1967 in British television

List of years in British television (table)
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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 (the last to be made in black and white) 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;[1] 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

March

  • No events.

April

  • 4 April – BBC1 show 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 (barefoot) by Sandie Shaw. It is broadcast live on BBC1.

May

  • No events.

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,[5] which attracts around 15 million viewers.[6]

August

  • No events.

September

October

  • 13 October – Omnibus, an arts documentary series, begins on BBC1.
  • 16 October – ITV Granada show 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

Debuts

BBC1

BBC2

ITV

Television shows

Changes of network affiliation

Shows Moved from Moved to
BBC Wimbledon BBC1 BBC2
Sooty BBC ITV

Continuing television shows

1920s

  • BBC Wimbledon (1927–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–2024)

1930s

  • Trooping the Colour (1937–1939, 1946–2019, 2023–present)
  • The Boat Race (1938–1939, 1946–2019, 2021–present)
  • BBC Cricket (1939, 1946–1999, 2020–2024)

1940s

1950s

1960s

Ending this year

Births

Death

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Forsyte Saga (1967)". screenonline. BFI. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  2. ^ Frischauer, Willi (1971). David Frost. London: Joseph. pp. 136–8. ISBN 0718110056.
  3. ^ Baren, Maurice (2000). How It All Began in Yorkshire. Vol. 2. Clapham, Yorkshire: Dalesman Publishing. ISBN 1-85568-183-8. [page needed]
  4. ^ ITV: who wants what. The Times (London). 30 May 1967.
  5. ^ "The Old Man of Hoy". History of the BBC. BBC. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  6. ^ "The Great Climb". BBC. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  7. ^ Mark Duguid "Armchair Theatre (1956–74)", BFI screenonline
  8. ^ "What the Papers Say in pictures". The Guardian. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2022.