''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manager of the

British Broadcasting Company The British Broadcasting Company Limited (BBC) was a short-lived British commercial broadcasting company formed on 18 October 1922 by British and American electrical companies doing business in the United Kingdom. Licensed by the British Gener ...

, it was the world's first broadcast listings magazine. In September 2023 it became the first broadcast listings magazine to reach and then pass its centenary. It was published entirely in-house by BBC Magazines from 8 January 1937 until 16 August 2011, when the division was merged into

Immediate Media Company Immediate Media Company Limited (with IMMEDIATE styled in all uppercase as its logo) is a British multinational publishing house that produces a wide range of magazine titles, including ''Radio Times, BBC Top Gear, Good Food'' and many others ...

. On 12 January 2017, Immediate Media was bought by the German media group

Hubert Burda Hubert Burda (born 9 February 1940) is a German billionaire publisher. He is the owner, publisher and general partner of Hubert Burda Media, a global media company of more than 600 media products, including websites, print magazines and other ...

. The magazine is published on Tuesdays and carries listings for the week from Saturday to Friday. Originally, listings ran from Sunday to Saturday: the changeover meant 8 October 1960 was listed twice, in successive issues. Since Christmas 1969, a 14-day double-duration issue has been published each December containing schedules for two weeks of programmes. Originally this covered Christmas Day and New Year's Day, but on some occasions those have each appeared in separate editions due to the two-week period ending just before the New Year.

History and profile

Radio Times - front cover - 28 September 1923

''The Radio Times'' was first issued on 28 September 1923 for the price of 2 d, carrying details of programmes for six BBC wireless stations ( 2LO,

5IT 5IT was a British Broadcasting Company (later BBC) radio station which broadcast from Birmingham, England, between 1922 and 1927. Birmingham was the first British city outside London to have a radio service from the newly formed British Broa ...

, 2ZY, 5NO, 5WA and 5SC);

newspapers A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

at the time

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...

ed radio listings fearing that increased listenership might decrease their sales. It included a message to "listeners" by the BBC's chairman, Lord Pease. Initially, ''The Radio Times'' was a combined enterprise between the

and publishers

George Newnes Ltd George Newnes Ltd is a British publisher. The company was founded in 1891 by George Newnes (1851–1910), considered a founding father of popular journalism. Newnes published such magazines and periodicals as '' Tit-Bits'', '' The Wide World Ma ...

within the latter typeset, printed and distributed the magazine. In 1925, the BBC assumed full editorial control, but printing and distribution could not begin in-house until 1937. ''The Radio Times'' established a reputation for using leading writers and illustrators, and the covers from the special editions are now collectable design classics. By 26 September 1926, the narrow columns of BBC's wireless programme schedules were broken up by the insertion of a photograph or two – relevant to or depicting subjects of the broadcasts. On 1 May 1927, ''The Radio Times'' produced an experimental

Braille Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

edition under the auspices of the

National Institute for the Blind RNIB (formally, the Royal National Institute of Blind People and previously the Royal National Institute for the Blind) is a British charity, founded in 1868, that serves people living with visual impairments. It is regarded as a leader in th ...

with its success led to a regular weekly version publication costing one penny. From 15 January 1933, the introduction of a weekly

crossword A crossword (or crossword puzzle) is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of cl ...

puzzle heralded as popular as ever within the publication making its first-ever appearance. From 5 January 1934, the three-column programme pages were expanded to include a fourth column with the BBC's television programmes given a new section layout (on 8 January), and ''The Radio Times'' announced a regular series of "experimental television transmissions by the Baird process" for half an hour every night at 11.00pm. The launch of the first regular 405-line television service by the BBC was reflected with television listings in ''The Radio Times'' London edition of 23 October 1936. Thus, ''Radio Times'' became the first-ever television listings magazine in the world. Initially, only two pages in each edition were devoted to television, which ran from Monday to Saturday and remained off-air on Sundays. After 14 years, from issue 693 (cover date 8 January 1937), that

definitive article In grammar, an article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" a ...

word "''The''" was no longer used on the masthead within the magazine, and the publication became simply known as ''Radio Times''; they also published a lavish photogravure supplement in the same issue. Prior to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

on 1 September 1939, the BBC radio listings provided a National Programme for the whole of the United Kingdom, and the Regional Programme appeared in seven different versions (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

) each with a combination of various transmitters respectively before the two stations merged into a single service, and included three pages of television listings. When Britain's declaration of war with Germany on 3 September 1939 and the television broadcasting ceased, while radio listings continued with a reduced service. From 23 June 1944, the

Allied Expeditionary Forces Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in northwest Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. US General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF thro ...

edition carried details of all the programmes for the

Home Service Home Service is a British folk rock group, formed in late 1980 from a nucleus of musicians who had been playing in Ashley Hutchings' Albion Band. Their career is generally agreed to have peaked with the album ''Alright Jack'', and has had a ...

and General Forces Programme. The same year, paper rationing meant editions were only 20 pages of tiny print on thin paper. ''Radio Times'' expanded with regional editions introduced from 29 July 1945, and television resumed once again on 7 June 1946. On 4 March 1948, the weekend listing schedules for three BBC radio networks were doubled together with daytime and evening sections in additional four pages a week, as well as weekday billings also used by the same layout which adds 12 extra pages of more articles and detailed programmes bringing up to 40 (or 44 for the television edition) on 1 July 1949. From 18 January 1953, the television listing schedules, which had been in the back of the magazine, were placed alongside daily radio schedules. On 17 February 1957 (shortly after the abolition of the "

Toddlers' Truce The Toddlers' Truce was an early British television scheduling policy that required transmissions to terminate for an hour each weekday between 6.00pm and 7.00pm – after the end of children's broadcasting and the start of the evening programmes ...

", in which transmissions terminated between 6.00 and 7.00pm), television listings were moved to a separate section at the front with radio listings relegated to the back; a day's listings were sometimes spread over up to three double-page spreads mixed with advertisements, but this format was phased out when independent publishers were allowed to publish television schedules. The new layout was structured thusly: From 8 October 1960, BBC television and radio schedules were re-integrated; the programmes included a new "pick of the week" with a single third page for previews, before each day's listings; these came before the two pages of television and the four pages of radio. A new bolder masthead was designed by

Abram Games Abram Games (29 July 191427 August 1996) was a British graphic designer. The style of his work – refined but vigorous compared to the work of contemporaries – has earned him a place in the pantheon of the best of 20th-century graphic desi ...

(who created graphical designs such as the " Festival Star" on the cover of the 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

and the 1953 " Bat's Wings" ident) and containing the words "BBC TV and Sound" on the left side, was introduced with this revamp; it became one of the shortest-used designs in the magazine's history. On 4 August 1962, when ''Radio Times'' was again revamped, the masthead was replaced with one incorporating the words in the Clarendon typeface; while the main change was the reduction of BBC radio schedules for three stations to a double-page spread brought down into size, the magazine now generally had between 60 and 68 pages, as compared to the relaunched format from two years earlier, which contained only 52 pages. From 30 September 1967, ''Radio Times'' introduced the all-new colour pages of the magazine's feature sections, including "star stories",

Percy Thrower Percy John Thrower (30 January 1913 – 18 March 1988) was a British gardener, horticulturist, broadcaster and writer born at Horwood House in the village of Little Horwood, Buckinghamshire. He became nationally known through presenting gar ...

's gardening,

Zena Skinner Zena Skinner (27 February 1927 – 6 March 2018) was a British chef, writer, and cookery expert on television and radio. Early life Skinner was from Luton, Bedfordshire. Her father owned an electroplating company. Career Skinner served in ...

's cookery, Bill Hartley's motoring and

Jeffery Boswall Jeffery Boswall (20 March 1931 – 15 August 2012) was a British naturalist, broadcaster and educator. One of the longest serving producers with the BBC Natural History Unit (1957-1987), and the writer and presenter/narrator of many of the ...

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

, as well as "Round and About" with up-to-the-minute stories in both television and radio from around the world. At the same time, the four new BBC radio stations (replacing the

, the

Light Programme The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the lo ...

and the

Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...

