FROM THE MONTY PYTHON ARCHIVE: "DÉJÀ VU" RESURRECTED

What do you do with a tape that's been hidden away for over twenty five years? Why, get it played of course!
The tape is one of two original transmission tapes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" that slipped through the net when the BBC made their digital masters in the early 1990s. The episode, "Déjà Vu”, the third episode of the second series, should have been part of that archiving process but for some reason the BBC's poorer quality sales copy was archived instead.
According to the paperwork, the tape hasn't been played since 1979, but it seemed fitting that it should be resurrected in Monty Python's 50th anniversary year.
The tape is a two-inch quadruplex recording, a format developed by Ampex in the 1950s. It was the workhorse of television broadcasters from 1958 until the late 1980s when it was superseded by more flexible formats. Ampex quad machines haven't been manufactured since the early 1980s, but working machines can still be found. This video shows the first time we played back "Déjà Vu", almost certainly the first time it has been played since the 1970s.
Keep up to date on all the Monty Python 50th anniversary activity at www.montypython... and on our socials.

[@TGNXAR]

"And now for something completely different..." Damn you, Cleese!

[@TheLawrenceWade]

EXACTLY why we need to preserve 2" machines and the knowledge of how to run them. Thank you.

[@kenlieck7756]

And a baby doll that cries “Mama!” (Well, that’s just in case talking apes become the dominant sentient species on the planet, superseding the crafty, resourceful ant.)

[@isaak.studio]

Playing a DVD is too easy. I wanted a challenge. Thanks for introducing Hard Mode.

[@klaxoncow]

@@sergentboucherie Pfft! Luxury! That's nothing. When I were a lad, we'd mentally decode MPEG streams using a hex editor... 28 hours a day, whilst living in a shoe box and eating gravel.

[@flare242]

@@klaxoncow That's nothing. When i was three years old, my father would show me the episode stream of ones and zeroes, and if i didn't repeat it without a single mistake after the first viewing, he would saw my head off, set it on fire and dump it in a swamp. The next day, i had to memorize two episodes at once.

[@mu2freighter]

@@klaxoncow you got that right, these newly hatched larvae have it _way_ too soft. Doing things the hard way builds character. now, GIT off'n muh LAWN!

[@curtisburga943]

@@flare242 Ones and Zeroes. Piffle! We only had Zeroes! and we called them Aught's! One's were a luxury in those days! We counted ourselves lucky that we even had Zeroes!

[@klaxoncow]

@@curtisburga943 Zeroes? Luxury! In my day, we didn't have any zeroes. As the Islamic invasion of the former Byzantine empire hadn't yet driven those with "Eastern knowledge" of this Indian invention of positional notation, gathered by the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, westwards into Europe, to kick start the Renaissance, yet. No, we were stuck with them bloody Roman Numerals, we were. And we lived in a Medieval disease-ridden theocratic shit hole, run by the Pope, where if you even mentioned the idea of a zero, the Pope would have you burnt alive for heresy. And we were forced, as peasants, to subsistence farm 24/7 and still suffer near perpetual malnutrition that stunted our growth, making us shorter and less longer lived than modern folk. But you try telling the younger generations this and they don't believe you.

[@Chuckqnit]

It's in extraordinarily good condition...half a century old as of next year!

[@neithere]

I will probably always think that 1970 was 30 years ago 😱

[@willievstudio]

And now for something completely different, it is so great to hear those words again!!! Ironically it works great with the whole analog/digital thing old/new.

[@bdf2718]

Monty Python's _The colour bars that like to say beeep._

[@Noycey64]

bdf2718 these are my favourite.

[@Christopher-N]

You see, the BBC leases this back from the company they licensed it to, and that way, it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

[@chrispope5230]

And when they say beeep, they mean it!

[@nanniwa]

I'll bet a lot of you younger KZbinrs have never seen reel-to-reel tapes being loaded. I never did video for TV stations, but I did a lot of mag tapes for computers back in the 1980s. This brought it all back.

