The Day Almost Half A Country Tuned In To Watch Jaws
Jaws was first shown in the UK on ITV on 8 October 1981. It attracted 23.25 million viewers, one of the largest British TV audiences ever for a film.
There were 56.33 million people living in the UK in 1981, so over half the population tuned in to see Steven Spielberg's shark thriller surface on UK television screens for the very first time. Not a bad record for this vicinity.
(image credit unknown)
At the time there were only three television channels in the UK, the Internet wasn't a thing and few homes had a video recorder. The movie premiere was king and was something of a real event. In fact Jaws is only just beaten into second place of most watched films on television on ITV by Roger Moore's first James Bond film, Live And Let Die, which premiered in January 1980 and amassed an audience of 23.5 million viewers.
Jaws was a big deal, it was the sort of film that would leave the streets empty and be the talk of the playground the next day.
Cover of the TV Times from that week's listings
In one town Cubs was even called off, as @ArlosDad on Twitter recalled. He said: I was too young to remember but my Mum was fond of saying they cancelled Cubs in my town that evening because no one was going to turn up. It was a big deal.
@davidpkidd added: This was the first time I watched Jaws. I was 11 yrs old and was riveted and terrified from start to finish. Even the adverts didn’t spoil it. I didn’t swim in the sea for years. Which is a bit of an overreaction because we holidayed in North Wales....
Shot of advert bumper from the screening of Jaws with a rather misleading shark.
And no doubt several baths were skipped that evening and for the rest of the week, as well. Which to be fair was probably pretty much par for the course in 1981 Britain.
And @Sienc's mum and dad were cool...but cruel. He said: I watched it aged 7. Parents had seen it in the cinema and for the Ben Gardner head scene they didn't watch the screen, they watched me to see my reaction!
It was also my introduction to the film, I was almost five. Of course, there were adverts, but to be honest they were probably a welcome respite from the film.
Do you remember watching Jaws that evening for the first time?
Written by Dean Newman
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