1964 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1964.

Events

January

1 January – The first episode of the long-running weekly pop music show Top of the Pops airs on BBC TV. The first programme is produced at the BBC's Dickenson Road Studios in Rusholme, Manchester, presented by Jimmy Savile, and the first two acts featured are Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to Be with You" and The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man".
4 January – Test transmissions begin for BBC2.

February

9 February – Launch of BBC Wales TV.
18 February – BBC1's comedy series Steptoe and Son becomes one of the most popular programmes on television, watched by an audience of 21.54 million viewers.

March

6 March – Vision On, the first ever programme for deaf children, is launched on BBC TV.
25 March – The Beatles make their first appearance on Top of the Pops, with a pre-recorded performance of the single "Can't Buy Me Love".
30 March – Tyne Tees Television's regional news magazine North East Roundabout is relaunched as North East Newsview.

April

1 April – The Bressay transmitting station in the Shetland Islands comes into service, making the islands the last area of the United Kingdom to get a television transmitter.
6 April – Associated-Rediffusion changes its name to Rediffusion, London.
20 April – The scheduled opening night of BBC2, the UK's third television channel, is disrupted by power cuts in London, and all that can be screened is announcer Gerald Priestland delivering apologies from Alexandra Palace. The existing BBC TV channel is renamed BBC1.
21 April – Play School is first broadcast on BBC2. The channel's launch schedule, abandoned on the previous day, is shown in full this evening.
26 April – News Review, a summary of the week's news with subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, is broadcast for the first time as part of the launch of BBC2.
29 April – ITV launches in the south west, broadcasting as Westward Television.
30 April – Television sets manufactured as of this date are required to receive UHF channels.

May

5 May – The documentary film Seven Up! is broadcast on ITV, showing the lives of fourteen school children. Subsequent films in the series see them interviewed every seven years.
12 May – ITV London region starts showing the US science fiction horror anthology series The Twilight Zone.
13 May – The character Martha Longhurst dies of a heart attack in the snug of The Rovers Return on Coronation Street.
30 May – The 26-part documentary series The Great War covering events in World War I begins airing on the BBC.

July

July – Associated Television's series Emergency – Ward 10 shows the first kiss on television between black and white actors, Jamaican-born Joan Hooley playing surgeon Louise Mahler and John White playing Dr. Giles Farmer.

August

4 August – The first portable televisions go on sale.
22 August – The first Match of the Day airs on BBC2. The following episodes move to BBC1.

September

18 September – Doctor Who goes to air on NZBC in New Zealand making it the first country outside of the United Kingdom to broadcast the long-running science fiction series. First airing in the region of Christchurch from 18 September to 11 December 1964, then in Auckland from 30 October 1964 to 29 January 1965, Wellington from 6 November 1964 to 5 February 1965 and Dunedin from 5 March to 28 May 1965.
28 September – In the Midlands, BBC1 airs the first edition of its local news programme, Midlands Today.

October

9 October – Southern launches a weekly news magazine for the south east called Friday at Ten.
10 October – The 1964 Summer Olympics opening ceremony at Tokyo, Japan, with the first live Olympic broadcast via geostationary communication satellite.
13 October – Danger Man returns to ITV in longer episodes after being cancelled in 1961.
15 October – 1964 United Kingdom general election. The BBC moves this evening's episode of Steptoe and Son to a later time slot to allow voters to get to the polls in the early evening.
28 October – The Wednesday Play premieres on BBC1.

November

2 November – ATV's soap opera Crossroads premieres on ITV.

December

6 December – BBC2 goes on air in the Midlands and East Anglia. The Sutton Coldfield transmitting station initially cannot relay BBC2 beyond an area reception to the Midlands region, resulting in a staggered signal.
15 December – Peter Watkins' docudrama Culloden is shown on BBC1.

Undated

Some 90% of British households now own a television, compared to around 25% in 1953 and 65% in 1959.

