Manchester City, but remained in third place. In the Third Division, Kevin Drinkell scored three of Grimsby Town's four goals against Sheffield United; a result that saw The Mariners crowned champions. Fourth Division Crewe Alexandra beat York City two-nil, their second goal a penalty scored by on-loan goalkeeper Zimbabwe international Bruce Grobbelaar. It was his final game for the club before returning to Vancouver Whitecaps. A year later, he signed for Liverpool. Robin Day was interviewed by Bernard Levin on BBC2's The Levin Interviews.
The first UK TV showing of Kiss Me, Kill Me. Brian Rose scored a century as Somerset beat Essex by five wickets in the opening game of the John Player League. Kenny Dalglish hosted Radio 1's Star Special. Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito died at the University of Ljubljana Medical Centre. Ian MacGregor was appointed the head of British Steel. Three men were charged in Belfast with the murder of German industrialist Thomas Neidermeyer in 1973. The government announced the intention to dismantle numerous Quangos. A group of mercinaries were executed after a coup in Surinam failed.
The SAS stormed the Iranian Embassy building, killed five of the six terrorists (and gave the sixth one a right good howking) and freed all the hostages. Both the BBC and ITV interrupted their Bank Holiday Monday schedules to broadcast the unfolding events live. The coverage launched the careers of several journalists such as the BBC's Kate Adie, while ITN Director, David Goldsmith and his team would receive a BAFTA for their footage. Adie reported live and unscripted to one of the largest news audiences ever for over forty minutes whilst crouched behind a car door in a News Flash that cut into BBC2's coverage of the World Snooker Championship final - in which Cliff Thorburn was in the process of beating Hurricane Higgins - and, subsequently, delayed a particularly fine episode of Not The Nine O'Clock News. The Little & Large Holiday Special broadcast. Tragically, the SAS waited until it was finished before starting their raid. Maybe they were watching that before kicking some terrorist butt? The Fall's Totales Turns and Tristam Shandy's 'Magic In Madrid'/'It's My Life' released. Dennis Hopper's Out Of The Blue - starring Linda Manz - premiered at Cannes. 'Subvert normality ... Kill all hippies!'
Hong Kong Venture broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's The Scientists. NASA announced the discovery of a previously-unknown fifteenth moon of Jupiter, found by astronomer Stephen Synnott on an image transmitted by Voyager 1. Temporarily designated as S/1979 J3, the moon later become known as Metis. The first episode of Cockleshell Bay broadcast on Thames.
My Uncle Charlie broadcast in the Words & Pitures strand. John Ford's adaptation of 'Tis A Pity She's A Whore broadcast on BBC2. Steel Pulse were in session on The John Peel Show.
Peter Powell presented performances from The Human League, Prelude, Michael Jackson, Matchbox, Jona Lewie, The Ruts, OMD, The Undertones and Dexys Midnight Runners on Top Of The Pops. Quinn Running broadcast in the Omnibus strand. The first UK broadcast of Joey & Redhawk. Another Country broadcast on BBC2. Motörhead's The Golden Years Live EP released. Comsat Angels were in session on The John Peel Show.

The first episode of In the Limelight with Lesley broadcast. War Requiem broadcast on BBC2. Games Without Frontiers broadcast in the Playhouse strand. Teena Marie's 'Behind The Groove'/'You're All The Boogie I Need', Lipps Inc's 'Funkytown'/'All Night Dancing', UK Subs' 'Teenage'/'Left For Dead', 'New York State Police', Ellie Warren's 'Shattered Glass'/'The World Is Crying Out For Love' and Roxy Music's 'Over You'/'Manifesto' released.
West Ham United won the FA Cup with a one-nil victory over Arsenal at Wembley. Trevor Brooking scored the only goal as West Ham became only the second team from the Second Division to win the trophy postwar. The first UK TV showing of Tomas Gutierrez Alea's The Last Supper in BBC2's Film International strand. The Members and The Records appeared on Radio 1's In Concert.
The first episode of Doom Castle broadcast. Art City - Los Angeles - narrated by Michael Caine - broadcast on BBC2. Marianne Faithfull hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
Catch 22 shown in The Monday Film strand. Eric Robson took over from Brian Trueman as presenter of BBC2's Brass Tacks beginning with a film on the public protests of the forthcoming arrival of cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common.
The Flying Machines of Ken Wallis broadcast. Janis Ian and The Monochrome Set featured on The Old Grey Whistle Test. England beat world champions Argentina three-one in a friendly international at Wembley with two goals from David Johnson and one from Kevin Keegan. Nottingham Forest's Garry Birtles made his international debut as a second-half substitute. Argentina's side included teenage sensation Diego Maradonna.
Jeremy Paul's Walk In The Forest broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Arsenal lost a penalty shoot-out to Valencia in the European Cup Winners' Cup Final after misses from Liam Brady and Graham Rix. The Passions were in session on The John Peel Show. BBC2's Man Alive asked the question What Price The BBC? Michael Tuchner's Haywire - starring Lee Remick, Jason Robards, Deborah Raffin and Dianne Hull - premiered.
One-man programmes featuring Max Boyce and Jeremy Taylor broadcast (the latter on BBC2). The premiere of Julien Temple's Malcolm MacLaren-authorised Sex Pistols' biopic The Great Rock N Roll Swindle.
The first Uk TV showing of The Syndicate. The first episode of The Colliers' Crusade broadcast on BBC2. Philip Martin's The Unborn broadcast in the Payhouse strand. UK Inflation rose to 21.8 per cent. Meaning that by the time you'd walked from your house to the local corner shop, everything was more expensive than it had been when you'd left. Justin Heyward appeared with Mike Read and Kid Jensen on Radio 1's Roundtable. Devo's Freedom Of Choice, U2's debut '11 O'Clock, Tick Tock'/'Touch', Comsat Angels' 'Total War'/'Waiting For A Miracle', 'Home Is The Range', Rachel Sweet's 'Spellbound'/'Lover's Lane', Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Could You Be Loved?'/'One Drop', McCartney II, The Lambrettas' under-rated 'D-a-a-ance'/'(Can't You) Feel The Beat' and The Specials 'Rat Race'/'Rude Boys Outta Jail' released.
The England football team's run of six consecutive wins ended abruptly in a four-one defeat to Wales in the Home International Championship. Larry Lloyd, recalled to the England defence after andeight year absence, had a nightmare. He was booked, injured and substituted after being given a chasing by a lively Welsh forward line in which Leighton James was outstanding. Paul Mariner scored England's goal. Nothern Ireland beat Scotland one-nil at Windsor Park via a Billy Hamilton goal. St Mirren duo Billy Thomson and Peter Weird and Abderdeen's Gordon Strachan made their Scotland debuts. Dennis Potter interviwed on The Levin Interviews. The first UK TV showing of Werner Herzog's Stroszek in BBC2's Film International strand. John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett appeared on Radio 1's In Concert. Martyn Duffey, a sixteen-year-old runaway from Birkenhead, encountered the serial killer Dennis Nilsen at a London railway station as Nilsen himself returned from a union conference in Southport. Nilsen strangled Duffey and subsequently drowned him in the kitchen sink at his flat before bathing with the body.
Ian Curtis, the vocalist of Joy Division, hanged himself in his Macclesfield home in the early hours of Sunday morning. His death came just days before Joy Division were scheduled to begin their first US tour. Erosions of Grandeur broadcast. The Politics Of Compassion, Growing For Gold and Brubek broadcast on BBC2. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller presented Radio 1's Star Special.
Martha & The Muffins, The Chords and Rocky Sharpe & The Replays appeared on Cheggers Plays Pop. The first episode of Rock Athlete broadcast on BBC2. More than two weeks after the planned final day of the season, First Division fixtures were completed when Arsenal lost five-nil to Middlesbrough. The result left Ipswich Town one point ahead of The Gunners in third place.
England and Northern Ireland drew one-one at Wembley in the Home International Championship. Noel Brotherton's deflected own-goal was, subseqetly, cancelled out by Terry Cochrane's equaliser. West Ham's Alan Devonshire made his England debut. The first episode of Swim broadcast on BBC2. The UK premiere of The Empire Strikes Back.
The first UK TV showings of Ja, Ja, Mein General! But Which Way To The Front? in The Wednesday Film strand and Daisy Miller in BBC2's Midweek Movie strand. Alain Payet's Petites Filles Impudiques (aka Suédoises à chaud) - starring Brigitte Verbecq, Christine Béton, Cyril Val and Carmelo Petix - premiered. Willie Miller scored the only goal as Scotland beat Wales one-nil at Hampden Park in the Home International championship.
The first episode of That's Life Report broadcast. The first episode of Peter Tinniswood's Tales From The Long Room - starring Robin Bailey - broadcast on BBC2. Echo & The Bunnymen were in session on The John Peel Show ('The Pictures On My Wall', 'All That Jazz', 'Over The Wall'). Buzzcocks were recorded at Manchester Poly for Radio 1's Mike Read Show. During their seven-song set, Pete Shelley introduced a new song, 'Strange Thing', dedicating it to the memory of Ian Curtis who had died over the weekend to an audibly shocked audience most of whom appeared not to have heard the news.
Electric In The City broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Roger Daltrey and Kenney Jones were guest of Radio 1's Roundtable. Roxy Music's Flesh + Blood, Peter Gabriel's self-titled third LP, Gary Numan's 'We Are Class'/'Trois Gymnopedies (First Movement)', The Motors' 'That's What John Said'/'Crazy Alice', Darts' 'Let's Hang On'/'Cairoli', Bad Manners' 'Lip Up Fatty'/'Night Bus To Dalston', Gene Chandler's 'Does She Have A Friend?'/'Let Me Make Love To You' and The Human League's Travelogue released.
The first episodes of The Adventure Game and What's On Wogan?broadcast. Secret Affair and Sad Café featured on BBC2's Something Else. England beat Scotland two-nil at Hampden Park with goals from Trevor Brooking and Steve Coppell but finished runners-up to Northern Ireland in the Home International Championship. The John Renbourne Group and The Bert Jansch Conundrum appeared on Radio 1's In Concert.
An adaptation of Hamlet - starring Derek Jacobi, Claire Bloom and Patrick Stewart - broadcast in the BBC Television Shakespeare strand. The opening episode of Time Out Of Mind covered the World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton. Elkie Brooks hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
The first UK TV showing of Little Big Man. Popular US drama Dallas set up a mystery which would captivate TV audiences around the world with its final episode of the season. The episode - A House Divided set a precedent for a cliffhanger-ending for a TV series (it had first been shown in the US on 21 March). For the next eight months, viewers debated (and placed bets on) who shot JR Ewing (portrayed by Larry Hagman). On 22 November, an estimated twenty million BBC viewers would watch the next series premiere to learn the answer. Which, if you've never seen it, was Kristin (played by Mary Crosby). Rocket 150 - The Great Railway Cavalcade and Nancy Mitford: A Portrait By Her Sisters brodcast on BBC2. The Radio 1 Roadshow came from Newcastle. Paul McCartney: The Man & His Music broadcast.
The Rhesus Conundrum and Gene Kelly, This is Your Lunch broadcast. The first episode Out Of Court broadcast on BBC2. An inquest into the death of New Zealand born teacher Blair Peach (who was killed during a demonstration against the National Front in 1979) returned a verdict of misadventure, resulting in a public outcry. The Go-Gos' debut 'We Got The Beat'/'How Much More?' released.

Nottingham Forest retained the European Cup with a one-nil win over Hamburger SV in Madrid. The winning goal was scored by John Robertson. The European Cup had now been won by an English club for the fourth successive year. Scotland (without Robertson) lost a friendly international to Poland one-nil in Poznan. Zbigniew Boniek netted the only goal. Ipswich Town's Alan Brazil and Ally Dawson and Glasgow Rangers made their Scotland debuts. West Indies won the opening match of the Prudential Trophy at Headingley by twenty four runs in a rain interrupted match which spilled over into the following day. Debutant Chris Tavaré scored an unbeaten eighty two. Really slowly.
The Stranglers' 'Who Wants The World?'/'The Meninblack (Waiting For 'Em)' released. Budget cuts led to a Musicians' Union strike that suspended operations of all eleven BBC orchestras and performances of live music on the BBC. Whilst programmes like Parkinson were affected, Top Of The Pops shut down production. Kid Jensen presented the final episode until 7 August which featured Liquid Gold, Hot Chocolate, Elton John, Don McLean, Thin Lizzy, Roxy Music, Jermaine Jackson and Stiff Little Fingers. During the strike, the BBC showed repeats of Are You Being Served? in Top Of The Pops's Thursday night slot. As a consequence of the lack of regular exposure, the sale of singles in the UK dropped by over forty per cent during the three months Top Of The Pops was off-air.
The final epiosode of Waggoners' Walk was broadcast on Radio 2. Having lost the opening Prudential Trophy ODI on the previous day, England levelled the series against the West Indies. Thanks to a century opening stand by Peter Willey (fifty six) and Geoffrey Boycott (seventy) and forty two not out from Ian Botham, England reached two hundred and thirty six off the third ball of the final over to win by three wickets. The first episode of BBC North East's Most Heroic broadcast; Eric Robson's first guest was Chris Bonnington. The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition broadcast on BBC2. Elton John and Frankie Valli joined Paul Gambaccini on Radio 1's Roundtable. The Police's Six Pack singles collection, including the exclusive mono version of 'The Bed's Too Big Without You', Queen's 'Play The Game'/'A Human Body' and Siouxsie & The Banshees' 'Christie'/'Eve White Eve Black released. The first episode of The Other 'Arf broadcast on LWT.
