1968 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1968.

Events

January

1 January – The colour television licence is introduced when a £5 "colour supplement" is added to the £5 monochrome licence fee, therefore making the cost of a colour licence £10.
5 January – Gardeners' World is broadcast for the first time. The programme would still be running over fifty years later.
13 January – Sooty, Harry Corbett's glove puppet bear, moves from the BBC to ITV following its cancellation the previous year by the controller of BBC1, Paul Fox. A new series would air later in the year and be produced by Thames.

February

4 February – Cult series The Prisoner finishes its first run on British television.
5 February – BBC2's Newsroom becomes the first news programme in the UK to be broadcast in colour.
12 February – Children's stop-motion animation The Herbs debuts on BBC1, the first programme under a different production to Gordon Murray Puppets to be filmed in colour.

March

4 March – TWW closes. The station has lost its franchise in the previous ITV licensing awards and decided to close 10 weeks early, selling its remaining airtime to HTV for £500,000; however, Harlech is not ready to commence transmissions and to fill the gap an interim service, staffed by former TWW staff, is provided until Harlech's launch on 20 May.
11 March – The popular Yugoslavian and West German produced children's series The White Horses is shown on BBC1.

April

1 April – Reporting Scotland launches on BBC1 Scotland, replacing A Quick Look Round.
6 April – The 13th Eurovision Song Contest is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Spain wins the contest with the song "La, la, la", performed in Spanish by Massiel after Spanish authorities refuse to allow Joan Manuel Serrat to perform it in Catalan. This year marks the first time the event is broadcast in colour, with several European countries transmitting it in colour. Because BBC1 does not yet broadcast in colour, BBC2 airs an encore edition of the show in colour the following day.
15 April – BBC1 airs the network television premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic 1960 horror movie Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.
20 April – Conservative MP Enoch Powell makes his infamous Rivers of Blood speech about immigration and anti-discrimination legislation in the United Kingdom. The speech is made at the Midland Hotel in Birmingham to a meeting of the Conservative Political Centre at 2:30pm. The Birmingham-based television company ATV has seen an advance copy of the speech this morning and its news editor has ordered a television crew to go to the venue where they film sections of the speech. The speech provokes great outcry among the British public, making Powell simultaneously one of the most popular and loathed politicians in the country and leading to his rapid dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet by Conservative party leader Edward Heath.

May

4 May – Mary Hopkin performs on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks. Hopkin catches the attention of model Twiggy who recommends her to Beatle Paul McCartney who soon signs Hopkin to Apple Records.
7 May – BBC1 airs the M. R. James ghost story Whistle and I'll Come to You, starring Michael Hordern.
20 May – Harlech starts its dual service for Wales and the West of England, replacing the interim ITSWW which has itself replaced TWW in March.

June

14 June – BBC1 launches the children's show The Basil Brush Show, featuring mischievous puppet fox Basil.

July

9 July – American time-travel series The Time Tunnel debuts on BBC1.
28 July – Final day on air for ABC which has broadcast to the North and Midlands regions during weekends. The 1968 contract round sees the end of weekend franchises in these regions. It is also the last day on air for ATV London which loses its weekend franchise to the newly formed London Weekend Television.
29 July – Granada and ATV broadcast seven days a week to the North-West and Midlands respectively. The North is split into two regions with Granada broadcasting to the North-West and Yorkshire Television broadcasting to the Yorkshire region. It is also the last day on air for Rediffusion, London in the London area.
29 and 30 July – ITV shows test cricket for the only time, and only part-networked, when the last two days of the Headingley Test against Australia coincide with the launch of Yorkshire Television. The morning session is the first thing shown on Thames Television, ahead its official opening later that day.
30 July
*Thames Television goes on air, having taken over the London weekday franchise from Rediffusion, London. Thames is a new joint venture between the respective parent companies of ABC and Rediffusion, the ABPC having been awarded the controlling 51% stake in the new London weekday broadcaster but with profits shared equally. Thames's evening news program Today, presented by Eamonn Andrews, features Jamaican Barbara Blake Hannah as the first black news presenter on British television.
*Children's magazine programme Magpie premieres on ITV.
*The first episode of The Sooty Show to air on ITV.
31 July – Popular sitcom Dad's Army, set in the World War II Home Guard, begins its nine-year run on BBC1 with the episode "The Man and the Hour".

