1967 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1967.

Events

January

3 January – Children's stop-motion animation series Trumpton is the second programme on BBC1 to be shot in colour and to show the copyright year in the end credits.
7 January – Debut of The Forsyte Saga, a blockbuster BBC dramatisation in 26 50-minute episodes originally shown on BBC2. Because of the restricted number of viewers who can receive this channel, it is not until it begins BBC1 Sunday evening repeats on 8 September that it reaches a large audience which will build to 18 million and cause some church services to be rescheduled; it is also popular internationally and becomes the first British television programme ever to be sold to the Soviet Union.
9 January – The long-running children's educational programme Look and Read debuts on BBC1.

February

3 February – David Frost confronts fraudster Emil Savundra on Rediffusion London's The Frost Programme.
28 February – National and regional newspapers carry advertisements from the Independent Television Authority requesting applicants for various new ITV contracts, one of which is Programme Contractor for Yorkshire Area – All Week. Ten formal bids are received by the closing date.

April

4 April – BBC1 shows a Tom and Jerry cartoon for the first time, commencing with the 1942 short 'Dog Trouble'. The hugely popular Hanna-Barbera characters are shown twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and go on to be screened continually on the BBC throughout many decades.
8 April – The United Kingdom wins the 12th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. The winning song is "Puppet on a String" performed by Sandie Shaw. It is broadcast live on BBC1.

June

12 June – The 1967 franchise round sees a number of changes being made to the ITV regional map which will take effect from May to August 1968:
*Any split weekday/weekend licences are removed in all regions, except London.
*The London split is moved from Friday/Saturday to Friday at 7pm.
*The North of England region is split into the North West and Yorkshire.
*Granada, the existing weekday contractor for the North of England region, is given a seven-day licence for the new North West of England region.
*Lord Thomson of Fleet is required to divest himself of most of his holding in Scottish Television.
*A new company, Telefusion Yorkshire, later renamed Yorkshire Television, is given the licence to broadcast in the newly created Yorkshire region.
*ATV wins the new seven-day Midlands licence, replacing ABC at the weekend.
*ABC and Rediffusion, London are asked to form a joint company to take the London weekday franchise previously held by Rediffusion alone, the result, Thames Television, is 51% controlled by ABC.
*The London Television Consortium, put together by David Frost wins the London weekend contract which now includes Friday evenings from 7pm. They go on air as London Weekend Television.
*Most controversially, TWW loses its franchise for Wales and the West of England to Harlech Television which later becomes known as HTV on the arrival of UHF.
25 June – The Our World programme airs to over 30 countries featuring performers from the represented countries, the segment for the United Kingdom features The Beatles performing "All You Need Is Love", with guests Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Graham Nash, Hunter Davies and others.

July

1 July
* BBC2 becomes Europe's first colour TV broadcaster. The colour service is launched with live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships.
* Debut of the game show The Golden Shot on ITV. Initially presented by Canadian entertainer Jackie Rae, he would soon be replaced by the show's best known host Bob Monkhouse and would become hugely popular.
2 July – The BBC's colour Test Card F, featuring Carole Hersee, is broadcast for the first time.
3 July – News at Ten premieres on ITV. It airs for half an hour nightly on weeknights until 1999 before being axed. It is then reintroduced in 2001, axed again in 2004 and brought back for a second time in 2008.
8–9 July – BBC1 broadcasts The Great Climb, covering ascents of the Old Man of Hoy in Orkney in real time, which attracts around 15 million viewers.

September

29 September
*The Prisoner has its UK premiere on ATV and Grampian Television. The world premiere of the series occurs on 5 September when the series debuts on CTV in Canada.
*Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, the popular science fiction Supermarionation series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson debuts on ITV.

October

13 October – Omnibus, an arts documentary series, begins on BBC1.
16 October – ITV Granada shows the silent 1922 German expressionist horror film Nosferatu.
23 October – Service Information is broadcast by the BBC for the first time. The bulletins are broadcast three times each weekday on BBC2.

November

The live BBC1 broadcast of the 1967 Miss World competition is watched by over 23 million viewers.

December

2 December – Colour television is officially launched on BBC2 which coincides with a new ident known as Cube 2.
22 December – Dante's Inferno, Ken Russell's television film about Dante Gabriel Rossetti is shown in the Omnibus series.
25 December – The final edition of The Sooty Show is shown on the BBC after being cancelled by Paul Fox, the controller of BBC1. Part of the reason for the cancellation is due to his decision to clear out long-running programmes on the channel to make way for new shows. The Sooty Show will return next year on ITV, being produced by the newly launched London franchise Thames Television.
26 December
*The Beatles' made-for-television musical film Magical Mystery Tour airs on BBC1 in the UK in black and white.
*Comedy sketch show Do Not Adjust Your Set, originally intended for children and made by Rediffusion London, premieres on ITV.