Maureen Lipman was guest presenter on Saturday Night At The Mill. Architecture For Everyman broadcast on BBC2. The Police appeared on Radio 1's In Concert. The Beat's I Just Can't Stop It and Magazine's The Correct Use Of Soap released. A virtual England B team traveled Down Under to play in an international to celebrate one hundred years of football in Australia. Goals from Paul Mariner and Glenn Hoddle gave England a two-one victory. Ipswich partners Russell Osman and Terry Butcher made their debuts together at the heart of the England defence and there was also a first cap for Arsenal's Alan Sunderland, who was substituted by another debutant in Brighton's Peter Ward. Middlesbrough's David Armstrong won the first of his three caps. Old Frank Lampard's second international appearance came over seven years after his first, in 1972. Scotland lost three-one to Hungary in a friendly international in Budapest. Steve Archibald scored for the visitors.
Sheppey - starring Bob Hoskins in the title role - broadcast in the Festival strand. The pilot episode of Coming Home broadcast. A series followed in February 1981. BBC2's Dance Month featured a performance of Tales From Beatrix Potter. British Leyland launched its Morris Ital range of family saloons and estates, which were a reworking of the nine-year-old Marina that was one of Britain's most popular cars during the 1970s. Buggles' Trevor Horn and Geoff Downs presented Radio 1's Star Special.
The first UK TV showing of The Rollicking Adventures Of Eliza Fraser. Boxer Jim Watt appeared on Around With Alliss. The Only Ones were in session on The John Peel Show. The first episodes of The Latchkey Children and Can We Get On Now, Please? broadcast on Thames.
Dunkirk: The Story Behind The Legend broadcast. A computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash at North American Aerospace Defence Command and US Air Force command posts around the world that a Soviet nuclear attack was taking place. The malfunction ocurred again on 6 June. The incidents - secret at the time - would be inspiration for the 1983 movie WarGames.
BBC2's Reputations featured Anthony Howard's profile of Robert Kennedy. The Kinks' One For The Road released. Fifteen hours before his scheduled execution in the electric chair, convicted murderer Jack Howard Potts changed his mind about an earlier refusal to appeal his death sentence. The electrocution would have been the first use of capital punishment in Georgia in more than fifteen years. After Potts made his decision to let the American Civil Liberties Union appeal the death warrant, he lived for twenty five more years before dying of liver cancer in 2005.
Don McLean & Friends In Concert broadcast. The Lake broadcast on BBC2.
Two Malaysians were jailed for fourteen years after being found very guilty of running a drug smuggling ring in London. The Sex Pistols' '(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone'/'Pistols Propaganda', UB40's 'My Way Of Thinking'/'I Think It's Going To Rain Today', Jona Lewie's 'Big Shot - Momentarily'/'I'll Get By In Pittsburgh', Dena Barnes' 'If You Ever Walked Out Of My Life'/'Who Am I?', Montrose's 'Space Station Number Five'/'Good Rockin' Tonight', Nabay's 'Believe It Or Not?'/'Instrumental' and Odyssey's 'Use It Up & Wear It Out'/'Dont Tell Me, Tell Her' released.
The first UK broadcast of California Fever. Freak Out & The Space Walk broadcast on BBC2.
Thefirst UK TV showings of the 1976 movie version of The Likely Lads and, on BBC2, Ken Russell's Mahler. The first episode of The Last Place On Earth broadcast.
The first UK TV showing of The Life & Times Of Judge Roy Bean. American comedian Richard Pryor was burned over half of his body after accidentally setting fire to himself at his home in Northridge, California. An emergency room physician at the Sherman Oaks Community Hospital said that Pryor had told him the fire had been caused by an explosion while Pryor was freebasing cocaine in a crack pipe.

The first test between England and the West Indies concluded at Trent Bridge. Honours were fairly even between the four-pronged West Indies pace bowling attack (Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall) and England's (Bob Willis, who took nine wickets, supported by John Lever and Ian Botham) and the batsmen. On the final day, West Indies chasing a target of two hundred and eight won by two wickets. Steel Pulse and New Musik appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Bob Marley & The Wailers' Uprising released. Wah! Heat were in session on The John Peel Show ('Seven Minutes To Midnight', 'Don't Step On The Cracks', 'Somesay', 'Other Boys'). The African National Congress in South Africa published a statement by their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela.
The football European Champonships began in Italy. In the opening game, a repeat of the 1976 final, West Germany beat Czechoslovakia with a goal from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Essex beat Surrey by eighty six runs in the Benson & Hedges Cup quarter final. The Fall's 'How I Wrote Elastic Man'/'City Hobgoblins' and Athletic Spizz 80's 'No Room'/'Spock's Missing' released. William George Bonin, later convicted of fourteen murders perpetrated in Southern California was arrested in Hollywood. The arrest came days after a latest victim of the suspected Freeway Killer was found dead. Convicted in 1982 of torturing and killing ten of the victims, Bonin would be executed by lethal injection in 1996.
The first episode of Square Mile Of Murder. Gail Kinchen (a pregnant sixteen-year-old) and her unborn baby were accidentally shot dead by a police marksman who entered the Birmingham flat where her boyfriend David Pagett was holding her hostage at gunpoint. England's first match at the European Championship finals for twelve years ended in a one-all draw against Belgium. Ray Wilkins scored England's goal.The game was marred by hooliganism in the stands with kids gettin' sparked and aal-sorts which was only calmed by the Italian police's use of tear gas. Which, not unsurprisingly, also affected the players on the pitch when carried there by the wind. As even the daftest bastard on the planet should've been able to work out.
The first episode of We're Going Places broadcast. The Lancaster Legend: A Pilot's Story broadcast on BBC2. The Gap Band's 'Oops Upside Your Head'/'The Boys Are Back In Town', Elvis Costello's New Amsterdam EP ('New Amsterdam', 'Doctor Luther's Assistant'/'Ghost Train', 'Just A Memory'), Paul McCartney's 'Waterfalls'/'Check My Machine', Kevin Keegan's 'England'/'Somebody Needs', Stacy Lattisaw's 'Jump To The Beat'/'You Don't Love Me Anymore' and The Dead Kennedys' 'Holiday In Cambodia'/'Police Truck' released.
Klaus Allofs scored a hat-trick as West Germany beat The Netherlands three-two in Naples at the European Championships. Yahya El Mashad, the Egyptian nuclear scientist and director of Iraq's nuclear program, was stabbed to death in his hotel room at Le Méridien Hotel in Paris. The Israeli intelligence service, Mossad was, suspected in the killing but no proof was ever found.
In a shamefully inept performance, England were eliminated from the European Championships after they lost to hosts Italy through a late goal from Marco Tardelli in Turin. The first UK TV showing of Weekend Of Shadows on BBC2.
The first Uk TV showing of The Internecine Project. The first episode of BBC2's One Hundred Great Paintings broadcast.
Nobody Asked Us broadcast. The first episode of Spike Milligan's Q9 broadcast on BBC2. Tuneless, balding hippies Genesis featured on The Old Grey Whistle Test. So, that was well-worth avoiding. Defence Secretary Francis Pym revealed to the House of Commons that US nuclear cruise missiles would henceforth be located at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire and the disused RAF Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire.
Already out of the European Championship, England won their final game two-one against Spain in Naples with goals from Trevor Brooking and Tony Woodcock.
The first episodes of Uncle Sam's Backyard and All About Books broadcast. James Cameron's Refugee broadcast in BBC2's The World About Us strand. Gunmen attacked the British embassy in Baghdad; three attackers were shot dead by Iraqi security forces. The attack came on the eve of Iraq's first national assembly elections for twenty years. Iraqi officials claimed the attack was an attempt to disrupt the ballot. But others saw it as an attempt to avenge the deaths of the masked gunmen shot dead during the storming of the Iranian embassy in London by the SAS the previous month.
David Pritchard's BBC North film North East Roundabours: The Last Two Weeks In June about the Newcastle hoppings broadcast. Anyone Can Make a Casting But ... broadcast on BBC2. The Rolling Stones' 'Emotional Rescue'/'Down In The Hole', Otis Watkins' 'You Talk Too Much'/'If You're Ready To Rock' and New Musik's 'Sanctuary'/'She's A Magazine', 'Chik Musik', 'Magazine Musik' released. In a bout for the WBC welterweight championship, former WBC lightweight champion Roberto Durán of Panama upset previously unbeaten Sugar Ray Leonard at Montreal's Olympic Stadium to capture the welterweight division. The cult comedy The Blues Brothers and The Blue Lagoon premiered.
Czechoslovakia beat Italy nine-eight on penalties in the - utterly pointless - European Championship Third Place Play-Off. Carmen Comes to St Aidan's broadcast on BBC2.
West Germany beat Belgium two-one in the final of the European Championships with two goals by Horst Hrubesch. The first UK TV showing of Ka'neto Shindo's bowel-shatteringly scary Onibaba in BBC2's Film Of The Week strand. Don MacLean hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
John Laurie died, aged eighty three. Sanjay Gandhi, the eldest son of India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed in a plane crash. Tim Berners-Lee began work on ENQUIRE, the computer system which would eventually lead to the creation, in 1990, of the World Wide Web. Raiders of the Lost Ark started principal photography at the Port de la Pallice in France.
On Giant's Shoulders broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Animal Olympians broadcast. UK unemployment reached a postwar high of one million six hundred thousand. In the second test at Lord's, Graham Gooch scored a magnificent one hundred and twenty three, but had little support, with Michael Holding and Joel Garner getting into the batsmen with some vicious bowling. West Indies replied with five hundred and eighteen, including a double century stand between Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards. Weather interruptions left West Indies with insufficient time to bowl England out a second time and the match ended in a draw.
Nijinsky: A Legend Recreated broadcast. The Sony Walkman went on sale in the United States. The first episode of Maggie's Moor broadcast on Thames.
A Portrait of Summer School broadcast. The first episode of Radio 1's Twenty Five Years Of Rock broadcast. The Glasgow Central by-erection was held. Labour retained the seat despite a swing of fourteen per cent to the Scottish National Party. France's President Valery Giscard d'Estaing announced that his nation had successfully developed its own neutron bomb, designed 'to destroy living beings with short-lived radiation emissions, while avoiding major blast and heat effects.'
The first episode of The Lonely War broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Claire's Knee on BBC2. On tour in American John Lydon and Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd gave a memorably monosyllabic interview on The Tomorrow Show with host Tom Snyder. Kate Bush's 'Babooshka'/'Ran Tan Waltz', Science's 'Look Don't Touch'/'Scalectrik', Lucifer's Friend's 'Stardancer'/'1999', Plasmatics' 'Butcher Baby'/'Tight Black Pants', Kiss' 'Talk To Me'/'She's So European', Cecil Parker's 'Really Really Love You (Parts 1 & 2)', Any Trouble's 'Second Choice'/'The Name Of The Game', 'Bible Belt', Graham Parker's 'Love Without Greed'/'Mercury Poisoning' and The Undertones' 'Wednesday Week'/'Told You So' released.

The first UK TV showing of Always Leave Them Laughing. BBC2 began a series of Horror Double Bill; the opening movies were Night of The Demon and The Ghoul. The Specials featured in Radio 1's In Concert. The Olympic committees of thirteen Western European nations announced jointly that, although they would participate in Moscow, they would not take part in the opening or closing ceremonies and would use the International Olympic Committee flag rather than their own flags at medal ceremonies. Nations participating were Andorra, Belgium, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Switzerland and Great Britain. Alan Minter retained the WBA and WBC Middleweight titles with an eighth round victory over Italy's Vito Antuofermo at Wembley Arena.
The first episode of The Moon Stallion broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Puzzle Of A Downfall Child on BBC2. Roger Daltrey hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
The first UK TV showing of Katie: Portrait Of A Centrefold. The pre-decimal sixpence coin was withdrawn from circulation.
I'm Not a Bloody Parcel broadcast. MG's Abingdon car factory looked set to close as Aston Martin failed to raise the funds to buy it from British Leyland. At The Bislett Games in Oslo, Sebastian Coe broke Rick Wohlhuter's world record for one thousand metres to become the first man to hold all four middle distance world records simultaneously - the eight hundred metres, thousand metres, fifteen hundred metres and the mile. The latter, however, was his for just over an hour until Steve Ovett broke Coe's standing mile record at the same meeting. Jesús Franco's Eugenie (Historia De Una Perversión) - starring Katja Bienert - premiered.
The episode of The Big Time which launched the career of Sheena Easton broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Man In A Glass Booth in BBC2's Movie Showcase. Airplane! premiered. The first episode of Sounding Brass broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of Running The Arts broadcast on BBC2.
The first UK TV showing of Pierre Grainer-Deferre's The Cage on BBC2. Bow Wow Wow's 'C'30, C'60, C'90 Go'/'Sun Sea & Piracy', Cuddly Toys' 'Madman'/'Join The Girls', The Bodysnatchers' 'Easy Life'/'Too Experienced', Duke Browner's 'Crying Over You'/'Instrumental', The Rumour's 'My Little Red Book'/'Name & Number' and Hawkwind's 'Shot Down In The Night'/'Urban Guerilla' released. Evonne Goolagong Cawley beat Chris Evert Lloyd in the Wimbledon ladies' singles final.
