Pieces of Lost BBC Shows | Scribbles to Screen

[@tokublwhovian]

I think every fan of Doctor Who knows about the missing episodes

[@robhiggins3287]

You’d think that but I know a fan who thought his Dad had every episode on VHS or DVD until I made the mistake of breaking the news to him that by then it was impossible.

[@tardistime6857]

Too well

[@johnlarro6872]

Sadly you're completely mistaken... :(

[@klisher]

To be honest when i started i never thought i would see the old ones anyway. (late 70s) and then by the time the videos were coming out at a reasonable price , regularly i knew of the missing episodes from DWM. the list was much more extensive back,

[@criesincowboy9629]

In fact, my first exposure to lost media was hearing about Doctor Who's missing episodes

[@roellek16]

This almost happened to Monty Python's Flying Circus, if it were not for Terry, (Jones, or Gilliam forgot which). They heard that the BBC were going to wipe the tapes with football (Soccer) or some other show, and he bought all the master tapes to Flying Circus.

[@bigbigarchive]

Thank God they were saved

[@griersson]

I was thinking about that a while ago: what would have happened if the tapes for the first series had indeed been wiped at the time? Now Terry Jones of course had indeed copied every episode from s1 (what about the others I wonder?) on to domestic Philips video tapes (I suspect at least some episodes were copied over 2 cassettes - one half each), but would there have been a complete set of black and white telecines to use in conjuncture with those, to ensure better colour versions could be recreated, pre-those chroma dot recoveries? Would the programme have been as popular anyway over time because of it, if only a patchwork of colour shows, b/w film prints and low quality tapes had survived? The mind rather boggles about how it would likely have become more of an obscure series, very much a tiny sidebar to the BBCs output, more the rarefied reserve of enthusiasts. The series was however looked into by a Dallas PBS TV executive (who watched the first 3 series) who persuaded a number of stations to pick up the show, thus saving the tapes at the last minute. As a bit of extra trivia, Terry Jones provided the only surviving copy of a black comedy called 'Secrets' (which he wrote with Michael Palin) the only episode of the BBC series 'Black and Blue' (1973) that's known to exist, presumably taped on the very VCR he used to copy the Python shows

[@johnwatts8346]

yep, thank god they saved the shows! but tragically- pete and dud were not so lucky theres a bunch fo their shows survive certainly, but also a number that were wiped and lost forever,

[@griersson]

@@johnwatts8346 Absolutely, 14 of them I believe are lost. By the way, you probably know this but BBC4 will be showing at least one episode - I suppose one of the six 'Best of What's Left' compilations from the 90s - in November

[@johnwatts8346]

@@griersson i love pete and dud, but im a kiwi in nz- dont get bbc 4 here.

[@FM4ever]

One small remark about the Dad's Army colour restoration. The artefact was not from filming a colour TV monitor. It was from filming a colour TV signal on a black and white monitor. The colour signal was not decoded by the TV, therefore in a rough form displayed and ended up on the film copy.

[@jennyd255]

I'm not entirely sure you are correct. For about 10 years I was a BBC video tape engineer, and my understanding of this is that it is the relative intensities of the tri-phosphor dots that was recorded as minute variations in the grey-scale on the B&W film. If the film recording had used a B&W monitor there would have been nothing to view as the colour sub carrier is not decoded or displayed in any way. I may be wrong of course, but I do know that we did have several colour monitor equipped film recording devices - indeed there were real colour film recordings made, for various special purposes so I had always understood that this was the result of using one of these colour capable film recorders but loaded with B&W filmstock. Perhaps I will have to ask my old colleagues Steve Roberts and co, from the Dr who restoration team (of which I was also once a very minor member). EDIT - it seems that maybe the OP was correct after all - see the reply to me below from @andygozzo72 you learn something new every day.

[@andygozzo72]

@@jennyd255 the colour subcarrier will cause a dot pattern on any tv/monitor, colour or monochrome but will show up more on monochrome as phosphor is continuous overall, not discrete dots/stripes as in a colour tube, i've seen it myself, while testing an old black n white cctv monitor on digibox

[@jennyd255]

@@andygozzo72 Ah - ok, I have to admit that is something that I have never seen, and therefore didn't know about. Perhaps the OP was corect then.

