UPDATE: It turns out The Avengers was just the tip of the iceberg. I will continue updating this topic every day as more finds are announced through Tuesday, October 11th.

Great news for fans of cult British television series The Avengers. Film preservation society Kaleidoscope have announced that an episode from the very first season, long thought to have been lost and wiped forever, has been discovered in pristine condition in a private collection, and will be shown to the public next month for the first time in 55 years as part of their semiannual Missing Believed Wiped event.


This episode, Tunnel of Fear, is only the third complete episode known to still exist from the original 1961 season, which featured Ian Hendry as lead protagonist Dr David Keel and Patrick Macnee in a supporting role as John Steed, long before the series found its legs with the pairing of Macnee with Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg. Written by John Kruse (who also penned several other classic episodes of The Avengers, The Saint, The Persuaders, etc.) the story was recently adapted for audio by Big Finish as part of their ongoing Lost Stories range.



You can read more about the find on the official website of Ian Hendry, and expect more news from Kaleidoscope as the week progresses. Apparently, this was part of a large cache of film donated to the archive, and per Kaleidoscope spokesman Christ Perry:



We have also acquired a large film collection simultaneously which contains more lost archive gems and I will be announcing each of those new finds all week at 9.30pm.




Before anyone gets their hopes up too much, they’ve already confirmed that there isn’t any Doctor Who waiting to be unveiled, but there are many other lesser known gems that were purged from the BBC and ITV vaults that fans would love to see returned. I would jump for joy if the cache contained any of Patrick Troughton’s stint as Robin Hood (of which we only have a handful of stills), the remaining 4 episodes of The Quatermass Experiment, Kit Peddler’s Doomwatch, the 1960's version of A for Andromeda, Ace of Wands, Sexton Blake (of which only one partial episode still exists), or any of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s hilarious Not Only... But Also.




For those who are interested in seeing what else was discovered, here’s the complete list so far:

DISCOVERY 1:

Over the last two years a number of items have been donated to Kaleidoscope for scanning, transferring or storage. These finds required cataloguing and work on them, before they could be announced.

I am delighted to announce the first of several discoveries today. When Alvin Rakoff published his last book; Anthony Harvison his PR consultant asked us to transfer an audio reel of Alvin’s play Requiem for a Heavyweight. That was well reported in the national newspapers.

What was not reported was that Alvin also asked us to scan numerous John Cura telesnaps. On Facebook I have added some sample images, courtesy of Alvin aswell. Thanks are to Simon Coward who scanned and catalogued all of them.

If there is anyone out there who has expertise in reconstructing audio and telesnaps; the project of ‘Requiem for a Heavyweight’ awaits you if you would like to contact me Alvin would love to see it recreated and the existing Kaleidoscope team have no real expertise in this area. It would make a great screening for a future event at Ally Pally….

Alvin Rakoff’s Telesnaps – Summary

All of the sets of photographs which have been lent to Kaleidoscope have now been scanned at 800dpi. In the majority of cases the scans of the strips of miniature proofs are still in strips and haven’t yet been separated into individual images.

There is also plenty of clean-up work still to do on these images where even the tiniest mark becomes horribly visible when blown-up to the size of the TV screen from which they were taken.

Many of the programmes covered by John Cura no longer survive in the BBC’s film or video archive. Those which are not extant are marked with an asterisk in the list below.

On the front of most of the envelopes, John Cura had written the number images which the envelope should have contained. Some of these are at odds with the numbers of images now present in the envelopes and any discrepancies have been noted. For the majority of productions both miniature proofs and enlargements were found, but there are some productions where only miniatures were present, and others with only enlargements.

Even ignoring the 625-line photos, it’s clear that John Cura’s image quality improves as time progresses.

Miniatures and Enlargements

14.07.1955 The Legend of Pepito* (snapped from a repeat broadcast)

The strip containing the images numbered 052-056 is missing. Despite the final miniature image being numbered 82, the envelope claims it only houses 81 images so it may be that the absent strip only contains four images and a fifth was discarded for some reason. Based on the markings on the reverse of the miniatures, this set should contain five enlargements but number 10 is missing.

22.09.1955 The Hole in the Wall*

Although four numbers are missing from the sequence of pictures, the original miniatures envelope claims to hold 70 proofs, which is what survives here numbered 1 to 74, excluding the absent 40, 45, 49 and 54. All ten enlargements are present.

06.11.1955 Sunday Night Theatre – The Makepeace Story: The New Executive

All 69 miniature proofs and 10 enlargements are present.

27.12.1955 Three Empty Rooms*

85 miniatures and 22 enlargements are present. The enlargements were stored inside the miniatures envelope, so there was no separate source to confirm, or otherwise, the number of enlargements originally supplied.

However, there is a minor curiosity. The miniatures marked as requiring enlargement include 64 (albeit with a question mark against it), 77 and 81. None of these appear in the set of enlargements although there is one of image 2, which wasn’t highlighted as required, and two copies of 56.

23.02.1956 No Man’s Land*

All 82 miniature proofs and 11 enlargements are present.

20.09.1956 For the Defence*

All 83 miniature proofs and 10 enlargements are present.

03.02.1957 Sunday Night Theatre – Our Town*

The miniatures envelope claims that the set should consist of 154 images, and while those present are numbered from 1 to 154, numbers 29, 95, 96, 131, 142, 151 and 152 are missing. Also missing are four of the 20 enlargements – numbers 13, 33, 115 and 148.

31.03.1957 Sunday Night Theatre – Requiem for a Heavyweight*

All 137 miniature proofs are present, however, the enlargements envelope suggests that it should contain 21 images but in fact it only housed 18. 22 miniatures are marked for enlargement so it appears that at least three out of 36, 37, 66 and 102 are missing.

01.09.1957 Sunday Night Theatre – Cuckoo*

All 151 miniature proofs are present, however, the envelope containing the enlargements suggests that it should contain 21 images, in fact it only contained 16. Unusually, for a production for which both miniatures and enlargements exist, there were no markings on the rear of the miniatures to suggest which enlargements had been ordered, so it is not possible to determine which 5 enlargements are missing.

