1988 in Scottish television

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.

July

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

September

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

Autumn

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

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.

Debuts

ITV

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

Television series

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

Births

• 27 January – Iain Stirling, comedian

References

References

1. "TV Live – ITV Night Time".
2. (3 July 2004). "Fifty years on, STV set for studio switch". The Scotsman.
3. (17 November 2016). "BBC Sport in Black and White". Springer.
4. (6 August 2025). "Sportscene at 50: Famous faces back for anniversary".
5. (13 February 2020). "Performing Scottishness: Enactment and National Identities". Springer Nature.
6. (14 October 2016). "Contemporary British Television Crime Drama: Cops on the Box". Taylor & Francis.
7. (30 April 2020). "A look back at classic Glasgow comedy show City Lights".
8. (15 November 2019). "A 1980s Childhood". Amberley Publishing Limited.