16 January – Glove puppet bear Sooty gets his own TV series hosted by Harry Corbett.
February
No events.
March
No events.
April
8 April – The BBC broadcasts Billy Graham's All Scotland Crusade live from the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow.[1] This has the second highest audience share at this time, after the Coronation.
May
May – A consortium of the initial four Independent Television broadcasting companies establishes ITN, which will provide ITV with its news service when it launches in September.
17 May – Sir Anthony Eden hosts a ground-breaking television election programme for the Conservative Party, the first broadcast of its type. The 30 minute programme features government ministers pitted against newspaper editors.[2]
26–27 May – The BBC provides around 17 hours of results coverage of the 1955 United Kingdom general election. The BBC records the coverage for the first time but only around three hours still exists in the BBC archives.
June
29 June – Life with the Lyons, one of the first successful British sitcoms (starring British-domiciled American couple Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels), premieres on the BBC Television Service, having previously been broadcast only on radio. It will later transfer to ITV.
29 July – Panel show This Is Your Life premieres on the BBC Television Service.
August
No events.
September
2 September – Under the guidance of Dr. Humphry Osmond, his friend Christopher Mayhew MP ingests 400 mg of Mescaline hydrochloride and allows himself to be filmed as part of a Panorama special for BBC TV that is never broadcast.[5]
4 September – Newsreaders appear "in vision" for the first time on BBC TV.
14 September – The highly popular and long-running live children's variety show Crackerjack! is broadcast for the first time on BBC TV, hosted by Eamonn Andrews.
September – Barbara Mandell becomes Britain's first female newsreader, presenting the Midday News bulletin on ITV.[7]
October
10 October – Alexandra Palace begins test transmissions of a 405-line colour television service.
22 October – Science fiction serial Quatermass II sequel to 1953's The Quatermass Experiment, premieres on the BBC Television Service. It ends on 26 November.
November
No events.
December
25 December – After being on radio since 1932, the Royal Christmas Message is broadcast on British television for the first time, in sound only at 3pm. The first visual Christmas message is shown in 1957.