03.01.1959 Television Playwright – The Dark Side of the Earth*

All 64 miniature proofs and 10 enlargements are present.

22.11.1959 Sunday Night Theatre – The Velvet Alley*

All 94 miniature proofs and 15 enlargements are present.

22.07.1962 The Sunday Night Play – The Day Before Atlanta*

All 84 miniature proofs and 10 enlargements are present.

06.12.1962 The Largest Theatre in the World – Heart to Heart

All 228 miniature proofs are present.

The figure written on the enlargements envelope suggests that is supposed to contain 44 images but only 42 were present. It is not possible to state definitively which ones are missing as ten of the miniatures marked for enlargement are not present among the enlargements, and eight of the existing enlargements are not marked as such on the miniatures. These are the enlargements which are not reflected in the highlighting: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 111 and 183. These are the numbers highlighted which do not appear to have been enlarged: 1, 2, 26, 59, 104, 135, 153, 179, 186 and 188.

Miniature Proofs only

16.12.1955 Sunday Night Theatre – The Reclining Figure*

All 150 miniature proofs are present. None are marked on the reverse to indicate which enlargements were required and no enlargements were present.

15.04.1956 Sunday Night Theatre – The Seat of the Scornful*

All 128 miniature proofs are present. Although a number of them are marked as requiring enlargement, no enlargements were present. Those marked were: 5, 15, 18, 23, 29, 34, 40, 44, 66, 76, 83, 97, 98, 122, 124 and 126.

05.03.1961 Sunday Night Theatre – A Reason for Staying*

All 75 miniature proofs are present. None are marked on the reverse to indicate which enlargements were required and no enlargements were present.

10.05.1964 Theatre 625 – The Seekers # 2: The Idealists

All 148 miniature proofs are present. None are marked on the reverse to indicate which enlargements were required and no enlargements were present.

Enlargements only

12.05.1957 Sunday Night Theatre – Quartet*

The writing on the enlargements envelope suggests that it should contain 20 images. In fact it only contains 19 and one of those is a duplicate of another.

As the miniature strips for this production are absent it is not possible to know which enlargement(s) is/are missing.

03.05.1964 Theatre 625 – The Seekers # 1: The Heretics

All 44 enlargements are present.

Large Publicity Photos (8” x 6”)

21.08.1956 The Condemned* [two photos]

31.03.1957 Sunday Night Theatre – Requiem for a Heavyweight* [five photos]



DISCOVERY 2:

In 2015 the BBC Genome Project was delighted to receive back some film prints of missing programmes.

After some logistical support from Kaleidoscope the BBC can now announce they had returned:

Soldier, Soldier - 16/02/60 play about a missing son from the army.

The Money Programme 15/12/66. A Christmas edition featuring the toys of that year.

Wheelbase: The Town Where Nobody Walks 15/07/65

Car-Wise 22/09/68

24 Hours 22/08/66

Match of the Day 25/09/65



DISCOVERY 3:

Courtesy of Genome: BASIS FOR DECISION: The Use of Operational Research

A series of three programmes on how scientific method can be used to solve problems of management

3: The Human Factor

It is not just the way the machines, money, and materials are organized that affects the success of an operation: the behaviour and attitudes of the men who run it are also the subject of Operational Research.

In 1964 BBC2 broadcast this early three-part educational series about Operational Research. Kaleidoscope were contacted last year by the OR Society who had located a film print for the missing episode three in Australia. They arranged for the print to be sent to us and we had a transfer made for the BBC and them.



DISCOVERY 4:

Before Christmas last year I was contacted by Adam Smith who had heard about Kaleidoscope from the excellent pop events.

In June 2016 a former BBC producer had come to one of our events and mentioned that he still had some film cans and videotape that had not been looked at for many years. Adam suggested that Kaleidoscope had a look.

I duly went there before Christmas and brought back a lot of material. The 2" videotapes were covered in white dust, but looked in good nick. The film was in rusty old cans unopened since 1968-1970 and had lots of BBC labels. Some of the film is still being transferred because it’s required more work due to dry splices or damage.

However, what we do know so far is that there is:

Colour Me Pop - six cans of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah material, most still to be transferred. So far the single can examined contains the colour film inserts of wacky poems and comedy moments.

Take One Plus One - untransmitted 1971 music pilot featuring Yes and Stephen Stills. Ex 2"

Strawbs - early pop promos circa 1971. Ex 2"

Beach Boys - Australian concert, not UK made. Colour film. I have been told by Australian collectors that this is a missing Beach Boys concert circa 1969.

Top of the Pops pop promos for Marmalade (several songs), The Kinks, two for Marc Ellingham, Bee Gees (Lonely Days) and The Tremeloes (Me and My Days). Some of these were made but may not have been shown if the record didn’t chart. The Kinks one requires extra work before it can be transferred.

Disco 2 - animations used as backdrops for dancers to dance in front of Led Zeppelin and and Interlude tracks. Not sure what Interlude was? Perhaps it was a musical interlude?

There are still more cans to catalogue and transfer, but that’s a very good start. There is one small can marked The Hollies / Colour Me Pop, but it turns out that was the Bee Gees pop promo and not Hollies material after all.

There is also a can marked Bonzo Dog that claims to be a complete telerecording of Colour Me Pop but that requires specialist transfer because of the quality of the film.



DISCOVERY 5:

Following one from yesterday’s good news about the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band, in November we were contacted by a collector who had colour videotape footage from their Colour Me Pop appearance. This footage of them singing “Mr Apollo” was returned to the BBC by them after we put them in touch with BBC Genome Project.



DISCOVERY 6:

Peter Cook famously and briefly entertained the nation with his comedy/chat show Where Do I Sit? However, his antics off-stage did not amuse BBC bosses who eventually gave his slow/show to Michael Parkinson.