[@csblakeley]

I used to work with 1" tape all the time at a public television station in college. The almost visceral reaction I had to watching him open the case and thread the tape was almost Proustian! And that's also my entry to the International Summarize Proust Competitions. ;)

[@flare242]

♪♫ Proust in his first book wrote about, wrote about.... ♪♫

[@nextg]

@@flare242 [gong] Start again!

[@quizmaster85]

@@flare242 I'm going award the first like for that comment to the girl with the biggest tits.

[@jeffyork4103]

This was 2" quad tape, not 1".

[@whenthemusicsover6028]

Strangling animals, golf & masturbating.

[@Procket12]

The Its the Mind sketch has made me laugh everytime since the first time I watched it as a kid. Just Michael Palin as he gets progressively more freaked out.

[@Kainlarsen]

It's simultaneously comedy and existential/psychological horror. One of the best sketches they ever did, I think. :)

[@MarcMercier1971]

For me it's the Undertaker sketch.

[@kevinmcdonald6477]

It is almost a comedic Twilight Zone. So funny. And I'll be honest nowadays this goes over most people's heads. Maybe it always did. I'm still laughing!

[@kevinmcdonald6477]

I first watched Python on pbs in the late 70's when I was 11-13. It formed my sense of humor to this day. At least the aspects of absurdity and silliness actually being high performance. Why? Because they were absurd yet intelligent at the same time The only performers show that I think came very close and frequently equalled in hilarity was Mr. Show.

[@BrianKishreviews]

I hope we see more outtakes from the master reels!

[@jessesteinbar]

I would love to see too!

[@DocSonic]

Awesome, when I started working at a public TV station in 2001, we were still running 4, 1" tape machines all day every day. Even though we used NTSC instead of PAL, we used the same Sony monotors and video scopes to set levels with. I strung up tapes for air for quite a few years. Such nostalgia.

[@mspysu79]

Good to see that old Memorex tape playing that good. There must have been baking and cleaning done before running it through the Ampex AVR-2.

[@andylindsaytunes]

In the full version of this video the camera pans over to Ella Fitzgerald, who then breaks a wineglass with a high note.

[@Christopher-N]

Amazing watching that old system play a video tape so cleanly. It's like a *Techmoan* video about a forgotten format (no puppets, but at least it's silly). That tape is a treasure.

[@TheGramophoneGirl]

These original 625 PAL tapes need to be the ones archived. It can look really clear when played back on modern hd tv's and would open up MPFC to a whole new audience. The versions on Netflix are shockingly blurry and almost look like some dubious ntsc transfer.

[@azmath2059]

That's correct. When the studio colour cameras were still relatively new back then, they would produce amazingly clear 625 line 4:3 pictures recorded on the 2" tape seen in this video, which I'm sure would look good on today's HD TV's. How do I know? I was working in a TV station back in those days and the resolution of the broadcast studio monitors was staggering.

[@slinkerdeer]

Even after seeing so much of your content i still had troble breathing after John delivered that line, man I wish python was still in its hay day. Miles better than anything ive seen come since

[@RinIsArty]

Wow. And it's going to be digitized now I presume? In proper quality.

[@L0LWTF1337]

You can already buy the entire series on DVD.

[@NorthEevee]

@@L0LWTF1337 Full HD Blu Ray as well?

[@silenthunteruk]

@@L0LWTF1337 Which includes the poorer quality version of the episode.

[@josso1]

yeah what's the deal with HD flying circus, I swear I've seen footage in documentaries that seems to be in HD but not actually the full thing

[@Phaota]

@@josso1 Reminds me of the supposed remastered and restored "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" on Blu-ray. Doesn't look any different than the DVDs IMO.

[@ExplosionKid570]

I think I might have been in this place before

[@bluekewne]

Masaka?!?!?

[@themaun]

maybe higher on the street?

[@Dganny24]

@@themaun It might be your time to go

[@themaun]

@@Dganny24 if that is the case I will be calling you

[@neithere]

What an extraordinary feeling!..

