This is a list of events from British radio in 1961.
Events 5 June – Hans Keller broadcasts a performance of the spoof avant-garde composition Mobile for Tape and Percussion by the fictitious composer Piotr Zak on the BBC Third Programme. 29 July – William Glock is now controller of music for the BBC and The Proms. One of his first commissions is of Symphonies, Op 46 by Elisabeth Lutyens, an indication of his modernistic sympathies. September – Alan Freeman replaces David Jacobs as the main presenter of Pick of the Pops. David Davis is appointed head of children's sound broadcasting at the BBC. 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.
Programme debuts 8 October – In Touch on the BBC Home Service (1961–Present) October – Once Over Lightly on the BBC Light Programme (1961–1962)
Continuing radio programmes 1940s Music While You Work (1940–1967) Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018) Desert Island Discs (1942–Present) Family Favourites (1945–1980) Down Your Way (1946–1992) Have A Go (1946–1967) Housewives' Choice (1946–1967) Letter from America (1946–2004) Woman's Hour (1946–Present) Twenty Questions (1947–1976) Any Questions? (1948–Present) Mrs Dale's Diary (1948–1969) Billy Cotton Band Show (1949–1968) A Book at Bedtime (1949–Present)
1950s The Archers (1950–Present) Listen with Mother (1950–1982) From Our Own Correspondent (1955–Present) Pick of the Pops (1955–Present) The Clitheroe Kid (1957–1972) My Word! (1957–1988) Test Match Special (1957–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)
Ending this year 29 January – Ray's a Laugh (1949–1961)
Births 1 January – Fiona Phillips, radio and television presenter 3 January – Justin Webb, journalist and presenter on Today 3 March – Paul Baskerville, disc jockey 10 April – Nicky Campbell, Scottish-born broadcast presenter 14 May – David Quantick, comedy writer, music journalist and radio broadcaster 24 June – David Tyler, broadcast comedy producer 28 June – Mark Goodier, disc jockey 10 July – Marc Riley, disc jockey 17 July – Jeremy Hardy, comedian (died 2019) 22 July – Carolyn Quinn, journalist and presenter on PM 27 June – Lynn Parsons, disc jockey 25 October – Pat Sharp, radio and television presenter October – Clive Coleman, barrister, legal journalist and sitcom writer Unknown Robin Brooks, radio dramatist Corrie Corfield, newsreader Martin Hyder, comedy actor
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
References