This is a list of British television related events from 1969.
Events
January
3 January – ITV Granada exclusively begins showing the American cartoon series Spider-Man long before any other ITV regions. 4 January – Guitarist Jimi Hendrix causes complaints of arrogance from television producers after playing an impromptu version of "Sunshine Of Your Love" past his allotted timeslot on the BBC1 show Happening for Lulu.
February
No events.
March
19 March – The 385 metre tall Emley Moor transmitting station mast collapses because of icing. 29 March – The UK shares the win of the 14th Eurovision Song Contest, in a four-way tie with France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Lulu represents the UK, singing "Boom Bang-a-Bang". 31 March Charles Curran becomes Director-General of the BBC. Historical drama The Flashing Blade, adapted from the French original, airs on BBC1 children's television for the first time, transmitted in black and white.
April
11 April – Granada's 8-part crime thriller serial Big Breadwinner Hog launches on the ITV network at 9.00pm. Because of complaints, the violence is toned down in later episodes, but from episode 5 some ITV regions move transmission to a later timeslot while Southern and Anglia stop transmission of the serial altogether. 14 April – The hugely popular and long-running comedy series The Liver Birds debuts on BBC1. The Liverpool-set series was created by Carla Lane; it will run for over a decade with a brief revival in 1996.
May
No events.
June
21 June
Patrick Troughton makes his last regular appearance as the Second Doctor in the concluding moments of Episode 10 of the Doctor Who serial The War Games. It also marks the final time that the series is broadcast in black and white. The documentary Royal Family is broadcast and attracts more than 30.6 million viewers, an all-time British record for a non-current event programme. June – Anglia Television and Yorkshire Television begin talks regarding a cost-cutting exercise which would involve sharing equipment and facilities. Neither company plans joint productions or a merger. The reason to form an association is purely down to the costs of the increased levy on the companies' advertising revenue by the government and the cost of colour TV. The ITA stated there was no reason why the companies should not have talks about sensible economies that could be made, but would examine all details before any association were to be implemented.
July
3 July – Lulu the elephant runs amok on Blue Peter. The clip is subsequently repeated many times, becoming the archetypal British TV blooper. 12 July – The US sci-fi TV series Star Trek makes its debut on BBC1 beginning with the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". 20–21 July – Live transmission from the Moon with the landing of Apollo 11; at 03:56 BST on 21 July, Neil Armstrong steps onto the surface. BBC television makes its first overnight broadcast to provide coverage. Footage of the event is reported to have been seen by 22 million UK viewers on 21 July (720 million worldwide). 27 July – First episode of The Morecambe & Wise Show, Series Two, on BBC2, the first scripted by Eddie Braben.
August
No events.
September
2 September – Release of The Stones in the Park, footage of a Rolling Stones concert given in London's Hyde Park in July and filmed by Granada Television. 21 September – Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) premieres on ITV. 23 September – BBC2 show the TV movie Prescription: Murder, which sees the first appearance of the American detective Columbo, played by Peter Falk. 28 September – Debut of the American police drama Hawaii Five-O on ITV Yorkshire. ITV Midlands and London regions broadcast the first episode a few days later on 3rd October.
October
4 October – The ITV Seven, a programme which shows live coverage of horse racing from racecourses around the UK, is first aired. The programme is an essential part of ITV's Saturday afternoon World of Sport show and continues until a few weeks before World of Sport ends in 1985. 5 October – The influential and surreal comedy sketch series Monty Python's Flying Circus airs its first episode on BBC1. 6 October – Chigley becomes the third and final programme of The Trumptonshire Trilogy on BBC1 to be shot in colour before the introduction of regular colour broadcasting on 15 November. 7 October – The Hanna Barbara children's cartoon series Wacky Races debuts on BBC1.