[@tortysoft]

I joined Tel Rec in 1978. I worked on Ampex VR 2000s - earlier than that AVR 2, also RCS TR70C machines. We were Engineers, not operators in those days. There were dozens of adjustments needed - AFTER CLEANING - before the tape would be 'Satis for TX'. We were give 45 minutes to do the line up. OK, we seldom took that long, but you get the idea how much needed to be adjusted ! That is why the master tapes look good - only an Engineer can or should replay them. Engineers recorded them in the first place.

[@MaryGreenleaf]

Gosh i really don't have a cleaning fetish at all, BUT i soooo want to take a duster to that old machine just to protect that tape!!!! AAAAAaaarrrggghhh!!! And thanks for sharing guys!

[@stephenmuth7081]

My thoughts exactly. Not the most exacting maintenance department there, apparently.

[@EddieFunkowitz]

@@stephenmuth7081 That's because it's an antique machine for an obsolete format. It probably hasn't been used in decades.

[@stephenmuth7081]

It's in the main BBC TV archives. A huge library. It gets used all the time, including when they digitize various shows. They simply do not budget for maintenance well, apparently. Which is a shame, as that dirty transport runs a risk of scraping oxide off of priceless tapes.

[@stephenmuth7081]

here's a tour of the archive. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWS9Y5egp6aKaK8

[@MaryGreenleaf]

@@stephenmuth7081 thank you very much for that link! Very interesting indeed! And at 0:20 of that video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWS9Y5egp6aKaK8) you can see that they really are able to use a duster :D

[@MathewTizard]

This is great. This was the first episode of Monty Python I ever saw, and is still one of my favourites.

[@tortysoft]

Help ! So much dust on the AVR2 ! Terrible ! And, the operator didn't clean the heads ... Ahg ! Great to see a recording report card again.

[@TheSuperMegaFox]

I Grew up with The Circus, but what made me feel old, was not seeing the outdated equipment, the classical footage or even the traditional introduction. It was the editors pot belly as he started the footage.

[@TheSuperMegaFox]

...and by the way, there are (as I write this) twelve assholes who thumbs downed this video. What the fuck is wrong with people!?

[@clintonearlwalker]

They don't make machines like that anymore. When I was a projectionist at a drive in, the light in the projectors was made by a constant electric arc between two welding rods. thanx for the video.

[@brianfretwell3886]

Carbon rods, not welding ones, surely, unless it was a sealed Xenon arc.

[@clintonearlwalker]

@@brianfretwell3886 That's correct. Actually, it said "Arc Carbons" on the box. They were about 1/2 inch in diameter, much larger than the carbons used in other projectors around here. They were "like" welding rods. Xenon bulbs didn't come out until much later. They were used in indoor theaters as they didn't produce nearly enough light for a drive in screen 40 yards across. I knew a projectionist at an indoor theater that had to wear gloves when he changed the xenon bulbs in his projectors.

[@Psychol-Snooper]

And now for something eerily familiar...

[@Christopher-N]

Excellent play on déjà vu. My congratulations, *Angry Applesauce.* Your latest pun is a great success. The whole of London's talking about you.

[@Psychol-Snooper]

@@Christopher-N Who pooped in your quiche, fancy girl?

[@Christopher-N]

@@Psychol-Snooper: Have you been living under a rock? "My congratulations..." is a play on Monty Python's Oscar Wilde sketch. I had been praising your comment, but with your reply, I take it back - you don't deserve any praise at all.

[@ryanortega1511]

OOF

[@SevenStarsAndHalf]

This is giving me a strange feeling of "Déjà vu".

[@DonDuracell]

Damn, that guy is handling tapes that are over 25 years old and his place looks like an asthmatic would've been in real trouble breathing in. Dust all over the place. :-|

[@Gilgames32]

And now: something completly different...

[@starmanbrinley9936]

Is this supposed to give the impression you're restoring all of the episodes for a new release of the series on DVD/BluRay? In fabulous HD? Just me? Hope I'm onto something more than wishful thinking...

[@jocelynbriggs5002]

Let's hope they do a better job this time, reinstating all the missing bits (Satan animation, Choreographed Party Political Broadcast etc.), uncompressed film segments & some bonus features (at the very least the German shows, if they can get the rights).

