Missing ACE OF WANDS

[Alan Smith]

A Million apologies if this is somewhere else on the board. Has there been any progress in the search for Seasons 1 and 2 of "Ace Of Wands"? Or are we sadly still at an impasse here? Any news most welcome, Alan smith.

[H Hartley]

Its interesting about Thames Alan, as they once boasted that they had kept at least one copy of everything they had made. Maybe this was misinterpreted and they meant 'a sample' of everything
they had made?
With regards to Ace of Wands there was rumours that the programme had been transmitted in Canada on film TRs and these may still be about somewhere.

BUT ! if they had been returned to Thames, then i recently heard that during the 1990s, (when Thames was transfering to digital), it junked all of its TRs as an obsolete format. We have to assume that the only stuff they junked was what they had duplicates of, but continuing absence of series 1 & 2 does make you wonder?

[Alan Smith]

Thanks for your comment H. Shame no progress as I remember Season Two was very good.

[William Martin]

when were these last repeated?
perhaps some exist on n1500 tape or something

[William Martin]

Guest-H said:

they had kept at least one copy of everything they had made. Maybe this was misinterpreted and they meant 'a sample' of everything
they had made?
?

this sounds more likely, at least one sample episode from every series

[Harry]

[quote author=Guest-H Hartley i recently heard that during the 1990s, (when Thames was transfering to digital), it junked all of its TRs as an obsolete format. [/quote]

I would have thought that if the telerecordings by Thames were junked in the nineties then it would have only been after transfer. I think everything was gone through thoroughly. Rumours of black and white prints have been around for years. I know some are knocking around of series 3 episodes, so it seems likely that some earlier ones are out there as well.

[William Martin]

so AOW should never have been junked?

[Laurence Piper]

I believe it's true there are t/rs of episodes from Ace's final series floating around (I think there is at least an episode of The Meddlers in this form). However, if these were copied to film then it does seem very likely that the earlier stories were too. Whether or not it was sold abroad (I think it was), there would probably have been sales prints made in expectation for this purpose.

I wouldn't have thought that anything that existed in the Thames archive as recent as the '90s would not have been disposed of without first being transferred to a modern format. It was at the time of them losing their franchise that the transfer of the archive was undertaken (including, presumably, series 3 of Ace Of Wands). Therefore, none of the earlier series' prints or tapes could have been in the archive at that point.

[Laurence Piper]

As an associated point to the above, i've no idea exactly when (does anyone?) when the earlier Ace Of Wands series were junked but presumably this didn't happen for a while; wasn't Seven Serpents, Sulphur And Salt repeated in the London area? Additionally this story would likely have still been available in 1975 as a visual reference for the production team working on the Shadows sequel episode Dutch Schlitz's Shoes (featuring Russell Hunter as Mr. Stabs)?

[William Martin]

there is still hope then, , I supose it also depends how many fans there are looking as well.

[David Savage]

"Its interesting about Thames Alan, as they once boasted that they had kept at least one copy of everything they had made. "

They didn't keep any of The Queen Street Gang - and even wiped the masters of You Can't Be Serious as late as 1978. A lot of their children's shows survive, though.

[Gary]

They didn't keep Do Not Adjust Your Set or Sexton Blake complete either. Nothing at all of the latter I don't think. Nor some episodes of Callan series 2 in the drama field (or of course early Ace Of Wands).

[Laurence Piper]

...or virtually all of their first season of Armchair Theatre. Another sad loss.

[Jezza]

I think that season's 1 and 2 are gone forever, most of season 3 was actually on sale at a Comic Fair in the early 1990's, most probably duped by someone while they were being transferred!

I brought the lot, and yes i'm ashamed of it now, as piracy is bad, they were a few generations down too.

Isn't season 3 coming out on DVD soon anyway?

Anyone know what the situation is with "Roberts Robots"? I can vaguly remember this from my childhood, as i think it used "Popcorn" by hot butter as the theme tune, can't remeber how many seasons it was on for or what still exists in the archives?

[Alan Smith]

Many thank's for everyone's input. Sadly it looks like Ace Of Wands first Two series are going to be very elusive. The comment about "The Queen Street Gang" Jogged my memory. I recall in the second story a great villianous performance by Arthur white, who i'm sure we all know is David Jason's brother.