Björn Borg beat John McEnroe in a classic five-set Wimbledon men's singles final. Around With Rook broadcast. Drama From The Open University broadcast on BBC2. The challenge to society posed by the increasing importance of the microchip could only be met in a socialist economy, a confidential Labour Party documented stated. In Tehran women protesting against strict Muslim dress laws were 'vilified in the streets.' China's latest protest to Viet'nam about incidents on the border increased speculation a second Chinese invasion was imminent. Following an overnight seige of the Pakistan government secretariat by Shia Muslims, General Zia ul-Haq accepted the protesters main demands. Sales of CB radio equipment had soared since the Home Secretary's announcement of the government intention to legalise a form of open channel radio.
The Wind In The Oak broadcast. The first episodes of BBC2's Dimonds In The Sky and Peter Skellern broadcast. Producer Mickey Most hosted Radio 1's Star Special. The Observer revealed that computer scientists had confirmed William Shakespeare was the likely author of at least some of The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore. The Edinburgh University team, led by Thomas Merriam, had used a stylistic analysis of the words of the play in comparison to Shakespeare's other works.
The first episode of Blue Peter Flies the World broadcast. Led Zeppelin played their final live show prior to the death of John Bonham at the Eissporthalle near Berlin in the suburb of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.
Gerald Durrell's The Edge Of Extinction broadcast. Miners threatening to strike demanded a thirty seven per cent pay increase, ignoring pleas from That Awful Thatcher Woman to hold down wage claims.
The first UK TV showing of Joseph Losey's Galileo in BBC2's Movie Showcase. The Radio Times description of the latest episode of Radio 1's Mailbag was very funny.
The Sky At Night looked at quasars. BBC2's Inside Story interviewed police hostage negotiators involved in The Spaghetti House Siege, Balcombe Street and the Iranian Embassy. Alexandra Palace was gutted by fire.
It's A Celebrity Knockout broadcast. The first UK TV showing of L'Hotel De La Plage on BBC2. Tuneless balding punchable hippies Genesis were in concert on Radio 1's The Friday Rock Show. Just one of many jolly good reasons not to listen to it. Dexys Midnight Runners' glorious Searching For The Young Soul Rebels and the single 'There, There My Dear'/'The Horse', The Fall's 'How I Wrote Elastic Man'/'City Hobgoblins', Rhyze's 'Just How Sweet Is Your Love'/'I Found Love In You', The Crow's 'Your Autumn Of Tomorrow'/'Uncle Funk', The Comsat Angels' 'Independence Day'/'We Were', Showaddywaddy's 'Why Do Lovers Break Each Others' Hearts?'/'Teen Canteen' and Billy Joel's 'It's Still Rock & Roll To Me'/'Through The Long Night' released. Ultravox issued their fourth LP, Vienna, their first with pretentious faded glam queen of 76, Minge Urine following the departures of John Foxx and Robin Simon.
Maurice Hope retained the WBC Light-Middleweight title with an eleventh round knock-out of Italy's Rocky Mattioli at the Wembley Conference Centre. The first episodes of BBC2's Nine Lives and The Hong Kong Beat broadcast. The Mad Ghoul and Doctor Terror's House of Horror featured on Horror Double Bill. Radio 1's Rock On Saturday included an in-depth interview with ob Marley.
The Marlborough British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch was won by Alan Jones in a Williams ahead of Brabhams' Nelson Piquet. The Gateshead Experience broadcast. Halleluiah, Mary Plum broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Hank Marvin hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
Anatomy Of A Gang broadcast on BBC2. The Ruts' singer Malcolm Owen was found dead in the bathroom of his parents' home in Hayes, from a heroin overdose. The first episode of Grundy broadcast on Thames.
Royal Celebration broadcast in honour of the eightieth birthday of The Queen Mother. The third test at Old Trafford was drawn. West Indies won the toss and England were bowled out for one hundred and fifty on the first day. West Indies batted through the second day whilst the third was rained off, but they were eventually were all out for two hundred and sixty in reply, with a century by Clive Lloyd. England batted through most of the last two days, reaching three hundred and ninety one for seven.
Timothy West As Beecham broadcast on BBC2. Juan Antonio Samaranch was elected President of the International Olympic Committee.
Ronald Reagan accepted his party's nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Detroit.
Centenary Of The Royal Tournament broadcast. The Woven Image broadcast on BBC2. Joy Division's Closer, Echo & The Bunnymen's Crocodiles, Hawkwind's Live Seventy Nine, The Piranhas' 'Tom Hark'/'Getting Beaten Up', 'Boyfriend', John Foxx's 'Burning Car'/'Twentieth Century' and The B-52's 'Give Me Back My Man'/'Version' released. Rohini 1 was launched into orbit as the first satellite of India. The launch took place from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh state.
The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics took place in Moscow's Lenin Stadium. It was attended by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev and IOC President Lord Killanin. Although approximately half of the twenty four nations which boycotted the 1976 Olympics participated in Moscow, the 1980 games were disrupted by an even larger boycott led by the United States in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Sixty five countries invited did not take part. The impact of the boycott was mixed - some events such as swimming, track and field, boxing, basketball, diving, hockey and equestrian sports were hit hard. The vast majority of the medals were taken by the Soviet Union and East Germany in what was the most skewed medal tally since 1904. Eighty nations were represented, the smallest number since 1956. Seven nations made their first appearance at these games: Angola, Botswana, Cyprus, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique and Seychelles. Great Britain and Northern Ireland did compete - having told That Awful Thatcher Woman to eff right off when she wanted them to join the US-led boycott like snivelling lap-dogs of the imperialist 'Merkins. And they had their best Olympics in years winning five gold, seven silver and nine bronze medals. Thatch got her own back, of course, spitefully denying many of those who won medals a place on the annual honours list for several years. Hell hath no fury, it is said ... Arthur Negus: A Life Among Antiques broadcast on BBC2. Cozy Powell and Simple Minds featured on Radio 1's In Concert.
The first UK TV showing of Brannigan. The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case shown in BBC2's Film Of The Week strand. Roy Wood hosted Radio 1's Star Special. The first episode of Lady Killers - Murder At The Savoy Hotel - broadcast on LWT.
With play washed out on Saturday, the Monday reserve day was used for the Benson & Hedges Cup Final at Lord's. Northampton beat Essex by six runs helped by a man of the match performance by Allan Lamb who scored seventy two and three wickets for Sarfraz Nawaz.
The Case Of The Bermuda Triangle and This Year's Blonde: Marilyn Monroe broadcast. The first UK TV showings of Song Of Norway and All Creatures Great & Small. Sharron a profile of teenage swimmer Sharron Davies broadcast on BBC2. Duncan Goodhew won Britain's first gold at the Moscow Olympics in the one hundred metres breaststroke. Two days later he would add a bronze as part of the four by one hundred metres individual relay team. Soviet swimmer Vladimir Salnikov became the first person ever to swim fifteen hundred metres in less than fifteen minutes. Unemployment hit a forty four-year high of almost 1.9 million.
The Scarlett O'Hara War and The Robots Are Coming broadcast. The first UK TV showing of The Maids. Lieutenant Colonel Phạm Tuân became the first Vietnamese cosmonaut after being launched into space with Viktor Gorbatko on Soyuz 37. Two volunteers, William Behrle III and Michael Benson, became the first people in almost sixten months to set foot inside the radioactively contaminated Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station. A sixty six-day hunger strike by jailed IRA commander Martin Meehan ended after Meehan agreed to take nourishment following an appeal by Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich, who said that Meehan's death would provoke bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
Sky appeared on Rhythm On Two. Peter Sellers died from heart-failure in London.
Allan Wells won one hundred metres gold at the Olympics, Britain's first victory in the event since Harold Abrahams in 1924. Cuba took its first medal in the event since 1964, with Silvio Leonard's silver. Nadia Comăneci, the star of the 1976 games, won two further gynmastic golds on the beam and the floor - the latter shared with the Soviet Union's Nellie Kim. Nikolai Andrianov, who had won gold on floor at both Munich and Montreal, was pipped by Roland Bruckner of East Germany. Andrianov retained the vault title he had won in Montreal. Alexander Dityatin won a medal in each of the eight gymnastics events. He scored several tens, the first perfect score in men's gymnastics since 1924. The first UK TV showing of Violette Et Francois on BBC2. Peter Gabriel's 'Biko'/'Shosholoza', Adam & The Ants' 'Kings Of The Wild Frontier'/'Press Darlings', Roger Daltrey's 'Free Me'/'McVicar', Busta Jones' 'Just A Little Misunderstanding'/'Take Me Back Now', ABBA's 'The Winner Takes It All'/'Elaine', The Nits' 'Tutti Ragazzi'/'Harrow Accident', Desmond Dekker's 'Please Don't Bend'/'Workout (Groove Version)' and Roxy Music's 'Oh Yeah (On The Radio)'/'South Downs' released. Several thousand motorcyclists staged a protest through London against the mandatory use of helmets. Britain mopped up after the fiercest July storms in a decade. The three surviving Goons attended the funeral of Peter Sellers.

Steve Ovett won gold ahead of Sebastain Coe in the Olympic eight hundred metres. Daley Thompson also won gold in the decathlon. Gary Oakes took a surprise bronze for Britain in the four hundred metres hurdles as East Germany's Volker Beck won gold. Petra Schneider took the women's four hundred metres individual medley in a world record time ten second ahead of Sharron Davies. Schneider later admitted to doping as part of the Stasi era's drugs programme wherein many female athletes were pumped full of testosterone to enhance their performance. East German women dominated the swimming events, winning nine of eleven individual titles, both the relays and setting six world records. Hammer's The Curse Of The Werewolf and Amicus's From Beyond The Grave shown in BB2's Horror Double Bill. AC/DC featured on Radio 1's In Concert.
The Olympic two hundred metres gold was won by Pietro Mennea of Italy, the nation's first sprint victory since 1960. Great Britain earned its first medal in the event since 1928 with Allan Wells' silver. Don Quarrie of Jamaica, the defending champion, took bronze. Charles Wiggin and Malcolm Carmichael won rowing bronze in the coxless pairs. Jörg Woithe of East Germany won the one hundred metres freestyle gold. Sweden earned its first medals in the event since 1952 with Per Holmertz's silver and Per Johansson's bronze. The first UK broadcast on The Amazing Howard Hughes on BBC2. Bill Wyman hosted Radio 1's Star Special. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah of Iran, died in Cairo from complications of lymphatic cancer.
The first UK TV showing of Ransom. The Skids' Circus Games released.
The first episode of Scruples broadcast. Over two months after the suicide of Ian Curtis, the surviving members of Joy Division regrouped as a new band and debuted anonymously at Manchester's Beach Club; the group would adopt the name New Order the following year. That Awful Thatcher Woman announced 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. The fourth test at The Oval was drawn. England scored three hundred and seventy, with contributions throughout the batting order. Graham Gooch top-scored on eighty three, Geoff Boycott and Brian Rose also reached half-centuries and Mike Gatting added forty eight. No play was possible on the third day and West Indies eventually conceded their only first-innings deficit of the test series. England were in trouble, at eighteen for four just before the close on the fourth day, but batted through the final day, with Peter Willey reaching one hundred in an unbroken stand of one hundred and seventeen for the final wicket with Bob Willis.
The first episode of The British Greats broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Luther in BBC2's Movie Showcase strand. Polish gold medalist pole vaulter Władysław Kozakiewicz showed an obscene bras d'honneur gesture in all four directions to the jeering Soviet crowd, causing an international scandal. There were numerous claims of Soviet officials using their authority to negate marks by opponents to the point that IAAF officials found the need to look over the officials' shoulders to try to keep the events fair. There were also accusations of opening stadium gates to give Soviet athletes advantage. Kozakiewicz's action received much support in Poland, which resented Soviet control over Eastern Europe (Poland was in the midst of labor strikes that led to the creation of Solidarność less than two months later). After the Olympics ended, the Soviet ambassador to Poland demanded that Kozakiewicz be stripped of his medal over his 'insult to the Soviet people.' The official response was that Kozakiewicz's arm gesture had been 'an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion.' Britain's Neil Adams won silver in the Judo seventy one kilograms class.
The Spread Of Lutheranism broadcast. Prancing & Dancing All Over the Place broadcast on BBC2. The Eagles ended their latest tour with a contentious show in Long Beach, in which Glenn Frey and Don Felder spent the entire gig telling each other about the beating each planned to administer to the other once they got backstage. They split up immediately afterwards. To the relief of billions. The Attorney General Michael Havers outlined new guidelines on jury vetting. A row erupted between Havers and the BBC over the filming of an IRA road-block at Carrickmore. Scotland Yard was restricting its investigations into audio and video piracy because of 'weaknesses in the law, manpower issues and the need to concentrate on street crime.' Dafydd Iwan of Plaid Cymru who was jailed for refusing to pay his TV licence was freed after an anonymous person paid the twenty five quid fine. The IOC disclosed that some athletes had been disqualified from the Moscow Olympics after failing a sex test. 'Some women athletes from third world nations did not have the right set of chromosomes required to be counted as women,' said spokesman Ludwig Prokop.
