Missing eps in ghost city?

[M. Wilson]

Hey all! Good looking forum. My first post here...

During the 1970s civil war in Cyprus, the Turkish army occupied and sealed the city of Varosha. Today it is still a ghost city, complete with crumbling hotels, shops and banks - sealed by barbed wire and patrolled by the Turkish army.

I was wondering if Varosha had a TV station inside the "forbidden zone" that might still house otherwize lost episodes?

I know some missing episodes were recovered from Cyprus, and during that same civil war the missing Reign of Terror episodes were destroyed in a TV station fire.

Does anyone know if this is worth following up?

[Paul Vanezis]

Sept 11, 2008 20:47:22 GMT M. Wilson said:

During the 1970s civil war in Cyprus, the Turkish army occupied and sealed the city of Varosha. Today it is still a ghost city, complete with crumbling hotels, shops and banks - sealed by barbed wire and patrolled by the Turkish army.

I was wondering if Varosha had a TV station inside the "forbidden zone" that might still house otherwize lost episodes?

I know some missing episodes were recovered from Cyprus, and during that same civil war the missing Reign of Terror episodes were destroyed in a TV station fire.

Does anyone know if this is worth following up?

I think I am one of only 3 people from the UK who have actually visited foreign stations with a view to recovering material, and in the case of Cyprus (which I visited in 1989) recovered around 200 cans of material, the majority of which weren't in the BBC archives.

Cyprus only had up until 1974 one TV station the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation in Nicosia. The station was highly organised and had kept records of all film material it had received, including the flight numbers of the planes on which the film had arrived... and those of the planes on which they had left!

As I have mentioned before many times, the first three serials were sent to Uganda TV, serials D&E went to Hong Kong Rediffusion.

There were two storage areas; one a basement room which contained most of the imported film, another building housed the Cyprus National archive of film along with some imported material which couldn't be housed elsewhere due to lack of space. There were three 'Doctor Who' episodes in this building (The Aztecs #2 & Reign of Terror 4&5). During the attempted coup in 1974, this building was shelled, destroying everything inside including the Cyprus National Archive.

In 1989, the redundant film was still stored in the basement room which had the nickname 'The Grave'. Nobody wanted to go in there because it stank, the lights didn't work properly and everything was covered in dust, but I spent most of the day in there cataloguing all the BBC material.

There is no 'Doctor Who' material there anymore.

Regards,

Paul

[Greg H]

Good to know a thorough job was done I never knew the storage facility there was nicknamed the grave

[Joe Haynes]

Thanks alot for the message paul. Its great to finanlly put these ghosts(pun not ment) to rest

[Rob Hutchinson]

Sept 12, 2008 12:59:48 GMT Paul Vanezis said:

I think I am one of only 3 people from the UK who have actually visited foreign stations with a view to recovering material, and in the case of Cyprus (which I visited in 1989) recovered around 200 cans of material, the majority of which weren't in the BBC archives...

...There is no 'Doctor Who' material there anymore.

Regards,

Paul

Paul

this is fascinating information that i think many of us newbies are not privilege to?

can you give more details of the other stations that have been thoroughly investigated and which ones are still outstanding regarding full access?

perhaps there should be a 'sticky' thread of known facts for anyone new to browse - this should cut down on the same questions being asked over and overs again.

[Rich Cornock]

i remember seeing a tv program about this abandoned city. i tv crew some how managed to get access to it, in one of the basements were brand new cars from 1971 in excellent condition and complete with 8 track tape players. while there maybe no tv station in the city, its just possible that there are early vcr's in some of the abandoned apartments with recording of programs from the time before the city was left in the early 70's

[David Buck]

Paul ,

When I was speaking to camilla from the raiders of the lost archive production team at kaleidoscope last year I asked her about the cyprus film vault because of the ITV material that you have mentioned before; she said that they had been contacted and "the grave" no longer existed - is this your understanding of the situation or is there still hope for this material?

[Nick Cooper]

Sept 14, 2008 16:13:51 GMT Rich Cornock said:

i remember seeing a tv program about this abandoned city. i tv crew some how managed to get access to it, in one of the basements were brand new cars from 1971 in excellent condition and complete with 8 track tape players. while there maybe no tv station in the city, its just possible that there are early vcr's in some of the abandoned apartments with recording of programs from the time before the city was left in the early 70's

That's wishful thinking along the lines of someone 37 years in the future suggesting they might find a home Blu-Ray recordings in a house in a rural town if it had been "sealed" today.

[Rich Cornock]

Good point but clutching at straws is the theme for hunting missing dr who