) were launched within the schedule listing pages. The layouts of programme page headings have now restyled as well as the three radio pages had been rearranged with schedule billings for Radio 1 and Radio 2 on the first, Radio 3 on the second and Radio 4 on the third. In future weeks, it would boast another revised masthead although the same typeface simply a bold symbol "

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

" to the right of the title – within the price, date and regional edition being overprinted in letterpress at the top of the front page, but the letters section and the

were placed inside the back page. On 6 September 1969, ''Radio Times'' was given another radical makeover, as they switched the

date format A calendar date is a reference to a particular day, represented within a calendar system, enabling a specific day to be unambiguously identified. Simple math can be performed between dates; commonly, the number of days between two dates may be ca ...

from "month-day-year" to "day-month-year" and ceased carrying cigarette advertisements after 46 years. The new format inside with the first three pages were devoted to an abbreviated listing of all the week's BBC television and radio programmes in a simple condensed form, within major changes were noticeable on the feature pages as well as the colour ones were spread out to accompany rather than the centre page. The look of the magazine initially became far more restrained, with less white space between columns and headings. More significantly, the lifestyle section (which covered motoring, gardening and cookery) and the crossword were completely dropped, and the highlights section was scrapped. The front cover was surrounded by a black border and italicised its masthead (now in the

Caslon Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon, William Caslon I in London, or inspired by his work. Caslon worked as an Engraving, engraver of Punchcutting, punches, the masters used to stamp the moulds or Matrix (printi ...

typeface with swash capitals; this logo remained until April 2001), in an attempt to emphasize the "R" for radio and "T" for television. From 5 July 1975, the magazine was given a refreshed layout which consisted of horizontal black bars from top to bottom with the familiar darker-shaded look; by this time, the BBC's television schedules included a "

colour Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorp ...

" annotation that was dropped eight years later, as well as programmes in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

were never indicated with the exception of feature films originally made for the cinema. Another major change occurred on 18 November 1978, in response to

wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same ''phase (waves ...

changes (took place on 23 November) that enabled

and

to receive their own separate domestic services in addition to Radio 4 (also known as the national "Radio 4 UK" service remained until 29 September 1984), the arrival of these services on the pages forced all BBC radio stations into a six-column grid. On 30 August 1980, ''Radio Times'' developed a new double-page spread of Robert Ottaway's highlights from the week ahead, often used for both BBC radio and television programmes. The regular inside back page section for younger listeners and viewers featured content from ''

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'') is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. Originally ''John Craven's Newsround'', it was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically ...

'' presenter

John Craven John Raymond Craven (born 16 August 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the BBC programmes '' Newsround'', '' Countryfile'' and '' Beat the Brain''. Early life Craven was born in Leeds, West Rid ...

and a selection of new puzzles created by the television producer Clive Doig, such as the trackword (which consisted of nine squares in one word), as well as backstage stories and a comic strip of

Peter Lord Peter Duncan Fraser Lord CBE (born 4 November 1953) is a British animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particu ...

's '' Morph'' at the bottom of the page. Between March and December 1983, ''Radio Times'' had severe industrial disputes when the British Printing & Communications Corporation and the union SOGAT 82 joined forces, and production was affected due to printing problems: * 23 March – The BBC regrets that the printers for next week's edition are in short supply, but copies will be available in the

South West Southwest is a compass point. Southwest, south-west, south west, southwestern or south-western or south western may also refer to: * Southwest (direction), an intercardinal direction Geography *South West Queensland, Australia *South West (Weste ...

, the

West of England The West of England is an area of South West England around the River Avon. The area has a local government combined authority that consists of the unitary authorities of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset. The comb ...

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

, and many parts of

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and the

North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...

. * 7 April – The BBC expects copies of the magazine will be available in

and North of England from 16 April, following the print workers in

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; ), sometimes referred to as EK, is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland, and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. Historically a small village, it was designated Scotland's first "new town" on 6 Ma ...

and near

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

returning to work. * 4 June – The

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

special issue with the combined

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

edition, as well as the three constituent nations (Scotland,

and Northern Ireland) across throughout the country was used for one week only. * 16 July – The magazine was finally returned to the fully-regionalised form with complete details of all BBC television channels and radio stations for national, regional and local. * 10 December – The magazine was printed and published as the single national edition once again, due to a print workers' strike from the previous week. On 23 June 1984, the radio listings were redesigned again to improve their legibility and paving the way for a new printing technology. That same year (1 September), web-offset printing was used for the first time, meaning the magazine became brighter and more colourful.

Newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has ...

and sheets of gravure gave way to black

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. ...

and

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

Helvetica Helvetica, also known by its original name Neue Haas Grotesk, is a widely-used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the f ...

replaced

Franklin Gothic Franklin Gothic and its related faces are a large family of sans-serif typefaces in the industrial or grotesque style developed in the early years of the 20th century by the type foundry American Type Founders (ATF) and credited to its head desig ...

for a larger character style, and the television listings were also redesigned including the new film icon and the "today at a glance" sidebar on the far right of pages were added. Starting from 11 October 1986, the new family viewing policy warned readers that

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

does not broadcast programmes before 9.00pm which it believed to be unsuitable for children. On 5 September 1987, ''Radio Times'' introduces an innovative title called "Upfront This Week" devoting the first three pages of illustrated snippets to provide the latest programme highlights from all BBC television and radio networks. On 19 November 1988, ''Radio Times'' launched a new weekly back page section called "My Kind of Day", which was devoted to the latest star interviews with various special guests. On 25 March 1989 (during

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

), a general overhaul of page layout and design took place, with a major makeover for the programme schedules and the channel headings being visible in greater clarity;

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

and

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

were once again separated, with the return of the late 1950s/early 1960s layout – television at the front and radio at the back. The week's Radio 1 schedules occupied a single page, followed by Radio 2 (with a facing pair of pages), then several pages of Radio 3 (five pages) and Radio 4 (six pages), and finally the

BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of 39 stations. As of December 2024, the network broadcasts to a combined audience of 7.1 mil ...

listings; regional features, which had absent from the English editions since the late 1960s, resumed with a localised page. Later on 25 November of that year, the radio schedules were restored to two pages for each day; some of the English editions now had daily editorial features on radio as well. From 2 June 1990, the entire magazine was published in

for the first time, and another layout began usage; the day's listings began with a single page of highlights that included "at a glance", followed by the double-page spreads of BBC television channels (BBC1 always occupied the left page and BBC2 for the right page, without advertisements interrupting the listings) and BBC radio stations, now enlivened with colour logos at the top of the pages. This layout only lasted for six months, when a new refreshed format debuted in the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

edition (22 December); while the programme listing pages were largely the same, the colour-coded

days of the week A day is the time period of a full rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, and night. This daily cycle drive ...

were now at the top of the page headings. On 16 February 1991 (the same date for the debut of the new

and

idents), the deregulation of television listings began, and ''Radio Times'' started to cover all services that include

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

and satellite networks, an alphabetical list of the commercial radio stations available with the frequency and a two or three-word summary of that station's output which was added to the local radio page. Full complete listings of the four main channels and satellite began on Friday 1 March. Prior to deregulation, the five weekly listings magazines were as follows: * ''Radio Times'' carried the programme schedule listings for BBC radio and television channels, including the new Radio 5 launched on 27 August 1990. * The

-published magazine ''

TV Times ''TV Times'' is a British television listings magazine. From 1955 until 1991, it was the only source of seven-day listings for ITV and, from 1982, Channel 4 (as well as S4C in Wales in an enclosed local supplement titled '' Sbec''). The magaz ...

'', launched on 22 September 1955, carried programme listings for ITV, and

from 2 November 1982. The regional ITV companies produced their own listings magazines – ''Look Westward'' ( WTV), ''The Viewer'' ( Tyne Tees), ''TV Guide'' ( STV), ''TV Post'' (

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

), ''Television Weekly'' ( TWW/ ITSWW/

Harlech Harlech () is a seaside resort and community (Wales), community in Gwynedd, North Wales, and formerly in the Historic counties of Wales, historic county of Merionethshire. It lies on Tremadog Bay in the Snowdonia National Park. Before 1966, it ...

), ''Wales TV''/''Teledu Cymru'' ( WWN) and ''TV World'' (

ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourn ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

) – were published before ''TV Times'' went national on 21 September 1968. * ''Sbec'', a pull-out weekly listings supplement (first published on 1 November 1982) which is distributed free with the

edition of ''TV Times'', containing the full details of

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

's schedules in both

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, as well as

's programmes were also included. *

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

's new publication ''TV Guide'' launches on 19 March 1989, carried the 28 pages of

Astra satellite Astra 1A was the first satellite launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites), launched in December 1988. During its early days, it was often referred to as the Astra Satellite, as SES only operated one satellite origi ...

( 1A) television listings for various

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

channels (including

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel, live stream news network and news organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of ...

Sky Movies Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on ...

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

, and from 15 December 1990,

Sky Arts Sky Arts (originally launched as Artsworld) is a British free-to-air television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, films, documentaries and music (such as opera perfor ...

Movie Channel Movie channels are television specialty channels that present film content. Popular movie channels: * 7flix (Australia) * ABS-CBN Corporation ** Cine Mo! (Philippines) ** Cinema One (Philippines) ** Movie Central (Philippines) * AMC Networks ...