[@desperatemohammedantheworl5833]

@@jocelynbriggs5002 montypython.networkonair.com/flyingcircushd - Though I believe a couple of lines of cut/over-dubbed audio are almost certainly lost forever these episodes should for the first time ever otherwise be as originally submitted to the BBC for broadcast.

[@HailAnts]

Asking for Blu-ray is tough. It would only benefit the outdoor filmed bits (and the animations). Everything in the studio was shot directly on SD videotape so Blu-ray wouldn’t add anything...

[@DieGroteske]

I sure as hell hope that some day the outtakes from the series will be released. Some were posted on KZbin a while ago, but to have a comprehensive collection of outtakes would be just mind blowing.

[@DieGroteske]

Well I guess my plea was heard :)

[@PrinceWesterburg]

Ever tried cleaning your tape machine? Jeeez!

[@partycattheoneandonly4563]

It's wonderful to see the reels of footage. I'd kill to own a piece of history like that

[@EFJGN1982]

¡Excelente material de archivo audiovisual! ¡Felicitaciones por su trabajo y su difusión! ¡Saludos desde Argentina!

[@sergeoperu]

The most deadly joke is probably stored the same way.

[@dazzfromaus4797]

Well done.on.such a reare find. At least this is one tape the BBC can't chuck out or errace. Well done on preserving a really good episode. Well done.

[@jimboblivesforever]

Interesting! In my DVD Box Set (the older British 8-disc set), that Intro was used for Episode 3 of Series 2, not Episode 5. Anyway, it's lovely to see that the original magnetic tapes still exist!

[@525Lines]

They standardize intros and outros when they make DVD sets. Credits get wrecked.

[@jocelynbriggs5002]

Episode 5 refers to the production order (in this case the fifth episode shot for Series 2). As you say, it was broadcast as Episode 3. Only Series 4 was broadcast in the same order as it was recorded.

[@jimboblivesforever]

@@jocelynbriggs5002 thanks for the info!

[@ewalker3]

As sensitive as the 2” machine is - one would think they would have cleaned all the mess up and around the tape and head area

[@notbubu]

Loved seeing the card with all the tape's playback and TX details written down. 'NC1' - it's moved a little further up Wood Lane but it's still called that to this day.

[@vernturnquist6729]

THANK YOU TERRY GILLIAM FOR SECURING THE MASTER TAPES BEFORE THEY WERE DISCARDED, AND CREATING THE NORWEGIAN BLUE BOXED SET!!! NOW PISS OFF!

[@kurtb8474]

2-inch reel-to-reel videotape. The wider the tape, the clearer the video. This was the best quality they had back then. I used 1-inch tape in the 90s at a TV station.

[@jeffyork4103]

Not really. There's a reason the progression went from 2" quad to 1" to 1/2" betacam.

[@The_SilverMane]

My first Flying Circus I've ever watched :D

[@HailAnts]

The only reason the show still exists is because Terry Jones ponied up £900 to buy the original masters after it ended. The BBC was just going to wipe them and reuse the tape! Happened a lot back in the day...

[@chrisc1553]

Nice Ampex AVR-2 but do you have to keep it next to the plumbing?

[@Witheredgoogie]

That was probably part of the 'vacuum' bearing system used on the tape machine.

[@organfairy]

It's a compressed air supply. The machine needs it for the 'air bearings' that carries the video head shaft and probably also for the system that supports the tape through the head assembly.

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

So while it's nice to dig such pieces of your stuff from the archives, it'd also be nice if you hadn't just copyright claimed and taken down ALL of Flying Circus. I love those skits, I own copies (yes, multiple) of all of them, and now I can't share them with friends. You know you could have just monetized them and gotten paid, right?

[@danielpoitras1858]

As the shows put out on video were 'sanitized', would it not be worth putting out this originsl copy in case of discrepencies?

[@phonotical]

The amount of dust!

[@TotalSinging]

you'd think they'd clean the damn machines. A rag, some rubbing alcohol.

