2008 in British television
overview of television-related events in the United Kingdom during the year of 2008
This is a list of events that took place in 2008 related to British television.
Events
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Debuts
BBC One
1 January – Sense and Sensibility
5 January –
Basil's Swap Shop
The One and Only
8 January – Mistresses
10 January – Fairy Tales
13 January – Lark Rise to Candleford
4 February – Frankenstein's Cat
7 February – Ashes to Ashes
17 February – The Last Enemy
10 March – Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
15 March – I'd Do Anything
28 March – The Passion
12 April – The Kids Are All Right
28 April – Out of the Blue
1 May – The Invisibles
30 June – Criminal Justice
5 July – Last Choir Standing
8 July – Bonekickers
30 July – Lost Land of the Jaguar
10 August – Britain From Above
26 August – Mutual Friends
11 September – The Planners Are Coming
14 September – Tess of the D'Urbervilles
18 September – The Undercover Soldier
20 September –
Merlin
Hole in the Wall
7 October Sunshine
12 October – Stephen Fry in America
19 October – Ian Fleming: Where Bond Began
24 October – Little Dorrit
3 November – The Pinky and Perky Show
13 November – Apparitions
23 November – Survivors
30 November – Wallander
25 December – A Matter of Loaf and Death
BBC Two
BBC Three
BBC Four
ITV (1/2/3/4/CITV)
Channel 4
Five
E4
Sky1
Watch
Dave
FX
Other channels
Channels
New channels
Defunct channels
Rebranding channels
Television shows
Changes of network affiliation
Returning this year after a break of one year or longer
Continuing television shows
1920s
1930s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
Ending this year
Deaths
Top 10 highest viewed programmes
Notes
A Matter of Loaf and Death is the highest viewed non-sporting event since an episode of Coronation Street in 2004 had 16.33 million.
Coronation Street's audience was boosted due to the death of long running and popular character Vera Duckworth.
The results shows of The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent are counted as separate programmes.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “2008 in British television” as overview of television-related events in the United Kingdom during the year of 2008. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as overview of television-related events in the United Kingdom during the year of 2008. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4612340. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008 and 2004.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “2008 in British television” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.