Power Station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

and

Sports Channel Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and terrestrial and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programmi ...

were added after the BSB merger on the Marcopolo system),

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

RTL Véronique RTL may refer to: Media * RTL Group, a European TV, radio, and production company *** List of RTL Group's television stations (including part-owned channels) *** List of RTL Group's radio stations ** RTL Lëtzebuerg, usually referred to simply a ...

(for

programmes),

Screensport Screensport was a pan-European cable and satellite sports television network that was on air from 1984 until 1993 before merging with Eurosport. History 1984–1986: Early years Screensport was founded in 1981 by Bob Kennedy — who had start ...

, Children's Channel,

Lifestyle Lifestyle is the interests, opinions, behaviours, and behavioural orientations of an individual, group, or culture. The term "style of life" () was introduced by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in his 1929 book, ''The Case of Miss R.'', w ...

with a highlights of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 listings. * In the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, Raidió Teilifís Éireann published the ''

RTÉ Guide The ''RTÉ Guide'' is a television and radio listings magazine in Ireland published by RTÉ Commercial Enterprises Ltd, a subsidiary of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). The magazine offers detailed programme listings for RTÉ channels, as w ...

'' (formerly the ''RTV Guide'') launched on 1 December 1961, it offered detailed programme listings for RTÉ's television and radio channels. From 8 January 1977, they switched from tabloid format to a compact A4-sized magazine and also changes from monochrome into

, while listings were carried for

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

, AFN and

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. BBC Northern Ireland is one of the four BB ...

were later dropped on 8 July 1966, but only the RTÉ programme schedules up until 13 April 1991. Today, both publications carry listings for all major terrestrial, cable and satellite television channels in the United Kingdom and following deregulation, new listings magazines such as

Mirror Group Reach plc (known as Trinity Mirror between 1999 and 2018) is a British newspaper, magazine and internet journalism, digital publisher. It is one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, publishing 240 regional papers in addition to the national ' ...

's ''TV First'',

IPC Media TI Media Ltd. (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of it ...

's ''

What's on TV ''What's on TV'' is a weekly television listings magazine published by Future PLC. Overview ''What's on TV'' is a weekly UK television magazine. It publishes features, TV listings, news and gossip from soap operas, as well as puzzles and com ...

'',

Bauer Media Group Heinrich Bauer Publishing (), trade name, trading as Bauer Media Group, is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations, ...

's ''

TV Quick ''TV Quick'' was a British weekly television listing magazine published by H Bauer Publishing, the UK subsidiary of family-run German company Bauer Media Group. It featured weekly television listings running from Saturday to Friday, and began pu ...

'' and Hamfield Publications' ''TV Plus'' began to be published; several newspapers were also allowed to print television schedules for the entire forthcoming week on a Saturday (or a Sunday), where previously they had only been able to list each day's programmes in that edition. With another major refresh on 31 August 1991, the four extra pages of satellite television listings and one page of the highlights section were scrapped and replaced by a number of ten satellite networks (with two more includes Comedy Channel and

CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...

were added) from top to bottom; the daytime schedules for

and

flanked the satellite listings on the left, with

and "at a glance" on the right; the main evening schedules for terrestrial television channels retained the same layout. On 5 September 1992, the daytime listings were slightly tweaked, ITV's programme schedules were now sandwiched between BBC2 and Channel 4 within the centre pages, and there were now two pages of satellite and cable channels for each category making up six pages of television listings every day: During 1993, ''Radio Times'' used several layouts were altered throughout the year: * 1 January – The VideoPlus+ number codes to cover all the terrestrial and

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...

channels were added for the first time, which allowed viewers with suitably equipped video recorders to entering the programme's number would ensure to set its timer from taping it. * 2 January – The new "film premiere" icon appears for terrestrial television listings, replacing the phrase "first showing on network television". * 30 April – The second national commercial station Virgin 1215 is launched and appears in the local radio listings page. * 5 June – The radio schedules are given a radical makeover, with highlights on the right includes day-by-day Virgin 1215, Classic FM and

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

added to each page; the local radio listings now incorporated the weekly frequency guide, and the television schedule pages saw the introduction of the year of production shown in

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

s for film titles. * 19 June – The categories for satellite television listings were completely rearranged, with the news section includes

moving to the left and the sport section moving to the right, also adding

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

's film classifications at the bottom corner on the left page. * 24 July – Two former cable-only services (

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 * Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...

and

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

) appeared in the entertainment section following their launch on satellite, and the cable television listings were relegated to the bottom, meaning the sport section was no longer used. * 1 September – With the introduction of

Sky Multichannels Sky Multichannels was a package of analogue television services offered by BSkyB on the Astra satellites at 19.2° east from 1 September 1993 to 27 September 2001, which started off with 15 channels before expanding to over 40. History Overv ...

package on the new

Astra 1C Astra 1C was a geostationary communications satellite launched in 1993 by SES. The satellite remained in service until 2011 and is now derelict. History Astra 1C was the third communications satellite placed in orbit by SES, and was origina ...

system, three new services ( UK Living, Family Channel and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

) launched as well as

CMT Europe CMT Europe was a European television channel. It was a European version of Country Music Television. The channel started in 1992 and in September 1993 it launched on transponder 41 on Astra 1C as part of the Sky Multichannels package, where it was ...

; all were added to the previously unused entertainment category within the sport section (sandwiched between movies and news on the left) is returned and Sky One's schedules has moved back to the right page. * 11 September – The satellite television listings is given a redesigned layout, starting with the new movie planner section (providing the latest film titles in

alphabetical order Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is ...

on various channels at different times every day); other changes included the new factual section (including Discovery,

and

) that replaced the news category, and the sport section moves back to the right page once again. * 18 September – The British versions of

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

were added to the movie planner and entertainment sections respectively. * 25 September – The daytime listings were changed again, with "at a glance" now on the right page and advertisements occupying the left page. The channel heading logos were reduced into smaller horizontal bars on columns adjacent to those used for terrestrial television listings, a new children's television section (with Children's Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network) was added, and the cable listings including Super Channel were moved to the left side next to the movie planner section (with Asia Vision,

Wire TV Wire TV was a British cable television channel produced by United Artists Cable and featured a range of entertainment, lifestyle and sports programming. Branded as "The Cable Network" was originally set up and funded with £25 million by Cable P ...

and

Learning Channel TLC is an American multinational cable and satellite television network owned by the Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learning Channel, it initially focused on educational and instructional progra ...

being removed). * 1 October – The British version of QVC launches, appearing at the bottom corner in the entertainment section. * 26 December – The final

Christmas Sunday Christmas Sunday is a name for the Sunday after Christmas. In the United Kingdom, if Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, 26 December is sometimes referred to as "Christmas Sunday", and Boxing Day moves to 27 December, although this practice has ...

listings used both on television and radio for the very last time, this practice has now fallen out of common usage believed to result from the legalisation of Sunday trading in England and Wales for the following year. ''Radio Times'' design was refreshed on 3 September 1994, the television listings now had the day's name written vertically, beginning with the daytime section including "today's choices" (which replaced "at a glance" on the left page), followed by the main evening's schedules in an original four-column grid, as well as the highlights section (now occupying the far left page within the satellite listings), and the movie planner is now on the right page. On 22 March 1997, the programme pages in the television section were restyled often include smaller headings and more billing type with several changes in this layout between the narrower columns for Channel 5 schedules (which launches on 30 March) on the right and

regional variation A regional variation generally refers to times when a radio station or television station simultaneously broadcasts different programs, continuity or advertisements to different parts of its coverage area. This may be so as to provide programmi ...

s on the left page. Yet another major revamp took place on 25 September 1999, where all the pages now proceeded in a particular order, starting with the letters section, followed by film reviews, then the seven-day programme guide with six pages for television (including satellite) and two pages for radio, as well as the single-page

and local radio listings with frequencies, and finally the "My Kind of Day" for the back page which was preceded by

classified advertisements Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements use ...

. The programme page headings were returned to being inside a coloured block, and the primetime television listings went from two narrow columns to one wide column. The warning phrase " contains strong language", used for BBC television programmes from 9.00pm during the hours of watershed broadcasting restrictions was also implemented at this time, lasting until 2009. This layout lasted until shortly before

on 13 April 2001, which saw the new masthead title with the BBC's corporate typeface

Gill Sans Gill Sans is a Sans-serif#Humanist, humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype Imaging, Monotype in 1928. It is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Johnston (typeface), Underground Alphabet", t ...

(used until the end of 2004, being replaced by

Interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

in the start of 2005), while the programme pages with eight pages of television listings reverted to having the day running across the top of the page horizontally, and the satellite listings expanded into four pages, while the double-page movie planner section for 18 different film channels was retained. From 30 October 2004, the programme schedule pages were revamped again, with the regional variations now at the bottom of the daytime section, as well as the same spread on the five main channels;

BBC3 BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

ITV3 ITV3 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, replacing Plus (British TV channel), Plus ...

(launched on 1 November) and

More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content The i ...