[@0The0Web0]

Do you get Copyright Claims on your own material from 'Believe Entertainment' too? If you sent them raining down over KZbin, which i doubt, then it's OK. If not: Can you please stop them?

[@trevorrandom]

These flats are in Hepworth Way Walton-on-Thames

[@sbaxter4207]

Does that machine look rather a little bit too dusty to be playing such a treasure?

[@marcrhsn]

Definitely!

[@DodgerFanAD_23]

Yup !

[@JanPBtest]

No, it's perfectly fine.

[@tortysoft]

@@JanPBtest It's the tape path and the heads that HAVE to be spotless or the tape scratches - lots of white 'dashes' in sloping lines wobbling around on the screen show an engineer has been sloppy.

[@shiv421kobra]

Me eagerly clicking on it because all other monty python content has been COPYSTRIKED AND REMOVED FROM KZbin only to get blueballed by John Cleese

[@RobertJW]

Edward Vaughn no, he means blueballed. Try watching the video!

[@herbertorendorff6323]

I know what he meant because Monty Python did comedy that someone worked in the blue in other words them and the BBC didn't always get along and that's a fact

[@shiv421kobra]

@Edward Vaughn i did indeed mean blueballed

[@mathuetax]

Cleese DOES NOT look like he's very happy to be on that window washer carriage.

[@tortysoft]

Do you know that this was shot inside the 'doughnut' of TV Center Wood Lane as was.

[@mathuetax]

@@tortysoft I did not :)

[@MartyOGorman]

Genuine question: what would the 1985 VHS and Beta copies have been mastered from then? Another copy from the master? In which case I’m looking forward to this enormously...

[@mspysu79]

In 1985 the tapes would have likely been sourced from 1" copies of the master 2" tapes, if they where in the US then they would have been converted from PAL to NTSC, the quality of that conversion can vary wildly and depends on where it was done and what generation of equipment it was done on.

[@markbutler5730]

Do they still use Ampex today. Is it digital Ampex.

[@Ledgeview]

A top fav. episode of mine.

[@Jared_Wignall]

This is awesome.

[@XZenon]

You're doing a god's work.

[@petehatzakos]

I don't understand the significance of this tape. Is it rare and unseen or are you just trying to up-convert it for archiving to another format? I will say, it's cool watching it.

[@KiddsockTV]

WOW! Now there is a Gem.

[@laservampire]

I really hope that all of the original quad masters are being transferred again for the 50th Anniversary, and the missing bits recovered from the black and white 16mm kinescopes held by the BBC (the Satan animation etc)

[@MeleeTiger]

A quote that has lasted decades.

[@tyro244]

It's DÉJÀ VU all over again!

[@lupodelupis3672]

It's Dejà Vu all over again!

[@wisteela]

Loving this old tech

[@keithhunter2151]

Hmmm the deck of that machine - AVR 2 - could do with a good clean!

[@tsuwaque]

any progress on transferring the tape?

[@northernplacecorporation]

Unfortunately, although the video was edited in 23.976 FPS, the shots of that Memorex 2" Quadruplex, and that Ampex 2" Quadruplex recorder playing that tape back, were in 25 FPS, and therefore, if a video that was shot in 25 FPS was displayed in 23.976 FPS, you might notice a frame-drop after a second, since it's only been able to display 24 FPS out of the total of 25. So, incorrect frame-rate.

[@chezsnailez]

Never seen one-a those Quadruplex machines in action...

[@josephdolman]

question how is film read how do the tape reels work I've always wondered about old media.

[@phidrakeresoration]

Joseph Dolman the tape is quadruplex 2”tape. There are 4heads on a drum that rotate against the tape to get the signal recorded and played back. Setting the machines was quite a skill. Look it all up on KZbin there is quite a bit of info around.

[@BilalHeuser1]

What kind of tape is that being played? What format? Its obviously too big for VHS or BetaMarx ...

[@marcrhsn]

Quadruplex The first usable VTR format, 2 inch wide tape.

