Editing BBC One (section)

===Michael Grade era (1984–1987)===
In 1984, [[Bill Cotton]] become managing director of Television at the BBC, and set about overhauling BBC1, which had been slated with poor home grown shows, its heavy reliance on US imports, with ''[[Dallas (TV series)|Dallas]]'' and ''[[The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)|The Thorn Birds]]'' being BBC1's highest rated programmes and ratings being over 20% behind ITV. Cotton recruited [[Michael Grade]] to become Controller of BBC1 from 1 September 1984<ref>Top job for Grade at BBC 1: The Times (London, England), Thursday, 31 May 1984,</ref><ref>Early-evening ratings war likely if BBC replaces 'Sixty Minutes. Hewson, David The Times (London, England), Wednesday, 6 June 1984, p.3.</ref> the first time the corporation had recruited someone outside of the BBC,<ref>{{cite news |title = Top job for Grade at BBC 1|work = [[The Times]]|date = 31 May 1984|page = 1}}</ref> replacing Alan Hart, who had been criticised{{by whom|date=January 2022}} for his lack of knowledge in general entertainment, as he was head of BBC Sport prior to 1981.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

The first major overhaul was to axe the unpopular ''[[Sixty Minutes (British TV programme)|Sixty Minutes]]'' current affairs programme: this was a replacement for the news and magazine show ''[[Nationwide (TV programme)|Nationwide]]''. Its replacement was the ''[[BBC News at Six|BBC Six O'Clock News]]'',<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The Times]] |date=6 June 1984 |page=3 |issue=61850}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=BBC goes for news to replace Sixty Minutes flop |last=Chorlton |first=Penny |work=The Guardian |date=9 June 1984}}</ref> a straight news programme in a bid to shore up its failing early evening slot. It was believed the BBC were planning to cut short the evening news and move more light entertainment programming in from the 18:20 slot, but this was dismissed. The [[Miss Great Britain]] contest was dropped, being described as verging on the too offensive after the January 1985 contest, with ''World's Strongest Man'' and ''International Superstar'' also being cancelled.<ref>{{cite news |title=BBC drops beauty show |work=[[The Times]] |date=17 November 1984 |page=3}}</ref>

BBC1 was relaunched on 18 February 1985 with a [[Computer Originated World|new look]], new programming including ''[[Wogan]]'' and ''[[EastEnders]]'', and a revised schedule to help streamline and maintain viewers throughout the course of the evening. Grade started to gear most programmes to either on the hour or half past the hour, while ''Panorama'' and ''Omnibus'' were both moved after the ''Nine O'Clock News''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Battle plan that opens a new panorama |first=Peter |last=Fiddick |work=The Guardian |date=4 February 1985}}</ref> Grade was also determined to end the dated and inept BBC1 scheduling which was hampering the channel and holding back good programmes. Grade said "When I took over BBC1, I discovered there were wonderful things, it was just a case of where to put them." ''Wogan'' had been scheduled for a 10&nbsp;pm slot, but Grade moved it to a 7&nbsp;pm slot as he believed the show had potential.<ref name="transdiffusion.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.transdiffusion.org/tv/tvheroes/michael_grade |title=Michael Grade – Television – Transdiffusion Broadcasting System |publisher=Transdiffusion.org |access-date=1 February 2014}}</ref>

From February to August 1985, a high number of American mini-series were broadcast while filming took place of a number of new home grown programmes, including ''[['Allo 'Allo!]]'', ''[[In Sickness and in Health]]'', and ''[[Open All Hours]]''. Further improvement came about when the corporation strengthened its drama output costing £30&nbsp;million, with eight new series, including ''[[Howards' Way]]'', ''[[All Creatures Great and Small (1978 TV series)|All Creatures Great and Small]]'', ''Hold the Back Page'', and ''Bluebill'', along with the return of ''Bergerac'' and ''Big Deal''. The increase in the drama department was achieved by switching the money away from the administrative service over a three-year period, after BBC1 was criticised for failing to match ITV's output in drama.<ref>{{cite news |title=BBC unveils £30m drama season with films galore |work=[[The Times]] |date=9 August 1985 |page=2}}</ref> ''EastEnders'' was moved to a 19:30 slot, where it managed to soar to 20 million, helping the BBC1 audience share increase to nearly 50% for the first time since 1982.

On 27 February 1985, ''[[Doctor Who]]'' was placed on an 18-month hiatus. The BBC originally planned to axe the series as they wished to spend its budgets on new programming for the channel, but was forced to back down from public pressure and ''Doctor Who'' returned in September 1986. At the time Michael Grade and Jonathan Powell were blamed for the decision (Grade was the target of death threats<ref name="transdiffusion.org"/>) but it was later revealed that the decision was taken due to the series running out of creative inspiration, making it impossible to find anyone (at the time) who knew what to do with the series.<ref>Michael Grade: On the Box – episode 5: Dishing the Dirt</ref><ref>"Trials and Tribulations" – from the DVD of ''The Ultimate Foe'' (''Trial of a Time Lord'').</ref>

On 9 September 1985, the long-standing children's programming block was overhauled and rebranded as ''[[CBBC|Children's BBC]]'', which gave it dedicated idents for the first time and had a live in-vision presenter, similar to rival ITV's [[CITV|Children's ITV]] block which had been running since January 1983. Previously the BBC had broadcast children's programming using BBC1's team of regular duty announcers. The launch presenter for this block, and thus the first Children's BBC presenter of the current format, was [[Phillip Schofield]].

On 23 May 1986, long-running lunchtime magazine show ''[[Pebble Mill at One]]'' was broadcast for the last time after being on air for 14 years. On 27 October 1986, BBC1 launched its daytime television schedules.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bbctimeline.appspot.com/events/agtiYmN0aW1lbGluZXIMCxIFRXZlbnQY9SMM |title=BBC Timeline – Events – LAUNCH OF DAYTIME TELEVISION SERVICE (BBC-1 & BBC-2) |work=Bbctimeline.appspot.com |date=27 October 1986 |access-date=1 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203000624/http://bbctimeline.appspot.com/events/agtiYmN0aW1lbGluZXIMCxIFRXZlbnQY9SMM |archive-date=3 December 2013}}</ref> In a statement, BBC Daytime head Roger Laughton said:

{{cquote|It was the natural extension of the corporation's commitment to public service broadcasting, since half the population had access to television during the day mainly the retired, unemployed and housewives.}}