(from 10 October 2005) now appeared in digital/cable section on the right page, with a children's section in a single page on the left. The category sections for digital, satellite and cable listings also returned after a four-year absence: On 22 May 2007, two extra pages of television listings per day were added as part of a slight tweak in the publication's format, bringing it up to ten pages of listings per day in total, or five double-page spreads: one page of highlights with daytime listings and regional variations, followed by two pages of evening's terrestrial television listings (with "at a glance" for nine digital channels until 2010), then six pages of listings for digital, satellite and cable channels. Digital radio listings were integrated into the main radio pages, and three new pages of sport, lifestyle and music were added. By 11 April 2009, the digital, satellite and cable schedules were reshuffled (alongside entertainment, factual and children's sections) preceded by "today's choices" on the left side, and the sport section moves to the right side as well as the films section having also started on the left within the centre pages horizontally. 10 April 2010 saw major changes as ''Radio Times'' went through an overhaul, with two pages of the latest reviews and highlights ("choices") somewhat akin to the ''

'', while the daytime listings moved onto the evening section having the full day's output for the five main channels on one double-page spread, other changes saw listings start at 5.00pm rather than 6.30pm (sometimes earlier than 5.00pm for weekends, bank holidays,

and New Year), the addition of

electronic program guide Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information fo ...

numbers into the channel headers, and the inclusion of director and year of production details for films throughout the day. For the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, the listings for three terrestrial channels (

and

) temporarily moved onto the right page and Channel 5 was moved to the next page on the left, as to provide enough space for

and

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

as the Olympic broadcasters, which also reminded viewers of using both the

red button Red button may refer to: * Red Button (digital television), a button on the remote control for certain digital television set top boxes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and used to access interactive television services **BBC Red Button, a digi ...

and

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

for BBC channels with additional broadcasts. Following the closure of the BBC3 channel on 20 February 2016, ''Radio Times'' started to include BBC4 in the main channels section, with Channel 5 being relegated to the Freeview section. On 24 March 2020, to coincide with the launch of

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

, ''Radio Times'' introduced two new sections for

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s and six pages devoted to

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

and various catch-up services. That same year (8 September), the rearrangement of

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

channel listings with

moves to the second page, also the three columns in the satellite and cable pages now have on the left side with children's television section, as well as the six film services were also included. During the

Tokyo Olympics Tokyo Olympics may refer to: * 1940 Summer Olympics, Games of the XII Olympiad, cancelled due to World War II * 1964 Summer Olympics, Games of the XVIII Olympiad * 2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an ...

(which was delayed due to global

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

) on 20 July 2021, ''Radio Times'' declared its special bumper issue with 212 pages that include 16-day listings of the BBC's coverage and a comprehensive easy-to-use guide preceded by two pages with "pick of the action" chosen by various

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

s, although this layout becoming slightly different whether listings started on the left page with two columns for

as a dedicated Olympic broadcaster (including

BBC Red Button BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to cl ...

occupies at the bottom) and

in the single column, as well as

and

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

schedules placed on the right page. From 25 January 2022, the

schedules have altered once again starting with the return of

(launches on 1 February after six years since the television channel has moved online), whether

's listings now occupies at the bottom, as well as the seven remaining services were also placed in the second and third pages respectively. From 4 October 2022 (three weeks before the BBC's 100th anniversary celebrations), ''Radio Times'' refreshed its format: * The "this week" section which was devoted to the best entertainment reviews with all latest news over the next seven days, as well as other features including the grapevine, ten questions, viewpoint and "on the box" as fronted by broadcaster Jane Garvey. * The expanded pages of the streaming section provides the best of catch-up services for television and films (include

free-to-view Free-to-view (FTV) is a term used for audiovisual transmissions that are provided free without any form of continual subscription. It differs from free-to-air (FTA) in that the program is encrypted. Free-to-view vs. free-to-air The free-to-vie ...

, subscription or premium) so you want to watch every day. * The double-page "highlights" section has given a newly refreshed layout dedicated to the most comprehensive guide of programmes throughout the week ahead with "also on today", "live sport" and "film of the day" also included. * The third page of the

section includes some of its children's television schedules sandwiched between the top two channels.

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

and Blaze were added as requested by readers and the number of movie channels was reduced from 18 to eight within the centre pages, with the latest film reviews which also embedded into each day's listings occupied by the right hand side. * The last two pages of satellite/cable schedules followed by the sport section was incorporated into a "quick and easy" planner with various times by using individual live coverage of other events, as well as channel numbers (include

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

and

Premier Sports Premier Sports is a group of pay sports television channels owned by SSBL Limited that are available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Premier Sports holds exclusive live rights to La Liga, Scottish League Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League, NHL a ...

) were listed in the bottom right corner. Three weeks later (18 October), the mainstream sport listings were reverted to any channel rather than popular events. On 4 April 2023, the radio pages had a major refresh to provide listings by adding three services (

Boom Radio Boom Radio (also Boom Radio UK) is an independent, commercial, national radio station in the United Kingdom. Owned by Boom Radio Ltd, the station is aimed at baby boomers, the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964. Launched on 14 Febr ...

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio (GHR) is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. It currently includes 18 local and regional radio stations operating over 50 FM and DAB licences in England, Scotl ...

, and

Times Radio Times Radio is a British digital radio station owned by News UK, part of the Murdoch family, Murdoch media empire. It is jointly operated by News Broadcasting (which News UK acquired in 2016, when it was known as ''Wireless Group''), ''The Tim ...

), as well as a restyled podcasts section to improve pick of the best audio on demand.

NTL special edition

On 26 November 2002,

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications ...

and

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

announced a major new agreement that would offer an exclusive, tailored edition of ''Radio Times'' to every NTL customer across the United Kingdom every week, to be delivered directly to subscribers' homes. The special NTL edition of ''Radio Times'' replaced the monthly ''Cable Guide'' magazine, which had been published from September 1986 to December 2002. It contained programme information for channels carried by NTL, including all terrestrial services. Front Row's

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

movies and events were also included. Subscribers were offered the first four weekly issues of the new title for the same price as the existing monthly magazine, delivered free to homes in time for the first programme week of 4 January 2003; both companies actively and jointly marketed the new edition.

Circulation

In 1934, ''Radio Times'' achieved a circulation of two million and its net profit in that year was more than one quarter of the total BBC licence income. By the 1950s, ''Radio Times'' had grown to be the magazine with the largest circulation in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, with an average sale of 8.8 million in 1955. Following the 1969 relaunch, circulation indeed dropped by about a quarter of a million, it would take several years to recover but the magazine remained ahead of glossier lifestyle-led competitor, ''

''. In the mid-1970s, it was just over four million; but in 2013 it was just over one million. Between January and June 1990, ''Radio Times'' had its audited circulation of 2.8 million and ''TV Times'' of 2.7 million within a year before the

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of television listings as they both had exclusivity of the future BBC and other commercial broadcasters respectively. During a major revamp in April 2010, ''Radio Times'' was the third-biggest-selling magazine in the United Kingdom. However, according to the

Audit Bureau of Circulations An Audit Bureau of Circulations is a private organization that provides industry-agreed standards for media brand measurement of print publications and other media outlets in a given country. The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulat ...

, the magazine experienced about 2.2% year-on-year decrease to an average weekly sale of 1,648,000 in the second half of 2009. It averaged a circulation per issue of 497,852 between July and December 2020, versus 1,041,826 for ''

TV Choice ''TV Choice'' is a British weekly TV listings magazine published by H. Bauer Publishing, the UK subsidiary of family-run German company Bauer Media Group. A double issue is released to cover the Christmas & New Year period at a higher price. ...

'' and 690,617 for ''

''.

Advertising

Between April and November 1990, ''Radio Times'' included a four-page advertising feature featuring previews of

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting plc (BSB) was a television company, based in London, that provided satellite television, direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. It started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company ...

programmes for its five channels -

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Na ...

Galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

and

. During the

of television listings, there was strong criticism from other magazines that ''Radio Times'' was advertised on the BBC (as well as on commercial broadcasting channels), saying that it gave unfair advantage to a publication and includes the tagline: "If it's on, it's in". The case went to court, but the outcome was that, as the ''Radio Times'' had close connections with the BBC, it would be allowed to be advertised by the BBC; however, from 1992 until 2004, it had to depict a static picture of the cover, and show a clear disclaimer reading "Other television listings magazines are available", leading to the phrase entering common public usage for a time. By the early 2000s, advertisements for the publication had become sparse on the BBC. ''Radio Times'' has not been promoted on BBC television and radio channels since 2005, following complaints by rival publications that the promotions were unfair competition.

