1961 in British radio

List of years in British radio (table)
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This is a list of events from British radio in 1961.

Events

• 30 June – The popular radio comedy programme Hancock's Half Hour is aired for the last time.
• Unknown – David Davis is appointed head of children's sound broadcasting at the BBC.
• Unknown – Chorus singer Irene Thomas enters and wins the Brain of Britain contest, heralding a forty-year period as a mainstay of radio panel game quiz programmes.

Continuing programmes

1940s

• Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018)
• Desert Island Discs (1942–Present)
• Down Your Way (1946–1992)
• Letter from America (1946–2004)
• Woman's Hour (1946–Present)
• A Book at Bedtime (1949–Present)

1950s

• The Archers (1950–Present)
• The Today Programme (1957–Present)
• The Navy Lark (1959–1977)
• Sing Something Simple (1959–2001)
• Your Hundred Best Tunes (1959–2007)

1960s

• Farming Today (1960–Present)
• Easy Beat (1960–1967)

Births

• 1 January – Fiona Phillips, radio and television presenter
• 3 March – Paul Baskerville, disc jockey
• 12 May – Charlie Neil, disc jockey and ITV weather presenter
• 28 June – Mark Goodier, disc jockey
• 17 July – Jeremy Hardy, comedian (died 2019)
• 22 July – Carolyn Quinn, journalist and presenter on PM.
• 25 October – Pat Sharp, radio and television presenter
• Unknown
  • Robin Brooks, radio dramatist
  • Corrie Corfield, newsreader
  • Graham Torrington, disc jockey

Deaths

• 21 April – Wallace Greenslade, announcer (born 1912)
• 22 October – L. Stanton Jefferies, musician and radio producer (born 1896)

See also

• 1961 in British music
• 1961 in British television
• 1961 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1961