[@artism9780]

There’s a show on the BBC in 1974 with Olivia Newton John called Moods of Love which only last four episodes. She basically sang songs that are not released as singles and recited poetry in-between the songs. Unfortunately, almost all of the video footage has been wiped except for one performance. However, audio clips do exist. Hopefully we will find tele-recordings of the show in memory of her

[@shanandersson1779]

There are many lost episodes of Doctor Who in the 1960s and 1970s. Not even Britbox (Britain's own streaming service) doesn't have the lost episodes of Doctor Who.

[@bongoman9578]

All the 70s episodes have been found albeit not in their original forms

[@tl1110]

Hence why they called lost episodes.

[@domtaylor1887]

For me, finding out about the lost episodes of Doctor Who is what got me interested about the efforts that fans and film historians make to preserve media for future generations.

[@LoesserOf2Evils]

Many early films are lost because of volatility of the film stock on which they were recorded. Since the volatility was discovered, there has been an effort to transfer the remaining copy on longer lasting media to preserve as many as can be recovered. Alas, many are irrecoverable because the film stock has deteriorated to a stage that the film can no longer be touched. Tharen are lost to history. 😢

[@deadeye_john]

I just realized, this video feels appropriate this month because the BBC's 100th birthday is coming very soon.

[@literallyfrankjaeger]

when is it?

[@deadeye_john]

@@literallyfrankjaeger October 2022

[@literallyfrankjaeger]

@@deadeye_john oh, then im late XD

[@rimmersgirl81]

I watched a documentary about bob monkhouse where it showed that he had a vast collection of old tv shows that he had from way back in like either the 50’s or 60’s so I think that either the BFI or anyone in the missing media community should get in touch with any of bob monkhouse’s surviving relatives to ask about getting a hold of his collection to remaster and or digitise whatever it is he has in his his collection!!!!!

[@james68908]

they already have with Kaleidoscope years ago.

[@rimmersgirl81]

@@james68908 kaleidoscope have got in touch with bob monkhouse’s estate????? If that is true then hopefully we will soon be seeing whatever he had in his vast collection cause apparently he had loads of old reels of programmes and video tapes as well that he personally recorded!!!!! It would be good to know what was in bob monkhouse’s collection!!!!!

[@trevorbrown6654]

Yeah, I heard something like that too. Apparently monkhouse bought some old tapes off one of the defunct ITV networks (might have been Thames television) as when he died in 2003 his widow realised some of it contained shows that hadn't been shown in thirty years. She contacted kaleidoscope and they came and had a look and they found some lost material including bits of the kids thriller'show 'ace of wands',a lot of which no longer exists.

[@plattyppus]

Oh my gosh, I'm from the US and I've never heard of Sooty, but he's SO cute I love him! I want a Sooty plushie lol

[@oliver91ist]

If you ever do a vid about recovered BBC shows Scribbles, I have a really good story of how the BBC saved a recording. In 1953 the year they did 1984 they also did a TV Version of the play Anastasia which also starred Peter Cushing, but after the film rights were brought for Fox for the 1955 movie they requested the Beeb to destroy the Telecording however Head of Drama had a fondness for it lied and hid the recording in the Archives where it was rediscovered in 2004.

[@jamespoole76]

I would love it if some missing episodes of Top of the Pops were found from the 60s & 1970-73.

[@mightyfilm]

I caught one of the lost Doctor Who reanimated episodes on BBC America a while back and I couldn't take it seriously because it looked like a discount Archer. Kept expecting the Doctor to say "Danger Zone" or "Phrasing."

[@sophiehanssel2017]

2 Queen Top of the Pops performances were found this year. I'm hoping the rest get found as the years go by, because of the outfits the band members were wearing! (Yeah, I'm into Queen and their spectacular outfits, I am a female fashionista LOL)

[@timrob12]

With the cast of Mark Gatiss' An Adventure in Space and Time looking a lot like the original Doctor Who cast (minus Reece Shearsmith as Patrick Troughton), I'm suggesting that they could re-shoot the Hartnell stories that are fully missing and release those versions to the public until the actual episodes are ever found. There is a site I found that put the scripts for these epsiodes online, so that can be used as a basis for filming, especially for stories like The Myth Makers where no telesnaps exist.

