1979 in Scottish television
| List of years in Scottish television |
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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
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "Garnock Way". STV Player. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
- ^ "TV - the history of Scottish soaps".
- ^ Duncan, Haldane. "Part 04: The Glendhu Factor". Transdiffusion.org. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
- ^ 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.
- ^ McDevitt, Ronnie (2012). Except for Viewers in Scotland: The Story of Scottish Football on Television. Andrews UK Limited. p. 195. ISBN 9781909143616.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Archie Duncan". BFI. Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2018.