ABC Associated-Rediffusion BBC Australia

[Deleted]

It's amazing so much missing material has been found as it is, with so little information on movement around the world being known about certain programming / companies. So I'd think that a collation of this information could only help the search for missing material.

[Deleted]

Nov 12, 2014 8:36:49 GMT Peter Stirling said:

Nov 12, 2014 8:22:24 GMT @simonmoreby said:

Yes indeed Laurence. It would be good if someone or some body could provide some guidance to what Rediffusion policy was with regard to their material being shown and its existence thereafter,(but there again, some episodes might still get left there.) Yes my examples are for just small areas of one country, but I would very much like to see other listings of UK programmes, not just ABC, A-R or BBC, but from any other UK television station, so long as the material is Missing Episodes, for the same area as above, or other areas of Australia, or anywhere else in the world. These other listings would provide guidance as to where the Missing Episodes were being sent to be viewed by that Country's viewers and we could create a list or database of where the shows/programmes were sent or might  still be there, if such a list or database does not already exist. Be interested to hear what others on this forum think or feel about this.

ATV had ITC as their export arm, IIRC Rediffusion had a company called Global Television which was their export arm,it is thought that around 1973 the AR material was started to be dissipated as by then the material was getting out of date and of course mostly in B/W. Global TV carried on and of course had to get involved in new programmes if it was to survive, (if its the same company?) then it got involved some projects by the writer Ian Stuart Black which included the SciFi series Star Maidens.

...something like that anyway.

thanks Peter.  I followed up your mention of Global Television and immediately came upon this..

www.timdisneyarchive.com/telecine/rediffusion/

In its fourth paragraph it says
" Rediffusion exported much of their programme output far and wide through their distribution arm, Global television. Many of the film prints distributed around the world were returned to Global Television in London after their contract expired and these were destroyed. Thankfully, some of these companies did not return their material and the prints found their way onto the private collectors circuit. This is a source of many programmes received by the TDA who hold a number of titles produced by Rediffusion."
While this may be so, I am wondering if, some of the prints might not have found their way onto the private collectors circuit, and might still reside with the
television stations who showed them, eg the television stations above, or the current owners of those previous television stations?

[Deleted]

Yes, Global Television is known about. What happened to some the material after it was of no further use to them is the big question mark. I also think that overseas TV companies and their archives (and ex-archives) remain a potential source for missing material even now. Collacting info would be a big help but it's probably worth mentioning once again that it's best to pass the collated research results on to a body such as Kaleidoscope to make the approaches and handle any possible negotiations, rather than do it ourselves as individuals.

[Deleted]

Nov 12, 2014 8:55:27 GMT @laurencepiper said:

It's amazing so much missing material has been found as it is, with so little information on movement around the world being known about certain programming / companies. So I'd think that a collation of this information could only help the search for missing material.

super Laurence, we may have a germ of an idea in the making here then.

[Chris Keating]

Early Australian TV was structured very differently to the UK and US - there was no "networking" as such. Each state had its own stations which produced local content. The bulk of "national" programming came out of Melbourne and Sydney.

There were few common timeslots: a series which was shown at 8:00 p.m Monday in Melbourne may have been shown at 9:00 p.m Thursday in Sydney, 10:00 p.m Sunday in Brisbane, and so on. A single episode could have had a different timeslot for each state in which it was played. Same goes for one-off plays. It makes compiling a definitive list of what was shown (and when) damned near impossible...

BBC / Rediffusion stuff was almost exclusively shown on the ABC here; while the BBC programs were often listed as such, the Rediffusion programs often weren't.

I've got a large collection of our two major TV guides - TV Week (1957 to today) and TV Times (1958-1980).