[@DVDandFilmBloke]

The video recorder that replaced VIRA wasn't called Ampex, that was the name of the company who made it. The system was called Quadruplex, because it included 4 recording heads mounted on a spinning drum, the heads in VIRA were stationary much like audio heads, however the high frequency response needed to store audio and video was so great the tape had to move past the head at a very high speed. With Quadruplex Ampex came up with the idea of a fast moving head drum so the video signal doesn't have to occupy much space on the tape so the tape could be ran slowly (the spinning head idea is used in all later video recorders, from professional to home). Currently only 1 VIRA tape is known to exist, however the machine designed to play it was dismantled so we will never get to see VIRA at it's true quality, and the surviving footage we do have survives as tele recordings.

[@jaxking904]

Shout out to your brother for putting you in the business and great job on the video I love learning about lost media in not just my native U.S but all over the world along with media history in the U.S and abroad.

[@michaelbullen3104]

Scribbles, keep the UK lost stuff coming my man. It’s absolutely FASCINATING.

[@trevorbrown6654]

When Dudley Moore heard that the BBC were going to wipe 'Not Only But Also' he tried to buy the tapes from them so they would at least be preserved, but the BBC refused citing red tape. Now only bits and pieces of the series survive. Fun fact - Basil Brush's voice was based on comedian Terry Thomas.

[@davidjames579]

He should have bought the Bin they were going into.

[@DVDandFilmBloke]

26:16 That's not technically true, the tape that was discovered at BBC Scotland was a 2 inch low band tape. While the resolution of the luminance matches the original master tape the colour is incredibly weak since the tape was intended for recording black and white programmes. So when the DVD came out they boosted what little colour was still there and repaired some mild tape glitches, so no, the film copy was never used in the restoration. They also found Episode 6 of The Time Monster in the same format, however the BBC also had a full colour NTSC copy returned from Canada so for the DVD release they combined the chroma from the NTSC copy (using Reverse Standards Conversion) and the luminance from the low band PAL tape and the results look great.

[@collegeman1988]

The BBC lost recordings of their television coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Does anyone really need to know more about how careless they were in keeping archives of important events?

[@adamhickey396]

Although I have no proof of this, I can almost guarantee that Tenth Planet 4 still exists out there in the hands of a private collector. Same with DMP ep 4 and Fury Ep 6. I just wish they would hand it back in and let us all enjoy it.

[@TheSaintsray]

There's a fabulous list of the Most Wanted Lost TV shows in the book 'Missing Believed Wiped: The Top 100 Lost TV Shows'. (I know, I wrote it, tee hee!). The Beatles actually only appeared IN PERSON on TOTP the once. They otherwise sent in, or recorded special inserts, such as that Ticket to Ride one in the Chase and also one for the 25/03/1964 edition which also exists due to an 8mm film off-screen. (I got this one dubbed and synched a few years back.) You are correct though, TOTP was voted second on the list after DW.

[@benjaminclasper9355]

I think what is very clear about the BBC and one thing’s for sure is that the BBC are terrible with holding on to old pieces of footage and episodes of television history sometimes and it seems like once something had been viewed once, they never considered or thought about how one day fans and modern day fans of these shows may want to watch these shows and episodes again when they want to. Though it could be understandable considering that they had to save money and they had to wipe some things because of them taking up space perhaps and to save on tape and film for producing more television programmes and shows.

[@minicle426]

Most of the first series of the Avengers is still missing. But have a solid audio remake by Big Finish.

[@chriscass9322]

One show missing from this video is The Gnomes of Dulwich a sitcom which stared Terry Scott and was shown on BBC 2 , I believe that there were only 7 episodes made and not one has ever been seen since it aired (late 60's early 70,s ?) , I remember watching it with my Parents but sadly it didn't last long although i have searched for it i have never found and episodes on youtube or anywhere else , i did find some info that related to where they were stored the BBC archive had a fire and some episodes of mostly 60's and 70's shows were lost it would be great if you were able to shed some light on this

[@MatthewDrummond-p7o]

I've got a feeling that the 1962 TV Mini Series titled ''Crying Down the Lane'' my have survived because I've found several websites showing the show and it's details.