Thanks to Kevin Smith who continues to hunt for lost TV he has located the soundtrack to the 26.2.1971 edition of Where Do I Sit? and returned it to Kaleidoscope this week.



DISCOVERY 7:

Late Night Horror - The Corpse Can’t Play BBC2 tx:3.5.1968

In 1985 Richard Down was five minutes late buying this telerecorded 16mm film print from Pine Dene Films in Southampton. For 30 years we listed this print as existing but we didn’t know where. I have commented many times that it was out there and one day would re-surface.

Thanks to the efforts of Steve Birt who tracks down film for us at great cost to himself, I am delighted to say that Steve brought this film print to my house today. It’s a lovely way to remember Richard Down as we approach 13 years since he left us. And its a great piece of missing BBC telly. A spooky tale to set the nerves jingling.



DISCOVERY 8:

Studio recording of Talent by Victoria Wood and studio session 2 of Wood and Walters P1075.

I’m sure everyone here knows that Victoria Wood died recently and iTV are now making a documentary about her life. In conversation with Shiver TV, Kaleidoscope came to realise that we held some behind the scenes studio footage from Victoria’s days at Granada TV.

The footage was given to us by ITV on VHS some years ago, so we assumed they held the master. There is the studio recording of her play Talent from 1979 and session 2 of the Wood and Walters recording from 1982.

The latter is of the most archival interest because Simon Coward literally found it on a tape that clearly had been re-used. A shorter show had wiped over the studio rec on the 2" and the Victoria Wood material was on the un-erased part of the tape. Simon thinks it features one act that never made the final cut.

Regardless, ITV are delighted to have the footage back to use in their documentary.



DISCOVERY 9:

Live on Friday.

A few years ago ITV donated a considerable number of ex-Granada tapes to us. Over the years we have located various missing programmes including a Lift Off episode and the Victoria Wood studio footage.

My colleague Mike L Morton has been checking some tapes for his forthcoming ITV pop music book and realised that we have three missing editions of Live on Friday.The are off airs and Granada did not keep the master tapes.

They are:

1/1319/0002 is presented by Shelley Rohde and Roger Blyth - this weeks theme is Surrogacy with guests Dr John Harris, Dr Wendy Greengross and Dr Alexina McWhinnie, plus Bob Smithies with the regional news. (27.09.1985)

1/1319/0003 is presented by Shelley Rohde and Roger Blyth - this weeks theme is Crime and Punishment with guests Jimmy Boyle, Robert Kilroy-Silk, Sir Edward Gardner Q.C. M.P. and Andrew Rutherford plus Bob Greaves with the regional news. (11.10.1985)

1/1319/0008 is presented by Shelley Rohde and Tony Wilson - this weeks theme is Animal Rights with guests Dr Peter Read, Dr Robert Sharpe, Dr Judith Hampson and Dr Robert Boyd plus Mark Gordon with the regional news. (22.11.1985)



DISCOVERY 10:

The Brian Tesler Telesnaps Collection

I am delighted to report that during the making of Brian’s book we were searching for photographs of his early work. Brian suddenly produced a box of telesnaps made for him by John Cura. Amongst the 2000+ images are The Petula Clark Show (BBC, 1956), The Dave King Show, many Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and The Billy Cotton Band Show. You can see some of the stills in Brian’s new book, which is now shipping from Kaleidoscope Publishing. Brian has also donated his collection of ABC News, Thames News and LWT internal magazines.



DISCOVERY 11:

Beatles footage on original videotape.

As many of you know, the Beatles appeared on ABC’s Big Night Out series several times.

On one such appearance they appeared on the same show as Jackie Trent, Billy Dainty and Lionel Blair. it was shown on 29th February 1964 and survives as a monochrome telerecording.

However, this weekend, 23 mins of the original show on videotape has been returned to Kaleidoscope.

it was used in Canada to make a new show titled “Television Nine Special”, that was broadcast in Windsor, Ontario sometime in 1965. The host was Robin Seymour, a very popular radio disk jockey from Detroit. The other acts that were inserted to replace the BNO segments, that would probably not interest the Canadian audience, were Lesley Gore, Billy Joe Royal, Kim Weston, and Paul Revere & The Raiders. It runs almost 60 minutes.

The original 2" mastertape seems long gone, but a Umatic copy made in the1980s now seems to the master in the USA. If anyone has a higher copy we would love to know please.

It’s not missing footage as such, but it is missing in videotape, and its great to see the real look of how the show went out.



DISCOVERY 12:

The Clodagh Rogers Archive

A few months ago I was contacted by Ray Langstone who put me in touch with the official archivist for Clodagh Rogers.

Clodagh recorded many of her appearances and some of them were missing from official archives.

I spoke to their archivist and he has returned to Kaleidoscope:

Top of the Pop 25.12.1969 Clodagh singing ‘Goodnight Midnight’.

A Eurovision documentary short tx: 1.4.1971

Des 31.5.1972 in NTSC colour

Top of the Pops 14.12.1972 singing ‘You are my Music’.

The Golden Shot 23.2.1975 singing ‘If I were your Woman’.

There may be more clips to come, I will let you all know.



DISCOVERY 13:

Thank Your Lucky Stars

Sometimes Kaleidoscope hears rumours that footage survives in private collections. But it does not get returned.

This week Kaleidoscope have been given extracts from two lost Thank Your Lucky Stars editions.

Both clips feature The Beatles. The copyright holder says they do not hold them and is very glad they have been put into our archive.

The first extract is The Beatles singing “Money” on 26th October 1963. The second longer extract is four songs from a year later on 21st November 1964.

Both are in remarkably good quality and seem to be ex VT though whether that is 2" or a reel-to-reel system I don’t know.



DISCOVERY 14:

Audio returns from Robert Smith

Mr Smith of this Facebook parish has returned to Kaleidoscope tonight:

Britain’s Cathedrals and their Music tx: 14.1.1968

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/af23c4c36...c45269fd8ed63a

and a fragment of

The Black and White Minstrel Show tx: 17.3.1963



Final recordings donated by Robert Smith to the BBC and ourselves:

The Mitchell Minstrels 27th December 1965

George Mitchell’s Christmas Minstrels 14th December 1968

The Val Doonican Show 16th December 1967

as always my sincere thanks to Robert.