Disputes

For various reasons, ''Radio Times'' had suffered printing disputes and other operational difficulties have also led to the magazine appearing in a different formats to the standard, as well as some issues were not printed. These include:

Annuals and guides

annual Annual may refer to: *Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook **Literary annual *Annual plant *Annual report *Annual giving *Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco *Annuals (band), a ...

was published three times: in 1954, 1955 and 1956. The ''Radio Times Film & Video Guide'' by the magazine's film and video editor Derek Winnert was first published in 1994, featuring more than 18,000 films and an introduction by

Barry Norman Barry Leslie Norman (21 August 1933 – 30 June 2017) was a British film critic, television presenter and journalist. He presented the BBC's cinema review programme, '' Film...'', from 1972 to 1998. Early life Born at St Thomas' Hospital, Lo ...

, former presenter of the BBC's ''

Film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

'' programme. A second edition was published the following year. In 2000, a completely new ''Radio Times Guide to Films'' was published by

, edited by Kilmey Fane-Saunders, featuring more than 21,000 film titles. The last edition of ''Radio Times Guide to Films'' was published in 2018. In September 2023, ''Radio Times'' publishes its own 180-page film guide dedicated to reviews and trivia over 1,000 titles with five different star rating systems which include 250 favourites from the beginning of cinema in 1902 to the present day. There are also similar publications, the ''Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy'' by

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

and the ''Radio Times Guide to Science-Fiction''.

Covers

When the magazine was a BBC publication, the covers had a BBC bias (in 2005, 31 of the 51 issues had BBC-related covers) and consisting of a single side of

glossy paper Coated paper (also known as enamel paper, gloss paper, and thin paper) is paper that has been coated with a mixture of materials or a polymer to impart certain qualities to the paper, including weight, surface gloss, smoothness, or reduced ink ab ...

, however the magazine often uses double or triple-width covers that open out for several large group photographs. While the major events (such as

Remembrance Day Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces me ...

Crufts Crufts is an international dog show held annually in the United Kingdom, held since 1891, and organised by The Kennel Club. It is the largest show of its kind in the world. Crufts is primarily a championship conformation show for dogs, and ...

the Oscars The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

BAFTAs The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

and

the Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

) or new series programmes are marked by producing different covers were actually used for other collectors: * The first person of

to feature on the front cover was the American singer

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

, in the 535th issue which dated on 29 December 1933. * Following the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

and Britain's declaration of war with Germany, ''Radio Times'' published its supplementary edition on 4 September 1939 (issue number 831A) which depicts this cover showing the BBC's headquarters that include the

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

flag within the words "Broadcasting carries on" underneath. * ''Radio Times'' declared its special ' Coronation Number' issue on 31 May 1953 with a record-breaking 9,012,358 copies sold, as well as Eric Fraser's

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

cover illustration and also made the back page depicted his lion and the unicorn tucking into an advertisement for

Bachelors A bachelor is a man who is not and never has been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

tinned foods. It was the first artwork cover since before

by the presses at

Waterlow and Sons Waterlow and Sons Limited was a major worldwide engraver of currency, postage stamps, stocks and bond certificates based in London, Watford and Dunstable in England. The company was founded as a family business in 1810. It was acquired in 1961 b ...

couldn't print in full colour but the existing technology allowed a yellowish gold tint between the back and front within a red crown motif running across the magazine. Fraser was the revered illustrator who had worked for the publication between 1926 and 1982, until his death on 15 November 1983 at the age of 81. A similar version to this majestic artwork cover designed by Peter Horridge on 2 May 2023, preparing for the next coronation after more than 70 years which include its updated official emblem of the royal cypher within a year in

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

underneath. * ''Radio Times'' celebrated the upcoming

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

Moon landing on 10 July 1969, with this cover bearing the "TARGET MOON" caption at the top of the

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

rocket lifts off from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

as part of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

mission. * During

's 50th anniversary on 1 November 1986, Tony McSweeney's cover illustration depicted a 1930s family living in the shadow of

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is an entertainment and sports venue in North London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. A listed building, Grade II listed building, it is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and th ...

somehow watching the opening titles of '' Nine O'Clock News'' on a modern colour set. * 23 February 1991 saw ''Radio Times'' began offering a comprehensive programme schedule guide to BBC,

and various satellite networks (from Friday 1 March) bearing the "If it's on, it's in" tagline, which includes

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...

on the cover focusing about the Austrian bodybuilding champion and successfully become the biggest film career in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. There was also a mixed reaction for the

of television listings had occurred and allow information on all channels to be printed as they showing material by the broadcasters with its other competitors. * On 26 March 1994, to coincide the relaunch of Radio 5 as ' Five Live' (the new

rolling news The 24-hour news cycle (or 24/7 news cycle) is the 24-hour investigation and reporting of news, concomitant with fast-paced lifestyles. The vast news resources available in recent decades have increased competition for audience and advertiser a ...

and sport service which took place on 28 March) within the group consisted of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

and

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

to appear on the cover wearing in t-shirts that includes the logo was done by Sven Arnstein, as well as Jones Bloom's electronic retouching but we also told that the sportswear came from

Lillywhites Lillywhites is a sports retailer based at Piccadilly Circus, London, United Kingdom. It is a division of Frasers Group. History In the 19th century, several members of the Lillywhite family were leading cricketers; another, Fred Lillywhite, o ...

and the footwear from

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

. * A special issue for the 50th anniversary of BBC television news on 3 July 2004, as well as a fold-out cover with BBC news teams (from left to right:

Huw Edwards Huw Edwards ( , ; born 18 August 1961) is a Welsh news presenter. He was the lead presenter of ''BBC News at Ten'', the late evening news programme of BBC Television, from 2003 to 2023. He resigned from the BBC in 2024, during a police investi ...

Fiona Bruce Fiona Elizabeth Bruce (born 25 April 1964) is a British journalist, newsreader and television presenter. She joined the BBC as a researcher for their current affairs programme ''Panorama'' in 1989, and became the first female newsreader on ' ...

Anna Ford Anna Ford (born 2 October 1943) is an English retired journalist, television presenter and newsreader. She first worked as a researcher, news reporter and later newsreader for Granada Television, ITN, and the BBC. Ford helped launch the British ...

George Alagiah George Maxwell Alagiah (; 22 November 1955 – 24 July 2023) was a British newsreader, journalist and television presenter for the BBC. From 2007 until 2022, he was the presenter of the '' BBC News at Six'' and the main presenter of '' GMT'' on ...

Sophie Raworth Sophie Jane Raworth (; born 15 May 1968) is an English journalist, newsreader and broadcaster working for the BBC. She is a senior newsreader and is one of the main presenters of BBC News (mainly ''BBC News at Six'' and '' BBC News at Ten''). S ...

Dermot Murnaghan Dermot John Murnaghan (; born 26 December 1957) is a British media personality, notable as a journalist, news reporter and television host. He has been a presenter for numerous networks including at Channel 4, a news presenter at CNBC Europe, I ...

Natasha Kaplinsky Natasha Margaret Kaplinsky (born 9 September 1972)The Donor, News and information for blood donors, Winter 2009, National Blood Service, England, page 55 is an English newsreader, TV presenter and journalist, best known for her roles as a st ...

Sian Williams Sian Mary Williams (; born 28 November 1964) is a Welsh journalist, current affairs presenter, and counselling psychologist. From 2001 until 2012, Williams regularly presented weekday editions of ''BBC Breakfast'' as well as all main news b ...

Darren Jordon Darren Jordon (born 23 November 1960 in London, England) is a British journalist working for the Al-Jazeera 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, Al Jazeera English. He is also a former officer of the Jamaica Defence Forc ...

and

Moira Stuart Moira Clare Ruby Stuart (born 2 September 1949) is an English TV presenter and broadcaster. She was the first female newsreader of Caribbean heritage to appear on British national television, having worked on BBC News since 1981.Life on Mars The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no conclusive evidence of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that ...

'', was marked by the ''Radio Times'' producing a mock-up of a 1973-style cover promoting the series, placed on page three of the magazine. * ''Radio Times'' reaches its 5,000th edition on 9 May 2020 with lead articles from the support staff and workers of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

front line during the

known as the

coronavirus disease Coronavirus diseases are caused by viruses in the coronavirus subfamily, a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, the group of viruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from ...

, and also granted this cover showing the colours of the

rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

which uses

acrylic paint Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Dep ...

in a plain white background. * ''Radio Times'' commemorated its centenary with its issue covering programmes between 23-29 September 2023. Four variant covers were produced: all shared the same "gold" graphic marking "100 Years" but featured four of the publication's most famous mastheads. Each year, ''Radio Times'' celebrates those individuals and programmes that are featured at the Covers Party, where framed oversized versions of the covers are presented. ''Radio Times'' had several sporting events with more than one of the Home Nations (such as the Six Nations,

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

and the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

) taking part are often marked with different covers for each nation, showing their own team. To mark the 90th anniversary of its publication, the

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

hosted an exhibition lasting several months in 2013, which showed various covers as part of the magazine's history.