Just as an example, from one week in Melbourne (March 30 - April 5 1961):

Day Time Series Episode Station

Thursday March 30 8:00 pm - The Larkins "Tally-Ho". ABV-2
9:00 pm - Mystery Bag "Lockhart Sets A Trap" ABV-2
Friday March 31 8:00 pm - play "A Kind Of Freedom" ABV-2
Saturday April 1 10:00 pm - Interpol Calling "Fingers Of Guilt". HSV-7
Sunday April 2 5:30 pm - The Secret Garden "A Tantrum". ABV-2
7:00 pm - Robin Hood "The Lady Killer". HSV-7
7:30 pm - Our Mutual Friend (not listed) ABV-2
Monday April 3 7:30 pm - Whacko (not listed) ABV-2
9:00 pm - No Hiding Place "Two Blind Mice" ABV-2
Tuesday April 4 6:30 pm - Glencannon "Three Lovesick Swains Of Gibraltar" ABV-2
Wednesday April 5 6:00 pm - Look "On The Edge Of Dartmoor" ABV-2
8:30 pm - play "The Price Of Freedom" ABV-2

[Deleted]

Dec 16, 2014 11:12:13 GMT Chris Keating said:

Early Australian TV was structured very differently to the UK and US - there was no "networking" as such. Each state had its own stations which produced local content. The bulk of "national" programming came out of Melbourne and Sydney.

There were few common timeslots: a series which was shown at 8:00 p.m Monday in Melbourne may have been shown at 9:00 p.m Thursday in Sydney, 10:00 p.m Sunday in Brisbane, and so on. A single episode could have had a different timeslot for each state in which it was played. Same goes for one-off plays. It makes compiling a definitive list of what was shown (and when) damned near impossible...

BBC / Rediffusion stuff was almost exclusively shown on the ABC here; while the BBC programs were often listed as such, the Rediffusion programs often weren't.

I've got a large collection of our two major TV guides - TV Week (1957 to today) and TV Times (1958-1980).

Just as an example, from one week in Melbourne (March 30 - April 5 1961):

Day Time Series Episode Station

Thursday March 30 8:00 pm - The Larkins "Tally-Ho". ABV-2
9:00 pm - Mystery Bag "Lockhart Sets A Trap" ABV-2
Friday March 31 8:00 pm - play "A Kind Of Freedom" ABV-2
Saturday April 1 10:00 pm - Interpol Calling "Fingers Of Guilt". HSV-7
Sunday April 2 5:30 pm - The Secret Garden "A Tantrum". ABV-2
7:00 pm - Robin Hood "The Lady Killer". HSV-7
7:30 pm - Our Mutual Friend (not listed) ABV-2
Monday April 3 7:30 pm - Whacko (not listed) ABV-2
9:00 pm - No Hiding Place "Two Blind Mice" ABV-2
Tuesday April 4 6:30 pm - Glencannon "Three Lovesick Swains Of Gibraltar" ABV-2
Wednesday April 5 6:00 pm - Look "On The Edge Of Dartmoor" ABV-2
8:30 pm - play "The Price Of Freedom" ABV-2

Chris
Thanks for your post and your research. Do you think there is any chance that there remains at ABV-2 any material from your Schedule above, of Mystery
Bag and No Hiding Place. Or at any of the other Australian stations that showed ITV and BBC material please..

[Chris Keating]

Hi Simon,

I'd take a punt and say that the British stuff was returned / disposed of after broadcast, with perhaps an odd episode passing into the hands of collectors. The ABC took a similar approach to the BBC as regards archiving, and have retained far less than we'd hope.

Having said that, just last week I picked up a reel of footage that I wouldn't have thought would have even been telerecorded, let alone kept (a live breakfast program from 1959), so there's no knowing what might turn up. I remember falling off my chair a couple of years ago after previewing a DVD of 35mm cinema commercials I'd had telecined, and finding that the guy had also put on a few minutes of Benny Hill on Sydney TV in 1960!

Must chase that one up, and see if he has the entire episode...

[Deleted]

Dec 16, 2014 12:34:20 GMT Chris Keating said:

Hi Simon,

I'd take a punt and say that the British stuff was returned / disposed of after broadcast, with perhaps an odd episode passing into the hands of collectors. The ABC took a similar approach to the BBC as regards archiving, and have retained far less than we'd hope.

Having said that, just last week I picked up a reel of footage that I wouldn't have thought would have even been telerecorded, let alone kept (a live breakfast program from 1959), so there's no knowing what might turn up. I remember falling off my chair a couple of years ago after previewing a DVD of 35mm cinema commercials I'd had telecined, and finding that the guy had also put on a few minutes of Benny Hill on Sydney TV in 1960!

Must chase that one up, and see if he has the entire episode...

Hello Chris,
what you say above, is hopeful, as you say, there's no knowing what might turn up. Can we ask you please, to bear in mind, what was shown over there and what
might still be around. Great to have some-one there on the spot!