Fun Missing Television

Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
My sister was telling me the other day of an episode of TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION from ITV that had spooked her growing up.

It turned out to have been wiped, but an audio exists of it and is on Youtube.

The story was LOST HEARTS by MR James.

The version my sister recalls was made in 1966.

Here is the audio of that version.....




But it was remade in 1973 by the BBC as A CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY - and this is the version that spooked me growing up and this one thankfully still exists....


Here's a clip.....





Anyone else remember either - or both - of these adaptions? It seems that people generally find that the 1966 version was truly terrifying.. But we may never know for sure now, miraculous find permitting! :emoji_alien:
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
A recent find.....

"THWUM"

An episode of SECOND CITY FIRST from 1975, with Pete Postlethwaite in his first tv role.....

Screening soon at the BFI....


http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/...al&utm_source=facebookbfi&utm_campaign=buffer


thwum-1973-001-pete-postlethwaite.jpg


SPOILERS AHEAD.....

  • Having extensively researched British UFO sightings, Bernard has discovered a pattern to their times, dates and map reference data, that enables him to accurately predict when and where a string of future sightings will occur. When the locations of these are marked on a map, they form a huge spiral; the center point of which, he is convinced, will be the precise position for an event of monumental significance: no less than open contact with an alien intelligence! The time of that event will be tonight, and Bernard is in readiness at the remote spot in his caravan. He is also anticipating the company of personnel from UFO groups throughout Europe, television and radio companies, and numerous newspapers; to which he has made invitations. His wife: Joy, is quietly uneasy with the whole affair as she leaves him alone there until the morning. The first of the invited: a journalist that Bernard does not recognize, named Duffy, arrives just after Joy has left. He is a patient listener that avoids both skepticism and any sign of acceptance that Bernard's convictions are factual. Glancing frequently through the caravan's windows into the blackness outside, they discuss the occurrences that lead up to this evening and the possible consequences of what could happen next. As the night progresses, Bernard has to accept that no-one else he invited is going to turn up, and anything that occurs will only be witnessed by the two of them. The appointed hour finally arrives. And by the time it has uneventfully passed, Bernard's excitement has been transformed by degrees into dejected disappointment. Everything he believed now seems to have been wrong. With all apparently lost, the stranger Duffy suddenly undergoes a transformation: revealing himself to actually be the benevolent alien emissary that Bernard had been there for that night. Naked now and eerily glowing, Duffy declares their meeting to have been successful in enabling him to learn about the nature of mankind. Shocked beyond his imaginings, Bernard watches him leave.


Second City Firsts was a BBC drama anthology series of short plays, written largely by first time writers, which were transmitted between 1973 and 1978.


Here is another complete episode from that series.....


An early role for Alison Steadman part of the BBC First City Firsts string of dramas. This episode was broadcast on 20.03.75 and is from Series 4 Episode 1.



 
johnnybear

johnnybear

Member: Rank 6
Can't say I know of this show! I remember poor old Pete Postlethwate having cancer of the privates back in the nineties and surviving the blasted thing but it got him in the end sadly enough!
JB
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
400px-Spike_Milligan.jpg


Just announced...

DISCOVERY 272:

The Wednesday Show - tx: 18.12.1968

with David Jacobs, Roger Ordish, Spike Milligan and Sir Francis Chichester. Directed by Jim Moir.

Earlier in the year Kaleidoscope was contacted by a film collector who had been given a bag of film many years ago. The print was probably dropped on the floor without a core so it unspooled on impact. Over the years the bag had been squashed and moved around. The film was bent and twisted and sitting in a tangle in the old bag. Kaleidoscope spent some time putting the print back together and re-splicing all the joins. The musical number has been excised from this print, which suggests it was an overseas print, but it's great to see some lost Spike Milligan footage found again.

16mm print.
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
DISCOVERY 274: Ready Steady Go - tx: 2/7/1965. Rediffusion
with Manfred Mann, Kenny Lynch and Nina Simone.

