1969 in British television

Events

January

  • 4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix causes complaints of arrogance from television producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine of your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.

February

  • No events.

March

April

  • No events.

May

  • No events.

June

  • 21 June –
  • June – Anglia Television and Yorkshire Television begin talks regarding a cost-cutting exercise which would involve sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company plans joint productions or a merger. The reason to form an association is purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies' advertising revenue by the government, and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented.[2]

July

  • 3 July – Lulu the elephant runs amok on Blue Peter. The clip is subsequently repeated many times, becoming the archetypal British TV "blooper".
  • 12 July – The US sci-fi TV series Star Trek makes its debut on BBC1 beginning with the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before.[3]
  • 20–21 July – Live transmission from the Moon with the landing of Apollo 11; at 03:56 BST on 21 July, Neil Armstrong steps onto the surface;[4] BBC television makes its first overnight broadcast to provide coverage. Footage of the event is reported to have been seen by 22 million UK viewers on 21 July (720 million worldwide).[4][5]
  • 27 July – First episode of The Morecambe & Wise Show, Series Two, on BBC, the first scripted by Eddie Braben.

August

  • No events.

September

October

  • 4 October – The ITV Seven, a programme which shows live coverage of horse racing from racecourses around the UK, is first aired. The programme was an essential part of ITV's Saturday afternoon World of Sport show and continues until a few weeks before World of Sport ends in 1985.
  • 5 October – Monty Python's Flying Circus airs its first episode on the BBC.
  • 6 October – Chigley becomes the third and final programme of The Trumptonshire Trilogy on BBC1 to be shot in colour before the introduction of regular colour broadcasting on 15 November.

November

  • 3 November – ITV airs the first edition of Coronation Street to be videotaped in colour, though it includes black-and-white inserts and titles; because colour transmissions have not yet officially begun (except for testing), most viewers will see it only in black-and-white. The 29 October episode – featuring a coach trip to the Lake District – had been scheduled for colour shooting, but suitable colour film stock could not be found so it was filmed in black-and-white.
  • 15 November – Regular colour broadcasting is introduced to BBC1 and ITV.
  • 16 November – The first episode of Clangers (a British stop motion animated television program for children) is broadcast by the BBC.
  • 19 November – The Benny Hill Show premieres on ITV.
  • 20 November – The first episode of BBC sitcom Dad's Army to be broadcast in colour is "Branded", the favourite of co-writer Jimmy Perry.[8]
  • 21 November – The controversial London Weekend Television comedy Curry and Chips begins airing. The programme is the first LWT comedy to have been broadcast in colour. It is pulled off air after six episodes following a ruling by the ITA that it is racist.[9]
  • 24 November – Coronation Street first officially transmitted in colour, according to its archivist Daran Little; but the 17 November episode may have been the first.

December

Unknown

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Continuing television shows

1920s

  • BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–2024)

1930s

  • BBC Cricket (1939, 1946–1999, 2020–2024)

1940s

1950s

1960s

Ending this year

Births

Deaths

  • 25 March – Billy Cotton, 69, British entertainer & bandleader (Wakey Wakey Tavern)

See also

References

  1. "June anniversaries". The BBC Story. BBC. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-03.
  2. Yorkshire, Anglia in TV link talks. By Broadcasting Correspondent. The Times (London, England), Saturday, 7 June 1969
  3. https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/8c3b788506504b30906366ab0edfa45f
  4. "Man takes first steps on the Moon". On This Day. BBC. 1969-07-21. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
  5. Sillito, David (20 July 2019). "Where were you when man first landed on the Moon?". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  6. The Stones in the Park at IMDb
  7. "The Rolling Stones Biography". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone magazine. Archived from the original on 2 August 2008. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
  8. Branded - Dad's Army Night.
  9. "Television Heaven – Curry and Chips". Television Heaven. 26 May 2003. Archived from the original on 10 May 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
  10. Mark Duguid "Armchair Theatre (1956–74)", BFI screenonline
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