What happened in 1982? - UK
Royal Navy, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
We look at events, new products, films and music.
In the news
- 25 February - Sir Freddie Laker's Laker Airways collapsed owing £270m. Sir Freddie had been a pioneer of low-cost transatlantic flights
- 25 February - The European Court of Human Rights ruled corporal punishment of children, without the consent of parents, was a breach of human rights
- 18 March - Attorney General Sir Michael Havers intervened to end a private prosecution brought by Mary Whitehouse against the Director of the National Theatre, Michael Bogdanov. The play, 'The Romans in Britain', featured a male rape scene which Whitehouse held to be against the Sexual Offences Act 1956
- 1 April - The Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands started
- 24 April - The UK held the Eurovision Song Contest. Nicole won for Germany with 'Ein Bisschen Frieden' (A Little Peace)
- 2 May - A UK submarine sank the Argentine cruiser the General Belgrano
- 14 June - Argentine forces surrendered at Stanley ending the Falklands War
- 20 July - The IRA detonated bombs in central London during military parades at Hyde Park and Regent's Park. They killed 11 British soldiers and 7 horses
- 11 October - Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, was brought to the surface in the Solent. It sank in 1545
- 11 December - ABBA make their last UK TV appearance on Noel Edmonds' 'The Late, Late Breakfast Show'
Image by William Warby licensed under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0))
Facts about 1982
- The average wage for male workers aged over 21 was £154.30 (Hansard: HC Deb 10 February 1983 vol 36 cc422-3W)
- The average wage for female workers aged over 18 was £98.9 (Hansard: HC Deb 10 February 1983 vol 36 cc422-3W)
- The best-selling car of 1982 was the Ford Escort MkIII. See Britain's best selling cars from the 80s
- The best-selling cigarette was Benson & Hedges with 18.2% of the UK market (Maxwell International Estimates, September 1983)
- In 1982 95% of British households had a television set, 76% had a telephone and 60% had central heating.
- The BBC Sports Personality of the Year was Daley Thompson.
- Sinclair launched the ZX Spectrum computer in 1982
For more information see How much did things cost in 1982?
Films
The films that made the most money in the UK in 1982 were:
- E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
- Annie
- Mad Max 2
- Rocky III
- Death Wish II
- Poltergeist
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Firefox
- TRON
- Blade Runner
1982 Top UK Box Office Movies on 25th Frame
Television
These British TV shows debuted in 1982:
- Police - a documentary about Thames Valley Police
- Fame is the Spur - drama based on novel by Howard Spring
- King's Royal - drama about the whisky business in the nineteenth century
- Cagney and Lacey - drama about two female New York cops
- Wogan - long-running chat show programme
- Fame - drama about the New York City High School for the Performing Arts
- Beau Geste - drama about the French Foreign Legion
- Shogun - epic drama set in Japan
- Boys from the Blackstuff - Alan Bleasdale's classic drama
- The Young Ones - sitcom parodying student life
- Shine on Harvey Moon - comedy set in East End of London
- Brookside - long running soap set in Liverpool
- Falcon Crest - American soap
- Clive James On Television - long-running show
Children's TV
Children's TV programmes starting in 1982 included:
- Emu's World - with Rod Hull
- Fun Factory
- Let's Pretend
- Square Pegs
- Ragdolly Anna
Source: The Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV by Richard Lewis
Music
Ueli Frey, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The best-selling pop records of 1982 were:
- Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners
- Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor
- Fame - Irene Cara
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Tight Fit
- Do You Really Want To Hurt Me - Culture Club
- Ebony And Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
- I Don't Wanna Dance - Eddy Grant
- Seven Tears - Goombay Dance Band
- Pass The Dutchie - Musical Youth
- Town Called Malice/Precious - The Jam
Source: UK Top 100 Singles by Paul Gambaccini, Tim Rice and Jonathan Rice, published by Guinness in 1993
Sport
Tottenham Hotspur beat Queens Park Rangers to win the FA Cup. Liverpool topped the Football League.
Grittar won the Grand National at Aintree ridden by Dick Saunders. The owner and trainer was Frank H Gilman. The previous year's winner Aldaniti, ridden by Bob Champion, fell at the first fence.
Golden Fleece, ridden by Pat Eddery, won the Derby at Epsom.
Northern Ireland and England took part in the 1982 Football World Cup. Both teams made it to the second stage, but their World Cup dreamed ended there.
Toys
Star Wars Toys were Toy of the Year in 1982.
Other toys and games launched in 1982 included:
- Armatron - a robotic arm. Robots were making Mini Metros and Ford Escorts in the 1980s; budding engineers could play with a robot toy
- Commodore 64 - a computer with an enormous memory (for 1982)
- Matsushiro Knight Rider radio-controlled car
- My Little Pony
- Trivial Pursuit
- ZX Spectrum - Sir Clive Sinclair's latest computer. The Spectrum offered bags of computing power for a modest price
Cars
Image by Brian Clifford, Public Domain Mark 1.0 - No copyright
Some of the new cars launched for the UK market in 1982 were:
- Austin Ambassador
- BMW 3 Series (E30) - classic yuppie transport
- Citroën BX
- Ford Sierra - the 'jelly-mould' car
- Lotus Excel
- Mercedes-Benz 190 series
- Nissan Micra
- Porsche 944
- Reliant Rialto - updated three-wheeler
- Volvo 700 Series
Read more: What were the best selling cars of the 1980s?
References
More on 1982
More on the 1980s
By Steven Braggs, June 2022
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