1958 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1958.

Events

January

14 January – TWW, the first ITV franchise for South Wales and the West of England, goes on the air.

February

13 February – A by-election is covered on UK television for the first time when Granada broadcasts coverage of the 1958 Rochdale by-election; Broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy takes second place for the Liberals, considerably increasing their share of the vote.
17 February – Pope Pius XII designates St. Clare of Assisi as the patron saint of television. Thereafter, placing her icon on a television set is said to improve reception.
18 February – Footage of the annual Shrove Tuesday Atherstone Ball Game is shown on television for the first time.

March

31 March – Debut of the BBC's serial Starr and Company, set in an engineering firm. The programme is aired for nine months.

April

14 April — The newly magnetic videotape machine Vision Electronic Recording Apparatus or VERA for short, is given a live demonstration on air in Panorama where Richard Dimbleby seated by a clock, talks for a couple of minutes about the new method of vision recording with an instant playback. The tape is then wound back and replayed. The picture is slightly watery, but reasonably watchable, and instant playback is something completely new.

May

5 May – First experimental transmissions of a 625-line television service.
10 May – The BBC broadcasts rugby league's Challenge Cup final for the third time and this marks the start of annual coverage of the final.

July

13–19 July – ITV shows coverage of the Commonwealth Games. This is the only time that ITV has covered the event.

August

30 August – Southern Television, the ITV franchise for the South of England, goes on the air.

September

13 September – ITV first screens Oh Boy!, the first teenage all-music show on British television, produced by Jack Good, made by ABC Weekend TV and broadcast live on early Saturday evenings from the Hackney Empire with Lord Rockingham's XI assembled as the house band. This follows late-night pilots screened in the midlands on 15 and 29 June.

October

11 October – The long running Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand debuts on the BBC Television Service. It airs until 2007.
16 October – Blue Peter, the world's longest-running children's TV programme, debuts on the BBC Television Service. It continues to air into the 2020s.
28 October – The State Opening of Parliament is broadcast on television for the first time.

November

30 November – During the live broadcast of the Armchair Theatre play Underground on the ITV network, actor Gareth Jones has a fatal heart attack between two of his scenes while in make-up.

December

22 December – The BBC begins showing the acclaimed science fiction drama series Quatermass and the Pit, starring André Morell as Professor Bernard Quatermass.

Undated

Oxo stock cubes are first promoted on television in a series of advertisements depicting "Life with Katie" and the "Oxo family" which run until 1999.

Debuts

BBC Television Service/BBC TV

1 January – Big Guns
4 January – Saturday Playhouse
24 January – Pride and Prejudice
February – Your Life in Their Hands
2 February – Monitor
7 February – Run To Earth
9 February – The Government Inspector
12 February – More Than Robbery
March – Starr and Company
7 March – The Diary of Samuel Pepys
22 March – Captain Moonlight – Man of Mystery
26 March – Sammy
11 April – The Common Room
22 April – Railway Roundabout
7 May – White Heather Club
13 May – The Dangerous Game
17 May – Duty Bound
1 June – The Adventures of Ben Gunn
14 June – The Black and White Minstrel Show
24 June – The Firm of Girdlestone
5 July – Fair Game
20 July – Queen's Champion
16 August – Charlesworth at Large
6 September – Jennings at School
12 September – Champion Road
14 September – Little Women
29 September – Leave It to Todhunter
11 October – Grandstand
14 October – Yesterday's Enemy
16 October – Blue Peter
4 November – The Mad O'Haras
7 November – Our Mutual Friend
10 November – Solo for Canary
11 November – Charlie Drake
4 December – Private Investigator
22 December – ''Quatermass and the Pit''

ITV

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

The Ed Sullivan Show
''Come Dancing''

1950s

Ending this year

Births

10 January – Caroline Langrishe, actress
24 January – Jools Holland, pianist and television presenter
29 January – Linda Smith, comedian
11 February – Michael Jackson, television executive
20 February – James Wilby, actor
3 March – Miranda Richardson, comedy actress
7 March – Rik Mayall, actor, comedian and writer
13 March – Linda Robson, actress
14 March – Francine Stock, radio and television presenter and author
21 March – Gary Oldman, actor
14 April – Peter Capaldi, Scottish actor and director
3 May – Sandi Toksvig, Danish-born comedy performer, media presenter and writer
17 May – Paul Whitehouse, Welsh comedy writer-performer
18 May – Toyah Willcox, actress and singer
22 May – Denise Welch, actress and television presenter
6 July – Jennifer Saunders, comedy writer-performer
24 July – Joe McGann, actor
29 July – Simon Nye, screenwriter
31 July – Sue Jenkins, actress
29 August – Lenny Henry, actor and comedian
30 August – Muriel Gray, Scottish author, broadcaster and journalist
13 September – Bobby Davro, actor and comedian
18 September – Linda Lusardi, model, actress and television presenter
21 September
*Simon Mayo, television and radio presenter
*Penny Smith, television presenter
25 October – Simon Gipps-Kent, actor
31 October – Debbie McGee, television, radio and stage performer
1 December – Keith Chapman, children's television programme creator
6 December – Nick Park, animated film maker

Deaths

30 November – Gareth Jones, Welsh actor