[@benjaminclasper9355]

And that they could still all be in their complete forms with all the episodes of the programmes.

[@TroyUlysses]

"Great affection" ? The BBC couldn't care less. The animated Dr Who eps had more todo with American money and that's dried up now.

[@MrGlenbw]

18:36 RIP HEADPHONE 😵✝

[@Glamrockqueen]

The TOTPs programme I'd love to see, is Flick Colbys last one. She did a solo dance to Simon & Garfunkels Bridge Over Troubled Water. From all accounts is was brilliant.

[@deweylipschitz1516]

Most of the programs on the old "Du-mont" tv network in the states are long gone.

[@pegasusactua2985]

I would love if you do lost media from other networks like the American equivalent of BBC aka PBS. Or maybe other older networks like NBC or perhaps even HBO, or Showtime etc. There is a goldmine in this category.

[@trevorbrown6654]

I thought the US networks were much better at keeping old shows than the UK, hence why all the Bilko shows and other stuff survived. I know the Dumont (or something like that) network output is not well archived due to them going out of business in the 50s but the US did better than most. Having said that I did read that in the 1970s some of the production companies did have a clear out of old show masters that didn't sell well at the time (T H.E. CAT was the one I was reading about) and now they regret it as the nostalgia market is quite valuable.

[@pegasusactua2985]

​@@trevorbrown6654 Better yes, but there is still a shitload of lost stuff collectively especially if you go back to pre-70s.

[@dongargon763]

“Callan “is another underrated classic show that missing most of its first 2 seasons due to reusing tape

[@Mrlaurens1987]

Two episodes of It ain’t half hot mum are also still missing although a bad vhs copy exist of it i still hope they find or the master tapes or a 16mm copy

[@HunterX05]

you could make an entire video series about the lost Doctor Who media from the first two Doctors alone

[@benjaminclasper9355]

I do wish all these programmes and shows and some or the shows episodes weren’t wiped though.

[@supergodzillaxvlogs3044]

Hi Friend Enjoy Your Show👍😆😍🤣❤️

[@brianblumenreich9026]

Patrick Troughton was in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS!

[@MadMal2024]

There is a series made by the BBC; a Science Fiction/Factual series not on your supplied list. Doomwatch. Some of the series remains; but not all of the episodes. For the era; this was a ground-breaking series; something the BBC started with of course Dr Who. I'm not sure if it was ever exported to other countries networks like DR Who ; if it was so, those early missing episodes might still exist somewhere. As it stands... All that remains is all we have.

[@SophieCrane-o7v]

What an interesting video this is, How About you do another for Lost ITV Shows?

[@HeadphonesUK]

I need to check out more of classic Basil Brush

[@mathieuleader8601]

Sooty's creator worked at Harry Ramsden's before puppeteering by playing the piano

[@davidlee6720]

The powers that be lack all foresight, they did not seem to realise how iconic most of these programmes were to become in the future. they only saw old grainy images of royalty or the Proms worthy of considering for posterity. Most of our BBC overlords in those days preferred only ballet and opera, all else they saw as ephemeral and unworthy of preservation, how wrong they were!

[@PitchSkullBlack]

Incredible and fascinating video.

[@GrantCameron37]

Are you going to do one of these lost media videos on ITV as well?

[@ceebee23]

I often wonder whether bright boys who ordered the wiping of tapes ever got realise how many £££ they have cost the Beeb!

[@cliffcook3993]

I think you will find it was John Logie Baird

[@Mrnotpib]

Me, dumbly: Introduction is very very important creator lore. Me, dumblyer: Scribbles to Screen beta version DO NOT RESEARCH.