When Channel 4 arrived in the 1980s, they had a strong focus on pop music. In 1985 repeats of Ready Steady Go arrived, but they were not complete shows. They were compilations of material mixed with clips from US shows such as Shindig. What survived of Ready Steady Go was held as part of the Dave Clark Archive and Kaleidoscope tried many times to ascertain exactly what he held. Dave was a very private person and we had no joy. Earlier this year the Dave Clark Archive was sold to BMG and since then Kaleidoscope has worked with their team to find a purpose for the surviving RSG material. http://www.tvbrain.info has been updated to show all holdings and some new material has been found. The Who and Pete & Dud from 2/7/1965 has been known to exist for many years, but Kaleidoscope was pleased to discover that BMG hold a much longer sequences that also involves three other acts. This tallies with our belief that sometimes famous acts were clipped out from the prints and sold abroad as clips, but the footage either side was still valuable, but not always used. Kaleidoscope and BMG are now actively exploring ways to enhance the RSG Archive and use it again on TV.

16mm print transferred to digibeta. Held by BMG.

The sequence contains:
Manfred Mann "Have You Ever Been Mistreated"
The Who "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" / "Shout (And Shimmy)"
Nina Simone "l Put A Spell On You"
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore "Goodbyeee"
Kenny Lynch "I'll Stay By You"



 
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Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
DISCOVERY 276: The BBC2 1978 Christmas ident.

Despite extensive enquiries to see if they exist in private collections, Kaleidoscope was surprised to find that some BBC Christmas idents remain elusive from being found. This magnificent beast was found on a betamax cassette belonging to Bob Monkhouse earlier this month.

Betamax cassette and digital file.
Click to expand...


 
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johnnybear

johnnybear

Member: Rank 6
They're still wading through all Bob's stuff after all these years? Apparently it has been confirmed long ago that he didn't have any Doctor Who though!
JB
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
DISCOVERY 277: The Rediffusion 1967 Christmas Ident.

ITV companies also did special Christmas idents sometimes. A lenticular “3D” version of this ident was included as a freebie in the final edition of the Rediffusion internal magazine 'Fusion', but the actual ident was believed lost until earlier this year.

16mm film.
Click to expand...
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
DISCOVERY/RECOVERY 278: Censor Clips – various series and episodes, extracts only.


Callan – Goodbye Nobby Clarke tx:15/7/1967 ABC
Callan – Goodness Burns Too Bright tx: 29/7/1967 ABC

Sexton Blake – The Find the Lady Affair: 3: Search for the Lady tx: 9/10/1967 Rediffusion
Sexton Blake – The Find the Lady Affair: 4: The Lady is Found tx:16/10/1967 Rediffusion
Sexton Blake – The Red Swordsman: 3: The Matador Strikes Again tx: 11/3/1968 Rediffusion
Sexton Blake – The Frightened Man: 1: Call for Help tx: 19/11/1969 Thames

Out of the Unknown – Immortality Inc tx: 7/1/1969 BBC2
Out of the Unknown – The Last Witness tx: 2/6/1971 BBC2

For the benefit of people who may not know the background to ‘censor clips’, Kaleidoscope will try to provide some context. UK TV companies would send film prints of their programmes to overseas TV stations. Sometimes those prints were considered to have violent sections or unsuitable parts and they would cut out those moments. It involved the physical cutting out of a piece of film that would then be put to one side. The existence of ‘censor clips’ is not new. From 1996 onwards the BBC started receiving reports and tapes from the National Archive of Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand that held clips from missing BBC programmes.

The brilliant researchers Damian Shanahan in Australia and Jon Preddle in New Zealand led the charge and a number of censor clips were recovered. The most significant find being some classic moments from Doctor Who. However other finds included Hugh and I Spy, Not Only But Also, The First Lady and The Troubleshooters.

When the BBC launched their Treasure Hunt campaign in 2001, they contacted the N.A.A. and asked for copies of all BBC censor clips. There was even a feature on BBC Breakfast Time where the BBC Archive Selector mentioned the finds. In 2013 when Chris Perry was producing The Native Hue of Resolution he re-watched that BBC feature and noticed a reference to clips from Out of the Unknown being returned. This was news to Kaleidoscope. We enquired at the BBC Archive and was told that the actual tape ‘was around’ but no trace emerged on Infax or Fabric. Over several years Kaleidoscope asked various archive staff to look for that tape but nothing was found.

