1966 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1966.

List of years in British television (table)
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Events

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January

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February

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  • No events.

March

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April

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  • 5 April – The Money Programme debuts on BBC2. It continues to air until 2010.
  • 7 April–24 September – Weavers Green, made by Anglia Television, airs on ITV in 49 half-hour episodes twice-weekly. Based around a country veterinary practice, it is the first rural soap opera on British television and one of the first television programmes to be shot on location using videotape and outside broadcast equipment, rather than film, as has usually been the case for non-studio shooting until this point.[3]
  • 21 April – The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.
  • 21 May – ITV Midlands (ABC) and ITV London and Southern begin broadcasting Batman, the American live-action series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Other ITV regions broadcast it soon afterwards, with STV first showing it on 2 July, and Border on 13 August. Episodes are shown in two parts over Saturday and Sunday evenings.[4][5][6][7]
  • 23 May – Julie Goodyear makes her Coronation Street debut as Bet Lynch. She will become a regular character between 1970 and 1995, as well as brief returns in 2002 and 2003.

June

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July

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  • 9 July – BBC2 Scotland goes on the air, the last regional area to receive BBC2 (including the Gaelic language strand BBC Dhà Alba). It ceases broadcasting on 17 February 2019 to make way for the new BBC Scotland channel launching on 24 February 2019.
  • 30 July – England beat West Germany 4–2 to win the 1966 World Cup at Wembley, attracting an all-time record UK television audience of more than 32,000,000.[15]

Summer

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  • Summer – Patrick McGoohan quits the popular spy series Danger Man after filming only two episodes of the fourth season, in order to produce and star in The Prisoner which begins filming in September.

August

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  • No events.

September

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  • No events.

October

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November

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December

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Debuts

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BBC1

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BBC2

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Continuing television shows

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1920s

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

1930s

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  • 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

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1950s

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1960s

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Ending this year

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Births

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Rugby Special – BBC Two – 1 January 1966". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  2. ^ "BBC tunes in to colour". BBC On This Day. 3 March 1966. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
  3. ^ Williams, John. "Weavers Green (1966)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  4. ^ "History of Batman 1966".
  5. ^ "Barmy-Brilliant-Batman".
  6. ^ "Batman (1966–1968) Release Info".
  7. ^ "British Newspaper Archive 21 May 1966".
  8. ^ "Broadcast – BBC Programme Index". Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  9. ^ "The Beatles Bible – the Beatles' only live Top of the Pops appearance". 5 May 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  10. ^ Turner, Steve (2016). Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year. New York, NY: Ecco. pp. 211, 213. ISBN 978-0-06-247558-9.
  11. ^ Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-19-512941-0.
  12. ^ Rodriguez, Robert (2012). Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n' Roll. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-61713-009-0.
  13. ^ "Clip of 'lost' Beatles Top of the Pops performance unearthed". BBC News. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  14. ^ "Footage of Beatles' only Top of the Pops live show found". BBC News. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  15. ^ ""Football glory for England" BBC On This Day". BBC News. 30 July 1966. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  16. ^ Corner, John. "Cathy Come Home". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  17. ^ Mark Duguid "Armchair Theatre (1956–74)", BFI screenonline
  18. ^ "What the Papers Say in pictures". The Guardian. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
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