[@jeffyork4103]

And what's more, the machine it's being played off of was a 2" quad "portable" deck. The Ampex AVR-2.

[@mspysu79]

@@jeffyork4103 The AVR-2 was not a portable, it was the smallest "Studio" deck made at that time, it was pretty innovative with a digital servo system and a digital time base corrector. Being only 600 pounds and only needing 15A of 120V power, they did find their way into a lot of large remote trucks. The Portable quad was the 1967 VR-3000 completely self contained and really record only as playback was in mono and not time base corrected.

[@trevorrudge8556]

Looks like the flats in Walton-on-Thames that feature in the first ever episode.

[@ricodelgado6851]

Siri ask me what year it is.

[@ricodelgado6851]

Banana

[@fryguy7967]

are feet shou!

[@ricodelgado6851]

@@fryguy7967 Dad please dont get the water gun again.

[@securityrobot]

I have a feeling that I have seen this before.

[@ThePhoenixSpaz]

That's it? B..b..but it was about to get good! You...you...COMEDY TEASE!! 🙃😂

[@christophpleininger5876]

Please let us have an HD version of Flying Circus...

[@desperatemohammedantheworl5833]

montypython.networkonair.com/flyingcircushd

[@pressureworks]

Ob dear handling the tape without gloves.

[@EllinonEnosis]

please guys, i beg of someone to link a video of the Woony and Tinny words......i can not find it on youtube or google or what so ever....did they banned it or what ? Caribou gooooone :(

[@JanPBtest]

I hope you tested the tape whether it needed baking first (the hygroscopic problem).

[@regesterw]

Excellent!

[@scottstrang1583]

Hard to believe Memorex would be used in any professional capacity. I guess back then it was decent stuff.

[@andrewjones6693]

Talk about a teaser trailer...

[@stevelampley2591]

I will from this day forward use the numbers 4214 whenever I can.

[@paineoftheworld]

Is this how CT scanners work?

[@Vinyljesus95]

Thank fuck the BBC never wiped anything Monty Python.

[@TheAskTrixieChannel]

I'm guessing they wiped the tape of the unaired Season 3 sketches?

[@Thaumh]

I think I've seen this one before.

[@notyourbiz235]

@rickodelgado: 1970's....

[@MisterTingles]

But I didn't order mine with extra Cleese...!

[@JosHageman]

Too bad I can only give this one thumb up

[@dmitrishostakovich9559]

GODDAMNIT JOHN

The parents of an old girlfriend of mine had what must have been a first generation VCR (top loading) and it had to be almost as bulky as that contraption.

[@mspysu79]

Not quite, an Ampex AVR-2 (the machine shown in the video) is 600 pounds, requires 15 amps at 120V and also needs to be supplied with compressed air at 45 PSI.

@@mspysu79 I'm guessing that when someone says that something is "as big as a house" you take them literally and point out that houses are much bigger than whatever non-house-sized object they were referring to?

[@ProjectFlashlight612]

Like trying to watch telly in an Avro Shackleton.

[@keetrandling4530]

and exactly how did one get their hands on this bit of history?

[@srfurley]

The noise of the head drum on Quad machines is horrible.

[@asr070568]

Oh. I forgot about her.

[@AndrewSmith-ir1ui]

50 years later she may also have forgotten about her.

[@Dontmakemereregister]

And now for.. wait

[@jeffyork4103]

Hey! Who hit stop? I was watching that! 2 inch quad tape. It was the worst.

[@ReggieMay]

Not quite. How about a BASF VHS cassette recorded at SLP? Try getting through that without the VCR spitting out the tape. Those were some of the worst I've ever seen (used to work retail home-ent). You get one play before (1) the cassette shell itself warping; (2) the tape start flaking; (3) the playback start sloowww-ing down from dragging on the felt pads.

[@phonotical]

At least dust your machine...

[@wanewton3]

Fountain pen tape label!

[@mikevanroy9356]

The new Matrix movie brought me here.

[@collapsible1639]

If you need someone to help transfer the tapes then i'm always available, wink wink nudge nudge.