Master tapes destroyed
I heard that the majority of these episodes have been destroyed. Is this true?
shareYes it is true. The BBC were such idiotic morons back then
Most are gone as are many other good shows
Basil: Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it.
There are approximately 100 episodes of Doctor Who that are missing, but apparently all episodes of Doctor Who exist in audio form.
Is there any chance the same thing could apply to Til Death Us Do Part and other British shows like this that have had episodes destroyed?
Just inquiring.
I sent off for an eight part Patrick Troughton Doctor Who story, The INvasion, that was missing two episodes, but they have been restored with animated shows put to the existing audio recordings.
For a sci fi program like Doctor Who, this should work (I hope it does), but obviously that couldn't be done with Til Death.
Yes, allegedly out of the 24 episodes in the first 3 series- only 6 episodes remain in thier entirity (both audio and video). However, a further 8 do exist in audio form. Sadly this would suggest that 10 episodes are lost completly. Have no idea how easy it is to come by these earlier episodes- and I have no idea what condition they would be in after nearly 40years in storage.
It seems amazing to think now that master tapes were simply thrown away in order to make room for a new generation of (colour) broadcasts. Such a move a clearly indicative of a time where re-runs, especially of old B&W broadcasts, were nowhere near as lucrative as they are these days.
EDIT: Just found an interesting link suggesting reasons why archives were destroyed in case anyone is interested-
http://www.btinternet.com/~m.brown1/intro.htm
It is common knowlege why the archives were destroyd. The fire department did an inspection and told the BBC that the archive was overcrowded. This was before domestic video recorders were common, so the BBC not realising what would happen in the future, destroyd a lot of black and white programes because of the dreaded "health and safety". Of course it would not have been a problem today because the masters could have been copied onto smaller media, which did not exist then.
shareSpot on
shareCouldn't they have hired or bought some sort of warehouse to store the tapes in? That would save the overcrowding problem.
shareCouldn't they have hired or bought some sort of warehouse to store the tapes in? That would save the overcrowding problem.
Possibly, but there is however another point to it. At that time the Equity rules were so tight that the BBC only had the rights to show their own programs a certain amount of times. Also they had no right to sell or give them away. So they had all these videos that couldn't leggally be played. So it is unlikely that they would waste money paying to store them. share
Actually, 10 of the black-and-white episodes are known to exist. They are:
Arguments, Arguments
A House With Love In It
Peace and Goodwill
In Sickness and In Health*
State Visit*
Alf's Dilemma (missing approx 10 minutes, though)
Till Closing Time Us Do part (original master tape still survives!)
The Phone*
The Blood Donor
Aunt Maud*
the four with asterisks beside them are fairly recent discoveries (within the last 7-8 years or so). I think "State Visit" and "In Sickness" are the most recent returnees, around 2009, I think. Alf's Dilemma was the most recent discovery prior to that.
'Aunt Maud' was found as a "home videotape" recording on that early open-reel format. It was found alongside the last 90 seconds or so of the previous episode, "The Puppy".
Also, an uncut film print of "Peace and Goodwill" was found at the same time as the other two 2009 discoveries (the print the BBC already held had a small edit in it, I think, probably something a foreign censor took out).
I don't think any of the four recently-discovered ones have been televised, though one or two were shown at a missing episodes convention/gathering.
Wish someone would pull their finger out and put these on a 2-disc DVD set (they could call it "the Early Years").
The BBC and ITV in the 1960s did not realise that there was value in the archives and how future technology would develop.
Programmes were made for 1 or 2 showings and they would have to be negotiated for further showings. If a cast member objected it could not be shown.
The programmes were deemed to be disposable in those days.
It's that man again!!
One reason I was a
Union-basher.