Editing 1970s (section)

====United Kingdom====
In the United Kingdom, colour channels were now available; three stations had begun broadcasting in colour between 1967 and 1969. However, many viewers continued to watch black-and-white television sets for most of the decade, which meant for example that televised [[snooker]] (in which the colour of balls is important) did not reach the heights of its popularity until the 1980s.

Notable dramas included ''[[Play for Today]]'' and ''[[Pennies from Heaven (TV series)|Pennies from Heaven]]''. In police dramas, there was a move towards increasing realism; popular shows included ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'', ''[[Z-Cars]]'', ''[[Softly, Softly (television series)|Softly, Softly]]'', and ''[[The Sweeney]]''.

The science fiction show ''[[Doctor Who]]'' reached its peak.

1970s UK television featured a mix of traditional more modern comedies and sitcoms. ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'', ''[[Morecambe and Wise]]'', ''[[The Benny Hill Show]]'', ''[[Are You Being Served?]]'' and ''[[Dad's Army]]'' had their origins in the variety show and radio comedy of the first half of the century. Many popular British [[situation comedy|situation comedies]] (sit-coms) were gentle, unchallenging comedies of middle-class life; typical examples were ''[[Terry and June]]'' and ''[[Sykes (TV series)|Sykes]]''. However, the middle-class settings of ''[[The Good Life (1975 TV series)|The Good Life]]'' and ''[[The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin]]'' contrasted with their anti-establishment theme of people rejecting traditional social norms. A harsher side of society was shown by comedy series like ''[[Porridge (1974 TV series)|Porridge]]'' and ''[[Rising Damp]]'', while sitcoms such as ''[[Mind Your Language]]'', ''[[Love Thy Neighbour (1972 TV series)|Love Thy Neighbour]]'' and ''[[Till Death Us Do Part]]'' reflected social unease brought about by post-war immigration. [[Spike Milligan]]'s ''[[Q (TV series)|Q]]'' and the still-popular ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' both used surreal comedy, originating from the 1950s ''[[The Goon Show]]''.

During the 1970s, the original animated television series ''[[Roobarb]]'' and ''[[Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk]]''.

The television information retrieval service [[Teletext]] was initially introduced when the BBC [[Ceefax]] system went live on 23 September 1974.

In the late 1970s, BBC2's unveiled a new identity, a twin-striped "2", which was the first electronically generated symbol and scrolled on and off the screen.