1980 in Scottish television

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1980.

Events

January

• 7 January - Grampian Today is relaunched as North Tonight, as part of an effort to reflect northern Scotland as a whole. 1980 also sees Grampian introduces weekday lunchtime and closedown news bulletins, called North News and North Headlines respectively.

February

• 19 February - Debut of the Scottish Television's soap Take the High Road . ^[1]

December

• 1 December – BBC Scotland carries out a one-week experiment in breakfast television. It is a simulcast of BBC Radio Scotland's breakfast show Good Morning Scotland . ^[2]
• 28 December – The IBA announces the results of the 1980 franchise round, revealing that all three of Scotland's ITV broadcasters have retained their franchises. ^{[3] [4]}

Unknown

• Future British Prime Minister Gordon Brown becomes a journalist with Scottish Television.

Debuts

ITV

• 7 January - Grampian Today (1980–2009)
• 19 February - Take the High Road (1980–2003) ^[1]

Television series

• Scotsport (1957–2008) ^[5]
• Reporting Scotland (1968–1983; 1984–present)
• Top Club (1971–1998)
• Scotland Today (1972–2009)
• Sportscene (1975–Present) ^[6]
• The Beechgrove Garden (1978–Present)

Births

• 8 May - Michelle McManus, singer-songwriter, actress, radio and television presenter
• 2 August - Kate Heavenor, Children's television presenter
• 21 November - Lisa McAllister, model and actress
• Unknown - Bryan Swanson, television reporter

Deaths

• 9 February - Renée Houston, 77, comedy actor
• 12 February - Moultrie Kelsall, 78, actor

See also

• 1980 in Scotland

References

1. "Popular Scottish TV shows you'll remember". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
2. BBC Genome Project BBC1 Scotland listings 1 December 1980
3. Donaldson, Anne (29 December 1980). "STV hangs on to the franchise". The Glasgow Herald . p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2025– via Google News Archive.
4. Ritchie, Murray (29 December 1980). "STV proves that quality counts and wins the day". The Glasgow Herald. p. 7. Retrieved 2 January 2025– via Google News Archive.
5. Haynes, Richard (17 November 2016). BBC Sport in Black and White. Springer. p. 1. ISBN   978-1-137-45501-7.
6. "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.