2 January – Z-Cars premieres on BBC TV, noted as a realistic portrayal of the police. Unusually for its time, the series is set in Northern England; most BBC dramas have been set in southern England. The first three series are transmitted live.
4 January – ITV Anglia region starts showing the US science fiction horror anthology series The Twilight Zone over a year before other ITV regions.
16 May – BBC1 debuts the US cartoon series Top Cat; however, a few weeks later the BBC change the title to "Boss Cat" to avoid similarities with a popular cat food brand of the same name.
22 September – Anglia Television launches Match of the Week which shows highlights of football matches from around East Anglia.[4] Shortly after, Tyne Tees Television in the North East of England begins broadcasting local matches under the title Shoot.
17 October – Veteran Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne becomes the first person to introduce The Beatles on television as the band makes its small-screen debut on Granada Television's local news programme People and Places in the north of England.[5][6]
Cigarette adverts are banned from children's programmes in the UK. Actors in these adverts now have to be over 21 and connection to social success is no longer allowed. The tobacco companies also start a policy of not advertising before 9pm.
^Byrne, Gay (13 February 2010). "The chameleon of Montrose". The Irish Times. Dublin: Irish Times Trust. Archived from the original on 18 November 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2012.