1975 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1975.

Events

January

2 January – The police drama series The Sweeney premieres on ITV, with John Thaw and Dennis Waterman.
January – Due to financial cutbacks at the BBC, BBC1 scales back its weekday early afternoon programming. Consequently, apart from schools programmes, adult education and live sport, the channel now shows a trade test transmission between 2pm and the start of children's programmes and when not broadcasting actual programmes, BBC2 begins fully closing down on weekdays between 11:30am and 4pm.
20 January – Due to the decision to fully close down the network during the day, Service Information is now broadcast once a day, at 10.30am, rather than three times a day.
22 January – 26 February – Drama series The Love School, about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, is broadcast on BBC2.

February

15 February – ITV shows the 1969 comedy film Carry On Camping, starring Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Terry Scott and Barbara Windsor.
25 February – BBC1 begins showing the American Western family drama Little House on the Prairie, starring Michael Landon.

March

14 March – After less than two years on the air, the Bristol Channel closes.
17 March – BBC1 begins showing the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Hong Kong Phooey.
24 March – Wellingborough Cablevision closes.

April

1 April – Premiere of Edward the Seventh, a drama series made by ATV in 13 one-hour episodes and based on the biography of King Edward VII by Sir Philip Magnus.
3 April – Meg Richardson marries Hugh Mortimer on the ATV soap opera Crossroads.
4 April – The Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal-starring sitcom The Good Life makes its debut on BBC1.
13 April – Game show The Golden Shot airs its final episode on ITV after an eight-year run.

May

31 May – Jim'll Fix It hosted by Jimmy Savile makes its debut on BBC1.

June

3 June – BBC2 shows Ken Loach's 1969 drama film Kes, starring David Bradley as fifteen year old Billy Casper who befriends a wild kestrel.
7–21 June – The BBC shows extensive live coverage of the first Cricket World Cup. The BBC also shows full coverage of the 1979 World Cup.
11 June – A pilot of the sitcom The Melting Pot, written by and starring Spike Milligan with Neil Shand, is broadcast on BBC2. The following year, a full series of six episodes is recorded but never broadcast.

July

5 July – BBC1 launches the long-running Summer variety show Seaside Special.
14 July – New Broadcasting House (Manchester) starts broadcasting programming for BBC North West. It becomes fully operational by September.
20 July – ITV first airs the Bob Monkhouse-hosted game show Celebrity Squares.

August

2 August – BBC2 launches a season of Saturday evening horror movie double bills with Midnight Movie Fantastic. It will continue to be shown until 1983.
13 August – BBC1 begins showing the U.S. detective series The Rockford Files, starring James Garner.

September

2 September – Runaround, the long-running children's game show hosted by comedian Mike Reid is first broadcast on ITV.
3 September – ITV begins showing the supernatural children's anthology series Shadows.
4 September – Gerry Anderson's live-action science fiction series Space: 1999 airs on ITV, starring Martin Landau.
19 September – BFBS Television broadcasts for the first time, in Celle, near Hanover in the West Germany from Trenchard Barracks. The service consists of taped broadcasts from the BBC and ITV, flown to Germany from London which are then rebroadcast using low-power UHF transmitters.
19 September – John Cleese's much-loved hotel comedy series Fawlty Towers debuts on BBC2, with the episode "A Touch of Class".
20 September – ITV Southern shows the 1972 made for television horror film The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin, ahead of other ITV regions.
25 September – Yorkshire Television premieres Animal Kwackers, the British version of the American television series The Banana Splits Adventure Hour which ended almost six years earlier but shorter and very different from the U.S. version. It goes on to air for 3 series.

October

1 October – The long-running arts documentary series Arena makes its debut on BBC2.
24 October – BBC2 broadcasts the iconic Fawlty Towers episode The Germans, in which a concussed Basil starts goose-stepping and impersonating Adolf Hitler to his German guests,
28 October – ITV shows a James Bond film on British television for the first time: Terence Young's 1962 big screen debut of 007 in Dr. No, with Sean Connery starring as Ian Fleming's British secret agent.

