One Day in the Life of Television

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}

{{Infobox television

| image =

| caption =

| genre = Documentary

| creator =

| developer =

| director =

| country =

| language =

| num_episodes =

| executive_producer = Grant McKee

| producer = Peter Kosminsky

| editor = Terry Warwick

| cinematography =

| camera =

| runtime = 180 mins{{cite web |url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/433030?view=transmission |title=One Day in the Life of Television |work=BFI Film & TV Database |accessdate=2009-07-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016090040/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/433030?view=transmission |archive-date=16 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}

| company = Yorkshire Television

| channel = ITV

| released = {{Start date|1989|11|01|df=y}}

}}

One Day in the Life of Television is a documentary that was broadcast on ITV on 1 November 1989. Filmed by over fifty crews exactly one year earlier, it was a huge behind-the-scenes look at a wide range of activities involved in the production, reception and marketing of British television.{{cite book |title=40 Years of British Television |author=Jane Harbor & Jeff Wright |page=111 |publisher=Boxtree |location=London |year=1992 |isbn=1-85283-409-9}} The project was funded by the Markle Foundation and organised by Richard Paterson and Janet Willis at the British Film Institute and produced and directed for television by Peter Kosminsky.

The documentary opens with TV-am's industrial conflict, with picketers outside of the studio at Camden Lock. The documentary also looks at Breakfast Time, Lucky Ladders and EastEnders. Reactions to the latter's representation of a prison storyline were garnered from inmates in HMP Dartmoor.

The documentary also showed the marketing of cable television, and the availability of pornography through satellite television during the early evening.

A book by Sean Day-Lewis was published to accompany the documentary. It contained the thoughts selected from more than 20,000 participants throughout Britain, including more than 3000 industry professionals, who recorded their feelings and experiences of television viewing on 1 November 1988, the day that the documentary was filmed.{{cite book |title=One Day in the Life of Television |author=Sean Day-Lewis |publisher=Grafton |location=London |year=1989 |isbn=0-246-13497-6}} (Paperback){{cite book |title=One Day in the Life of Television |author=Sean Day-Lewis |publisher=Grafton |location=London |year=1989 |isbn=0-246-13424-0}} (Hardcover)