DISCOVERY 15:

Magpie tx: 7.3.1978

Kaleidoscope is frequently donated old Phillips 1500 and 1700 tapes to transfer. We, literally, have several hundred. They range from ex-BBC tapes claiming to be originals, through to off-air material. Frequently our intrepid expert Rory Clark is disappointed by what he finds. Ebay sellers particularly enjoy labelling a tape as Top of the Pops when in reality it is Horizon from 1985!

However, he perserveres. Recently Rory Clark has been finishing off the 1500 tapes donated by Stephanie De-Sykes. We found two missing Pebble Mill shows last year if you remember.

Rory always runs the tapes to the end after the shows recorded intentionally.

I am delighted to say that one such find was a missing clip from Swap Shop which we have yet to date but it appears to the first show of a New Year.



DISCOVERY 16?

Disco Fever

Recently an ex-employee of the Robert Stigwood group gave us a low-band Umatic to transfer.

It’s an American show called Disco Fever broadcast on the night of the premiere of the Saturday Night Fever film. A few clips, interviews and disco artists performing in front of the cameras. NTSC off-air recorded from KABC TV in Los Angeles.

Is it missing? Does anyone know? I have not seen its footage used on any Saturday Night Fever DVD releases.



DISCOVERY 17:

It’s the Bachelors

Two years ago Kevin Smith went to see the family of Freddie ‘Parrot Face’ Davies and returned with some 1500 tapes and some even earlier Cv32 reels. The 1500 tapes contained Samuel Tweet episodes and were transferred by Rory Clark some years ago.

The CV32 reels required more work and it’s been a long task transferring them. I reported last year that the first batch contained a missing Golden Shot, a missing We Want to Sing and the untransmitted pilot for The Small World of Samuel Tweet.

By coincidence it transpires that Freddie had thrown away some 1500 tapes years earlier and we also acquired those, yielding more Samuel Tweet editions. In total 6 were recovered.

Today we had the final four CV32 reels retur-ned after restoration. I am delighted to say they contain the early work of The Bachelors (Dec Cluskey).

All are actually very, very good quality for the reels and their age.

It’s the Bachelors:

22.5.1969 - complete show, no frills

29.5.1969 begins with original Thames continuity by David Hamilton with an on-screen clock I have never seen before, complete ad break in middle, nothing at end

Then we had an ep LISTED AS 12.6.1969 BUT ACTUALLY IT’S A DIFFERENT SERIES

The Bachelors tx: 14.3.1970

first part of show over-recorded with unknown Freddie Davies act on theatre stage 26 mins; then 19 mins of Bachelors show, cuts out before end. Des O’Connor and Mike Newman sections complete, but Clodagh Rodgers cut out,

AND A SHOW LISTED AS 26.6.1969 BUT ACTUALLY:

The Bachelors - 28.3.1970 - complete show, no frills. Karen Young and Jack Wild.



DISCOVERY 18 & 19:

In 1979 Dave Knowles, better known for making ‘Old Country’, was working at Southern TV. One day he borrowed a couple of prints to watch from the film library. When he tried to return them some months later he found the whole film library had been junked. So he kept the prints.

One of the prints appeared on a sell-through VHS in the mid 1980s in a cut version.

A few months ago, Dave learnt of Kaleidoscope by talking to our mutual friend Tony Herbert. Dave was working on DVD releases of Old Country and mentioned to Tony he had these prints.

Soon Dave was talking to Tony and our own Southern expert Simon Winters. The two prints were borrowed; taken by Neil Ingoe (Rebecca Ingoe) to the Beaulieu Film Unit where David King transferred them into new HD and SD transfers. David King and Steve Birt paid for that from their own pocket.

Now we hope that the two prints can be used on a future Out of Town release since they have very strong Jack Hargreaves connections.

So what are the two prints? One edition of Go! Learn to Fish with Jack Hargreaves and the other is Summer in Kite’s Country.

Simon Coward has been trying to find out more about these editions and he has uncovered;

LEARNING TO FISH.

This seems to be part of Go!, a children’s series about outdoor activities, sports mainly, with segments made by all of the minor ITV companies, even Channel Television! It was shown from 29/03/1965 but was initially just broadcast by those same minor ITV companies while Rediffusion, ATV and Granada showed Seeing Sport, at 5pm on Monday.

So my info about this series is patchy, at least for its first six months, as we’ve only got a smattering of listings magazines from the small regions. However from October 1965 it was networked which means there’s a bit more info to hand about the last 13 or so.

On both 29/11/1965 and 27/12/1965 (the latter being the last edition of all) there’s a segment of Go! entitled “Learning to Fish” and the blurb in each case is identical: “JACK HARGREAVES presents a competition on the River Stour in Dorset in which nine famous fishermen each try to teach a child to catch a fish - with commentary by Fred Dinenage.” No idea whether the latter date was a repeat, a second segment along the same lines, or a rescheduled postponement...



KITE’S COUNTRY

Don’t know too much about this. Presented by Oliver ‘Ollie’ Kite, it was a kind of companion to Out of Town but unlike OOT it was only 15 minutes in duration and was only shown by Southern as far as I know. The one edition that we have a TVT for, the blurb says:

6.45 Kite’s Country

an invitation from OLIVER KITE to share with him the magical fascination of the countryside

TONIGHT Kite visits some of the gardens and shows many of the birds painted by children in his recent competition.

DIRECTED BY MIKE MANSFIELD

Southern Independent Television Production

But obviously that’s not the blurb for the one that’s turned up. It ran from September 1965 to December 1967. I’ve found dates for 105 of them and have put them in the database but the only one I’ve got a title for is one shown near the end of 1965 called “The Year in Kite’s Country”. I presume, as Simon Winters always referred to this one as SUMMER IN KITE’S COUNTRY, that titles were used on other occasions, but they’re not listed in The Times.

