The document summarizes some of the highest viewed TV shows, films, and events in UK television history. EastEnders Christmas episodes from 1986 and 1987 topped the TV shows with over 30 million viewers. The 1966 Royal Variety Performance and the 1996 Only Fools and Horses Christmas special both had over 24 million viewers. The top viewed films on TV included Live and Let Die and Jaws, each attracting over 23 million viewers in the early 1980s. The events with the most viewers were the 1966 World Cup Final and Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, both watched by over 32 million people.

1. TELEVISION:
MOST VIEWED
Take a peek inside to discover some of the UK’s most viewed
shows, films and one-off events ever to hit the small screen.
There are some surprises!
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2. top telly:
Eastenders takes up 1st and 2nd place
(as well as 5th, 7th and 10th!)
in the top shows ever watched.
1st, with 30.15m viewers, came on Christmas
Day 1986 when Den divorced Angie. Poor
Ange.
2nd, with 28m viewers, came just 6 days
later when Michelle Fowler revealed she
was pregnant! What a week on the square,
eh?!
With Eastenders topping, it will come
as no surprise that Corrie comes a
close second. Well... third.
26.65m people tuned in a year to the day of
Den divorcing Angie as they said goodbye to
Hilda Ogden on Christmas Day 1987.
Eastenders
Coronation Street
TV FACTOID:
Television was first abbreviated
to TV in 1948.

3. The 1965 Royal Variety Performance
saw Shirley Bassey, Peter Cook and
Dudley Moore take to the stage.
It was performed in the presence of Queen
Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh and was
witnessed by a massive 24.2m viewers.
The Time On Our Hands episode was
the final of the 1996 Christmas Trilogies.
To those who’ve been living under a yellow
three wheeler all their life, this is the episode
where Del Boy and Rodney finally strike it
lucky, with 24.35m viewers witnessing the
moment they become millionaires.
Royal Variety
Performance
Only Fools and Horses
QUOTE from C. P. Scott, 1936:
“Television? The word is half Greek and half
Latin. No good will come of this device.”

4. Everyone remembers when Madeline
Hartog-Bel won the 1967 Miss World
Contest, don’t they?
You were probably watching it, that’s why -
along with the rest of the 23.76m viewers.
Cast your mind back... have you cast it?
Excellent.
Well in 1979, 23.95m viewers sat around their
TV set to watch the finale of season 1 of this
70s classic.
Miss World 1967
To The Manor Born
TV FACTOID:
The first couple ever to be shown in bed
together were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

5. top films:
Way back in 1980 23.5m viewers sat
down together
(not in one place though, obviously)
and watched James Bond stuff Kananga’s
mouth with an exploding gas bullet and
quip the fantastic line:
“He always did have an inflated opinion of
himself.”
They’re going to need a bigger
audience...
to reach the top spot.
A year later in 1981, Jaws scored 23.25
million viewers, six years after its original
release in 1975.
ITV takes the crown for the top 4 film
viewings ever on terrestrial TV...
let’s find out what makes the chart.
Live and Let Die Jaws
QUOTE from Groucho Marx:
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody
turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

6. Shaken and not-third, this is James
Bond’s personal third entry in the top
4 with Diamonds Are Forever.
This was viewed by an impressive 22.15m
viewers in 1981, only pipped by Jaws in
terms of viewing figures for the whole year.
Well Bond’s done it again.
Only 2 years after 007 scored the most viewed
film ever aired on television, The Spy Who
Loved Me climbed to the third most watched,
with 22.9m viewers in 1982.
Diamonds Are Forever
The Spy Who Loved Me
TV FACTOID:
The first inter-racial kiss was in 1968 on Star Trek
between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols.

7. top events:
They think it’s all over...
well it isn’t, we’re only on the 7th slide.
But as you may expect, the only time the
England football team managed to reach
the World Cup Final, the country got
behind them in force.
32.3m people to be precise.
Everyone seems to remember where
they were when they heard the news of
Diana’s death.
32.1m people knowing precisely where they
were when the funeral was aired in 1997.
Incidentally, a documentary from 1969, about
the Royal Family, came in at 3rd with 30.69m
viewers.
Funeral of
Princess Diana
FIFA World Cup Final
1966
TV FACTOID:
The average UK citizen has 29 hours of TV
recorded on their digital hard-drive.

8. Just 12 days after the splashdown,
28.49m people watched Chelsea’s FA
Cup Final replay with Leeds Utd.
This was the first final replay since 1912. A
bit of a landmark, but did people even leave
the house in April 1970?
Scoring more viewers than Apollo 11’s
moon landing mission,
28.6m people saw the less-than-plain-sailing
Apollo 13 mission splashdown back on terra
firma. Well... terra..water .
Chelsea vs Leeds Utd
FA Cup Final Replay
Apollo 13 Splashdown
TV FACTOID:
95% of UK households have a TV set.

9. Around half of the country sat down in 1981
and watched the moment Prince Charles
and Lady Diana tied the knot.
The 28.4m viewers witnessed a who’s who of
royals with attendants such as Winston
Churchill’s great-granddaughter amongst the
cavalcade of aristocratic guests.
These royals don’t half take up a lot of the
box...
27.6m viewers saw Princess Anne and Mark
Phillips joined in matrimony in 1973.
Wedding of
Charles and Diana
Wedding of
Princess Anne and Mark Phillips
TV FACTOID:
The average viewer spends 3 hours and 52
minutes a day watching television!

10. Thanks for joining Electronic World on
a journey through some of TV’s
most viewed events.
You’d best prepare yourself for the next water-cooler event by trekking
over to our website and setting yourself up with a television set up, eh?
0121 327 3273
Let’s make the rest of those millions green with envy:
www.electronicworldtv.co.uk