Long lost/wiped TV shows and clips.

Ralf and Florian · 02-02-2016 12:15pm #1

Was just thinking about the fact that a lot of programmes shown on British and Irish tv in the 60s and 70s were wiped and so much great stuff lost such as most of the early episodes of Till Death Us Do Part and Dads Army.Here I think an awful lot of the early Late Late Shows are lost and stuff like the late 60s music show Like Now,which had for instance an appearence by David Bowie in 1969 performing Space Oddity and early appearences by Rory Gallagher et al.Also theres stuff like those PIFs that were shown on RTE in the 70s and 80s that no one seems to know what happened to or if they exist anymore or not with the occasional one turning up as a VHS recording,such as Wheres Grandad?Anyone think of any more examples?

darkdubh · 04-02-2016 10:01am

Interesting article.Monty Pythons Flying Circus very nearly ended up being wiped.I'm sure I've seen Upstairs Downstairs repeated fairly recently though,this seems to imply that it was erased totaly.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-lost-episodes-more-2357207

George White · 04-02-2016 7:53pm

darkdubh wrote: »

Interesting article.Monty Pythons Flying Circus very nearly ended up being wiped.I'm sure I've seen Upstairs Downstairs repeated fairly recently though,this seems to imply that it was erased totaly.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-lost-episodes-more-2357207

Upstairs Downstairs is complete. But The untransmitted pilot was wiped.

whisky_galore · 04-02-2016 10:58pm

Wanderly Wagon episodes fell victim to this penny pinching.

darkdubh · 05-02-2016 10:09am

whisky_galore wrote: »

Wanderly Wagon episodes fell victim to this penny pinching.

Theres a few episodes up on YT,all later ones from circa late 70s/early 80s from what I can see.The earlier black & white ones are probably mostly wiped all right.

Ralf and Florian · 06-02-2016 10:20pm

I heard or read somewhere that all of Pajos Junkbox had been wiped,is this true?Theres no clips of it on YT for sure.

telecinesk · 07-02-2016 8:55pm

I dont work for rte, but have some knowledge , anything that was tape based was at risk which you know already. The irony is their film library is in good shape and the stuff from the 60s was prob well kept. All the 70s and 80s material inc news footage is where the holes are and stuff was only kept if deemed "culturally important" or rebroadcastable or for sales was kept. You can be damn sure no clips of "pats hat" are going to be found.
Think the bbc had similar issues. Also the cost of storing stuff and space and keeping people running an archive isnt cheap and ofc its public money.. Lets hope more material surfaces, but I expect they did or do what they can. Also even maintaining a 1" B format vtr for example, is next to impossible, though Im sort of aware most of that stuff has been properly archived.. K thats all I can add. Down to finance in the end. You cant keep it all which is real shame...

Ralf and Florian · 08-02-2016 12:36am

telecinesk wrote: »

I dont work for rte, but have some knowledge , anything that was tape based was at risk which you know already. The irony is their film library is in good shape and the stuff from the 60s was prob well kept. All the 70s and 80s material inc news footage is where the holes are and stuff was only kept if deemed "culturally important" or rebroadcastable or for sales was kept. You can be damn sure no clips of "pats hat" are going to be found.
Think the bbc had similar issues. Also the cost of storing stuff and space and keeping people running an archive isnt cheap and ofc its public money.. Lets hope more material surfaces, but I expect they did or do what they can. Also even maintaining a 1" B format vtr for example, is next to impossible, though Im sort of aware most of that stuff has been properly archived.. K thats all I can add. Down to finance in the end. You cant keep it all which is real shame...

Thanks for that insight.Would you know what might have happened to those public safety adverts that would have aired on RTE in the 70s and 80s?Theres a lot of British PIFs from the period viewable on YT but only a very small number of their Irish counterparts can be found.

George White · 08-02-2016 10:49am

The UK PIFS are mostly on DVD, and the BFI archived them.
Yes, BBC too, even into the 80s when there were searches for already junked drama and comedy, they were junking factual shows, stuff like Swap Shop and a lot of the kids' stuff, a lot of Jackanories, Play School, etc.

George White · 08-02-2016 10:50am

The UK PIFS are mostly on DVD, and the BFI archived them.
Yes, BBC too, even into the 80s when there were searches for already junked drama and comedy, they were junking factual shows, stuff like Swap Shop and a lot of the kids' stuff, a lot of Jackanories, Play School, etc.

rubadub · 08-02-2016 3:48pm

I have lots of live music on dvd from the 60s & 70s. Much of it is on german and other european countries who did not record over tapes. Some amazing performances.

Another issue is music in programs preventing dvd releases, or heavily edited ones. The Wonder Years has this problem, it would cost a fortune to licence the music.

Another issue is actors rights. e.g. a program might have a minor character the actor of which has since died and their estate is not giving permission for release. Again it might require editing so scenes are lost.

I thought the kids tv program rentaghost is possibly one of these, I see this on wiki that some were recovered.

DVD releases[edit]

Rentaghost Series 1 DVD
Only the first series of Rentaghost has been released on VHS and DVD.

Some master copies of Rentaghost episodes and other children's shows were junked by the BBC Archives in 1993 on the assumption that they were 'no use' and that examples of some other episodes were sufficient. The wiped tapes were then sold overseas to countries that still used obsolete (in the UK at least) tape formats. However, BBC Enterprises had requested copies of the first three series a couple of years earlier and indeed they were showing at the time on UK Gold – these were later recovered by the BBC Archives.

padd b1975 · 08-02-2016 6:52pm

As far as I know, RTE were still wiping/recording over well into the 90's-for the most part, incredibly short sighted.

