Judge Dee: A Festival of Death.Or not.

[John Green]

A couple of episodes of the 1969 series turn up-or seem to-on Unionsearch unionsearch.bfi.org.uk/search.dhtml?fl.text=judge+dee where both The Day of the Scavengers (which is known) and The Festival of Death (which is lost) are listed.Both are said to be about an hour long,and held at the BFI.
The BFI catalogue itself shows that no episodes are held, collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150794890 The Scavengers turns up on a title search: collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150462261
A similar search for The Festival of Death results in this collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150462261 Directed by Richard Doubleday.A Granada production.29/4/1969.35mm (eh?) material requires inspection to determine preservation or access status.

So what is this? A TV movie that's been wrongly catalogued,or something? Insights welcomed!

[RWels]

Jun 7, 2015 17:02:46 GMT John Green said:

The BFI catalogue itself shows that no episodes are held,

Or does it? The SERIES title usually says that, but expand the episode list on the right side, and so, when seen on "episode level" they're both there. (And the selected property in the left side also influences what results are displayed.)

[John Green]

Jun 7, 2015 19:19:09 GMT RWels said:

Jun 7, 2015 17:02:46 GMT John Green said:

The BFI catalogue itself shows that no episodes are held,

Or does it? The SERIES title usually says that, but expand the episode list on the right side, and so, when seen on "episode level" they're both there. (And the selected property in the left side also influences what results are displayed.)

I really don't understand why the series title says "no" when the episodes say "yes".

Simon's quite rightly pointed to this page missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/7270/bfi-finds?page=56 where Christopher Perry says that the film is fragile,and it would require special funding to arrange for it to be made safe and then checked.Incredibly frustrating.I remember watching some episodes at the time.

[Peter Stirling]

Jun 7, 2015 17:02:46 GMT John Green said:

A couple of episodes of the 1969 series turn up-or seem to-on Unionsearch unionsearch.bfi.org.uk/search.dhtml?fl.text=judge+dee where both The Day of the Scavengers (which is known) and The Festival of Death (which is lost) are listed.Both are said to be about an hour long,and held at the BFI.
The BFI catalogue itself shows that no episodes are held, collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150794890 The Scavengers turns up on a title search: collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150462261
A similar search for The Festival of Death results in this collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150462261 Directed by Richard Doubleday.A Granada production.29/4/1969.35mm (eh?) material requires inspection to determine preservation or access status.

So what is this? A TV movie that's been wrongly catalogued,or something? Insights welcomed!

I think the '35mm' bit refers to the title sequence and not the actual programme? I think it was also made in colour as they thought they had a long running winner on their hands but it was a case of pride before a fall.

The programme itself was originally made on b/w VTR and therefore would if it survives will be on tape or telerecording.

The programme was taken off the air before it finished its run therefore the last episodes may have ended up somewhere else and therefore got saved.?

[John Green]

This thread on Roobarb is worth a look: www.zetaminor.com/roobarb/showthread.php?18808-Judge-Dee

[John Green]

A reference in an old thread: missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/1138/missing-never suggested that "Judge Dee episode 6 was never shown now AWOL".

While episode 6 is one of the five that are missing,it was the fith episode,the known survivor,which had transmission problems,as outlined by Simon Coward in a new post: www.zetaminor.com/roobarb/showthread.php?18808-Judge-Dee&p=2447419#post2447419