''Doctor Who''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' is the most represented programme on the cover, appearing on 29 issues (with 35 separate covers due to multiples) since the programme began on 23 November 1963. On 30 April 2005, a double-width cover was used to commemorate the return of the

Dalek The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of extremely xenophobic mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in th ...

s to ''Doctor Who'' and the forthcoming

. This cover recreated a scene from the 1964 serial ''

The Dalek Invasion of Earth ''The Dalek Invasion of Earth'' is the second serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Richard Martin, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in six week ...

'' in which the Daleks were seen crossing

Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge crossing over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats ...

with the

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

and

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and, by extension, for the clock tower itself, which stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. Originally named the Clock Tower, it ...

in the background, and also the cover text read "VOTE DALEK!". On 29 September 2008, in a contest sponsored by the

Periodical Publishers Association The Professional Publishers Association (PPA), formerly known as the Periodical Publishers Association until 2011, is the main publishing Industry trade group, industry body which promotes companies involved in the production of media, supporting t ...

, this cover was voted the best British magazine cover of all time. Five years later (on 17 April 2010) before the next general election, three special covers depicting the Daleks invading the capital once more within showing their colours of red, blue and yellow as one of several Britain's political parties for Labour,

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

and Liberal Democrats were used individually. Throughout the decades, ''Radio Times'' had covers for various television specials and anniversary editions: * On 19 November 1983, the show celebrated its 20th anniversary with a standalone special featuring

Tom Baker Thomas Stewart Baker (born 20 January 1934) is an English actor and writer. He is best known for having played the Fourth Doctor, fourth and longest-serving incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the science fiction television ...

Patrick Troughton Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor. He became best known for his roles in television, most notably starring as the Second Doctor, second incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor in the lo ...

Peter Davison Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan Farnon in the BBC's television adaptation of Jame ...

Jon Pertwee John Devon Roland Pertwee (; 7 July 1919 – 20 May 1996), known professionally as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he became known as a comedy actor, playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee (and three other roles) in ...

Richard Hurndall Richard Gibbon Hurndall (3 November 1910 – 13 April 1984) was an English actor. He is best remembered for replacing William Hartnell in the role of the First Doctor for '' Doctor Who's'' 20th anniversary special " The Five Doctors". Career B ...

(who replaced

William Hartnell William Henry Hartnell (; 8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975) was an English actor, who is best known for portraying the first incarnation of the Doctor, in the long-running British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' from 1963 t ...

, who died on 23 April 1975) and

Anthony Ainley Anthony Ainley (20 August 1932 – 3 May 2004) was a British actor. He was the fourth actor to portray The Master (Doctor Who), the Master in ''Doctor Who''. Early life Ainley was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, the son of the actor Henry Ainley ...

as The Master. They featured in an illustrated cover by Andrew Skilleter. * On 20 November 1993, as the show marked its 30th anniversary, the surviving actors who had played

The Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...

appeared to promote the special television event, a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Music Albums * ''Cross Over'' (album), a 1987 album by Dan Peek, or the title song * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'', an album by Intrigue * ''Crossover'', an album by ...

between ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

'' as part of the BBC's annual ''

Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...

'' telethon. 3D glasses were sold in aid of the charity enhanced viewing of several programmes broadcast throughout the week, and the first ''Doctor Who'' episode to be aired since the series ended on 6 December 1989. * ''Doctor Who'' returned to television on 25 May 1996 after a seven-year absence, as

Paul McGann Paul John McGann ( ; born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial '' The Monocled Mutineer'' (1986), then starred in the dark comedy '' Withnail and I'' (1987), which wa ...

starred in a feature-length television special with a corresponding cover, and a 16-page pull-out supplement. * A themed night on

on 13 November 1999, was marked by a specially commissioned

portrait photographed by

Lord Snowdon Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017) was a British photographer. He is best known internationally for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue (magazine), Vogu ...

, which was originally used as a

stamp design Postage stamp design is the activity of graphic design as applied to postage stamps. Many thousands of designs have been created since a profile bust of Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria was adopted for the Penny Black in 1840; some ...

. * For its 40th anniversary on 22 November 2003, a commemorative cover was photographed by Andy Earl to create a panoramic vista featuring

Colin Baker Colin Charles Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor. He played Paul Merroney in the BBC television drama series ''The Brothers (1972 TV series), The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the Sixth Doctor, sixth incarnation of The Doctor (Do ...

Sylvester McCoy Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (born 20 August 1943), known professionally as Sylvester McCoy, is a Scottish actor. Gaining prominence as a physical comedian, he became best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long ...

and

, as well as the

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...

, K-9, a

Cyberman The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. The Cybermen are a species of space-faring cyborgs who often forcefully and painfully convert human beings ...

and the two

s. * The 23 November 2013 issue marked the 50th anniversary of the programme with a selection of 12 different covers.

Christmas

The cover of the 'Christmas Number' (as this issue came to be called) dating from the time when it contained just a single week's listings, usually features a generic festive artwork, atypical for the magazine, which since the 1970s has almost exclusively used photographic covers. In recent years, ''Radio Times'' has published and sold packs of reproductions of some of these covers of the magazine as

Christmas card A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...

s. The 1988 Christmas double issue (dated 17–30 December) had a panto-themed cover illustration by Lynda Gray, with its popularity climaxed when the publication sold an astounding 11,220,666 copies, and the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

certified it as the biggest-selling edition of any British magazine in history.

Royal specials

Over the past years, ''Radio Times'' published special majestic covers (often marked as a 'souvenir' issue) dedicated to royalty which reflects the

monarchy of the United Kingdom The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers Constitutional monarchy, regula ...

, as well as other significant events include birthdays,

coronations A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special ...

, jubilees, royal weddings, state funerals and various celebrations across the decades. Between February 1952 and September 2022, ''Radio Times'' focuses about

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

was the nation's longest-serving monarch which represented over eight decades during its 70-year reign: * The informal picture of

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

and Queen Elizabeth II was taken by photographer Joan Williams for the cover in this issue on 21 June 1969, during the making of Richard Cawston's 110-minute documentary film ''

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

'' which is watched over 30.6 million television viewers almost half the population that includes an estimated global audience of 350 million people. Despite having been repeated ten times in eight years until it was withdrawn from circulation on 11 August 1977, and broadcasters were asked by

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

not to be shown again in its entirety. On 28 January 2021, a leaked version of the film and publishes online shortly before taken down due to a copyright claim after the BBC sought to have being removed, it was remained available to view on the video-sharing platform

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and the digital library website

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. * To celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee on 28 May 1977, ''Radio Times'' joined forces with

's ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

'' in running a competition for children to design a special cover which it led to a staggering 65,000 entrants include Nicola Griffin was the youngest-ever artist talks to ''

'' presenter

reported her painting of a jolly guardsman, as well as

John Noakes John Noakes (born John Wallace Bottomley; 6 March 1934 – 28 May 2017) was an English television presenter and actor. He co-presented the BBC children's magazine programme '' Blue Peter'' in the 1960s and 1970s and is the show's longest-servin ...

going behind the scenes at the printers to watch the first of its three-and-a-half million copies come off the presses. The following week (4 June), they took its unusual step of commissioning a

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

made by Candace Bahouth for the artwork cover of this issue, and also been adapted for the 116-page bookazine in 2022. * Royal photographer

was behind the camera for the cover with a double portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...

to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on 15 November 1997. * During Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee on 2 June 2012, as ''Radio Times'' celebrated this event with a majestic cover includes the new

portrait painting Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

on 7 June 2013, and was presented with a collection of 44 majestic covers by the

BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...

chairman

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes (; born 12 May 1944), is a British politician who was the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992, and the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He was made a lif ...

. * Ahead before the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on 18 April 2016, this jubilant artwork cover was illustrated by Nina Cosford depicts the crowds gathered here at

. Two months later (11 June), ''Radio Times'' deluged with wonderful cover designs from more than 11,000 children across the United Kingdom which include Ayesha Mahmood to become the winner of this competition after her design – showing its vibrant painting of a crown adorned within the purple-riched colour and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

glitter Glitter is an assortment of flat, small, reflective particles that are precision cut and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Glitter particles resemble confetti, sparkles and sequins, but somewhat smaller. Since prehistoric times ...

– is picked by our panel of judges that featured ''Blue Peter''s

Lindsey Russell Lindsey Russell (born 25 September 1990) is a British television presenter. She is best known for being the thirty-sixth presenter of the long-running British BBC television programme ''Blue Peter'', which she co-hosted from 2013 to 2021 with Bar ...