December

9 December – 15th anniversary of the first episode of Coronation Street.
16 December – BBC1 shows the courtroom drama Rumpole of the Bailey, as part of the Play for Today series. The titular character played by Leo McKern proves so popular that the ITV would develop it into a full series in 1978.
17 December
*The Thames Television film The Naked Civil Servant, based on Quentin Crisp's memoirs, is broadcast on British television. The film stars John Hurt in the title role.
*The final episode of sitcom Till Death Us Do Part is broadcast on BBC1.
22 December – ITV screens the network premiere of David Lean's 1962 epic historical film Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence with Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle and Claude Rains. The film is split into two parts and shown over consecutive nights.
23 December
*The animated children's series Bod debuts on BBC1 with 11 more episodes to broadcast the following year.
*BBC1 show the television premiere of the 1968 comedy film Carry On Up the Khyber, starring Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw and Roy Castle.
24 December – BBC1 shows the 1974 animated film version of Oscar Wilde's children's story The Happy Prince, narrated by Christopher Plummer. The short film would be shown several times on the BBC until 1986.
25 December – As part of the Christmas Day highlights BBC1 screens the UK television premiere of the 1939 MGM fantasy musical The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland. The film will go on to be shown regularly on the BBC during the Christmas period until the 1990s. Also receiving a world television premiere on BBC1 is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
26 December – BBC1 Boxing Day network premiere of the popular 1970 family film The Railway Children, starring Jenny Agutter and Bernard Cribbins.
27 December – BBC1 shows the 1973 made for television horror drama Frankenstein: The True Story, starring Jane Seymour and James Mason.
31 December – BBC2 shows Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Jerome K. Jerome's critically acclaimed boating holiday comedy Three Men in a Boat, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Michael Palin, Tim Curry and Stephen Moore.

Debuts

BBC1

1 January – The Secret Garden
6 January
*Philbert Frog
*Public Account
*The Changes
7 January – The Venturers
26 January – Anne of Avonlea
25 February – Little House on the Prairie
5 March – You're on Your Own
9 March – The Master of Ballantrae
17 March – Hong Kong Phooey
4 April – The Good Life
16 April – Survivors
23 April – Wodehouse Playhouse
24 April – Sam and the River
2 May – Private Affairs
31 May – Jim'll Fix It
11 June – The Melting Pot
5 July – Seaside Special
14 July – My Honourable Mrs
16 July – The Rough with the Smooth
27 July – Zot the Dog
9 August – Sportscene
13 August – The Rockford Files
26 August – Oil Strike North
27 August – I Didn't Know You Cared
29 August – Quiller
1 September – Angels
2 September – The Growing Pains of P.C. Penrose
11 September – Days of Hope
24 September – The Hill of the Red Fox
26 September – The Invisible Man
5 October
* Ballet Shoes
* Poldark
* Little Monsters
12 October – On the Move
18 November – Emu's Broadcasting Company
23 November – The Legend of Robin Hood
25 November – Francis Durbridge Presents: The Doll
4 December – State of Emergency
23 December – Bod
31 December – ''Striker''

BBC2

2 January – After That, This
22 January – The Love School
19 March – The Fight Against Slavery
29 March – A Legacy
3 May – The Girls of Slender Means
12 May – Rutland Weekend Television
24 May – Looking for Clancy
13 June – Ten from the Twenties
18 June – The Poisoning of Charles Bravo
2 August – Midnight Movie Fantastic
19 September – Fawlty Towers
22 September – Madame Bovary
25 September – Making Faces
26 September – The Wild West Show
1 October – Arena
29 October – The Philanthropist
21 November – Trinity Tales
26 November – Moll Flanders
1 December – North and South
21 December – The Punch Review
29 December – How Green Was My Valley
31 December – ''Three Men in a Boat''