Any help from Facebook members is gratefully appreciated.

A first rate, top notch, fantastic piece of team work from dedicated Southern Tv experts who have ensured these two prints are kept for posterity in the best possible condition.



DISCOVERIES 20 to 37 (18 items)

THE MARTIN LOACH COLLECTION

In 2001 Martin Loach approached the BBC with two Till Death Us Do Part episodes that he had transferred from old 1” Philips EL3400 reels. This was a domestic reel to reel video system sold circa 1967-1971.

The BBC were delighted to get the episodes back. Martin made an appearance at Missing Believed Wiped to show off some other clips he had transferred from these reels; and likewise he came to Kaleidoscope’s K2K-1 event.

Chris Perry visited Martin and saw he had many more reels to transfer including some EVR reels containing Star Soccer. In 2001 I left him to complete his work and time passed.

In 2015 Martin re-contacted Kaleidoscope. He provided recordings of two lost Star Soccer editions from 1969.

Chris Perry asked him about the Philips reels and he stated he had transferred a further 20 hours of material. Sadly neither the BFI or BBC were interested.

Could we have a look asked Chris Perry? Martin was delighted and sent Kaleidoscope the work he had undertaken for the last fifteen years.

The quality is remarkably good and stable with strong picture definition in many cases. There are some unidentifiable clips amongst the longer complete programmes and extracts but this is what we can establish is missing:

23.1.1968 Rediffusion slide and first few mins of missing closedown programme: Sins for Modern Sinners.

8.5.1968 The only surviving on-screen presentation for Redifussion. Redvers Kyle introduces Famous Last Words.

9.5.1968 Famous Last Words – Robert Maxwell. On the stroke of midnight, 3 minutes from the start of this missing Rediffusion closedown programme.

9.5.1968 After Virgin of the Secret Service (not missing) are the ads for Electric Cookers, Souflette Sponge, Playtex Girdle, Hadfields Paint and Kelloggs Rice Crispies.

18.9.1968 The Newcomers – two mins of the end of the episode including credits.

25.12.1968 The Black and White Minstrels Show – complete Christmas special.

Tx: 1969 Two complete Star Soccer (transferred from EVR cartridges)

4.1.1969 Frost on Saturday – last few mins of part one featuring a black gentleman talking about how he gave up Christmas to try to stop the war in Vietnam. Not sure who he is. Any ideas? First advert of break: Farley Rusks.

9.1.1969 Holiday 69 – last few mins of missing edition followed by BBC1 Late Night Line Up plug; BBC1 The Listener slide and a BBC globe with a jingle I have never heard before. Indeed I never knew it had a jingle.

21.6.1969 BBC1 presentation link into the first screening of Royal Family. A special caption is used as a one-off.

5.3.1971 Tomorrow’s World – extracts and end titles of edition including item on low-band Umatic being used in Japan, and soon to be exported to UK.

5.3.1971 Followed by BBC1 colour slide and then complete trail with clips for Dixon of Dock Green – Sleigh Ride (missing edition)

9.7.1971 We Want to Sing – complete edition introduced by Bernard Cribbins and including The Mixtures. Only surviving edition, none held by BBC.

Tx: 1971 unidentified Benny Hills Show (not missing) but two complete ad breaks: Schweppes, EforB, Burton, Hai Karate, Ajax, Trebor Mints, J Cloths, Blue Band Margerine, Fresh Cream Cakes and Fairy Liquid. Later ad break for Flora, Evening News Classifieds, Qantas and Allied Carpets.

18.1.1972 International Tennis from Paris intro and short extract of end

2.3.1972 BBC2 slide introducing Nana International.

8.4.1972 Sounds for Saturday – complete edition of James Last Orchestra.

16.4.1972 Up Country Festival – part 2. Complete missing edition.

In addition, there are complete editions on VT of the following programmes that survive:

4.8.1966 Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – BBC 2 special

7.7.1968 Farewell the Seekers – BBC1 special

22.9.1968 Louis Armstrong and his All Stars – BBC2 special

26.12.1970 The Black and White Minstrel Show – slightly clipped. Fantastic Jimmy Jewel comedy routine

And of course better transfers of

Till Death Us Do Part – The Phone and Aunt Maud.



DISCOVERIES 38-48

Additional radio recordings in the Bob Monkhouse Collection

Kaleidoscope has been systematically cataloguing and transferring the collection of Bob Monkhouse now for some years.

His tapes were well-labelled but we still find additional recordings on his reels that were not listed. I’m delighted to tell Mark Williams and all our colleagues on here that we have found more radio series/episodes in this way. These will now be digitised.

I am grateful to my colleague Neil for cataloguing them:

Denis Goodwin solo spots:

On Henry Hall’s Guest Night. X 3

On Look Who’s Here. intro by B.M.

On Workers’ Playtime

On unknown RAF show

ITMA Repeat of a 1946 show with

Jack Payne Carlton Hobbs Fred Yule

Fletcher’s Fayre

With Cyril Fletcher

07-08-52 Bob Monkhouse Denis Goodwin Ted Ray Betty Astell . Complete show. Apology for breakdown after.

28-08-52 Bob Monkhouse Denis Goodwin Pat Coombes Betty Astell Hermione Gingold. Complete show

04-09-52 Bob Monkhouse Denis Goodwin Max Wall Betty Astell. Complete show

Me and my Shadows 09-04-54 Light Programme

With Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan

A well-known impressionist entertains.

