1946 in British television

This is a list of British television related events from 1946.

British television broadcasts resumed this year. They had been suspended during World War II for fear that the signals would help German bombers.

Events

• 1 June – The first television licence is introduced in the United Kingdom costing £2.
• 7 June – The BBC Television Service begins broadcasting again. The first words heard are "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?". Twenty minutes later, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere that had been the last programme transmitted seven years earlier at the start of World War II, is reshown.
• 7 July – The BBC's children's programme For the Children returns, one of the few pre-war programmes to resume after the reintroduction of the BBC Television Service.
• 4 August – Children's puppet "Muffin the Mule" debuts in an episode of For The Children. He is so popular he is given his own show later in the year on a new service Watch with Mother.
• 22 October – Telecrime, the first television crime series from the 1930s, returns for the final run on the BBC Television Service, retitled Telecrimes.
• 29 November – Pinwright's Progress, British television's first sitcom, debuts on the BBC Television Service.

Debuts

• 4 August – Muffin the Mule (1946–1955, 2005–2006)
• 2 November – Kaleidoscope (1946–1953)
• 29 November – Pinwright's Progress (1946–1947)

Television shows returning after the war

1930s

• Picture Page (1936–1939, 1946–1952).
• For the Children (1937–1939, 1946–1950)
• Telecrime (1938–1939, 1946)

Ending this year

• Telecrime (1938–1939, 1946)

Births

• 1 February – Elisabeth Sladen, English actress, Doctor Who (died 2011)
• 5 February – Charlotte Rampling, English actress
• 7 February – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (died 2011)
• 16 February – Ian Lavender, actor
• 18 February – Michael Buerk, journalist and news presenter
• 20 February – Brenda Blethyn, English actress
• 21 February – Alan Rickman, English actor
• 21 March – Timothy Dalton, Welsh actor
• 28 March – Tricia Ingrams, journalist and television presenter (died 1996)
• 5 April – Jane Asher, actress
• 11 April – Bob Harris, radio and television presenter
• 18 April – Hayley Mills, actress
• 19 April – Tim Curry, English actor, vocalist, and composer
• May – Jock Brown, football commentator
• 1 May – Joanna Lumley, actress
• 10 May – Maureen Lipman, actress, columnist and comedian
• 15 June – Noddy Holder, English singer (Slade)
• 5 July – Gwyneth Powell, English actress
• 14 July – Sue Lawley, broadcaster
• 19 September – Michael Elphick, actor (died 2002)
• 25 September – Felicity Kendal, actress
• 28 September – Helen Shapiro, singer and actor
• 29 September – Patricia Hodge, English actress
• 10 October – Chris Tarrant, broadcaster and television presenter
• 14 October – Katy Manning, English actress
• 17 October – Vicki Hodge, English actress
• 22 October – Kelvin MacKenzie, media executive
• 31 October – Stephen Rea, Northern Irish actor
• 18 November – Andrea Allan, Scottish actress
• 20 December – Lesley Judd, English actress and television presenter
• 27 December – Janet Street-Porter, English broadcast journalist

Deaths

• 14 June – John Logie Baird, 57, engineer and inventor of the world's first working television system.