[@mathieuleader8601]

the creator of Sooty's uncle was the creator of the fish & chips eatery Harry Ramsdens

[@gordon3178]

In this video it talks about dads army and did anyone know that there 3 missing episodes and 1 unaired episode because the episode where the note was left in place of james beck aka private walker had just passed and the episode had been made but not aired so the had to do a rush order and make a episode with the note on the floor

[@Amahankage2004]

Man the wait its killing me, its going to be great im sure of it

[@HeadphonesUK]

Cheers for quoting me :)

[@ismaelvillegas1251]

Please talk about more of the missing coach

[@xxnightmaredensetsuxx5538]

can you do pieces of Lost WB Sound/Pre-Code Films in your next video

[@NicoTheCinderace]

What happened? The newest Iceberg Video got put on private. Did something happen?

[@PixelTheMushroom]

huh, I didn't know that sooty got a third presenter. Personally, I think I'm still going to be partial to the second presenter, he just has a kind face unlike the current one

[@dazzfromaus4797]

Sadly most of these great DVD'S were secretly encoded with macrovision. This means that you couldn't copy them in anolouge formats.

[@6sek]

I'm guessing you'll mention lost episodes of doctor who but what about the likely lads

[@robalexander8065]

Interesting video. A couple of points. It was JOHN Logie-Baird and Re. Muffin the Mule. It's pronounced "Ho-garth" not "Hog-arth".

[@davidsworld5837]

you do find it weird that lost episodes of Dr who and why they dont just remake them with a new DR. they are better than the bad ones they show now. since there are no versions on tv so very few people will have seen the original versions.

[@serveaux]

Telesnap Dr. Who episodes are rough to get through. I prefer the animations.

[@electrofonickitty823]

Lost media is always horrifying

[@MartynAndStuff]

Fun fact: Richard Caddell destroyed the masters of the animated Sooty series on the account that were terrible

[@yellowstar3335]

do one of itv @Scribbles to Screen

[@nigelallwright194]

this is very interesting

[@douglasramsay2184]

Who on earth was George Logie Bear 😅

[@DrawtoonzStudio]

Where did the banned movie iceberg go?

[@normanby100]

What were the Kinks singing on Basil Brush?

[@TheBadfighta]

it was 'Days'

[@TheCyberman1966]

One minor error with your info the junking of old midis was stopped ik the mid to early 70’s

[@ScribblestoScreen]

Well there were definitely some tension of episodes being wiped as late as 1978.

[@collegeman1988]

@@ScribblestoScreen 1978 was the year that the BBC developed an official archiving policy. Until then, many BBC shows before then if they exist today come from copies that were exported to other countries and still existed in their television archives.

[@brandonwholikesstuff]

Contorversial but I prefer the reconstructions of doctor who

[@tokublwhovian]

Animated or the ones with stills and text?

[@brandonwholikesstuff]

@@tokublwhovian the ones with stills and text

[@ajclements4627]

The animated ones feel “off” to me, not really a fan of them myself.

[@minicle426]

I find Patrick Troughton lends himself well to animation.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

Im not a fan of the recent animations because they havent been accurate to the original they cut a scene or two out and they put it into colour when the original episodes were black and white.

[@Jamesalec63]

Didn't the power of audio come into play with some of these lost moments on television from the BBC to Pinewood Studios and those lost films some were done by amateur film makers especially those of important events there are actually archives and some archive information websites that can lead to moments lost but remastered and including old Doctor Who episodes to but some were wiped oddly though there were roamers that some went to Australia and some were destroyed by accident? I am a fan resoring films where possible like Ollie and Stan, and vintage Doctor Who but if some are in bits and pieces of footage and the only way is animation fine it actually makes perfect sense especially if the film is unlikely be fixed no alternative.. Television history is fascinating and now that the BBC is a 100 and Doctor who is 60 the case for vintage TV is very important for the future of history and television and media in general, archives abound I say BBC DNA of the history of Britain history? Pimpernel they seek him there they here?

[@robk7815]

Loved this, so well researched and presented, but the use of "season" for a British show, when it should be "series" really triggered me.

[@kuchcyk]

"tooken on board" ? Er, um. OK

[@daviddryismarmalized]

First

[@willigee7885]

this is so poor