August

2 August – London Weekend Television takes over the London weekend franchise from ATV. Going on air initially as London Weekend Television, it later adopts the name London Weekend before reverting to its original name in 1978.
3 August – ITV technicians' strike immediately after the 1968 franchise changes. causing a national stoppage. The individual companies are off the air for several weeks and an emergency service is established. The ITV Emergency National Service is presented by management personnel with no regional variations, the first time that a uniform presentation practice has been adopted across all regions. The strike ends on 18 August.
21 August – The BBC's scheduled transmission of the fourth Dad's Army episode is postponed for coverage of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

September

2 September – Morecambe and Wise return to the BBC in The Morecambe & Wise Show. Debuting on BBC2, the show eventually moves to BBC1 in September 1971.
7 September – The new ITV company London Weekend Television wins the rights to show the Gillette Cup final between Warwickshire and Sussex. This coverage is only partially networked, with other regions cutting off their coverage earlier, but coverage of the finish – shown principally in the London and Southern areas – is faded out with six minutes to go to make way for advertising and then David Frost's programme.
8 September – ITV broadcasts The Beatles iconic live performance of Hey Jude on Frost on Sunday.
9 September – Translated French children's puppet series Hector's House debuts on BBC1.
14 September – The final editions of Look Westward, The Viewer, TV Post, Television Weekly and TV World are broadcast.
21 September – TVTimes becomes a national publication, as previously some ITV companies have produced their own listings magazines.
29 September – Joe 90, the science-fiction Supermarionation series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson debuts on ITV.

October

12–27 October – The BBC and ITV provide coverage of the 1968 Olympic Games. The BBC's coverage is extensive, with live coverage into the night and a daily breakfast programme Good Morning Mexico. This is also the first time the Games are broadcast in colour, albeit only on BBC2 which simulcasts the majority of BBC1's coverage. This is also the first time that ITV shows the Olympic Games.

November

2 November – BBC1 debuts Zokko!, the first British Saturday morning live children's magazine programme.
16 November – ITV begins showing the Hammer Film Productions horror anthology series Journey to the Unknown.

December

7 December – American science fiction series Land of the Giants makes its debut on ITV.
25 December – BBC1 shows the television premiere of the 1959 Billy Wilder comedy film Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.

Debuts

BBC1

6 January – The Portrait of a Lady
22 January – Hugh and I Spy
30 January – Cilla
11 February – Nicholas Nickleby
12 February – The Herbs
11 March – The White Horses
1 April – Reporting Scotland
7 April – The First Lady
7 May – Whistle and I'll Come to You
10 May – Thicker Than Water
12 May – The Railway Children
21 May – Lulu's Back in Town
24 May – Wild, Wild Women
14 June
*The Basil Brush Show
*Me Mammy
23 June – The Dave Allen Show
30 June – Triton
9 July – The Time Tunnel
15 July – Ukridge
28 July – The Man in the Iron Mask
31 July – Dad's Army
30 August – The Old Campaigner
9 September – Hector's House
12 September – Sportsnight
13 September – Oh Brother!
15 September – Song of Summer
29 September – The £1,000,000 Bank Note
2 November – Zokko!
3 November – Treasure Island
18 November –
25 December – The Harry Secombe Show
30 December – ''Adventure Weekly''

BBC2

5 January – Gardeners' World
15 January – Look and Read: Len and the River Mob
22 January – The World of Beachcomber
2 March – Point Counter Point
6 April – Ooh La La!
19 April – Late Night Horror
29 April – Marty
14 June – Colour Me Pop
22 June – Cold Comfort Farm
5 July – The Expert
13 July – Middlemarch
29 July – The Year of the Sex Olympics
31 August – Nana
2 September – The Morecambe & Wise Show
8 September – Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
10 September – The Jazz Age
11 September – A Touch of Venus
27 September – Scene
10 October – Jazz at the Maltings
28 October – Broaden Your Mind
16 November – Resurrection
28 December – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
31 December – ''The Borderers''