Debuts

BBC1

2 January – Sword of Honour
3 January – The Trumptonshire Trilogy: Trumpton
6 January – The Whitehall Worrier
7 January – The Forsyte Saga
15 January – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
22 January – Great Expectations
24 February – The World of Wodehouse
4 April – Dee Time
9 April – St. Ives
2 May – Further Adventures of Lucky Jim
4 April – Tom and Jerry
8 May – Mickey Dunne
21 May – The Further Adventures of the Musketeers
26 May – Not in Front of the Children
28 May – Champion House
12 June – Ask the Family
20 June – Misleading Cases
5 July – Rainbow City
1 August – Sorry I'm Single
4 August – Boy Meets Girl
18 August – Whistle Stop
28 August – The Queen's Traitor
September – Batfink
10 September – Pride and Prejudice
30 September – The Talk of the Town
2 October – Belle and Sebastian
3 October – A Series of Bird's
8 October – Ironside
13 October – Omnibus
22 October – Les Misérables
27 November – The Very Merry Widow
26 December – Magical Mystery Tour
Unknown
*The Rolf Harris Show
*''Reksio''

BBC2

9 January – Look and Read: Bob and Carol Look for Treasure
21 January – The Invaders
30 January – Before the Fringe
4 February – Girl in a Black Bikini
18 March – The Paradise Makers
28 March – The Revenue Men
27 April – Witch Hunt
3 June – This Way for Murder
12 June – Three of a Kind
22 July – Kenilworth
3 August – Face the Music
19 August – Angel Pavement
29 August – The Big M
16 September – The White Rabbit
28 October – Wuthering Heights
16 November – A Hundred Years of Humphrey Hastings
2 December – Vanity Fair
3 December – The World About Us
10 December – ''The Charlie Drake Show''

ITV

2 January – Turn Out the Lights
6 January
* Uncle Charles
* Mr. Aitch
11 February – Who Is Sylvia?
15 February – At Last the 1948 Show
17 February – Mr. Rose
18 February – Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width
24 February – My Man Joe
30 March – Seven Deadly Virtues
1 April – Vacant Lot
3 April – Market in Honey Lane
18 April – The Golden Age
23 April – Spindoe
15 May – The Jetsons
16 May – Half Hour Story
19 May – The Fellows
27 May – Trapped
6 June – Hancock's
27 June – Sam and Janet
29 June – Sanctuary
1 July – The Golden Shot
3 July – Early Evening News
6 July
* Danger Island
* Send Foster
8 July – Callan
9 July – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
18 July – Escape
19 August – Haunted
22 September – Baker's Half-Dozen
25 September
* ITV Playhouse
* Sexton Blake
26 September – The Gamblers
27 September
* Man in a Suitcase
*The Flower of Gloster
28 September – Mystery Hall
29 September
* Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
* Inheritance
* The Prisoner
7 October – Sat'day While Sunday
8 October – Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
29 October – The Pilgrim's Progress
14 November – No – That's Me Over Here!
8 December – City '68
26 December – Do Not Adjust Your Set
Unknown
*Tarzan
*''Mission: Impossible''

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

The Ed Sullivan Show
''Come Dancing''

1950s

1960s

Ending this year

Sunday Night at the London Palladium Emergency Ward 10 Hugh and I The Illustrated Weekly Hudd

''Batfink''

Births

2 January – Ruth Gemmell, actress
7 January – Mark Lamarr, British comedian/TV and radio presenter
14 January – Emily Watson, English actress
15 January – Paul J. Medford, actor
21 January – Tony Hirst, actor
16 February – Matthew Cottle, actor
21 February – Neil Oliver, archaeologist, historian, author and broadcaster
4 March – Tim Vine, actor and comedian, brother of Jeremy Vine
11 March – John Barrowman, Scottish-born actor
21 March – Adrian Chiles, television presenter
22 March – Joanne Malin, broadcaster and television presenter
2 April – Helen Chamberlain, television presenter
25 April – Tim Davie, BBC television executive
26 April – Marianne Jean-Baptiste, actress
4 May
*Anna Botting, journalist and newsreader
*Kate Garraway, journalist and television presenter
18 July – Paul Cornell, British television writer
19 July – Rageh Omaar, broadcaster
22 July – Rhys Ifans, Welsh actor
26 July – Jason Statham, actor
19 August – Lucy Briers, actress
1 September – Steve Pemberton, English comedy writer and performer
18 September – Tara Fitzgerald, English actress
21 September – Christopher Price, television presenter
16 October – Davina McCall, British TV presenter and UK Big Brother host
14 November – Letitia Dean, British actress
15 November – Becky Anderson, journalist and newsreader
Unknown – Miranda Sawyer, journalist and broadcaster

Death

30 May – Claude Rains, actor, aged 77