This is a list of British television related events from 1968. Lost in space debut was 19 August 1968 on Thames TV
Events
January
1 January – The colour television licence is introduced when a £5 "colour supplement" is added to the £5 monochrome licence fee, therefore making the cost of a colour licence £10. 5 January – Gardeners' World is broadcast for the first time. The programme will pass its 50th series. 13 January – Sooty, Harry Corbett's glove puppet bear, moves from the BBC to ITV following its cancellation the previous year by the controller of BBC 1, Paul Fox.
February
4 February – Cult series The Prisoner finishes its first run on British television. 5 February – BBC2's Newsroom becomes the first news programme in the UK to be broadcast in colour. 12 February – Children's stop-motion animation The Herbs debuts on BBC1.
March
4 March – TWW closes. The station has lost its franchise in the previous ITV licensing awards and decided to close 10 weeks early, selling its remaining airtime to HTV for £500,000, however Harlech is not ready to commence transmissions and to fill the gap an interim service, staffed by former TWW staff, is provided until Harlech's launch on 20 May. 11 March – The popular Yugoslavian and West German produced children's series The White Horses is shown on BBC1.
April
1 April – Reporting Scotland launches on BBC1 Scotland, replacing A Quick Look Round. 6 April – The 13th Eurovision Song Contest is held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Spain wins the contest with the song "La, la, la", performed in Spanish by Massiel after Spanish authorities refuse to allow Joan Manuel Serrat to perform it in Catalan. This year marks the first time the event is broadcast in colour, with several European countries transmitting it in colour. Because BBC1 does not yet broadcast in colour, BBC2 airs an encore edition of the show in colour the following day. 15 April – BBC1 screen the UK television premiere of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic 1960 horror movie Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. 20 April – Conservative MP Enoch Powell makes his infamous Rivers of Blood speech about immigration and anti-discrimination legislation in the United Kingdom. The speech is made at the Midland Hotel in Birmingham to a meeting of the Conservative Political Centre at 2:30pm. The Birmingham-based television company ATV has seen an advance copy of the speech this morning and its news editor has ordered a television crew to go to the venue where they film sections of the speech. The speech provokes great outcry among the British public, making Powell simultaneously one of the most popular and loathed politicians in the country and leading to his rapid dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet by Conservative party leader Edward Heath.
May
4 May – Mary Hopkin performs on the British TV show Opportunity Knocks. Hopkin catches the attention of model Twiggy who recommends her to Beatle Paul McCartney who soon signs Hopkin to Apple Records. 7 May - BBC1 airs the M. R. James ghost story Whistle and I'll Come to You, starring Michael Hordern. 20 May – Harlech (which becomes HTV in 1970) starts its dual service for Wales and the West of England, replacing the interim ITSWW which has itself replaced TWW in March.
June
14 June – BBC1 launch the children's show The Basil Brush Show, featuring mischievous puppet fox Basil.