The first UK TV showing of La Premiere Fois on BBC2. The Associates' The Affectionate Punch and Siouxsie & The Banshees' Kaliedoscope released. Seb Coe gained revenge over Steve Ovett in the Olympic fifteen hundred metre final. East Germany's Jürgen Straub split th two Britons, taking silver. Eighteen year old Steve Cram finished eighth. Ethiopia's Miruts Yifter won the five thousand metres, his second gold of the games having previously taken ten thousand metres gold four days earlier. Britain also won bronze medals in both of the women's relays; Heather Hunte, Kathy Smallwood, Beverley Goddard and Sonia Lannaman behind the impressive (and, almost certainly steroid-enhanced) East German and Soviet girls in four by one hundred metres and Linsey MacDonald, Michelle Probert, Joslyn Hoyte-Smith and Donna Hartley in the four by four hundred.
Teófilo Stevenson of Cuba became the first boxer to win three consecutive Olympic titles in heavyweight and the only boxer to win the same event in three Games. Jindřich Svoboda scored the winner as Czechoslovakia beat East Germany in the Olympic football final. Paranoiac and Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter shown in BBC2's Horror Double Bill strand. The Jam featured on Radio 1's In Concert in an incendiary set recorded at The Rainbow Theatre.
Because of the US boycott of the Olympics, changes were made to the traditional elements of the Closing Ceremony involving the official handover to the host city of the next Olympics to be held in Los Angeles. The flag of the city of Los Angeles instead of the United States flag was raised and the Olympic Anthem instead of 'The Star Spangled Banner'. Dalhousie's Luck broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Stewart Copeland hosted Radio 1's Star Special.
The first episode of The Boy From Five B. The first UK broadcast of The Fred Kaps Magic Show on BBC2. John Lennon and Yoko Ono began the recording of the Double Fantasy LP in New York. Hurricane Allen swept across Haiti, killing two hundred and twenty people in twenty four hours.
I Have Seen Yesterday broadcast. Montaillou and Gilbert White Lived Here broadcast on BBC2. Sophie Lara Winkleman born in Prinrose Hill.
The first episodes of Golden Soak and Top Sailing broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Jacques Brel Is Alive & Well & Living In Paris in BBC2's Movie Showcase strand. Devo's 'Whip It'/'Snowball', The Swinging Cats' 'Mantovani'/'Away' and Josef K's 'Radio Drill Time'/'Crazy To Exist' released.
Top Of The Pops returned after its enforced nine week lay-off with an episode presented by Peter Powell and Elton John. It had also acquired a new producer, the loathsome Michael Hurll (replacing the equally loathsome Robin Nash). The featured artists included The Piranahs, Roxy Music, Hot Chocolate, Kelly Marie, The Gap Band, The Gibson Brothers, Sheena Easton, Bad Manners and ABBA. The first episode of Small World broadcast on BBC2. In Poland, Anna Walentynowicz was fired from her job as a crane operator at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk for attempting to recruit new members to the unauthorised union. The firing came seven months before Walentynowicz would have qualified for retirement, prompting shipyard electrician Lech Walesa to call a strike on 14 August.
The IAC Coca-Cola International From Crystal Palace broadcast. David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes'/'Move On', The Clash's 'Bankrobber'/'Rockers Galore - UK Tour', Split Enz's 'I Got You'/'Double Happy', U2's 'A Day Without Me'/'Things To Make & Do', XTC's 'Generals & Majors'/'Don't Lose Your Temper' released.
The first UK broadcast of The Martian Chronicles. The Beast From Twenty Thousand Fathoms and the downright daft Night Of The Lepus shown in BBC2's Horror Double Bill.
Computers At United Biscuits broadcast. An Ordered Life brodcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. The first UK TV showing of Men Can't Be Raped. The first episode of Watch All Night broadcast on LWT.
The BBC began yet another repeat run of Star Trek. And, why not? The first UK broadcast of The Ricky Jay Magic Show on BBC2. That Awful Thatcher Woman visited the Harold Hill area of East London to hand of the keys to the twelve thousandth council tenants in Britain to buy their home under the right to buy scheme. However, she was met by jeering from neighbours of the family. Tragically, though, none of them took the opportunity to fist her right hard in the mush and give her a fat lip. An opportunity missed, one could suggest. The Tyne & Wear Metro opened after six years of construction, with the first phase between Newcastle Haymarket and Tynemouth (stopping at Monument, Manors, Byker, Chillingham Road, Walkergate, Wallsend, Hadrian's Road, Howden, Percy Main and North Shields).

The first episodes of Stopwatch and Spirits Of The Past broadcast. The fifth and final test at Headingley was drawn as, again, the weather intervened. No play was possible on the first day. England were bowled out for one hundred and forty three on the second, with only two batsmen scoring more than fourteen - Ian Botham (thirty seven) and David Bairstow (forty). West Indies replied with two hundred an forty five, but the fourth day was also rained out and England reached two hundred and twenty seven for six on the final day. The first episode of The Square Leopard broadcast on Thames.
Both Gillette Cup Semi-Finals went into a second day due to bad weather. At The Oval, Surrey beat Yorkshire by four wickets whilst at Hove, Middlesex defeated Sussex by sixty four runs. The first UK TV showing of Lost In The Stars on BBC2. Jimmy Carter defeated Senator Edward Kennedy to win renomination at the Democratic National Convention in New York.
Having not played a first team game for Arsenal, Clive Allen left the club after just two months to join Crystal Palace, again costing his new club one million two hundred and fifty thousand knicker. The second post-strike episode of Top Of The Pops was co-hosted by Tommy Vance and Roger Daltrey; the latter complained (not unreasonably) that The Clash weren't on but then rather spoiled things by making a 'you'd never get away with it these days' homophobic comment about The Village People. Other 'highlights' included performances by Minge Urine and Ultravox, ELO, Mike Berry and Sue Wilkinson (singing 'You've Got To Be A Hustler If You Want To Get On'). Rumours that the BBC was subsequently inundated with letters from viewers asking if another strike could be arranged cannot, at this time, be confirmed or denied. The first episode of Young Explorers broadcast. Klein's Unification Of Geometry broadcast on BBC2. Workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk walked out on strike after the government of Poland announced a second rise in food prices.
The first UK broadcast of The Awakening Land. The first UK TV showing of One Sings, The Other Doesn't on BBC2. The Jam's 'Start!'/'Liza Radley', The Cars' Panorama, Orange Juice's 'Blue Boy'/'Lovesick', Judas Priest's 'United'/'Grinder', Bunk Dogger's 'Young Blood'/'What's On Telly?', Darts' 'Peaches'/'DIY', Heartache and The Beat's 'Best Friend'/'Stand Down Margaret (Dub)' released. Thirty seven people died as a result of fires started by arson at adjacent London nightclubs in Denmark Place. The perpetrator, John Thompson, was subsequently jailed for life.
The first UK TV showings of Serpico and Legend Of The Werewolf (the latter on BBC2's Horror Double Bill). Norwich City achieved the biggest win of the opening day of the First Division season, beating Stoke City five-one. Champions Liverpool began with a three-nil win at home to Crystal Palace. The first Monsters Of Rock heavy metal festival was held at Donington Park. Rainbow headlined and Judas Priest, Scorpions, April Wine, Saxon, Riot and Touch also performed to a field full of headbangers. Horrorshow. Several bands lost members on the same day: Jah Wobble left Public Image Ltd, Cozy Powell quit Rainbow (immediately after their Donington set), Jools Holland left Squeeze and Bill Ward parted company from Black Sabbath. Sixteen people were killed in a stampede at the Eden Gardens stadium in Calcutta during a football match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The triggering incident was the referee sending off a player from each team. Angry fans of both clubs began throwing debris and then fighting each other. When police rushed into the section where the fight was occurring and began swinging cane clubs about in an untoward manner, fans fled in panic and many were trampled.
After sixteen years in a Saturday night slot, Match Of The Day moved to Sunday tea-time as part of a four year plan to alternative Saturday and Sunday broadcasts between BBC and ITV. The first episode featured highlights of Tottenham Hotspur's victory over Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town winning at Leicester City and, from Division Two, Sheffield United's victory over Newcastle United. The latter saw pitched battles between rival fans in Hillsborough. The first UK TV showing of Jealousy, Italian Style in BBC2's Film Of The Week strand. In Australia, a ten-week-old baby, Azaria Chamberlain, disappeared from a campsite at Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory. Her parents said that she had been snatched by a dingo during the night, but the child's mother, Lindy Chamberlain, was subsequently convicted of murder and her husband Michael of being an accessory. Three years later, Lindy Chamberlain was released after a piece of the child's clothing was found in a dingo lair near the site of the disappearance and the convictions would eventually be overturned in 1988 shortly before a movie about the case, A Cry In Th Dark (also known as Evil Angels) premiered. Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career premiered.
Panorama profiled Gwynfor Evans, the President of Plaid Cymru. The Fan Phenomenon broadcast on BBC2.
One Man's Poison broadcast. The first episode of Festival Eighty broadcast on BBC2.
England beat Australia by twenty three runs in the first of two one day internationals for the Prudential Trophy at The Oval. Geoffrey Boycott scored ninety nine whilst Mike Hendrick took five for thirty one. The first episode of Molière broadcast on BBC2. Whilst filming a Kleenex television commercial on Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Hercules the bear escaped, going missing for twenty four days. For the first time since 1973, the Soviet Union began the jamming of the radio frequencies of most Western news broadcasts, particularly the Voice of America and BBC World Service. Although, given that Communists are also atheists, this was probably not a case of jammin' in de name of de Lord. The decision was made to prevent Soviet citizens from learning news of the labour unrest in Poland. Although English and Georgian language programmes continued without deliberate interference, broadcasts in Russian and six other languages in the USSR were blocked by 'static-like noise or buzz created by high-powered transmitters built for that purpose' or by 'loud music.' William Sutherland, originally from Edinburgh, who occasionally worked as a male prostitute in London met the serial killer Dennis Nilsen in a pub near Piccadilly Circus. Nilsen could not recall precisely how he had murdered Sutherland, other than that he had strangled the man as he, himself, stood or knelt in front of his victim and, in the morning, 'there was another dead body.' Nilsen subsequently claimed to have killed a further seven unidentified men during 1980 and 1981 before his next confirmed victim, although elsewhere he also claimed to have fabricated three of these alleged crimes.
Top Of The Pops - following the Roger Daltrey debacle the previous week - had the much less controverial Cliff Richard guest-hosting alongside Steve Wright. The episode featured the memorable sight of Legs & Co 'interpreting' The Clash's 'Bankrobber' since Joe Strummer and co were still resolutely refusing to appear on the show. At least The Jam's video for 'Start!' got a showing. And, David Bowie was at number one so it wasn't all Terrible.
England won the Prudential Trophy, beating Australia by forty seven runs at Edgbaston. Graham Gooch scored a century whilst Roland Butcher became the first black cricketer to represent England. Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Three Little Birds'/'Every Need Got An Ego To Feed', The Ruts' 'West One (Shine On Me)'/'The Crack', Smack's 'Edward Fox'/'Come Again', Stacy Lattisaw's 'Dynamite'/'Dreaming', Cliff Richard's 'Dreamin'/'Dynamite', Queen's 'Another One Bites The Dust'/'Dragon Attack', Norman Connors' 'Take It To The Limit'/'Black Cow' and Ian Dury & The Blockheads' 'I Wanna Be Straight'/'That's Not All' released. A team of archaeologists in Israel announced that they had unearthed a large 'palace fortress' near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which they believed was the palace of King David or King Solomon.
The first UK TV showing of The Eiger Sanction. Tower Of London and The Skull shown in BBC2's Horror Double Bill. The Heatwave Festival near Toronto featured The B-52's, Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello & The Attractions and many others. Joanne Froggatt born in Littleback, North Yorkshire.
The first UK TV showings of The Legend Of Walks Far Woman and, on BBC2, Terrence Malick's Badlands. Pete Townshend hosted Radio 1's Star Special. Yootha Joyce died aged fifty three.
The first UK TV showing of Le Mans. The Life Of A Stand-Up Comic and Hunt For X Five broadcast on BBC2.
Ladies From Hell broadcast. To Catch A Trout broadcast on BBC2. Buzzcocks' 'Are Everything'/'Why She's The Girl From The Chainstore' released.
A Century Of Tests broadcast. The B-52's Wild Planet released. Positive Noise were in session on The John Peel Show.
The first UK TV showing of Up The Sandbox. Riley On Life broadcast on BBC2. Unemployment stood at two million for the first time since 1935. Economists warned that it could rise to up to two-and-a-half million by the end of the year. Not that the government and That Awful Thatcher Woman particularly gave a damn. Obviously. Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used for the first time after a team led by John Mallard built the first full-body scanner at the University of Aberdeen.
The first episode of Living Legends broadcast. Romer's Egypt broadcast on BBC2. Kate Bush was one of the guests on Radio 1's Roundtable. UB40's seminal Signing Off, Gary Numan's 'I Die You Die'/'Down In The Park' and Stevie Wonder's 'Master Blaster (Jammin')'/'Dub' released.