Debuts

BBC Television Service/BBC TV/BBC1

1 January – Top of the Pops
19 January – Martin Chuzzlewit
6 March – Vision On
30 March – Detective
6 April – Cluff
11 April – Baxter On...
19 April
*Hamlet at Elsinore
*Rupert of Hentzau
3 May – The Kathy Kirby Show
18 May – Sherlock Holmes
31 May – Silas Marner
9 June – The Graham Stark Show
21 June – The Roy Castle Show
1 July – Catch Hand
2 July – Call the Gun Expert
4 July – The Four Seasons of Rosie Carr
5 July – The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling
6 July – Thorndyke
9 July – The Valiant Varneys
12 July – Smuggler's Bay
26 July – Kipling
31 July – A World of His Own
8 August – Diary of a Young Man
13 August – Lance at Large
18 August – Swizzlewick
23 August –
18 September – The Big Noise
28 September – Midlands Today
30 September – The Wednesday Play
4 October – The Count of Monte Cristo
22 October – Bewitched
28 October – Curtain of Fear
13 November – Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
19 November – The Singing Ringing Tree
20 November – R3
4 December – The Likely Lads
11 December – Frankie Howerd
15 December – Culloden
19 December – ''Scott On...''

BBC2

21 April
*Play School
*Jazz 625
23 April – Late Night Line-Up
24 April – Story Parade
25 April – Madame Bovary
26 April – Melissa
27 April – Impromptu
2 May
*Horizon
*Theatre 625
23 May – Ann Veronica
30 May – The Great War
20 June – Mary Barton
21 June – The Midnight Men
6 July – The Beat Room
18 July – Witch Wood
2 August – The Sleeper
22 August – Match of the Day
12 September – The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
12 September – The Massingham Affair
8 October – The Old Wives' Tale
8 October – Thursday Theatre
14 November – Esther Waters
19 November – Simon and Laura
12 December – Six
13 December – The Brothers Karamazov
25 December – Muses with Milligan
Unknown – ''The Virginian''

ITV

2 January – Foreign Affairs
3 January – It's Dark Outside
6 January – Second City Reports
7 January – The Fugitive
17 January – A Touch of the Norman Vaughans
19 January – Studio '64
12 February – How to Be an Alien
28 February – The Villains
3 March – The Barnstormers
28 March – The Protectors
16 April – The Outer Limits
5 May – Seven Up!
14 May – Cinema
5 July
*Blackpool Night Out
*Miss Adventure
9 July – The Hidden Truth
16 July – HMS Paradise
10 August – A Choice of Coward
29 August – Fire Crackers
4 September – It's a Woman's World
29 September – Mike
2 October – Paris 1900
3 October – The Sullavan Brothers
4 October
*The Eamonn Andrews Show
*Stingray
10 October – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
17 October – Redcap
21 October – Dave's Kingdom
2 November – Crossroads
13 November – Victoria Regina
14 November – Gideon's Way
29 November – Just Jimmy
16 December – It's Tarbuck
21 December – ''That's for Me''

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

13 October – ''Danger Man''

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

The Ed Sullivan Show
''Come Dancing''

1950s

1960s

Ending this year

Boyd Q.C. Gwlad y Gan Ghost Squad Happily Ever After

''The Human Jungle''

Births

12 January – Clare Holman, actress
13 January – Bill Bailey, comedian
1 February – Linus Roache, actor
3 February – Gary Webster, actor
16 February – Christopher Eccleston, actor
24 February – Andy Crane, television and radio presenter
25 February – Lee Evans, comedian and actor
11 March – Shane Richie, actor
25 April – Fiona Bruce, journalist, newsreader and television presenter
13 June – Kathy Burke, actress and comedian
18 June – Linda Davidson, actress, writer and media executive
27 June – Lynn Parsons, radio and television presenter
3 July – Fionnuala Ellwood, actress
12 July – Gaby Roslin, television presenter and actress
21 July – Ross Kemp, actor and journalist
22 July – Bonnie Langford, actress and entertainer
23 July – Matilda Ziegler, actress
25 August – Clive Myrie, news presenter
27 August – Cheryl Fergison, actress
1 October – Harry Hill, born Matthew Hall, comedian, television presenter and author, previously a medical doctor
8 October – Ian Hart, actor
October – Donna Traynor, Northern Ireland news presenter
18 November – Nadia Sawalha, actress and television presenter
19 November – Susie Dent, lexicographer on Countdown
21 November – Liza Tarbuck, actress and television presenter
26 November – Lia Williams, actress and director
12 December – Reeta Chakrabarti, television news presenter

Deaths

24 February – Frank Conroy, actor, aged 73
25 September – Robert Wilson, singer and TV presenter, aged 57
10 December – Charles Samuel Franklin, radio and television engineer, designer of broadcasting antennae and aerials, aged 85