1988 in Scottish television

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 1988.

Events

January

• 19 January – Debut of the BBC Scotland television film Down Where the Buffalo Go .

February

• 13 February – Scottish Television (STV) begins 24-hour broadcasting. ^[1]

March to June

• No events.

July

• 19 July – Debut on ITV of the STV produced game show Wheel of Fortune .

August

• No events.

September

• 2 September – Grampian and Border begin 24-hour transmission. Their overnight programming comes from Granada Television's Night Time service. ^[1]

Autumn

• The BBC takes its first tentative steps into later closedowns – previously weekday programmes ended no later than 12:15 am and weekend broadcasting had finished by 1:30 am.

October

• No events.

November

• No events.

December

• 31 December – Transmission of Tony Roper's The Steamie , about life in a Glasgow wash-house during the 1950s, starring Dorothy Paul and Eileen McCallum. ^[2]

Debuts

ITV

• 19 July – Wheel of Fortune (1988–2001)

Television series

• Scotsport (1957–2008) ^[3]
• Reporting Scotland (1968–1983; 1984–present)
• Top Club (1971–1998)
• Scotland Today (1972–2009)
• Sportscene (1975–present) ^[4]
• The Beechgrove Garden (1978–present)
• Grampian Today (1980–2009)
• Take the High Road (1980–2003) ^[5]
• Taggart (1983–2010) ^[6]
• James the Cat (1984–1992)
• Crossfire on Grampian (1984–2004)
• City Lights (1984–1991) ^[7]
• The Campbells (1986–1990)
• Naked Video (1986–1991) ^[8]

Births

• 27 January – Iain Stirling, comedian

See also

• 1988 in Scotland

References

1. "TV Live – ITV Night Time" . Retrieved 31 March 2020.
2. "Fifty years on, STV set for studio switch". The Scotsman. 3 July 2004. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
3. Haynes, Richard (17 November 2016). BBC Sport in Black and White. Springer. p. 1. ISBN   978-1-137-45501-7.
4. "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.
5. Brown, Ian (13 February 2020). Performing Scottishness: Enactment and National Identities. Springer Nature. p. 194. ISBN   978-3-030-39407-3.
6. McElroy, Ruth (14 October 2016). Contemporary British Television Crime Drama: Cops on the Box. Taylor & Francis. p. 27. ISBN   978-1-317-16096-0.
7. Williams, Craig (30 April 2020). "A look back at classic Glasgow comedy show City Lights". GlasgowLive. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
8. Tait, Derek (15 November 2019). A 1980s Childhood. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 104. ISBN   978-1-4456-9242-5.