Post by johnstewart on Jul 23, 2016 12:41:01 GMT
My understanding is that all the researchers for Southern Gold had available to them in 1993 was a telerecording of the final ever episode of Little Big Time, i.e. 6.14 from 1974. The clip with Freddie breaking down must, I am sure, be from that episode. I had thought that the cast reprising their original performances was indeed what happened but as you have alluded, neither Christopher Benjamin nor Graham Haberfield were involved with the show by then (and in fact even The Dreamers had left after series 4). I'll speculate that perhaps 6.14 itself included clips from the Oliver in the Overworld serial of three years earlier. This was the last show and Oliver was undoubtedly its finest hour so it would make sense to have included a "retrospective". Viewing the full show would answer it but I'm told that frustratingly it has gone awol since 1993 and only the clips remain.
The "Oliver in the Overworld" story began as a 5 minute segment in series 2 of Little Big Time and it was the popularity of that, with its song "Gimme Dat Ding" charting at number 6 in 1970, that lead to a dedicated serial the following year. That curious American promo compilation could be from series 2 but I think the number of characters identifies it as the "full fat" series 3.
~iw
Well the early character the Mighty Dictaphon seems to be completely missing from the footage; so is feasible Chris Benjamin and Graham Haberfield reprised the roles in the last show. I thought it was also mentioned earlier in the thread there might have been some kind of sales publicity reel for abroad which was also a source? That might explain the apparent mix of eras and the 1973 footage debate.
BTW The Mighty Dictaphone was a wheelchair bound 'Avengers'-'Ace of wands' type character; wearing a hat that looked like a cotton reel I think.