This week: Peter Sellers with Harold Smart at the electric organ

Presented by George Inns. Complete show

The Big Show BBC & NBC variety show 1 hour. Complete show

The Show Band Show

12-04-54 Introduced by Bob Monkhouse Johnny Ray. End missing

??-??-54 Introduced by Bob Monkhouse Nat King Cole. Edited

Jimmy Edwards Unknown comedy Trailer

Tribute to Bing Crosby

20 years in show Business Light Prog broadcast of a show from USA introduced by Bob Hope. Complete show 1 hour

The Bob Hope Show Light Prog from Prince of Wales Theatre

With Jerry Desmond . End missing

Phil Harris Alice Faye US radio show

Anything Goes 1952 Home Service from RAF Lynham

With Benny Hill Last third of show only

Christmas Crackers 25-12-51

featuring

Ted Ray and Kitty Bluett

Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne

Peter Brough and Archie Andrews

Brian Reece and Joy Shelton

Peter Sellers and Cyril Fletcher

Billy Cotton and his Band Produced by Leslie Bridgmont

Ted and Kitty decided to get away from domestic worries and spend a quiet Christmas at a hotel. Little did they know that their radio friends had chosen for similar reasons the same place. Their holiday was far from quiet. Last part only. Goes into an appeal for radio sets for the blind.



DISCOVERY 49:

Till Death Us Do Part - Intolerance

I was informed this morning that Arnie Spence has returned an episode of Till Death Us Do Part to the BBC this morning. On 16mm film, he found it in his father’s film collection. It’s great news!

Arnie told me this morning it was a different ep. Still a fantastic find! Slightly disappointing update on Discovery 49. BBC Inf and Archives say that the tin had been mislabelled and, although the opening scenes are of a football match, the actual episode is called “Intolerance”. They say that it is still a useful find as they did not have a complete version. Apologies to all for dashing anyone’s hopes of finding “Football”



DISCOVERIES 50 – 58



As part of our work we’re doing for Fountain Studios forthcoming celebration of Wembley studios that will mark the closure of this historic site later this year, I have been inspired to finally make an effort to get the Rediffusion haul from last year digitised and correctly identified. So, I’ve booked some time off work where I work with film and videotape all day to errrr work with more film and videotape all day! Obviously, it’s a labour of love.

The final episode count is in. After only a visual inspection of the material on a set of rewinds, the following details appear to be correct. We’ll be 100% certain once the material has been telecined over the next few weeks. However, it looks like the following has been recovered.



DISCOVERY 50:

Badgers Bend (Episode 5) From either series 1 or 2. Both series have episode 5 missing, so that’s a confirmed find. TX either 1/2/1963 or 29/10/1963.



DISCOVERY 51:

Badgers Bend (Unidentified episode) Could be from series 2, won’t be sure until it’s digitised. TX as yet unknown. Possibly mute.



DISCOVERY 52:

Uncle Charles - The Man and the Machine. This is a very interesting episode and incredible to think that out of a series of seven episodes, that were barely transmitted, we’ve recovered two of them in the last few years. As yet, there is no evidence that this episode was ever transmitted and is not likely to have been seen at all unless it had a late-night screening somewhere on the ITV network or by Rediffusion in London as a filler in its last few months on-air. The programmes were recorded in 1965, but not shown until 1967 and some repeated in Rediffusion’s final few weeks. The series was barely seen outside London, some episodes were shown as fillers on Granada and STV / Grampian. Interestingly, this episode features a pop group made up entirely of robots singing on the set of Ready Steady Go! The first part of the programme is mute and missing the last few minutes up to the break. The other two parts have audio and are complete. No TX date. Recorded at Wembley on 9/4/1965 VTR No. W2796/815



DISCOVERY 53:

No Hiding Place - Peggy. Approximately the first twenty of so minutes of this episode have been recovered. TX 27/8/1963. VTR No W2395/328



DISCOVERY 54:

Boyd Q.C. - Hit and Run. (Complete) 4/3/1957



DISCOVERY 55:

Boyd Q.C - The Old Flame (Complete) 31/5/1961 TR35/0I/ID/470



DISCOVERY 56:

Boyd Q.C - (Unidentified) (First few minutes missing) This appears to be either The Samurai Killing - TX 17/2/1959 or Death On Tap TX 3/8/1961. This will be confirmed once transferred.



DISCOVERY 57:

Postscript to Empire Britain in Transition - Intertel / Westinghouse / Rediffusion production. (The end is missing) TX 10/1/1962 (Exists at BFI)



DISCOVERY 58:

HMS Paradise - Hail Lieutenant Hathaway and Farewell. End credits missing. This has been doing the rounds among collectors for a while, but the print has now been recovered. TX 29/10/1964.

There is also around 10,000 ft of news footage to sift through. Some appears to be American, but some is listed as ITN News. It is more than likely film reports, but I live in hope that there’s an excruciatingly slim chance of finding a film recording of a bulletin. If there is, you’ll hear about it here first.

P.S, the Rediffusion image used for this post is a picture taken straight off the emulsion of the Uncle Charles print. At the very end of the print, this Rediffusion camera line-up card appears for a brief second. It can also be spotted on a stand in the corner of the RSG studio during the numerous scenes shot there.



DISCOVERY 59-60:

Shine a Light - YTV sitcom

I am delighted to say that a gentleman called Melvyn Little contacted www.lostshows.com two days ago and returned audio soundtracks to two editions of Shine a Light.

Written by David Nobbs, David McKellar and Peter Vincent, the two editions are: The Great Relief and Two’s a Crowd.



DISCOVERY 61:

Fraggle Rock

Fraggle Rock debuted in 1983 as one of the first shows involving Jim Henson Productions on ITV. The co-production brought together British regional ITV franchise-holder TVS, CBC, United States pay-television service HBO and Henson.

The producers had the intention of airing it in various forms internationally. That concept grew out of Jim Henson’s experience adapting Sesame Street to the requirements of foreign markets. The human “wraparound” segments were produced separately in several countries, so the viewer could always relate to the world of the programme. In the UK, Fulton Mackay played The Captain who was the subject of these UK segments.

The British inserts were filmed at TVS and presented Fraggle Rock as a rocky sea-island with a lighthouse, run by The Captain, a retired sailor who lived with his faithful dog Sprocket. In the third season following the death of Fulton Mackay, the role was filled by John Gordon Sinclair as P.K. (the Captain’s nephew) and in the fourth Simon O’Brien as B.J. BJ was the son of the owner of the lighthouse, Mr Birtwhistle (‘BJ’ stands for ‘Birtwhistle Junior’!)