, Shem Law,

Judith Kerr Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr (surname pronounced ; 14 June 1923 – 22 May 2019) was a German-born British writer and illustrator whose books sold more than 10 million copies around the world.

and

Ben Preston James Ben Preston (born 24 September 1963) is a British journalist. He is an executive editor of ''The Sunday Times'' and a former editor of the ''Radio Times''. Early life His father was Peter Preston, editor of ''The Guardian'' from 1975 to ...

. * As part of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations on 4 June 2022, illustrator James Weston Lewis took inspiration for this artwork cover paying homage to King George VI's coronation special issue on 7 May 1937 was designed by the famous

war artist A war artist is an artist either commissioned by a government or publication, or self-motivated, to document first-hand experience of war in any form of illustrative or depictive record.Imperial War Museum (IWM)header phrase, "war shapes lives" ...

C. R. W. Nevinson Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (13 August 1889 – 7 October 1946) was an English figure and landscape painter, etcher and lithographer, who was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. He is often referred to by his initial ...

, with capture some of its classic depiction of the original by adding a few modern elements. * On 13 September 2022, ''Radio Times'' declared this emergency issue paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II who passes peacefully away aged 96, includes a monochrome photograph from the

Camera Press Camera Press is a photographic picture agency founded in London in 1947 by Jewish Hungarian Tom Blau, a portrait photographer of major contemporary political figures, musicians and film stars, who, in 1935, migrated from Berlin where he was born a ...

with its darker sombre effect and surrounded by black border. A special commemorative edition was published on 20 September of that year containing 30 pages throughout her life and reign which reproduced nine majestic covers to chart of each decade, as well as the striking

silhouette A silhouette (, ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhouett ...

portrait also used by permission for agreement of the

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved in 1968. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly ow ...

Regional editions

From the first edition of 2023, the regional editions in

were merged into a single edition which includes the times and titles of all of the BBC's local radio stations with any non-news variations of adjoining areas for television and radio contained in the listings. Local channel London Live is also featured in the

section, with a note stating that it is a regional network. The stations carried were as follows: The number of regional editions has been altered over the years within gradually being reduced over time due to there being fewer variations in the programme schedules: * The

region was separated from

on 4 January 1948 who had their own edition. * The spread of television editions when full listings (with six pages) were not included in all issues between 7 June 1946 and 15 August 1952. * On 8 October 1960, the

region was renamed 'Midlands & East Anglia', and the

region was also renamed 'South & West'. * On 9 February 1964, the launch of BBC Cymru Wales television service in the Welsh edition of ''Radio Times'' with its own programme schedule pages from the prominent heading (remained until 1982), without detracting from the service they provided to English viewers on the other side of the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary () is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England (from North Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire) and South Wales (from Cardiff, Newport to Monmouthshire). Its very h ...

. * As from 21 March 1964, the previously unmarked

region was successfully renamed 'London & South East'. It was later dropped on 25 March 1989 when the 'London' name is no longer used, became known as '

South East Southeast is a compass point. Southeast, south-east, south east, southeastern, south-eastern, or south eastern may also refer to: * Southeast (direction), an intercardinal direction Places United Kingdom * South East England * South East Lond ...

', and later reverted to its original name on 23 February 1991. * On 29 August 1970, the four

regional editions (along the constituent nations) were separated into ten areas, such as the

administrative counties An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until 1973 in Northern Ireland, 2002 in the Republic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

and

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

(which included the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...

exclave in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and the district of Sedbergh in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

) before the creation of a new

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a subdivision of England used for local government. The non-metropolitan counties were originally created in 1974 as part of a reform of local government in England and Wales, and ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

from 1 April 1974 under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

. * Between 1 November 1982 and 22 February 1991,

listings were included in the

edition known as 'Rhaglenni Cymraeg' ( Welsh programmes), while its

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

programming were simply billed as 'Rhaglenni Saesneg' with no further detail being given. ''

'' included a pull-out supplement ''Sbec'' which gave full details on all S4C programming in both languages. From the following week, it also took the billing space by cutting down on the detail in the

's listings in that edition, and allowing S4C to share some of its space. * After the

of television listings on 1 March 1991, they rebranded the Northern Ireland edition as '

' (named after the historic province), and started including listings for the Irish state broadcaster's two channels – RTÉ1 and

Network 2 Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

– were occupied the lower half of the three columns devoted to UTV's schedules. * ''Radio Times'' used to have three separate editions for STV,

Grampian Grampian () was one of nine local government regions of Scotland. It was created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and took its name from the Grampian Mountains. The regional council was based in Aberdeen. The region was abol ...

and

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

(also appearing in the North East edition) while just then after a while they merged back into one

edition from 6 July 1991. * The exception to this process of merging is

on 31 August 1991, which used to be part of a larger 'Wales/West' (of

), mirroring the HTV area. The region was separated on 16 April 2005 leaving the West of England to join South and South West edition. The two regional editions of London and

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

were merged on the same date. * No publication of ''Radio Times'' in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

as their listing schedules were contained within the

region when it first appeared in the

edition on 30 March 1991.

Channel TV ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programmes for insertion into the ...

published its own listings magazine, the ''CTV Times'' (formerly ''Channel Viewer'') until 25 October of that year. * All of four VHF opt-out services from

Radio Scotland Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave (242 metres), created by Tommy Shields in 1965. The station was on the former lightship L.V. ''Comet'', which had been fitted out as a radio station ...

were ceased broadcasting on 29 January 1993 and the output replaced by local news bulletins throughout each day on 1 February of that year. * The

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

region was absorbed by the

region on 25 September 1993 became known as 'Yorkshire/ Tyne Tees', and also later added the

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

region on 7 April 2007. * On 5 November 2001,

BBC 2W BBC 2W was a digital television channel run by the BBC in Wales until January 2009. It replaced the standard BBC Two broadcast on digital services in Wales – running on weekdays from 8.30pm to 10pm. Launched on 5 November 2001, it had an initi ...

launches as the digital-only service in Wales used for weekday evenings from 8.30pm to 10.00pm, within

's listings in the normal column is mainly split vertically in two to cover both the analogue and digital services. The digital-only service was ceased on 2 January 2009 as part of the

digital switchover Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

, and reverts to the normal service with less frequent regional programmes as the arrangement on analogue broadcasts. * On 25 August 2007, the Midlands and London/Anglia regions were merged. * On 24 February 2019, ''Radio Times'' introduces the BBC Scotland television channel, a new autonomous service that broadcasts an nightly line-up of entirely Scottish-related programming from 7.00pm to midnight replacing the Scotland's version of BBC2 after 53 years, and the listings were occupied by

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

at the bottom on the right page.

Radio

Since its began on 28 September 1923 (during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

), there was just a single national edition to cover all the BBC wireless services including relay stations from 1924: From 10 October 1926, the two separate regions – 'Northern' and 'Southern' – were published before ''Radio Times'' reverted to one edition and covering all the local stations once again on 7 January 1934: Between 1930 and 1935, many of the original 21 BBC local stations eventually reduced to six regional services (including

from 1937) as well as five national variations with the exceptions of

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and Stagshaw were remained until 1939 before the

outbreak of World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

: After the

end of World War II in Europe The end of World War II in Europe occurred in May 1945. Following the Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April, leadership of Nazi Germany passed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and the Flensburg Government. Soviet Union, Soviet t ...

, the seven local variations were resumed on 29 July 1945 which also used by

BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...

as they referred similar to its pre-war Regional Programme during the 1930s. November 1967 saw the introduction of

whether these regional areas subdivided with individual editions for each

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

(except

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

), as well as the national regions and several opt-out services were also used. This continued between February 1981 and January 1983 until each regional edition began to cover three local stations which was previously used by regional news and opt-out programming on Radio 4, apart from the

(including the

) as this is now the only part of

still without any BBC local station. During the mid-1980s and early 1990s, a number of 13 new BBC local stations were added to covering the whole areas throughout the United Kingdom:

Television

In November 1936, ''Radio Times'' launches its first television service in the

area only before they closed down on 1 September 1939 by the duration of war for over six years and finally resumed on 7 June 1946. When the second channel began in 1964, there were a number of areas where only certain parts of a region could get receive this service until 1966: From 1 March 1991, ''Radio Times'' started carrying

and

listings to begin they cover the 14 regional editions (which later reduced to ten areas) include several local television stations used individually as well as the neighbouring countries outside

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

where available: Between April 2005 and August 2007, the regional editions were reduced from ten to six during a number of several television networks have been diminished even further than before as they now covers every local station in this area consisting of 15 BBC regional services and 13 ITV companies were also used: From 7 January 2023, regional editions in England ended. This saw every

station included, along with London's local television channel London Live, which had always been included in the 'London/Anglia/Midlands' edition with ''Radio Times'' stating that it is a regional network and that other local services air on

channels 7 and 8 in other parts of the country.