The first episode of Juliet Bravo broadcast. The final series of Doctor Who featuring Tom Baker began with episode one of The Leisure Hive. Newcastle United's Bill McGarry became the first managerial casualty of the season, being sacked after a failure to win any of the Second Division fixtures combined with a humiliating League Cup exit at the hands of Fourth Division Bury. Former manager Joe Harvey took charge of the club in a caretaker capacity and, within hours, The Magpies had won their next game, two-one at home to Luton Town. The first UK TV showing of The Beast Must Die on BBC2's Midnight Movies strand. The first UK broadcast of Buck Rogers In The Twenty Fifth Century on LWT.
The first UK TV showings of Crisis In Mid-Air and, as part of BBC2's The Great American Picture Show strand, Francis Ford Coppolla's The Conversation. The first episode of Living On The Land broadcast. The first episode of Radio 1's Studio Fifteen B. The Gdańsk Agreement was signed in Poland, opening the way to start the first independent trade union in the Communist bloc, Solidarność.
The first UK TV showing of An Investigation of Murder. The first episode of BBC2's Wainwright's Law broadcast. Ford launched one of the most important new cars of the year – the Mark III Escort. Third Division basement side Carlisle United extremely sacked manager Martin Harvey after only six months in charge and re-appointed former manager Bob Stokoe. The first episode of Just Liz broadcast on Thames. Lara Pulver born in Southend-on-Sea.
The first episodes of Fair Stood The Wind For France, The Miracle Workers and Invitation To Dance broadcast. The Centenary test at Lord's between England and Australia ended in a draw. Although the first two days were affected by rain Australia, captain by Greg Chappell, declared on three hundred and eighty five for five on the third, with centuries for Graeme Wood and Kim Hughes. England were bowled out for two hundred and five, with Len Pascoe taking five for fifty nine. Australia declared against in their second innings, setting England an unlikely target of three hundred and seventy in less than a day to win. Geoffrey Boycott batted out the day, scoring one hundred and twenty eight not out, leaving England on two hundred and forty four for three at the close. Dead Kennedy's Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables and Joy Division's 'Atmosphere'/'She's Lost Control' released. The first episode of Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World broadcast on Thames.
The first episodes of Where Are They Now?, Oh Happy Band! and Angela Rippon Reporting broadcast. The first UK TV showing of John Frankenheimer's The Iceman Cometh on BBC2. The first episode of Cowboys broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of MacKenzie broadcast. Jack Be Nimble broadcast in BBC2's Leap In The Dark strand. Abbie Hoffman, a fugitive for the past six years after going into hiding while on bail for allegedly selling cocaine to undercover Narc, voluntarily surrendered to the federal authorities at the District Court in New York. The court allowed him to be released without bail. Hoffman, founder of the Youth International Party whose members called themselves 'Yippies', had undergone plastic surgery whilst a fugitive. The first UK broadcast of Battlestar Galactica on Thames.
All Our Own Work broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's Ronnie Prophet Entertains broadcast. Fay Weldon's Watching Me, Watching You broadcast in the Leap In The Dark strand. Gary Numan's Telekon, Kate Bush's Never Forever, Madness's 'Baggy Trousers'/'The Busines', Carlene Carter With Dave Edmunds' 'Baby Ride Easy'/'Too Bad About Sandy', The Rumour's 'I Don't Want The Night To End'/'Pyramids', Plasmatics' 'Monkey Suit'/'Squirm', Kiss' 'What Makes The World Go 'Round'/'Naked City', Jigsaw's 'Prizefighter'/'Winter In LA', Killing Joke's 'Requiem'/'Change' and The Teardrop Explodes' 'When I Dream'/'Kilimanjaro' released. For everybody that really wanted to go 'ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-badda-badda-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-woaho-woaho.' The first episode of Holding The Fort broadcast.
Mike Brearley scored an unbeaten ninety six as Middlesex beat Surrey by seven wickets in the Gillette Cup Final at Lord's. The first episode of Four More Years Of What? broadcast on BBC2. The first episode of Metal Mickey broadcast on LWT.
ABBA In Concert broadcast. Warwickshire won the John Player League despite losing their final game of the season to Somerset by twenty six runs. Former Chesterfield manager Arthur Cox was appointed as the new manager of Newcastle United.
Watchdog was launched as a weekly slot on Nationwide. Poor Jenny broadcast in BBC2's Leap In The Dark strand. The Sun revealed the romance of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Jean-Luc Godard's Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) - starring Isabelle Huppert and Jacques Dutronc - premiered in Toronto having previously been shown at Cannes.
Juliet Prowse & Company broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's Roots Of England broadcast. The Living Grave broadcast in the Leap In The Dark strand. Bibby Line's Liverpool-registered ore-bulk-oil carrier MV Derbyshire sank with the loss of all forty four crew South of Japan in Typhoon Orchid following structural failure, the largest UK-registered ship ever lost.

Kevin Finnegan lost his European Middleweight title to Italy's Matteo Salvemini in San Remo. The first episode of BBC2's We, The Accused broadcast. England's 1982 World Cup qualifying group began with a four-nil win over Norway at Wembley. Terry McDermott scored twice with further goals from Tony Woodcock and Paul Mariner. Ipswich's Eric Gates and Arsenal's Graham Rix made their international debuts. Soctland won their first qualifier one-nil against Sweden in Solna with Gordon Strachan scoring the winner.
The first episode of The Greeks broadcast. Room For An Inward Light broadcast in BBC2's Leap In The Dark strand. The Marlborough Diamond was stolen in London. The stone - worth over four hundred grand - was part of a window display at the Graff Jewellery Shop in Knightsbridge. The robbers were less efficient covering their tracks than they were during the robbery and within eleven hours of the raid they were arrested as they stepped off a British Airways flight to the US. The thieves were named as Joseph Scalise and Arthur Rachel - both Chicago Mobsters. The men were extradited to England where they were tried and imprisoned for nine years. The diamond has never been recovered.
The Curious History of Norethindrone broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's Escape broadcast. The first Uk broadcast of Blitz On Britain. To Kill A King broadcast in the Leap In The Dark strand. XTC's Black Sea, David Bowie's Scary Monsters (& Super Creeps), Bad Manners' 'Special Brew'/'Ivor The Engine', Joe King Carrasco & The Crowns' 'Buena'/'Tuff Enuff', The Gap Band's 'Party Lights'/'Baby Baba Boogie' and The Specials' 'Stereotypes'/'International Jet Set' released. Consett Steelworks in County Durham closed with the loss of four thousand five hundred jobs, instantly making it the town with the highest rate of unemployment in the UK. And could That Awful Thatcher Woman give a stuff? Could she fek.
The first UK broadcast pf Romie-0 and Julie-8. The Antibody Molecule broadcast on BBC2. Hercules The Bear which had been missing on a Scottish island for some weeks, was found alive, if rather hungry. Elton John played a free concert for four hundred thousand people in New York's Central Park. including an encore dressed in a Donald Duck costume. And looking, it should be noted, like a complete twonk! Whether that was reaction to Watford's two-one victory over Preston North End that afternoon, perhaps we'll never know. The first episode of Hammer House Of Horror - Witching Time - broadcast on LWT. The Rocky Horror Show, which had premiered in London in 1973, closed after two thousand nine hundred and sixty West End performances.
Match of The Day featured highlights of Nottingham Forest's three-two victory over Manchester City. Manchester United's five-nil win against Leicester City and Newcastle United's two-one defeat of Queen's Park Rangers. Nelson Piquet won the Italian Grand Prix at Imola, ahead of Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann. Jones' and Reutemann's podium finishes enabled the Williams team to secure their first Constructors' Championship with two races remaining.
The first UK broadcast of Stone and the first episode of Step This Way broadcast. The first episode of Shirley Bassey's eponymous BBC2 series broadcast. Paul McCartney's 'Temporary Secretary'/'Secret Friend' and Sparks' Terminal Jive released. Skids were in session on The John Peel Show ('Filming In Africa', 'An Incident In Algiers', 'Circus Games', 'Snakes & Ladders').
The first UK TV showing of Doc Savage - The Man Of Bronze. The Rise Of Electricity broadcast on BBC2. Kate Bush became the first British female artist to reach number one in the LP charts. The first episode of Cooper's Half Hour broadcast on Thames.
The Magic Poltergeist broadcast in the Jackanory Playhouse strand. Genes & Development broadcast on BBC2. The first episode of Flickers broadcast on Thames.
Simon Bates presented Top Of The Pops with guest-host Olivia Newton-John and featuring performances by Randy Crawford, XTC, Stevie Wonder, Kelly Marie and Madness. A Matter Of Life & Death shown as part of BBC2's Powell & Pressburger strand. Bruce Beresford's classic Australian Rules Football movie The Club and Jaime de Armiñán's El Nido - starring Ana Torrent - premiered.

The explosion of the fuel tank of a Titan II missile occurred at a missile silo near Damascus, Arkansas one day after a workman had accidentally dropped a ratchet while working on maintenance. The blast hurled an unarmed, nine megaton nuclear warhead, two hundred yards from the silo. In a bout for the World Boxing Council bantamweight title, champion Lupe Pintor of Mexico faced Johnny Owen of Wales at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. With twenty five seconds left in the twelfth round Owen was knocked down and, as he attempted to get up, Pintor struck Owen with a left uppercut. Owen never regained consciousness and died on 4 November. Radio 1's The Friday Rock Show featured performances by Budgie and Iron Maiden recorded at the Reading Festival. Get your hair cut, hippies. Robert Redford's Ordinary People, Jonathan Demme's Melvin & Howard and Charles Kaufman's Mother's Day - starring Nancy Hendrickson, Deborah Luce and Tiana Pierce - premiered.
The first UK TV showing of The Cheyenne Social Club. Home Ground broadcast on BBC2. Q-Tips and The Inmates featured on Radio 1's In Concert. The Hammer House Of Horror episode The Thirteenth Reunion broadcast on LWT.
Southampton's two-all draw with Liverpool was the main item on Match Of The Day. The first episode of BBC2's The Shock Of The New broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Steven Spielberg's Sugarland Express in The Great American Picture Show strand. The first CND rally at RAF Greenham Common was held. More would follow. Get yer hair cut, hippies.
The spectacularly awful flop Xanadu was reviewed by Barry Norman on Film 80. The first UK broadcast on Heute Direkt on BBC2. Kate Bush's 'Army Dreamers'/''Deliusa', 'Passing Through Air', The Damned's 'The History Of The World - Part One'/'I Believe The Impossible', 'Sugar & Spite' and The Rolling Stones' 'She's So Cold'/'Send It To Me' released. The Beat were in session on The John Peel Show ('Too Nice To Talk To', 'Walk Away', 'Monkey Murders', 'New Psychedelic Rockers').
Two days after being diagnosed with brain cancer, Bob Marley performed his final concert with The Wailers, held at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh. Asbestos - A Problem Product broadcast on BBC2.
Year Of The Car broadcast. Thirty four-year-old doctor Upadhya Bandara was attacked and injured in Headingley but survived the ordeal; the Yorkshire Ripper was believed to have been responsible. The Fall were in session on The John Peel Show ('The Container Drivers', 'New Face In Hell', 'Jawbone & The Air Rifle', 'New Puritan'). The Iran–Iraq War began with a surprise attack by the Iraqi Air Force on ten Iranian airfields, in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy most of Iran's combat aircraft. Victoria Louise Pendleton born in Stotfold, Bedfordshire. The first episode of The Munch Bunch broadcast on Thames.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died. The Birthday Party's debut session on The John Peel Show was broadcast ('Cry', 'Yard', 'Figure Of Fun', 'King Ink').
Managing The Desert Margin. Manimals broadcast on BBC2. Madness's Absolutely, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark's 'Enola Gay'/'Annex', Fischer-Z's 'Limbo'/'The Rat Man', The Mexicano's 'Trial By Television'/'Jamaican Child' and Rockpile's 'Wrong Way'/'Now & Always' released. Helma Sanders-Brahms' Deutschland Bleiche Mutter premiered.
Billy Connolly ('a well-known Scottish comedian') introduced the phrase 'as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit' to the general public during an appearance on Parkinson. The first UK broadcast of The River Flows East In Spring on BBC2. Rumours of secret talks in Moscow between the Kremlin and new Polish leader Stanislaw Kania, Pravda issued a coded warning the 'new liberties' won by a series of Solidarity-inspired strikes in Poland would 'not be tolerated.' Iraqi forces surrounded the Iranian city of Khorramshahr. A peace deal which Pakistan's General Zia had attempted to broker between the warring neighbours was rejected by both Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein. Six members of Wehrsportegruppe, a German neo-Nazi paramilitary group, were arrested in connection with the previous day's bombing in Munich which killed twelve. The father of Helen Smith, the British nurse who died falling from an apartment block in Saudi Arabia, claimed she may have been involved in the world of industrial espionage. John Somerville was charged with involvement in the Miami Show Band massacre in Northern Ireland in 1975. Journalist were increasingly 'misinformed' by the government the NUJ conference was told. Fleet Street was 'on the verge of a crisis,' William Rees-Mogg told the Labour conference in Blackpool. 'We must preserve the free and varied press of Britain.' Meanwhile, Tony Benn complained both the BBC and ITN were engaged in 'warmongering.' Mad! As! Toast! The Hammer House Of Horror episode Rude Awakening broadcast on LWT.