Having said that, Secrets and Ryantown both fronted by Gerry are definitely gone, as I often heard him mention this on his radio show.

I think Strumpet City only survived by the skin of its teeth.

Any one know if The Year of The French survives from that time?

telecinesk · 08-02-2016 7:53pm

"
Any one know if The Year of The French survives from that time?"

Probably as it was shot on film and sold abroad I expect. The materia shot in studio or on tape is the issue. Film tends to be put away .) But I suppose if you wanted to know you could email them. The lack of output or availability is also down to copyright clearance if theres musical content even if its an RTE production, it gets expensive, plus what was deemed to be worthy of being held. Hard one to judge.
Ask them I guess.An email is free. I dont work there so I wouldnt know more than yourself but have some experience with this elsewhere.

whisky_galore · 08-02-2016 11:15pm

padd b1975 wrote: »

Secrets and Ryantown both fronted by Gerry are definitely gone, as I often heard him mention this on his radio show.

Hopefully burnt, ground to ashes and ashes scattered in the Liffey.

Ralf and Florian · 09-02-2016 12:42am

whisky_galore wrote: »

Hopefully burnt, ground to ashes and ashes scattered in the Liffey.

Hard to disagree on that one

.Ah well there sure to be episodes surviving that someone taped off the tv,anything from the latter half of the 80s on is likely to have been recorded on home video,albeit very poor quality.

Ralf and Florian · 09-02-2016 12:48am

whisky_galore wrote: »

Hopefully burnt, ground to ashes and ashes scattered in the Liffey.

On second thoughts You might want to look away now.Out of curiosity I had a look on YT and lo and behold theres quite a few clips from Secrets and this entire episode of Ryantown.Its every bit as bad as I remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DMKuvGS_IA

Ralf and Florian · 09-02-2016 1:07am

padd b1975 wrote: »

As far as I know, RTE were still wiping/recording over well into the 90's-for the most part, incredibly short sighted.

Having said that, Secrets and Ryantown both fronted by Gerry are definitely gone, as I often heard him mention this on his radio show.

I think Strumpet City only survived by the skin of its teeth.

Any one know if The Year of The French survives from that time?

The IMDb message board on it has this interesting discussion so it must exist on video.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439409/board/nest/43669195?ref_=tt_bd_1

darkdubh · 16-02-2016 12:04am

This could be really interesting.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/mould-infested-ads-to-be-restored-by-irish-film-institute-1.1956317

Hangdogroad · 19-10-2019 12:00pm

This is an interesting one. Brógeen Follows The Magic Tune a puppet series produced by Eugene Lambert and shown on RTE in the late 60's. RTE wiped the tapes so no copies exist in their archive but the series had been sold to NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) and they still have the complete series. Apparently it was very popular there, theres a Norwegian Facebook page to it and all . The version they have was dubbed into Norwegian so the original audio, in Irish doesn't exist. If RTE got their act together the original audio could be recreated. However we know their attitude to their back catalogue so can't see this happening any time soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5gNjqR04so

Fogmatic · 13-12-2019 10:42pm

There was a 1961 BBC sci-fi series called A For Andromeda. It was the first time I saw Julie Christie, courageously battling with a not very convincing script as an alien in human form (in1970, supposedly!). tried to imitate her looks (in vain of course, but that's what teenagers do!). But it had to be from memory, as I heard no more about it, or about Christie for a while (until she surfaced in some good films). I think they only kept one episode (which her character didn't appear in).

The further back you go of course, the more expensive and scarcer home recording was. 'He's got a tape recorder!' sounded quite exciting in 1963, from a boyfriend who took me along to music-making evenings at his friend's. It was the first time I saw one in real life, and he'd scrimped and saved to buy it. It was a fairly compact model for the time, but would still have been quite a heave to take anywhere.

Yes, the rights business can be a real head-banger (especially as they've always been traded hither and thither). Just try figuring out who to ask whether it would be permissible to upload your home tape of a radio station's broadcast of its recording from a wonderful concert you went to in the 1980s, at a festival it was sponsoring at the time (but has no avenue to ask it). Featuring a well-known musician, at a well-known venue, but finding no mention of the concert on the internet, let alone of a recording. (I gave up!).

I've also been using song titles of the times as chapter headings, for a memoir type book, starting around 1950. There's no copyright in titles, but for some chapter drafts I added a couple of lines of the lyrics (with acknowledgements of course). But then I read an article by another unknown writer on a tight budget who wanted to do the same thing, did a lot of work trying to find out who to ask, but had to just give up the idea.

13-12-2019 10:45pm

Are there any 40 coats episodes archived. When we were at a school tour in RTE they were taping an episode. We stood behind the camera. Any chance it'd still be around. It would have been near the end of its run.

Hangdogroad · 14-12-2019 12:50am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Are there any 40 coats episodes archived. When we were at a school tour in RTE they were taping an episode. We stood behind the camera. Any chance it'd still be around. It would have been near the end of its run.

Someone uploaded a partial episode of Fortycoats to YouTube. Other than that there's noting else online. Best bet is to contact RTE.

Hangdogroad · 16-12-2019 11:18am

Some more on the aforementioned Bowie appearance on Like Now! There was a book published a few years ago called Dancehall Days which has this photo and a lot more taken of performances from that show. The entire series unfortunately was wiped.

https://www.facebook.com/rtearchives/photos/a.1397188113944316/2409460039383780/?type=3&theater

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bowiewonderworld/david-bowie-on-like-now-rte-tv-show-in-1969-photos-t77819.html

Long lost/wiped TV shows and clips.

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