ITV

2 January – The Sweeney
4 January – Carry on Laughing
6 January – The Life of Riley
10 January – Dog of Flanders
12 January – Joby
14 January – Nightingale's Boys
15 January – Cilla's Comedy Six
15 February – The Hanged Man
19 March – The Wackers
24 March – Noddy
1 April – Edward the Seventh
7 April – Sky
20 April – Winner Takes All
21 April – Sadie, It's Cold Outside
26 April – Tarbuck and All That!
27 April – Doctor on the Go
7 May – The Loner
28 May – You Must Be Joking!
8 June – The Siege of Golden Hill
12 June – Dawson's Weekly
3 July –
*Three Comedies of Marriage
*Gambit
13 July – Against the Crowd
20 July – Celebrity Squares
22 July – Johnny Go Home
23 July – Down the 'Gate
2 August – The Summer Show
7 August – Comedy Premiere
2 September – Runaround
3 September – Shadows
4 September
*The Stars Look Down
*Space: 1999
6 September – Two's Company
7 September – My Brother's Keeper
8 September
* Hogg's Back
* My Son Reuben
9 September – Shades of Greene
19 September – Larry Grayson
25 September – Animal Kwackers
8 October
* It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow
* Rule Britannia!
14 October – Couples
15 October – Cooper
16 October – Get Some In!
27 October – The Cuckoo Waltz
17 December – The Naked Civil Servant
Unknown – ''The Brady Bunch''

Television shows

Returning this year after a break of one year or longer

''Ivor the Engine''

Continuing television shows

1920s

''BBC Wimbledon''

1930s

1940s

''Come Dancing''

1950s

1960s

1970s

The Goodies
Bless This House
The Onedin Line
The Old Grey Whistle Test
The Two Ronnies
Love Thy Neighbour
Thunderbirds
Clapperboard
Crown Court
Pebble Mill at One
Are You Being Served?
Rainbow
Emmerdale
Newsround
Weekend World
Pipkins
We Are the Champions
Last of the Summer Wine
That's Life!
Porridge
The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club
Happy Ever After
Rising Damp
Within These Walls
It Ain't Half Hot Mum
Tiswas
''Wish You Were Here...?''

Ending this year

31 March – Up Pompeii!
7 April – Public Eye
12 April – My Old Man
13 April – The Golden Shot
31 May – Vicky the Viking
17 June – Captain Pugwash
23 June – Churchill's People
10 August – Top of the Form
29 August – Not On Your Nellie
6 December – Don't Drink the Water
17 December – Till Death Us Do Part
21 December – Upstairs, Downstairs
31 December – Dog of Flanders
Unknown – ''Watch with Mother''

Births

13 February – Katie Hopkins, reality show contestant and journalist
25 February – Naga Munchetty, presenter and journalist
3 March – Patricia Potter, actress
16 May – Charlotte Hawkins, journalist and newsreader
21 May – Ruth Wignall, journalist and broadcaster
27 May – Jamie Oliver, chef and television personality
29 May – Mel B, singer, actress and television presenter
1 July – Trey Farley, television presenter
2 July – Melanie Clark Pullen, actress
15 July – Jill Halfpenny, actress
17 July – Konnie Huq, television presenter
22 July – Hannah Waterman, actress
22 August – Sheree Murphy, actress
25 August – Sarah Manners, actress
25 September – Declan Donnelly, TV presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
28 September – Kelly Cates, née Dalglish, Scottish sports presenter
26 October – Michael Underwood, television presenter
7 November – Francine Lewis, comedian, actress and model
18 November – Anthony McPartlin, TV presenter and one half of Ant and Dec
11 December – Dawn Steele, actress
Unknown
*Laura Jones, television journalist

Deaths

26 February – Denis Goodwin, 45, comedy scriptwriter, suicide.
23 April – William Hartnell, 67, actor.
18 October – Graham Haberfield, 33, actor.