Kaleidoscope duly accessed the N.A.A. database and cross-catalogued all the BBC clips from N.A.A. now held by the BBC; and realised that Out of the Unknown was, indeed, not amongst them but was supposed to exist. Kaleidoscope contacted the N.A.A. who told us that the BBC had had all clips and there were no more to return.

However we persisted. We exchanged lengthy correspondence with the N.A.A. and came to realise an amazing conclusion:

They had clips from ITV shows that had never been highlighted or returned. Indeed books had been written about some of the shows with no one aware that sections survived. But there were also a few BBC clips left behind from 2001 that had – somehow – not been returned.

So Kaleidoscope spoke to the BBC and ITV companies and obtained their permission to try and access material they did not hold.

Until that point Kaleidoscope had been concentrating on drama. But other people had noticed – in the meantime – that comedy shows had also suffered cuts and various colleagues including Tristan Brittain-Dissont and Steve Monk sent us more N.A.A. links as time went on. Steve was invaluable in making suggestions to us for future sources of research and further choices to recover.

Having sorted out what was actually still missing from the BBC and ITV Archives, now it only remained for Kaleidoscope to logistically arrange the first batch of transfers and see if the clips actually existed. The N.A.A. staff explained that many of the short film reels had been catalogued but never actually played. Kaleidoscope duly paid the access fee (so the BBC and ITV incurred no charge) and sat back and waited.

The first set of results are revealed today in this announcement.

We will screen these censor clips at our event in March 2018 and hope that the photos provided will help identify the scenes. If you think you can identify the scenes then please do post at our Facebook page.

Kaleidoscope will now continue to recover more ITV clips held by the N.A.A. in 2018.

A Merry Christmas to one and all; and a massive thank you to the N.A.A. staff who spent so many hours cataloguing and transferring the footage; to the BBC and ITV for supporting the quest; to the various researchers who sent us extra information and to yourselves for supporting Kaleidoscope in 2017.

Kaleidoscope could not exist without the voluntary work undertaken by our many researchers, restorers and transfer experts. The core team that runs Kaleidoscope works all year round to collate metadata for TV Brain, organise free events; edit and design books for Kaleidoscope Publishing, catalogue the Kaleidoscope Archive and find lost television programmes.….

All returned free of charge to the BBC, and ITV, of course, as we also did with The Avengers, Z Cars, Oh Boy!, No Hiding Place, Late Night Horror, Doctor Finlay’s Casebook, Hugh and I, Here’s Harry, Softly Softly, Cilla, Top of the Pops, Do Not Adjust Your Set, A Whole Scene Going and over 200 other discoveries in the last two years alone.

Next year will bring a plethora of celebrations for our 30th Anniversary. We have never been in such good shape, with new books including the memoirs of Lewis Rudd and a superb book about the History of Alexandra Palace 1929-1939; there is the new DVD range and special events including a tribute to Grange Hill; an evening with Madeline Smith and an animated version of Adam Adamant Lives! – The Basardi Affair to come…. all of which will be reported on Facebook and through our brilliant podcast, "From the Archive", which can be downloaded & subscribed to via iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/…/fromthearchives-pod…/id1182742747

Many of these censor clips are fleeting moments in time, making us wish we could see more from these lost classics but they are still a gateway to our memories and dreams of a brighter future. The hunt goes on! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all!
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
From PLANET MONDAS boards....


There was other stuff not listed here, censor clips from the Likely Lads episode Anchors Aweigh, some Ratcatchers and a couple of Comedy Playhouses.
There was also something called Doctor Who Segments 1967-1973, which may have been a combination of all the censor clips from that period. I had this information passed on to Damian Shanahan but he's probably already seen it. The 20 October 2017 date piqued my interest.
There was also something called Massacre, but I think that was a film.
Click to expand...
 
johnnybear

johnnybear

Member: Rank 6
Very interesting indeed! Call me a sour grape but I'd much prefer it that a Moffat Doctor Who episode had that type of degradation on it than something that had had a lot of genuine work and effort put into it! Yet strangely his 'work' is preserved and in no danger of being damaged or destroyed at all! I think I'll apply for a job at the new archives area of the BBC! :emoji_grimacing:
JB
 
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