ITV

4 January – A Man of our Times
5 February – Rogues' Gallery
28 February – The Flight of the Heron
28 March – Virgin of the Secret Service
3 April – The Ronnie Barker Playhouse
4 April – Freewheelers
19 April – Spindoe
17 June – Devil-in-the-Fog
12 July – The War of Darkie Pilbeam
30 July – Magpie
31 July – Frontier
1 August – The Queen Street Gang
2 August – Gazette
6 August – Best of Enemies
10 August – Never a Cross Word
15 August – Nearest and Dearest
19 August – Lost in Space
21 August – Tom Grattan's War
25 August – The Big Match
22 September – The Caesars
24 September
*How We Used To Live
*Inside George Webley
25 September
* The Champions
* Her Majesty's Pleasure
29 September – Joe 90
1 October – The Root of All Evil?
28 October – Houseparty
November – Sugarball The Jungle Boy
5 November – Father, Dear Father
8 November – Please Sir!
16 November – Journey to the Unknown
5 December – High Living
7 December – ''Land of the Giants''

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

''Scott On''

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

The Ed Sullivan Show
''Come Dancing''

1950s

1960s

Coronation Street
The Avengers
Songs of Praise
The Saint
Z-Cars
Animal Magic
Doctor Who
World in Action
The Wednesday Play
Top of the Pops
Match of the Day
Crossroads
Play School
Mr. and Mrs.
The Newcomers
Public Eye
World of Sport
Sportsnight
Softly, Softly
The Trumptonshire Trilogy
Jackanory
It's a Knockout
The Money Programme
Market in Honey Lane
Not in Front of the Children
Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width
The Golden Shot
Playhouse
''Reksio''

Ending this year

Take Your Pick! Double Your Money White Heather Club Danger Man Theatre 625 Beggar My Neighbour At Last the 1948 Show Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons Man in a Suitcase Pinky and Perky

''The Prisoner''

Births

30 January – Tony Maudsley, actor
3 February – David Scarboro, actor
29 February – Wendi Peters, actress
4 March – Patsy Kensit, English actress
11 March – Dominic Mafham, actor
21 March – Jaye Davidson, British actor
23 March – Abigail Cruttenden, actress
3 April – Charlotte Coleman, actress
8 April – Jenny Powell, television presenter
17 April – Lee Whitlock, actor
22 April – Amanda Mealing, actress
23 April – Ricky Groves, actor
4 May – Julian Barratt, comedian and actor
10 May – Rhodri Williams, Welsh sports presenter
15 May – Sophie Raworth, journalist and newsreader
22 May – Graham Linehan, Irish writer and director
7 June – Sarah Parish, actress
28 June – Adam Woodyatt, actor
20 July – Julian Rhind-Tutt, film, television and radio actor
26 July – Olivia Williams, actress
4 August – Lee Mack, comedian and actor
5 August – Stephanie Flanders, broadcast journalist
9 August
*Gillian Anderson, British actress
*Kate Gerbeau, television presenter and newsreader
11 August – Gray O'Brien, actor
14 August – Adrian Lester, British actor
17 August – Helen McCrory, actress
20 August – Sharat Sardana, comedy scriptwriter
21 August – Laura Trevelyan, BBC journalist
8 September – Louise Minchin, news presenter
9 September – Julia Sawalha, English actress, sister of Nadia Sawalha
20 September – Philippa Forrester, British TV presenter
23 September – Yvette Fielding, television presenter and actress
28 September – Shiulie Ghosh, television journalist
1 October – Mark Durden-Smith, British television presenter
2 October – Victoria Derbyshire, radio and television presenter
19 October – Kacey Ainsworth, British actress
20 October – Susan Tully, television producer and director, previously actress
12 November – Jo Coburn, journalist and broadcaster
22 November
*Andrew Gilligan, British journalist
*Sarah Smith, Scottish journalist
23 November – Kirsty Young, television presenter
12 December – Kate Humble, television presenter
18 December – Nina Wadia, actress and comedian
Unknown – Melanie Stace, television presenter