1985 in Scottish television

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1985.

Events

January

• 4 January – The last 405-line transmissions take place in Scotland. ^[1] The switch-off sees the ending of television signals being radiated from the Kirk o' Shotts transmitting station.

February

• 18 February – BBC One Scotland changes its name back to BBC 1 Scotland.

April

• April – Grampian Television introduces a new computerised logo. ^[2]

August

• 31 August – Scottish Television changes its "STV" logo to the computerised "thistle" design. ^[3]

October

• October – Increased funding for programmes in Gaelic results in the introduction of a weekday 20-minute morning slot of Gaelic children's programmes on BBC One Scotland. The programmes are generally shown in term-time before Play School , starting at 10:10 am.

October

• 2 November – Scottish Television announce that Gus Macdonald will take up the post of director of programmes ^[4]

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)
• Grampian Today (1980–2009)
• Take the High Road (1980–2003) ^[7]
• Now You See It (1981–1986)
• Taggart (1983–2010) ^[8]
• Crossfire on Grampian (1984–2004)
• City Lights (1984–1991) ^[9]

Births

• 20 March – Phil MacHugh, television presenter

Deaths

• 26 January – Chic Murray, 65, comedian and actor

See also

• 1985 in Scotland

References

1. "40th anniversary of the end of 405 - a look at a 1969 Ferguson 3649 using the Thorn 981 chassis". YouTube .
2. TV Live - Grampian
3. "Fifty years on, STV set for studio switch". The Scotsman. 3 July 2004. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
4. "Next week". The Glasgow Herald . 2 November 1985. p. 1. Retrieved 2 January 2026– 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 20 August 2025.
7. Brown, Ian (13 February 2020). Performing Scottishness: Enactment and National Identities. Springer Nature. p. 194. ISBN   978-3-030-39407-3.
8. McElroy, Ruth (14 October 2016). Contemporary British Television Crime Drama: Cops on the Box. Taylor & Francis. p. 27. ISBN   978-1-317-16096-0.
9. Williams, Craig (30 April 2020). "A look back at classic Glasgow comedy show City Lights". GlasgowLive. Retrieved 24 May 2022.