Editors

There have been 20 editors of ''Radio Times'' to date (including one uncredited and one returning) since the magazine began publication: * 1923–1926: Leonard Crocombe * 1926–1927: Walter Fuller * 1927–1933:

Eric Maschwitz Albert Eric Maschwitz Order of the British Empire, OBE (10 June 1901 – 27 October 1969), sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, editor, broadcaster and broadcasting executive. Life and work Born in Edgbaston, ...

* 1933–1941:

Maurice Gorham Maurice Anthony Coneys Gorham (1902 – 9 August 1975) was an Irish journalist and broadcasting executive. After being educated in England at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire and later Balliol College, Oxford, he began working as a journalist on th ...

* 1941–1944: Gordon Stowell * 1944–1954: Tom Henn * 1954–1968: Douglas G. Williams * 1968–1969: C. J. Campbell Nairne * 1969–1979: Geoffrey Cannon * 1979–1988: Brian Gearing * 1988–1996: Nicholas Brett * 1996–2000: Sue Robinson * 2000–2001: Nicholas Brett (returned) * 2001–April 2002: Nigel Horne * April–July 2002: Liz Vercoe (uncredited) * August 2002–August 2009: Gill Hudson * September 2009 – 2017:

* 2017–2020:

Mark Frith Mark Frith (born 22 May 1970, in Sheffield) is a British journalist, music critic, and editor. He has been a writer and editor for magazines such as ''Smash Hits'', '' Time Out'' and ''Heat''. He has since branched into TV and radio presenting, ...

* 2020–2024: Tom Loxley and Shem Law * 2024–present: Shem Law

References

Notes

# Renamed

on 8 October 1960 and later became

on 20 April 1964, when

is launched. # All these strands including the

kept their separate identities (such as music, sports coverage and education) within Radio 3 until 4 April 1970, when there was a further reorganisation following the introduction of the structural changes which had been outlined in the BBC document ''Broadcasting in the Seventies'' on 10 July 1969. # The BBC television listing schedules has giving phrases such as 'a film series' used for imported programmes and 'the feature film' were remained until 1 September 1984. # Between June and December 1990, the layout of programme page sections had given its own distinctive colour were used at the top along with

deep pink Pink colors are usually light or desaturated shades of reds, roses, and magentas which are created on computer and television screens using the RGB color model and in printing with the CMYK color model. As such, it is an arbitrary classifica ...

for films, dark blue for television and medium turquoise for radio, as well as each

day of the week In a vast number of languages, the names given to the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the classical planets in Hellenistic astronomy, which were in turn named after contemporary deities, a system introduced by the Sume ...

often include:

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

for Saturday,

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

for Sunday,

magenta Magenta () is a purple-red color. On color wheels of the RGB color model, RGB (additive) and subtractive color, CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in colo ...

for Monday,

chartreuse Chartreuse () may refer to: Common meanings * Chartreuse (liqueur), a French liqueur * Chartreuse (color), a yellow-green color named after the liqueur * Grande Chartreuse, the original Carthusian monastery Other uses * Chartreuse (dish), a ...

for Tuesday,

purple Purple is a color similar in appearance to violet light. In the RYB color model historically used in the arts, purple is a secondary color created by combining red and blue pigments. In the CMYK color model used in modern printing, purple is ...

for Wednesday,

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

for Thursday and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

for Friday. # The colours for each day of the week were changed on 22 December 1990, they are: Saturday in

, Sunday in azure blue, Monday in light orange, Tuesday in

indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

, Wednesday in

dark green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint be ...

, Thursday in

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

, and Friday in medium turquoise. On 30 October 2004, the day's colours were slightly changed once again that includes Tuesday in

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

, Wednesday in

mint green Spring Green or spring green may refer to: Colors * Spring green ** Spring bud, formerly known as spring green Plants * Spring greens, edible young leaves of certain plants * Spring greens (Brassica oleracea), vegetables Places in the United S ...

, and Friday in

navy blue Navy blue is a dark shade of the color blue. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with naval white) worn by officers in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. When this color name, ...

. # The station is rebranded as

Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport i ...

on 28 March 1994, that replaces educational and children's programmes with a new

format, whilst retaining the sports programmes from the old service. # Also known as ''TV Times Magazine'' from 3 October 1981; rebranded back to its original ''

'' name on 6 October 1984. # From 1956 to 1964, the

originally had their own edition of ''TV Times'' carrying

and

programme listings, but in a separate weekly magazine called ''TV World'' on 27 September 1964, for the innovative idea of splitting itself 50:50 with a second cover in the middle allowing for the magazine to be folded over to creating both weekend and weekday sections from one publication, before ''TV Times'' went national on 21 September 1968. # Named after the American magazine of the same name that which devoted to latest celebrities and television reviews. It became a monthly publication from 1991, and it was later absorbed by ''Satellite TV Europe'' in 1992. # On 1 September 2021,

has now ceased broadcasting with all the entertainment shows to be replaced by two new channels,

Sky Showcase Sky Showcase is a British pay television channel which launched on 1 September 2021. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a division of American media company Comcast. Sky Showcase was announced on 28 July 2021, along with Sky Max, as a rep ...

and

Sky Max Sky Max is a British pay television channel and on-demand service which launched on 1 September 2021. It is owned and operated by Sky Group, a subsidiary of Comcast. The service broadcasts a variety of drama, comedy-drama, and unscripted serie ...

. # The service closed on 8 April 1991 and replaced by

. # Replaced by

on 20 April 1991. # ''TV Plus'' launched on 1 March 1991 by Hamfield Publications which combines a hybrid

women's magazine This is a list of women's magazines from around the world. These are magazines that have been published primarily for a readership of woman, women. Currently published *''10 Magazine (UK), 10 Magazine'' (UK – distributed worldwide) *''Al Jam ...

and the full complete seven-day television listings (for BBC, ITV,

and various

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers a ...

networks) which ran from Friday to Thursday, until the publication was ceased after three issues and it was a shortest-lived weekly listings magazine in

British history The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since the early Holocene, the current geological epoch, which star ...

. # Absorbed by

on 1 March 1993. # The two consecutive adults-only services were unsuitabled until 19 December 1992. # On 19 August 1994,

Sky Sports 2 Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

has launched initially as a weekend-only service, which occupies the listings sandwiched between Sky Sports at the top and Eurosport at the bottom. # Between September 1999 and April 2001, the programme section colours returned once again which was placed halfway throughout the double-page spreads vertically that include

royal purple Tyrian purple ( ''porphúra''; ), also known as royal purple, imperial purple, or imperial dye, is a reddish-purple natural dye. The name Tyrian refers to Tyre, Lebanon, once Phoenicia. It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails ...

for films, dark orange for television and

viridian Viridian is a blue-green pigment, a hydrated chromium(III) oxide, of medium saturation and relatively dark in value. It is composed of a majority of green, followed by blue. The first recorded use of ''viridian'' as a color name in English wa ...

for radio. # On 1 September 2023, the channel ceased broadcasting within its children's programmes can now be viewed on the streaming service

ITVX ITVX is a British Over-the-top media services, over-the-top and ad-supported Streaming television, streaming service operated by ITV plc. The service offers original content from the broadcaster, livestreams of the ITV television channels, Free ...

. # Originally launched on 5 November 1982, ''

'' is the first weekly listings magazine which provide full schedules for all services (

and

) that the publication breached their

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

forcing to be suspended on 1 January 1983, along with revamped and more detailed programme billings until it was eventually vanished without trace.

revived the title used as a low-price listings magazine from its own stable on 14 September 1999.

Sources

Bibliography

* Tony Currie, ''The Radio Times Story'' (2001, Kelly Publications) * David Driver, ''The Art of Radio Times: The First Sixty Years'' (1981) * Martin Baker, ''The Art of Radio Times: A Golden Age of British Illustration'' * R.D. Usherwood, ''Drawing for Radio Times'' (1961, Bodley Head)

External links

*
BBC – History of the ''Radio Times''

Radio programme about cover art
with gallery * A selection o
Vintage ''Radio Times'' covers

BBC Genome
- ''Radio Times'' listings from 1923 to 2009
Digitized versions
of years 1923 to 1930 and 1936 on the website of th

* ttps://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DT Papers of Duncan Taylor(containing nnotated scripts, administration files and articles from the Radio Times) at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

{{Authority control BBC history BBC publications Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom Listings magazines Magazines established in 1923 1923 establishments in the United Kingdom Society of the interwar period United Kingdom in World War II Radio in the United Kingdom Television magazines published in the United Kingdom 2011 mergers and acquisitions

History and profile

NTL special edition

Circulation

Advertising

Disputes

Annuals and guides

Covers

''Doctor Who''

Christmas

Royal specials

Regional editions

Radio

Television

Other media content

Website

Digitisation

Puzzles

Podcast

Editors

See also

References

Notes

Sources

Bibliography

External links