The first episode of Crime Writers broadcast. Marvellous Marvin Hagler became world Middleweight champion, stopping Alan Minter with a cut within three rounds at Wembley Arena. The fight was controversial owing to a perceived racial remark made during the build-up, which Minter had tried - unsuccessfully - to clarify and then by a crowd riot once the referee had stopped the fight, with chairs, bottles and glasses being hurled into the ring. The first episode of Jack High broadcast on BBC2. Alan Jones's victory in the Canadian Grand Prix, coupled with Nelson Piquet's retirement mid-race, guaranteed Jones the F1 Driver's Championship. Jimmy Adamson resigned as Leeds United manager, a day after a four-one hiding by his former club Sunderland, which has left the Yorkshire club second-bottom of the First Division, above Crystal Palace only on goal difference. The first episode of Nobody's Perfect broadcast on LWT.
The first episode of Jana Of The Jungle broadcast. The Shining and Dressed To Kill were reviewed on Film 80. A performance of Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije broadcast on BBC2. Stevie Wonder's last decent LP Hotter Than July released. Misty In Root were in a truly righteous session on The John Peel Show.
Airey Neave: A Will Of Steel broadcast. The Line That Refused To Die broadcast on BBC2.
The first episode of King Rollo broadcast in the See-Saw strand. Manchester City sacked manager Malcolm Allison and replaced him with Norwich City's John Bond, who was, in turn, replaced at Carrow Road by Ken Brown. The Angelic Upstarts were in session on The John Peel Show ('Guns For The Afghan Rebels', 'Last Night Another Soldier', 'Kids On The Street', 'Sticks' Diary'). The first episode of The Squad broadcast on Thames.
The first UK broadcast of Heidi. Treasures Of Imperial China broadcast on BBC2. Terry Venables departed Crystal Palace to take over as manager of Queens Park Rangers, who had sacked Tommy Docherty earlier that day. Palace appointed Venables' assistant, Ernie Walley as caretaker manager. The World Boxing Council heavyweight title bout between Larry Holmes and an embarrassingly overweight Muhammad Ali took place in Las Vegas and was estimated to have been watched by a record two billion viewers worldwide. Holmes won, easily.
The Video Pirates - A Newsnight Special broadcast. Return To St Kilda broadcast on BBC2. The Housing Act came 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. David Lynch's The Elephant Man - starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins - premiered. The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta and the single 'Don't Stand So Close To Me'/'Friends', Slade's Alive At Reading '80 EP ('When I'm Dancin' I Ain't Fightin', 'Born To Be Wild'/'Somethin' Else', 'Pistol Packin' Mama', 'Keep A Rollin'), Any Trouble's 'Girls Are Always Right'/'No Idea', Blondie's 'The Tide Is High'/'Susie & Jeffrey', The Equators' 'Baby Come Back'/'Georgie', XTC's magnificent 'Towers Of London'/'Set Myself On Fire', Susan Fassbender's 'Twilight Cafe'/'Get Around It', Leo's Sunshipp's 'Give Me The Sunshine'/'I'm Back For More' and Adam & The Ants' 'Dog Eat Dog'/'Physical (You're So)' released. Brush me, daddio!
In the highest scoring game of the First Division season, Middlesbrough beat Norwich City six-one at Ayresome Park. The first UK broadcast of Heroes Of Rock 'N' Roll on BBC2. Gillan featured on Radio 1's In Concert. The Hammer House Of Horror episode Growing Pains broadcast on LWT.
The first episode of A Tale Of Two Cities broadcast. The first UK TV showing of American Graffiti. Leeds United appointed former player and Barnsley manager Allan Clarke as Jimmy Adamson's successor. Clarke was succeeded at Barnsley by his ex-Leeds teammate Norman Hunter. Odyssey's 'If You're Looking For A Way Out'/'Never Had It At All' released.
Oliver Reed was interviewed on Film 80. The first episode of BBC2's Rock Week Concert featured Joni Mitchell. Deregulation of express coach services was brought into law. Hattie Jacques died aged fifty eight. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark ('Annex', 'The Misunderstanding', 'The More I See You') and The Damned ('Curtain Call Part 1', 'Hit Or Miss', 'Therapy') were in session on The John Peel Show.
Iris broadcast. The first episodes of BBC2's Behind The Scenes and The Living City broadcast. Concert performances by Kate Bush and The Kinks featured in BBC2's Rock Week strand.
XTC At The Manor broadcast in BBC2's Rock Week strand. Prince's Dirty Mind, Talking Heads' Remain In Light and The Fall's 'Totally Wired'/'Putta Block' released. British Leyland launched the Austin Metro, a small three-door hatchback.
Peter Powell introduced Top Of The Pops including performances from Status Quo, Diana Ross, OMD, Black Slate, The Nolans, Linx, Gilbert O'Sullivan and The Police. Gainsborough At The Tate broadcast on BBC2. A riot broke out at a Black Sabbath concert in Milwaukee after Geezer Butler was hit in the head by a bottle and the band left the stage. Christ, it must've been bad. John Hinckley, Jr, was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee after a handgun was found in his carry-on luggage while he was attempting to board an American Airlines flight plane. Because he had no felony convictions in any state, he was released after paying a fine and pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. Hinckley had been following the campaign trail of President Carter, who had been campaigning in the city earlier. Hinckley would shoot Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, in March 1981.
The first episode of On The Town broadcast. The Old Grey Whistle Test featured The Police In The East. The Teardrop Explodes' Kilimanjaro, Echo & The Bunnymen's 'The Puppet'/'Do It Clean', Thin Lizzy's 'Chinatown'/'Sugar Blues' and The Chords' 'In My Street'/'I'll Keep On Holding On' released. That Awful Thatcher Woman made her infamously arrogant 'The lady's not for turning' speech to the Conservative conference after some of the party MP's - notably Ted Heath - warned that her economic policy was responsible for the current recession and rising unemployment. And, they were correct. Howard Zieff's Private Benjamin premiered.
The first UK TV showing of Rentadick. BBC2's Battles Of Broadcasting profiled the former BBC Director General Sir Hugh Greene. The Old Grey Whistle Test - The Story So Far broadcast. Soviet cosmonauts Leonid Popov and Valery Ryumin returned to Earth after spending a record one hundred and eighty five days in orbit aboard the Salyut Six space station. The Hammer House Of Horror episode The House That Bled To Death broadcast on LWT.
The first episode of Claire Rayner's Casebook broadcast. The first episode of Marisa Robles Masterclass broadcast on BBC2.
The first episode of the Take Hart spin-off The Amazing Adventures Of Morph broadcast. The Elephant Man, The Long Riders and The Island featured on Film 80. Buzzcocks' 'Strange Thing'/'Airwaves Dream' released. The Nightingales were in session on The John Peel Show ('Start From Scratch', 'Butter Bricks', 'Torn', 'Twelve Years').
The first episodes of Forgive Our Foolish Ways and Best Of British broadcast. Boom Boom ... Out Go The Lights broadcast on BBC2, 'a revue featuring artists who appear out of the bright lights of the West End in the pubs and clubs of London's alternative cabaret circuit. With Keith Allen, Tony Allen, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Alexei Sayle and the music of Paul Jones & The Blues Band.' Altered Images were in session on The John Peel Show ('Dead Pop Stars', 'Insects', 'Beckoning Strings', 'Legionnaire'). Benjamin John Whishaw born in Clifton, Bedfordshire.
The first episode of Nice Work broadcast. The Lad Himself and the first episode of A Change Of Sex broadcast on BBC2. England suffered a two-one defeat to Romania in Bucharest in their second World Cup qualifier. Tony Woodcock scored for the visitors, Marcel Răducanu and Anghel Iordănescu for the hosts. Scotland drew nil=nil with Portugal at Hampden Park. James Callaghan resigned as Labour Party leader after four-and-a-half years. Another former Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, criticised That Awful Thatcher Woman's economic policies, claiming that she has 'got the wrong answer' to the economic crises which she inherited. Her policies were also lambasted by union leaders, who blamed her for rising unemployment and bankruptcies and warned that this could result in civil unrest. Which, it did.
Near and Far: The Street Overground-Underground broadcast. Archie Brennan - Tapestry Weaver broadcast on BBC2.
The first episode of To Serve Them All My Days broadcast. Boxcar Willie Sings Country broadcast on BBC2. Bruce Springsteen's The River, UK Subs' 'Party In Paris'/'Fall Of The Empire', Bob Marley & The Wailers' 'Redemption Song'/'Band Version', Rico's 'Sea Cruise'/'Carolina', The Korgis' 'Dumb Waiters'/'Perfect Hostess', Gladys Knight & The Pips' 'Bourgie, Bourgie'/'Get The Love', Dirty Looks' 'Tailin' You'/'Automatic Pilot', Tenpole Tudor's 'Three Bells In A Row'/'Fashion', 'Rock & Roll Music' and The Monochrome Set's Love Zombies released. Her Maj Queen Elizabeth created history by becoming the first British monarch to make a state visit to Vatican City.
The first UK TV showing The Taking Of Pelham 123. The Old Grey Whistle Test broadcast The Police's appearance on German TV's Rockpalast. The Hammer House Of Horror episode Charlie Boy broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showing of Gold Diggers In Paris on BBC2. Dennis Potter's Blade On The Feather broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showing of The Cracker Factory. Steve McQueen's final movie The Hunter and The Blue Lagoon were reviewed on Film 80. U2's debut LP Boy and The Ramones 'I Wanna Be Sedated'/'The Return Of Jackie & Judy' released. Vojtech Jasný's Nápady Svaté Kláry - starring Katharina Böhm, Dieter Kirchlechner and Relja Basic - premiered.
Pasmore broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Top Gear Turns Back The Clock broadcast on BBC2. Negotiations between the United States and Iran, aimed at getting Iran to release US Embassy personnel who had been held hostage since 4 November, were abruptly terminated by Iran without explanation. A forty nine-year-old Communist party secretary for Russian SFSR's Stavropol region, Mikhail Gorbachev, was promoted to become the youngest of the fourteen member Politburo, filling the vacancy caused by the retirement of Aleksei Kosygin.
BBC Symphony Orchestra Fiftieth Anniversary Concert broadcast on BBC2. Lord Thomson announced that The Times and Sunday Times would close within five months unless a buyer was found. After being told that they could not wear shirts featuring sponsors logos, players for Aston Villa and Brighton and Hove Albion refused to take the field, prompting a cancellation of a scheduled broadcast on Sportsnight. Villa won four-one so Brighton were probably happy about the lack of coverage. Newcastle United's one-nil victory over Shrewsbury Town in the Second Division saw the league debut of Chris Waddle, the first of six hundred and sixty three games - for Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympique Marseille, Sheffield Wednesday, Falkirk, Bradford City, Sunerland, Burnley, Torquey United and England - in a career that lasted until 1999.
Twentieth-Century History: Hitler's Germany 1933-36 broadcast. The Taming Of The Shrew broadcast in The BBC Television Shakespeare strand. The first episode of The Glamour Girls broadcast on Thames. Throbbing Gristle's 'Something Came Over Me'/'Subhuman' and 'Adrenalin'/'Distant Dreams' released.

The first UK TV showing of Suppose They Gave A War & Nobody Came?. Hinge & Bracket broadcast from the Royal Hall, Harrogate. Nasty, offensive, balding, full-of-his-own-importance disgraceful hippie Phil Collins and future convicted sex-offender Dave Lee Travis were Adrian Love's guests on Radio 1's Roundtable. John Lennon's first single in five years '(Just Like) Starting Over''Kiss Kiss Kiss', The Flying Lizards' 'Move On Up'/'Portugal', Japan's Gentlemen Take Polaroids, Orchestra Manoeuvres In The Dark's Organisation, U2's 'I Will Follow'/'Boy/Girl', Hawkwind's 'Who's Gonna Win The War?'/'Nuclear Toy', Joni Mitchell's 'Why Do Fools Fall In Love?'/'Black Crow' and UB40's 'The Earth Dies Screaming'/'Dream A Lie' released. MG car production ended after fifty six years with the closure of the plant in Abingdon where more than a million MG cars have been built since 1924. Tom Baker announced that he would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the current series after seven years. The first episode of Fancy Wanders broadcast on LWT.
Doctor Who's 'E-Space Trilogy' started with the opening episode of Full Circle. The first of three BBC2's programmes featuring highlights from The Sixteenth Cambridge Folk Festival broadcast featuring performances by Silly Wizard, Don McLean, Richard & Linda Thompson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Lonnie Donegan and Richard Digance. The Trial Of Lady Chatterley broadcast. The Hammer House Of Horror episode The Silent Scream broadcast on LWT.
The first episode of Rising Stars and the final episode of The Onedin Line broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's Everybody's Doin' It broadcast. Dennis Potter's Rain On The Roof broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showing of The Wilby Conspiracy. Breaker Morant and The Postman Always Rings Twice were reviewed on Film 80. The third series of Not The Nine O'Clock News began. Rifleman broadcast in the Première IV strand. Hawkwind's Levitation, Joe Jackson's Beat Crazy, The Damned's The Black Album, The Clash's Black Market Clash, The Specials' More Specials and Rockpile's Seconds Of Pleasure released. The Teardrop Explodes were in session on The Mike Read Show ('Suffocate', 'For Years: AKA Nobody Knows This Is Everywhere', 'The Great Dominions', 'Reward'). Six Irish Republican Army prisoners in the Maze prison in Belfast and one from a splinter group, the National Liberation Army, refused food and demanded status as political prisoners. The hunger strike, in which the prisoners only took liquids, would last for fifty three days.