. Of the 96 shows produced, only 12 appear to have been retained by Henson; the other 84 were presumed lost, at least in broadcast-quality.

Worldwide repeats and DVD sales always show the Canadian versions.

Kaleidoscope joined the hunt for these lost editions some years ago and Simon Coward returned one episode from his Betamax off-air: The Bells of Fraggle Rock.

Over the past few years we’ve found 46 episodes (not including those already held by the BFI, or the shows released on VHS/DVD).

Last week complete VHS versions of four more season one episodes have been donated to us, plus upgraded copies of others, by Victor Pemberton amongst others. He worked on the series. The first episode Beginnings is one of them.

The top priority is now to find the nine episodes still missing:

Gobo’s School for Explorers (tx 9 Oct 88)

Manny’s Land of Carpets (tx 5 Feb 89)

The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer (tx 12 Feb 89)

The Voice Inside (tx 19 Feb 89)

A Tune for Two (tx 26 Feb 89)

Wembley’s Flight (tx 5 Mar 89)

Mirror, Mirror (tx 19 Mar 89)

Ring Around the Rock (tx 11 Jul 90)

The River of Life (tx 8 Aug 90)

We also need complete recordings of others (these tapes have been found, but are missing titles and/or credits):

Catch the Tail by the Tiger (tx 17 Mar 84)

New Trash Heap in Town (tx 3 Apr 85)

Uncle Matt Comes Home (tx 5 Jun 85)

Boober and the Glob (tx 17 Jan 88)

Wembley’s Wonderful Whoopie Water (3 Apr 88)

The Grapes of Generosity (tx 16 Oct 88)

The Cavern of Lost Dreams (tx 23 Oct 88)

Playing ‘til it Hurts (tx 6 Nov 88)

Gunge the Great and Glorious (tx 20 Nov 88)

Wembley and the Mean Genie (tx 18 Dec 88)

Gone but not Forgotten (tx 8 Jan 89)

Mokey Then and Now (tx 15 Jan 89)



DISCOVERY 62:

Play for Today - I Can’t See My Little Willie.

An incomplete soundtrack, recorded by the writer, of this otherwise missing BBC1 play can now be officially confirmed as returned. A copy was supplied to both Kaleidoscope and the BFI in 2015, but the latter was sadly unable to include it in its excellent Alan Clarke DVD/BluRay set.

On transmission the play was 75-minutes. Only the first hour was recorded, however, and of that the last 15mins suffer from a steadily worsening sound fault which ultimately blots out the sound. A small amount of restoration work has been performed.

I CAN’T SEE MY LITTLE WILLIE

by DOUGLAS LIVINGSTONE

When it’s time to wet the baby’s head, it’s surprising the secrets that emerge ...

Lighting JOHN TREAYS

Sound DEREK MILLER-TIMMINS

Designer DEREK DODD

Producer IRENE SHUBIK

Directed by ALAN CLARKE

Arthur: Nigel Stock

Frank: George A Cooper

Christine: Avril Elgar

Val: With Jo Rowbottom

Mary: Daphne Slater

Phillips: Frank Gatliff

Johnny: Ronald Clarke

David Michael: Graham Cox

Landlord: John Scott Martin

Woman in bar: Patsy Smart

Janicee: M Clarke

Louise: Elaine Donnelly

Peter: Malcolm McFee

Susan: Elaine Mitchell

Dennis: Harold Goodwin

Mr Jones: Bert Palmer

Man in bar: Colin Cunningham

Waitress: Penny Dixon

Salvationist: Alan Lawrance

Ben: Harry Davis

Barmen: Eric Lindsay

Barmen: Fred Hugh

Barmen: Eddie Connor

Organist: Reggie Cross

Kaleidoscope is very grateful to Ian Greaves for trying to persuade the BFI to release this on their Alan Clarke box set; and indeed for returning it to the BBC.



DISCOVERY 63:

The Avengers – Tunnel of Fear tx: 5.8.1961

Written by John Kruse, directed by Guy Verney.

with Anthony Bate, Doris Rogers, John Salew and Nancy Roberts.

Kaleidoscope’s love affair with The Avengers goes back to watching the Channel 4 repeats; and then visiting the Pinewood studios to root around the old ABC archive to see what could be found. “The Frighteners” was found after seeing a clip on Ian Hendry’s This Is Your Life. “Hot Snow” turned up at UCLA. I remember Dave Rogers and I opening cans to find “The Golden Fleece”, which was the last Honor Blackman episode to be found. I also remember our surprise when we persuaded Lumiere to re-master the negs of Rigg and Thorson onto D3 and discovered the prints were longer than the C4 prints. Yes indeed, I have always had a love affair with The Avengers.

Now today I am delighted to announce that Kaleidoscope has acquired the long-lost print of “Tunnel of Fear”. We will be screening this rediscovered ed-ition at our November event Missing Believed Wiped Central. We hope to have a guest connected with the show to introduce it aswell.

We have also acquired a large film collection simultaneously which contains more lost archive gems and I will be announcing each of those new finds all week at 9.30pm.

None of this couldn’t have happened without Steve Birt who has proven once again to be a very worthy friend and financial backer to Kaleidoscope.



DISCOVERY 64:

Softly Softly – Talk to Me tx: 2.2.1966

Written by Kenneth Ware, directed by Shaun Sutton

With Alexis Kanner, Barry Letts, Douglas Blackwell, Milton Johns

and Barlow and Watt as series leads.

There was a test-record ie pilot for Softly Softly recorded on 16th November 1965 which was transmitted as Talk To Me. This is the pilot for Softly Softly. Remarkable it survives.

16mm telerecording acquired from a private collection. Once again without Steve Birt, this would have been very hard to acquire. Steve is a true supporter of the cause.




