1979 in Scottish television

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1979.

Events

• 16 March - The American educational series for preschoolers Sesame Street begins airing for the first time on Scottish Television.
• 3 May - Television coverage of the 1979 general election.
• 10 July - Grampian Television drop their plans to record and broadcast the memorial service to be held in Buckie for the six crew members of a fishing boat lost in waters off Orkney, following a request from family members. ^[1]
• 12 July - Garnock Way concludes after three years on air. ^[2] It is axed to make way for Take the High Road , ^[3] which would be shown across the ITV network. ITV had rejected Garnock Way because they wanted, in their words, "lots of Scotch Lochs and Hills". ^[4] The new soap was a bigger budget affair and more in keeping with the 'tartan' perception of Scotland as it was deliberately set in a more beautiful part of Scotland. ^[5]
• Unknown - BBC 1 Scotland airs Can Seo , a 20-part series teaching Scottish Gaelic. Can Seo means "Say This" in Gaelic.
• Unknown - Broadcast of the television film A Sense of Freedom about the Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle.

Debuts

BBC

• 13 June - The Omega Factor on BBC 1 (1979)
• Unknown - Can Seo on BBC 1 Scotland (1979)

ITV

• 16 March - Sesame Street on Scottish Television (1969–present)
• Unknown - A Sense of Freedom on Scottish Television (1981)

Television series

• Scotsport (1957–2008) ^[6]
• Reporting Scotland (1968–1983; 1984–present)
• Top Club (1971–1998)
• Scotland Today (1972–2009)
• Sportscene (1975–Present) ^[7]
• The Beechgrove Garden (1978–Present)

Ending this year

• 15 August - The Omega Factor (1979)
• Unknown - Garnock Way (1976–1979) ^[2]

Births

• 23 January - Dawn Porter, television presenter and writer
• 28 January - Ainslie Henderson, singer-songwriter
• 2 February - David Paisley, actor
• 21 April - James McAvoy, actor

Deaths

• 9 July - Roddy McMillan, 56, actor and playwright
• 24 July - Archie Duncan, 65, actor ^[8]

See also

• 1979 in Scotland

References

1. MacDonald, George (10 July 1979). "Plan to televise boat crew service dropped". The Glasgow Herald. p. 7. Retrieved 2 January 2025– via Google News Archive.
2. "Garnock Way". STV Player. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
3. "TV - the history of Scottish soaps".
4. Duncan, Haldane. "Part 04: The Glendhu Factor". Transdiffusion.org. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
5. Historical detail Archived 2 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine : from an interview with Haldane Duncan, ex-director of Take the High Road . Retrieved on 16 March 2008.
6. McDevitt, Ronnie (2012). Except for Viewers in Scotland: The Story of Scottish Football on Television. Andrews UK Limited. p. 195. ISBN   9781909143616.
7. "Sportscene at 50: Famous faces back for anniversary". BBC Sport. 6 August 2025. Archived from the original on 11 August 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
8. "Archie Duncan". BFI. Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2018.