C2H5OH broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The first episode of Lord Mountbatten Remembers broadcast. The first episode of Russell Harty's BBC2 chat show broadcast. That Awful Thatcher Woman declared the government would not grant the seven jailed Republican terrorists who were on hunger strike prisoner of war status.
The first episodes of Strangeways and BBC2's Oppenheimer. Just A Bit Of Paper and the Chronicle episode The Wreck Of The Mary Rose broadcast.
The first episode of BBC2's Great Railway Journeys of the World broadcast. Orange Juice were in session on The John Peel Show ('Poor Old Soul', 'You Old Eccentric', 'Falling & Laughing', 'Lovesick').
A Touch Of Glory - narrated by Richard Burton - broadcast. The first part of Willy Russell's Lies and the debut episode of In The Country broadcast on BBC2. Stephen Poliakff's Caught On A Train broadcast in the Playhouse strand. Bryan Ferry featured on Radio 1's Roundtable. David Bowie's 'Fashion'/'Scream Like A Baby', The Psychedelic Furs' 'Mister Jones'/'Susan's Strange', Laurie Johnson & The London Studio Orchestra's 'The Professionals (Main Title Theme)', 'On Target'/'The New Avengers (Main Title Theme)', John Otway's 'Green, Green Grass Of Home'/'Wednesday Club' and Roxy Music's 'The Same Old Scene'/'Lover' released. Roman Polanski's Tess premiered.
Jim Watt retained his World Lightweight title stopping American Sean O'Grady with a cut (caused by Watt hoying the heed in, admittedly). The first episode of BBC2's Did You See ...? broadcast. Carl Perkins featured in Radio 1's In Concert. The Hammer House Of Horror episode Children Of The Full Moon broadcast on LWT.
Cliff In London broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Scarecrow on BBC2's The Great American Picture Show. Dennis Potter's Cream In My Coffee broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showing of Law Of The Land. On Film 80 Barry Norman reviewed The Changeling, When A Stranger Calls and He Knows You're Alone. And was sniffy and sneering about all of them. Which was such a surprise. Braces High broadcast on BBC2's Première IV strand. The premiere of The Long Good Friday at the BFI London Film Festival. Neil Young's Hawks & Doves, ABBA's Super Trouper, Orange Juice's 'Simply Thrilled Honey'/'Breakfast Time' and Wah! Heat's 'Seven Minutes To Midnight'/'Don't Step On The Cracks' released.
The first part of John McGrath's The Adventures Of Frank: Everybody's Fiddling Something broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The Next President: Night Of Decision broadcast. Spike Milligan appeared on Jackanory, reading Help! I Am A Prisoner In A Toothpaste Factory.
Brendon Foster was profiled on Sportsnight. On Nationwide t was announced that Peter Davison would be Tom Baker's replacement in Doctor Who. BBC2's Firework Fiesta broadcast. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in a landslide victory over incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Theresa Sykes, a Huddersfield mother of a young baby, was wounded in a stabbing near to her home. The Yorkshire Ripper was believed to be responsible and was still at large. To the embarrassment of Yorkshire Police and the genuine terror of millions of women.
Men Of The Year broadcast. The first episode of BBC2's Oscar Peterson - Words & Music featured Ella Fitzgerald.
George Baker's The Fatal Spring broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Spandau Ballet's debut single 'To Cut A Long Story Short'/'Version', Ian Dury & The Blockheads' 'Superman's Big Sister'/'You'll See Glimpses', The Look's 'I Am The Beat'/'You Do Those Things To Me', Hot Chocolate's 'Love Me To Sleep'/'The Girl Is A Fox', Jimmy Bo Horne's 'Is It In?'/'Spank', Darts' 'White Christmas'/'Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)', 'Don't Say Yes' and Colin Newman's 'B' (with it's shit-weird and disturbing video)/'Classic Remains', 'Alone On Piano' released. John Lodge, Dave Wakeling and Mike Read were the reviewers on Radio 1's Roundtable.
Billy Connolly and Bob Geldof appeared on Multi-Coloured Swap Shop. Graham Chapman featured on BBC2's Did You See ...? The Dead, The Innocent and Paul Ferris's drama documentary Dylan broadcast. The Teardrop Explodes performed the, as yet unreleased 'Reward' on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Which caused Julian Cope to, momentarily, become French. Motörhead's 'Ace Of Spades'/'Dirty Love' and B-Movie's 'Nowhere Girl'/'Scare Some Life Into Me' released. Arsenal won five-nil against relegation-haunted Leeds United at Elland Road in the First Division. The Hammer House Of Horror episode Carpathian Eagle broadcast on LWT.
Among The King broadcast. Distant Guns broadcast in BBC2's Yesterday's Witness strand. JB Priestley featured on LWT's On The Road.
The first UK TV showing of Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Dexys Midnight Runners and The Regulators appeared on BBC2's Something Else. And, Not The Nine O'Clock News featured some expert opinions of the subject of football hooliganism. Michael Foot was elected Leader of the Labour Party. And, didn't that go well.
The first episode of The Waterfall broadcast. George Shearing appeared on Rhythm On Two. Ipswich Town's unbeaten start to the First Division season ended when they lost their fifteenth match to bottom-placed Brighton & Hove Albion.
The first episode of The Plough & The Stars broadcast. Echo & The Bunnymen were in session on The John Peel Show ('All My Colours', 'That Golden Smile', 'Heaven Up Here', 'Turquoise Daze'). The NASA space probe Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Saturn when it flew within seventy seven thousand miles of the planet and sent the first high resolution images back to Earth. The first episode of Love In A Cold Climate broadcast on Thames.
Simon Bates presented Top Of The Pops with appearances from Iron Maiden, David Bowie, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Spandau Ballet, ABBA and Blondie. Plus a performance from Legs & Co. George Smith, a security guard, was shot dead when the van he was guarding was intercepted by armed robbers in Willenhall, West Midlands.

The first episode of BBC2's Sounds Different broadcast. Russell Harty's adaptation of Muriel Spark's The Black Madonna broadcast in the Playhouse strand. Emma Thompson, Robert Bathurst, Hugh Laurie and Rory McGrath appeared on Friday Night ... Saturday Morning. 'You've seen The Goodies, you've seen Monty Python, you've seen Not The Nine O'Clock News ... well, they've seen them as well.' The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, the King of Comedy Rowan Atkinson and Richard Skinner were Adrian Love's guests on Radio 1's Roundtable. ABBA's 'Super Trouper'/'The Piper', Kate Bush's 'December Will Be Magic Again'/'Warm & Soothing', Madness's 'Embarrassment'/'Crying Shame', The Go-Betweens' 'I Need Two Heads'/'Stop Before You Say It', The Brandy Snaps' 'Christmas Time'/'Reggae Christmas', The Boomtown Rats' 'Banana Republic'/'Man At The Top', Theatre Of Hate's 'Original Sin'/'Legion' and Bad Manners' 'Lorraine'/'Back In Sixty', 'Here Comes The Major' released. Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull - starring Robert De Niro - premiered. The first episode of The Good Companions broadcast on LWT.
Demis Roussos guest-starred on The Basil Brush Show. No, really. The first UK broadcast of Français Si Vous Saviez on BBC2. The last episode of Radio 4's The Burkiss Way broadcast. The Hammer House Of Horror episode Guardian Of The Abyss broadcast on LWT.
Ritual Murder? broadcast in the Everyman strand. The first episode of BBC2's The Lost Tribe broadcast.
The first UK TV showing of Clint Eastwood's Breezy. The first episode of Spine Chillers broadcast. The Damned and Young Marble Giants appeared on Something Else. John Lennon & Yoko Ono's Double Fantasy and The Fall's Grotesque (After The Gramme) released. University student Jacqueline Hill was murdered in Headingley, the latest victim of The Yorkshire Ripper. The Passions were in session on The John Peel Show ('Someone Special', 'The Swimmer', 'Bachelor Girls', 'I'm In Love With A German Film Star').
Grace Jones, unforgettably, appeared on Russell Harty. The host himself certainly wouldn't forget her. Or her left hook. The first episode of Whistle Blowers broadcast. Minor Complications broadcast in the Play For Today strand.
Roger Moore appeared on Parkinson. The first episodes of A Little Silver Trumpet and BBC2's Long, Short & Tall Stories broadcast. England got their World Cup qualifying campaign back on track - just - with a two-one victory over Switzerland at Wembley. A Markus Tanner own goal and a Paul Mariner strike gave England victory. Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate premiered. It became one of the biggest box office flops of all-time and its colossal failure effectively bankrupted United Artists.
Lord Denning, Master of the Rollsdelivered the latest Richard Dimbleby Lecture. The first episode of BBC2's adaptation of Doctor Jekyll & Mister Hyde. The Gang of Four trial began in China, after Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing, former Vice Premier Zhang Chunqiao, former Writers Union director Yao Wenyuan and former Party Vice Chairman Wang Hongwen were indicted on forty eight counts, along with six other prominent radicals. Conducted at the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing, the trial was closed to the foreign press.
The first annual Children In Need charity telethon organised by the BBC. Twenty one-and-a-half million punters tuned in to watch the new series premiere of Dallas, which answered the question Who shot JR? (it was Mary Crosby.) At the time the audience figures were a record for a soap in Britain. The Happy Autumn Fields broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Noddy Holder appeared on Radio 1's Roundtable. The Eagles' Don Henley was arrested when cocaine, Quaaludes and marijuana were found in his hotel room after a sixteen-year-old prostitute had drug-related seizures. Henley was also subsequently charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. After pleading no contest, he was fined two thousand five hundred dollars and put on two years' probation. Brian Clough & JJ Barrie's 'You Can't Win Em All'/'It's Only A Game', Jona Lewie's 'Stop The Cavalry'/'Laughing Tonight', Eddie & The Hot Rods' 'Wide Eyed Kids'/'Leave Us Alone', Showaddywaddy's 'Blue Moon'/'I Think I'm Really Going Out Of My Mind', Elmo & Patsy's 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer'/'Christmas' and The Clash's 'The Call Up'/'Stop The World' released.
The first episode of 'the Doctor Who with the vampires' (State Of Decay) broadcast. The Sky At Night covered Voyager 1's recent encounter with Saturn. The Crusaders appeared on Radio 1's In Concert. The Hammer House Of Horror episode Visitor From The Grave broadcast on LWT.
The Royal Variety Performance broadcast featuring appearances by Chesney Allen, Arthur Askey, Rowan Atkinson, Lionel Blair, Victor Borge, Charlie Chester, Billy Dainty, Sammy Davis Jr, Charlie Drake, Sheena Easton, Arthur English, Cyril Fletcher, Bruce Forsyth, Aretha Franklin, Larry Hagman, Roy Hudd, Danny Kaye, Cleo Laine, Peggy Lee, Joe Loss & His Orchestra, Henry Mancini, Paul Squires (who?), Una Stubbs and Tommy Trinder. Woody Allen's Love & Death shown on BBC2's The Great American Picture Show. Despite the economy now being in deep recession and the government's monetarist economic policy to tackle inflation being blamed for the downturn and about as popular as The Black Death, the government announced further public spending cuts and taxation rises. Well of course they did.
The first UK TV showing of The Family Rico. The Specials appeared on BBC2's Something Else. The Stray Cats' 'Runaway Boys', Buzzcocks' 'Running Free'/'What Do You Know?', Queen's 'Flash'/'Football Fight' and The Damned's 'There Ain't No Sanity Clause'/'Hit Or Miss', 'Looking At You' released. The first UK broadcast of Diff'rent Strokes broadcast on Thames.

Gordon Flemyng's Number On End broadcast. In the long-awaited rematch for the World Welterweight championship in Las Vegas between Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard, the fight ended abruptly in the closing seconds of the eighth round when Duran retired and Leonard reclaimed his title. In the Gang of Four trial, three former generals confessed to participating in a 1971 plot by former Defense Minister Lin Biao to assassinate Mao Zedong. Huang Yongsheng, who had been Chief of Staff of the Army and Li Zuopeng, the former political commissar of the Chinese Navy, said that they had passed privileged information to Lin that had led to the plot.
Maurice Hope retained his World Light-Middleweight title at Wembley Arena, beating Argentina's Carlos Maria del Valle Herrera on points. The premiere of Wings' Rockshow. Almost four years after the concert it featured took place. Businessman John Welch was found murdered in Room 101 of The Swallow Hotel in Newcastle. The murder has never been solved. Welch worked for a subsidiary of the Ladbrokes gaming empire and was in town to wind up the Macau Casino. In a secret memorandum, East Germany's Communist Party leader Erich Honecker, the de facto leader of the country, asked the leaders of the other Warsaw Pact nations to invade Poland. After nearly twenty years of trying, Sir Richard Attenborough succeeded in getting his Academy Award-winning film, Gandhi off the ground as filming began in India.
