Look Back To The 1980s: The Whole Decade

Three channels, a miners' strike, a royal wedding and the decade that invented the pop video.

Below is the decade in sections, and a link to every single year from 1980 to 1989.

The music

• Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' was the 1984 Christmas number one and became the best-selling UK single of the decade.
• Live Aid, on 13 July 1985, was broadcast from Wembley and Philadelphia and watched by an audience counted in the hundreds of millions.
• Stock Aitken Waterman dominated the second half of the decade, with Kylie Minogue's 'I Should Be So Lucky' among their run of number ones.
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood had two number ones in 1984, and 'Relax' was famously banned from Radio 1 daytime play before it reached the top.
• The Jam were the biggest singles band of the early decade, splitting in 1982 with 'Beat Surrender' entering at number one.
• Top of the Pops on Thursday nights was still the way most of the country found out what was in the chart.

The news

• The Falklands conflict ran from April to June 1982.
• The miners' strike lasted from March 1984 to March 1985.
• Charles, Prince of Wales, married Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981; Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson in 1986.
• The great storm of October 1987 brought down an estimated fifteen million trees across southern England.
• Black Monday, 19 October 1987, saw the largest one-day fall in the London stock market's recent history.
• The Berlin Wall was opened in November 1989.

On screen

• Channel 4 launched on 2 November 1982 and Britain had four channels.
• EastEnders began in February 1985; Neighbours arrived on BBC One in 1986.
• Breakfast television started in 1983, with BBC Breakfast Time first and TV-am shortly after.
• Only Fools and Horses began in 1981, Blackadder in 1983 and Grange Hill continued through the whole decade.
• The home video recorder became normal, and video shops appeared on every high street.
• Live Aid and the 1986 World Cup were the two things the whole country watched at once.

Everyday life

• The Sinclair ZX Spectrum arrived in 1982 and the Commodore 64 the same year; games loaded from cassette.
• The Rubik's Cube craze peaked in the early years of the decade.
• The first UK mobile phone call was made on the Vodafone network on 1 January 1985, on handsets nobody could carry comfortably.
• British Telecom was privatised in 1984, and share ownership was pushed as a normal thing for households.
• Sunday trading was still restricted, so Sundays were genuinely quiet.
• The Argos catalogue, the Littlewoods book and the Christmas wishbook did the job the internet does now.

Year by year

• 1980 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1981 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1982 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1983 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1984 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1985 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1986 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1987 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1988 - see the full page for that year, linked below.
• 1989 - see the full page for that year, linked below.

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How to write it so it lands

• Each year has its own page with the charts, the news and the everyday detail.
• For a party, pull three facts from one year and run it as a guess-the-year round.
• For a card, use the year they were born rather than the decade.

Where to shop next

• Look back to 1989
• Look back to 1988
• Look back to 1987
• Look back to 1986
• Look back to 1985
• Look back to 1984
• Look back to 1983
• Look back to 1982
• Look back to 1981
• Look back to 1980
• 1980s party playlist
• 80s kids' TV shows
• 80s quiz questions
• Toys of the 80s and 90s
• Computers and consoles we grew up with
• Saturday morning TV
• Cassette tapes and taping the charts
• The 2020s so far
• The 2010s: the whole decade
• The 2000s: the whole decade
• The 1990s: the whole decade
• The 1980s: the whole decade
• The 1970s: the whole decade
• The 1960s: the whole decade
• The 1950s: the whole decade
• The 1940s: the whole decade
• The 1930s: the whole decade
• The 1920s: the whole decade
• Decade calendar: every year from 1920
• Decade trivia: fun facts by era
• Decade trivia game: play for points
• Decade guides: books, films and TV by era
• Decade recipes: dishes and food trends by era
• Decade travel: destinations and holidays by era
• Decade tech: gadgets and computers by era
• Decade films: best movies and directors by era
• Decade art: artists, styles and trends by era
• Decade books: best novels, authors and reading trends
• Music by decade: albums, artists and songs
• Decade fashion: clothes, hair and accessories by era
• Nostalgia gift shop
• Retro party supplies
• Nostalgia birthday party by decade
• Nostalgia hamper and gift ideas
• Guess the year quiz
• Care home reminiscence quiz
• Reminiscence gifts for grandparents
• Milestone birthday cards
• Shop birthday cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Wedding cards
• Wedding cards guide
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What was the best-selling single of the 1980s?

Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', released in late 1984. It was the Christmas number one that year and the decade's biggest seller in the UK.

When did Channel 4 launch?

2 November 1982. Until then Britain had three television channels.

When was Live Aid?

13 July 1985, staged at Wembley Stadium in London and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.

What happened in the great storm of 1987?

On the night of 15-16 October 1987 hurricane-force winds crossed southern England, bringing down an estimated fifteen million trees and killing eighteen people.

Do you sell anything to do with this decade?

We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK, including milestone birthday cards. The pages themselves are free to read and free to copy.