DISCOVERY 65:

Dr Finlay’s Casebook – A Questionable Practice tx: 25.10.1963

Written by Anthony Steven, directed by Julia Smith.

with Andrew Cruickshank, Barbara Mullen and Bill Simpson as Dr Finlay; James Gibson, Kenneth Mackintosh, Jessie Morton, Peter Harvey.

Tannochbrae lives again!

16mm telerecording acquired from a private collection.

With the assistance of Steve Birt, who provides logistical backup as always.

DISCOVERY 66:

Here’s Harry – The Musician tx: 22.11.1963

Written by Vince Powell and Frank Roscoe, produced and directed by John Ammonds for BBC North.

With Harry Worth, Max Jaffa, Geoffrey Hibbert, Jack Woolgar, BBC Northern Concert Orchestra

Comedy and music combined in the only edition of series 6 that now survives. 16mm telerecording acquired from private collection. Shown on the night it was announced that President Kennedy had been killed. One of the few programmes actually shown and not re-scheduled.

As always, my thanks to Steve Birt for his support.


DISCOVERY 67:

Hugh and I – Beau Jesters tx: 13.12.1966

Written by John Chapman, produced and directed by David Croft

With Terry Scott, Hugh Lloyd, Carl Duering, Robert Gillespie, Jan Leeming, Bernard Martin, Eva Wishaw and Harold Berens.

Anything with Terry Scott in it is guaranteed to make me laugh. The BBC hold no editions from series 6 – until now – though one episode (Chinese Crackers) is held at UCLA.

16mm print acquired from private collection.

DISCOVERY 68:

P. G. Wodehouse’s The World of Wooster - Jeeves and the Great Sermon Handicap tx: 13.6.1965



Written, produced and directed by Michael Mills.

With Ian Carmichael as Wooster and Dennis Price as Jeeves; Simon Ward, Arthur Ridley, Jack Haig, John Scott Martin, Simon Carter.



This edition has proved harder to identify since the can has no title; and I don’t like to wind film out too far. I am using stills from the episode to identify actors to place its title. Delighted to say that Dick Fiddy will be screening this edition at Missing Believed Wiped 2016.



16mm print acquired from a collector. As always with the help of Steve Birt.






DISCOVERY 69:

SURVIVAL – Camargue tx: 18.4.1967

Written by Collin Willock; directed by Stanley Joseph; music by Johnny Dankworth

Introduced by Duncan Carse; songs written and sung by Jan Rosol.

Southern France, home of the bull-fights and endangered wildlife.

16mm print.

Steve Birt was invaluable as always.



DISCOVERY 70:

SURVIVAL – The Homecoming tx: 31.10.1967

Written by Collin Willock; directed by Stanley Joseph; music by Johnny Dankworth

Introduced and sung by Eiko Nakamura

Spring in a Japanese village brings a special surprise…..

16mm print.

The style and tone of the early Survival series were very different to the later wildlife-concentrated series. Note the inclusion of musical numbers.

Moving the Survival archive from Norwich to Leeds has revealed to ITV that many editions survive only on negatives; or are incomplete or are undubbed films that need re-cutting; or in many early cases; no longer exist at all.

These early editions are welcome returns for ITV.



DISCOVERY 71:

Work – “Mining” ATV Schools tx:Jan-March 1978.

Presented by Sylvester McCoy

16mm print.

Here again, the episode title doesn’t match anything listed on ITV paperwork but the entire series is missing so I haven’t unspooled masses of film. It’s an edition from a completely missing series and when we run the film, we’ll know which one it is. Sadly TV Times is no help at all.

My thanks to Steve Birt as always.



DISCOVERY 72:

Look - Cairngorm Country tx: 29.11.1963

Produced by Jeffery Boswall.

Genome says:

“A journey on pony-back with Peter Scott and Rhona of Alltnacriche, climbing from the banks of the Spey to the summit of Cairngorm .

Wildlife sequences filmed by CHRISTOPHER MYLNE for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Film editor, Jim Tobin

Music composed by TONY DESMOND and played by a section of the BBC WEST OF ENGLAND PLAYERS. From the West

16mm print

Thanks to Steve Birt, my good friend and all round fine fellow!

DISCOVERY 73:

Z Cars – Family Feud tx: 20.2.1962

Written by Troy Kennedy Martin; directed by John McGrath

with Jeremy Kemp, James Ellis, Frank Williams, Stratford Johns, Terence Edmond, Leonard Williams, Rio Fanning, Howard Goorney, Dorothy White, Brian Murphy, John Junkin and Mollie Maureen.

Episode 8 in series 1! The earliest lost episode is now a survivor! Z Cars was in its infancy developing its hard, gritty style when this was aired. David Brunt in his excellent book says that no telesnaps survive, so I’m glad the film print now does!

From Genome: The call-sign is Zulu, they call them Z Cars. There are two young constables in each, ready to deal with trouble as it happens

When two feuding families go to war, P.C’s Lynch and Steele of Z-Victor-Two find themselves in the front line.

16mm telerecording.

Steve Birt was delighted to help recover this find!


DISCOVERY 74:

Z Cars – Affray tx: 19.6.1962

Written by John Hopkins, directed by Michael Leeston-Smith

With Jeremy Kemp, James Ellis, Stratford Johns, Frank Windsor, Dudley Foster, BRIAN BLESSED, Joseph Brady, Terence Edmond, Ivor Salter, Brian Mosley, Bernard Kay, Barry Jackson, Lionel Ngakane, Earl Green, Janet Davies, Michael Beint and Ronald Leigh-Hunt.

Episode 25. Another season 1 episode… and a cracking way to finish this week of discoveries with a death of a policeman!

Genome say:

“There are two young constables in each car, ready to deal with trouble as it happens. Two men claim the same prize and trouble begins. When Lynch and Steele are called there is an unexpected development and a policeman dies.

Read David Brunt’s excellent book to find out who dies…..

16mm telerecording.

The last time I shall thank Steve Birt for his help curating this single collection.



That’s the lot. Not much in the way of sci-fi, but still a treasure trove of classic British programmes from the golden age of television.

