crackerjack editions

[john awkward]

what exists of the michael aspel and ed stewart editions of crackerjack,i'd love to hear don maclean's oggle cockle catchphrase again.

[dubs again]

Nothing exists before 7/5/64 with Eammon Andrews.

Then it jumps to 22 and 29/3/74 - the only 2 Aspel editions to survive (Apsels last 2 progs as it happens).

The rest survive on broadcast VT.

[dubs again]

"There are sadly no existing "Crackerjack" episodes between 1965 and 1973. The episodes that do survive are 18/12/57 (clip only), 19/3/58, 18/3/59, 27/4/61, 2/11/61, 11/10/62, 25/9/63, 7/5/64; then 22/3/74, 29/3/74, and 24/12/74 (the Christmas Pantomime, Aladdin); thereafter the holdings seem to be complete...

It's also a shame no Basil Brush Shows from the first couple of series exist - they used to have quite decent musical guests..."

The pitfalls of having a ten-year old Kal guide...ho hum

[Simon Mclean]

I'm always rather mystified by how all Crackerjacks from 1974 onwards appear to survive - nothing against the show at all, but when you consider some of the other shows from that period which have bits missing, it seems a little bizarre!

Does anyone know how they managed to escape the big magnet, when so many other shows didn't? Was the producer a tough nut like Biddy Baxter?

[Laurence Piper]

It's bizarre, isn't it! The "selection process", that is.

[David]

Wasn't the 'sounds of the 60's' cllip with Dave Dee & Co performing 'Hold tight' from a Crackerjack edition in 1966?

[andrew martin]

Re selection process - material from around 74 to 77, while not being complete, is more complete than the years before, purely because it had only just started to be available for wiping by the time that wiping was largely stopped - ie when the post of archive selector was set up.

Re "Hold Tight" - it's from Blue Peter, not Crackerjack (the band appear with Val Singleton and Chris Trace)

[Laurence Piper]

Agreed. But what I think the person was saying is why is Crackerjack circa mid '70s far more complete than other kid's shows from then (which also would just have been coming up to their wiping clearance)?

[John Stewart Miller]

andrew said:

Re selection process - material from around 74 to 77, while not being complete, is more complete than the years before, purely because it had only just started to be available for wiping by the time that wiping was largely stopped - ie when the post of archive selector was set up.

This is why I hold more hope for missing 1960s editions than 70s. I.E. it seems material from that period was being transferred to telecine copies. I don't know of any evidence that 1970s material from the show was copied over to T/R. That area is where the home taper could come into play, as other shows have turned up as off air in Philips or even B/W tape recordings.

[William Martin]

if the bbc archive is anything like other types of archives, they purge when they have too(if you'll pardon the expression), to make space, to meet legal requirements, but if somethings propping open a door and isn't in anyones way it will be left alone, the staff tend to be left mostly to their own devices.

[andrew martin]

Laurence said:

Agreed. But what I think the person was saying is why is Crackerjack circa mid '70s far more complete than other kid's shows from then (which also would just have been coming up to their wiping clearance)?

It's not my perception that other shows from that exact era are particularly worse off - it's all an area which would need a lot of research (assuming the information still exists) to work out how it all happened. One aspect could be tape length - "Crackerjack" would be on 60' spools, most children's shows are 30' or shorter - not that it's necessarily the case that that fact would intrinsically protect "Crackerjack", since if it is the case that tapes were just picked off shelves for re-use, providing they had passed their two-year repeatability point, their tape number, by which they were filed, would be the critical factor, rather than the tapes' content.

There may be a factor related to archival status once the post of archive selector was established at the BBC archives, and the VT collection was amalgamated with the film library, rather than being controlled by the engineering department. It's certainly the case that some programmes were still being wiped after the establishment of that post - as the job title implies, it's not just a question of keeping everything, as inevitably not every programme is of vital importance, and many series can be adequately represented by selected examples. That said, if it was up to me, the archive probably would keep everything (completed programmes at least) - but (a) space would have run out years ago and (b) it's not up to me!

[Laurence Piper]

Well, yes!

But going on the Kal Children's Guide and other archive listings, it does still seem to me that Crackerjack is more complete in the early / mid '70s than other kid's shows at the same time. I wondered why this might be the case.

[John Stewart Miller]

andrew said:

Re selection process - material from around 74 to 77, while not being complete, is more complete than the years before, purely because it had only just started to be available for wiping by the time that wiping was largely stopped - ie when the post of archive selector was set up.

Re "Hold Tight" - it's from Blue Peter, not Crackerjack (the band appear with Val Singleton and Chris Trace)

By this token then, the 1964 editions would come up for release in 1966, ’66 in ’68 and so on. I always wondered about the early surviving telecine editions though. Apart from the telecines being made from the 1960s VTs in the first place, the catalogue seems to go successively with one example per year up to 1964 then abruptly stops.

My theory is that at one time, the catalogue, at least to 1969, continued. I’d suggest the reason those editions don’t exist is either: they were the cans sitting at one end during a later clear out (though usually the later cans seems to escape); or, they were removed by interested parties.

The obvious attraction would be the pop acts, which seemed to get better as the ‘60s went on.

[andrew martin]

One tricky thing here is, when did "Crackerjack" start being taped rather than live (OK I can find out and may yet do so...). Whether it was live or not, the few surviving early editions seem to be a mixture of editions recorded for archival purposes (which did very occasionally happen even in the 60s) and for other 'internal' reasons. There may exist paperwork somewhere that states who ordered these made and why, but I don't have access to it - it may no longer exist. When the show started being pre-taped, the tapes would have been re-used as soon as they couldn't be repeated (not that I think "Crackerjack" ever was...), assuming no-one objected, as I understand it - which is why there's very little videotape of anything from the 60s. When "Crackerjack" was live it's quite possible it just wasn't recorded at all, of course - if it wasn't required for Enterprises, and the producer (or someone such as one of the artists) didn't want to check his work, there would have been no particular reason - though one thing I would like (given time!) to research some day is how much live tv in those days was recorded (ie off-air, professionally) and later junked.

In a way you're right Laurence, the lack of any "Crackerjack" on VT pre-1974 is slightly surprising in comparison to its excellent survival rate from 1975 - except that as I said, 1975 is about when things start not to be missing (if you see what I mean). The basic thing seems to be that there was no obvious overall pattern, given that some other things still were being junked on VT, and maybe there was some particular reason... I think the files at BBC Written Archives at Caversham could shed some light on this, if it was a deliberate policy (perhaps someone wanted to repeat the 75 series? Perhaps it just was at the far end of the shelf...). Perhaps someone hated "Crackerjack" and left in 1974? My overall impression with the whole question of junking/wiping tends more to the cock-up theory of history rather than the conspiracy theory...