Tommy Vance presented Top Of The Pops with performances from Showaddywaddy, Robert Palmer, Stray Cats, UB40, ABBA, Madness and Spandau Ballet. Michael Palin presented his Confessions Of A Train Spotter episode of Great Railway Journeys Of The World. Soyuz T-3 was launched by the Soviet Union. It was the first Soyuz spacecraft with a three-member crew since the 1971 Soyuz 11 disaster. In Tehran, forty nine American hostages were turned over to the Iranian government by their captors. Vladimír Kavciak's Karline Manželstvá - starring Ewa Dalkowska and Zdenek Hradilák - premiered.
We're Going To Be Fighting For Years broadcast in BBC North East's Coast To Coast strand. Mike Leigh's Grown-Ups broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. Toyah Wilcox was the guest presenter on Friday Night ... Saturday Morning. The Jam's Sound Affects, Ian Dury & The Blockheads' Laughter, Blondie's Autoamerica, Siouxsie & The Banshees' 'Israel'/'Red Over White', Visage's 'Fade To Grey'/The Steps', The Police's 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da'/'Sermon' (the point at which Sting disappeared completely up his own anus never to re-emerge) and Adam & The Ants' Kings Of The Wild Frontier and the single 'Antmusic'/'Fall-In' released.
Sixty opponents of Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, including four former senators, were indicted by a military court in Manila and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government. The Hammer House Of Horror episode The Two Faces Of Evil broadcast on LWT.
The first episode of The Talisman broadcast. A dramatisation of The House With Green Shutters broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore in BBC2's Great American Picture Show.
The first UK TV showing of The Ultimate Warrior. Stiff Little Fingers and Pretty Boy Floyd appeared on Something Else. The first episodes of The Flying Boats and Alan Price broadcast on BBC2. The Specials ('Sea Cruise', 'Stereotypes', 'Raquel') and The Selecter ('Selling Out Your Future', 'Deep Water', 'Tell What's Wrong', 'Washed Up & Left For Deadwere') were in session on The John Peel Show. Radim Cvrcek's Děti Zítřků - starring Vladimír Kratina, Jaroslav Rozsíval, Tibor Vokoun and Vladimír Mensík - premiered.
The first UK TV showing of Cutter's Trail. Lesley Bruce's Jude broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The first episode of Ireland: A Television History broadcast on BBC2. Lamont Johnson's Cattle Annie & Little Britches - starring Burt Lancaster, John Savage, Rod Steiger, Diane Lane, Amanda Plummer, Scott Glenn and Buck Taylor - premiered.
The first episode of Great Mysteries broadcast. Oswald Mosley died. Good. Because he was a nasty fascist shithead. Although you would barely have realised that from some of the sick arse-licking apologist obituaries he received, a subject that provided ample material for another Not The Nine O'Clock News double-shotgun blast. Department S were in session on The John Peel Show ('Clap Now', 'Ode To Cologne (The Stench Of War)', 'Age Concern', 'Is Vic There?')
The first episode of Sink Or Swim broadcast. Led Zeppelin disbanded following the recent death of John Bonham. In the Gang of Four trial in Beijing, the widow of Chairman Mao, Jiang Qing, confessed on the witness stand that she had ordered the 1968 persecution of China's then head of state, Liu Shaoqi during the Cultural Revolution. Liu had been expelled from the Communist Party and was imprisoned and tortured, before dying of pneumonia the following year. Liu's widow, Wang Guangmei, had spent more than ten years in solitary confinement before being released after the death of Mao. Superman II premiered.
Lindisfarne featured on the first episode of BBC North East's Mike On Friday broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Michael Powell's They're A Weird Mob. My Dear Palestrina broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. The leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries held an emergency meeting in Moscow to discuss solutions to the problems with Poland, including a review of the recent shake-up in the Polish United Workers' Parties. After questioning Poland's leader, Stanislaw Kania, the Soviet Union elected not to intervene. Yet. Ray Clemence & Peter Shilton's 'Side By Side'/'We're Gonna Win Again', TV Smith's Explorers' 'Tomahawk Cruise'/'See Europe', Bauhaus' 'Telegram Sam'/'Crowds', Ray Charles' 'Compared To What'/'Now That We've Found Each Other', Desmond Dekker's 'Many Rivers To Cross'/'Pickney Gal' and Au Pairs' 'It's Obvious'/'Diet' released. Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire and Hazel O'Connor were guests on Radio 1's Roundtable. Mike Hodges' Flash Gordon - starring Sam J Jones, Melody Anderson, Ornella Muti, Max von Sydow, Topol, Timothy Dalton, Mariangela Melato, Brian Blessed and Peter Wyngarde - premiered.
Cliff Richard appeared on Parkinson. Nina Hagen and Steve Swindells featured on The Old Grey Whistle Test. Intelsat V F-2, the first of a new generation of communications satellites, was launched from Cape Canaveral. Stray Cats and Jane Kennaway & Strange Behaviour appeared on Radio 1's In Concert. The Hammer House Of Horror episode The Mark of Satan broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showings of The Three Thousand Mile Chase and, on BBC2's The Great American Picture Show, Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia.
Breaking Glass and Babylon were reviewed on Film 80. Ian Dury & The Blockheads featured on Something Else. John Lennon was murdered in New York by Mark Chapman. Ian Allen's best known puppet series for children, Button Moon, first broadcast on Thames with narration by Robin Parkinson and a theme tune written and sung by Peter Davison.
The Flipside Of Dominick Hide broadcast in the Play For Today strand. The first UK broadcast of James Last In London on BBC2. Theatre Of Hate were in session on The John Peel Show.
The Time Travellers of Bath broadcast in the Great Mysteries strand. Robin Cousins won the Sports Personality Of The Year award ahead of Sebastian Coe and Daley Thompson. Frederick Sanger won his second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, jointly with Walter Gilbert, 'for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids.'
Magnum, PI, set in Hawaii, made its debut on CBS with a two-hour pilot, in the slot vacated by Hawaii Five-O.
Shaping Up broadcast in BBC2's Playhouse strand. The Clash's Sandinista!, The Gap Band's 'Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me?)'/'Nothin' Comes To Sleeers', Elvis Costello & The Attractions' 'Clubland', 'Clean Money'/'Hoover Factory', The Specials Featuring Rico With The Ice Rink String Sounds' 'Do Nothing'/'Maggie's Farm', Josef K's 'It's Kinda Funny'/'Final Request', Gary Numan's 'This Wreckage'/'Photograph', Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, Rowan Atkinson & Griff Rhys Jones' 'The Ayatollah Song'/'Gob On You' and The Beat's 'Too Nice To Talk Too'/'Psychedelic Rockers' released. Dave Peltzer's Cutting Loose premiered.
Barry Tuckwell Masterclass broadcast on BBC2.
The first UK TV showing of At The Earth's Core. Cricket Review Of 1980 broadcast. Thousands of music fans held a ten-minute silent vigil in Liverpool for the late John Lennon.
Clint Eastwood was interviewed by Barry Norman on Film 80. Siouxsie & The Banshees appeared on Something Else. The guilty verdict against Marinus van der Lubbe in the 1933 criminal trial for the Reichstag Fire in Germany was thrown out by a West German court. Van der Lubbe, a Dutch-born Communist, had been executed in 1934 by the Nazis for arson and high treason, after being arrested inside the ruins of the building. Steely Dan's 'Hey Nineteen'/'Bodhisattva' released.
Name For The Day broadcast in the Play For Today strand. For Valour broadcast on BBC2.
Elvis Lives broadcast. The Merchant Of Venice broadcast in the BBC Television Shakespeare strand.

Tottenham Hotspur beat Ipswich Town in an eight goal thriller in the First Division. Secombe With music broadcast on Thames.
The Prophecies Of Nostradamus broadcast in the Great Mysteries strand. Michael Foot's hopes of becoming Prime Minister in the next general erection were given a boost by an MORI poll which showed Labour holding a twenty four-point lead over That Awful Thatcher Woman's Conservatives. But, that didn't last long. A UFO was, allegedly, sighted near RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk. This - and a subsequent sighting a few days later - would become what was later known as The Rendlesham Forest Incident, the most well-known alleged UFO incident to occur in Britain. The hunger strike by seven inmates at Northern Ireland's Maze Prison came to an end after more than seven weeks. The decision was made after two of the men fasting were judged by physicians to have less than twenty four hours to live. Maurice Murphy's Fatty Finn - starring Ben Oxenbould and Rebecca Rigg and Otakar Krivánek's Otec Ma Zderie Tak, či Tak - starring Peter Holoska, Stanislav Stepka, Judita Durdiaková and Anton Trón - premiered.
Roger de Courcey and Nookie Bear appeared on Crackerjack. Malcolm Bradbury's Standing In For Henry broadcast in the Playhouse strand. Guy Hamilton's The Mirror Crack'd - Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, Edward Fox, Geraldine Chaplin and Tony Curtis - premiered.
The first episode of Football Association Coaching broadcast. The first UK TV showings of Freebie & The Bean and, on BBC2, The Cat & The Fiddle.
The Dangerous Game the - superb - final episode of Shoestring broadcast. The first UK TV showing of Midnight Cowboy in BBC2's The Great American Picture Show. The premiere of Hawk The Slayer.
The first episode of The Europe We Joined broadcast. The Pinch broadcast on BBC2. Arena profiled Dire Straits. The John Peel Show featured the beginning of the annual Festive Fifty rundown.
Jessie broadcast in the Play For Today strand. Christmas With The Fivepenny Piece broadcast on BBC2. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, the 1964 US stop-motion animated special was broadcast for the final time (to date) on ITV.
Val's Special Years Of Christmas broadcast. Moon June and Instant Sunshine In Roads To Stardom broadcast on BBC2. The Old Gret Whistle Test's annual Christmas Eve concert featured Ian Dury & The Blockheads at the Hammersmith Odeon which was also simultcast on Radio 1.
The first UK TV showing of Airport 1975. A Year In The Life Of An Exmoor Man broadcast on BBC2. Desert Island Encores broadcast on Radio 4. Mad Ken Russell's Altered States premiered. Janet & Company broadcast on Thames.
The first UK TV showing of The Towering Inferno. The World Land Speed Record: These Forty Glorious Years broadcast on BBC2. Kevin Keegan was given his own one-off show on Radio 1. Tom's Midnight Garden was abridged in six parts on Radio 4. A series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, subsequently became linked to - mostly, highly questionable - claims of UFO landings in East Anglia. The events occurred just outside RAF Woodbridge, which was used by the US Air Force. The Ministry of Defence stated the event 'posed no threat to national security' and the event was never investigated as a security matter. Sceptics have speculated that the sightings may have been a misinterpretation of a series of nocturnal - and not interplanetary - lights: a combination of The Orfordness Lighthouse, the lights of a passing police car and bright stars. Others disagree. But, they're mostly the sort of people who live in their mum's basement and believe the Moon landings were a hoax so, you know, trust whomsoever you think are the most credible. An Audience With Dame Edna Everage broadcast on LWT.
The first UK TV showing of Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone. The Brute Force Challenge broadcast on BBC2.
Dorian Williams - Voice Of Show Jumping broadcast. The Mystery Of The Disappearing Schoolgirls, Maria Marten Or Murder In The Red Barn and '... Not In A Thousand Years broadcast on BBC2. The IBA announced the new contractors to commence on 1 January 1982. The Midlands region would be split into two and dual regions would be created for Wales and the West and the South and South East. ATV was reawarded its contract for the Midlands although there were several conditions attached, including more regional content and increased production facilities in the region. It was also told to rename itself and it choose the name Central Independent Television. Southern Television lost its licence, in favour of Television South and Westward Television also lost its licence, to be replaced by Television South West. The IBA also announced that TV-am has been awarded the contract to provide a national breakfast television service, with a provisional launch date in the spring of 1983. Drake's Venture and Staying On broadcast on LWT.
The first UK broadcast of The Devil & Daniel Mouse. The first episode of Junior Kick Start broadcast. The Royal Institution's Annual Christmas Lectures For Young People featured Sir David Phillips' The Chicken, The Egg & The Molecules. Department S's 'Is Vic There?'/'Solid Gold Easy Action' released.
Barry Norman's Films Of The Year broadcast. A Showaddywaddyshow 'special' (and, one uses that word quite wrongly) was broadcast on BBC2. Paul Gambaccini interviewed Kate Bush on Radio 1. The BBC announced their intention to launch a breakfast television service to compete with TV-am, announced two days earlier. Breakfast Time would begin on 17 January 1983, two weeks before TV-am. The first episode of Take A Chance broadcast on Thames.
The first episode of The Strange Affair Of Adelaide Harris and the last episode of Citizen Smith broadcast. The first UK TV showing of the risible - yet, oddly entertaining - Birth of The Beatles. Treasures From Chatsworth broadcast on BBC2. The year ended with Liverpool leading the First Division on goal difference ahead of Aston Villa, Ipswich Town and Arsenal. Crystal Palace and Leicester City remained stranded in the bottom three, but Brighton & Hove Albion climbed out of the drop zone at the expense of Norwich City. FA Cup holders West Ham United led the Second Division promotion race, joining in the top three by Swansea City and Chelsea. Notts County and Derby County were pushing the top three. Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian author and communications theorist who profiled the effect of television on society died aged sixty nine. McLuhan had summed up his findings with the statement 'The medium is the message', explaining that the technology of TV was more influential than the content of the information broadcast. The first episode of Brendon Chase and The Kenny Everett New Year's Daze Show broadcast on Thames.