Over seas stations Approached

[Lester]

Can anyone give an up date on the overseas T.V. staions that have been approached for archive mateial? i gather theres quite a few out there..Eg:- Hong Kong...i gather they were asked but got a polite "NO!"....true?

[Collie Knox]

if they did or didn't, Mr Lester, it wouldn't be information to be shared in public and if you knew, what would you do with it (apart from satisfy an idle curiosity)?

[Lester]

Collie...Good points there, if did have such imfo, i would pass it on to the correct people,....and No....it would not be an "Idle curiosity!......

[Dave Crichton]

Hi, Canada have assured me that no missing Doctor Who resides in their country. I also think Ian Levine and others have also ruled countries like Cyprus out as having nothing more left. Hong Kong is tricky as they don't always respond and/or search their archives. Australia and New Zealand have been investigated, and I am currently working on Iran and a couple of others which haven't had definative responses.

Thanks
Dave Crichton

[William]

what sort of things are they likely to have if they do have anything?

[Collie Knox]

'Canada have assured me that no missing Doctor Who resides in their country'

so you are the offical BBC representative? if not, why are you pestering archives?

[Dave C]

Hi Collie, With respect I find your tone somewhat aggressive. I don't feel I need to defend myself, however I would suggest you compare the amount of recoveries down to BBC investigations vs fan efforts. You are mistaken if you believe an official squad of BBC archivists are regularly actively searching.

Thanks
Dave

[Collie Knox]

- You are mistaken if you believe an official squad of BBC archivists are regularly actively searching. -

I didn't say that!

Of course they aren't, but if you are an amateur without credentials, you won't get very far with an archive.

But keep us posted!

[Lester]

Dave, good to know that the Aussie/N.Z archives have been looked in to, next stop Iran?....sounds interesting, have the other countries been looked into?Eg:- Turkey, Egypt.....the results could be staggering....

[Collie Knox]

- .....the results could be staggering....

eh? staggering because someone has phoned up an archive?

bring bring

'hello'

'Hello UCLA Film Archive'

'Hello, I wonder if you could tell me if you have any missing episodes of british tv shows like doctor who, though I'm interested in others as well'

'sorry?'

'Do you have any uk tv shows that are missing?'

'sorry - who are you'

'I'm a researcher calling from the uk'

'which company do you represent?'

'I don't, I'm a private researcher'

'Then you will have to direct your queries in writing to out archive and be more specific'

etc etc etc

[Bob]

<i>Hi Collie, With respect I find your tone somewhat aggressive. I don't feel I need to defend myself, however I would suggest you compare the amount of recoveries down to BBC investigations vs fan efforts. You are mistaken if you believe an official squad of BBC archivists are regularly actively searching.</i>

Aggressive tone or not, Collie's right. A lot of people on this forum have to face the fact that an amateur investigator is only going to damage the hunt for episodes. Because of the huge numbers of enquiries made by ignorant fans, certain foreign stations have initiated blanket refusal policies to such enquiries and will reply that they have nothing with no checking whatsoever. Who does that help?

While the BBC doesn't have professional episode hunters, there are well experience people working within the corporation and without who have its backing and are in a position to make the appropriate enquiries when a sensible lead emerges. And there lies the problem; not that there are not people following them up, but that there aren't many leads. And whatever some of the fanatasists who use this site think, just mentioning a tv station or the mythical 'hoarders' does not constitue a lead.

There are people who have been hunting episodes - and with success - for over 20 years. They have the contacts and the experience. While the enthusiasm of young fans is nice, it doesn't actually help, quite the reverse sometimes.

[dubs]

To regurgitate an old anecdote of mine...

A friend who works in the Emirates, had access through a visit organised through his employer (a school) to the the main Dubai broadcaster.

he met the head of archives on her 2rd (or whatever - rather irrelevant) floor office and asked her if had any "Who", or colour Quad tapes from the BBc in the archives.

No, no - he was assured - they had standerdised on 1" or Betacam years back and held nothing on Quad atall.

Having down his bit for the missing eps hunt, (probably looking for "The Chopper"), he thanked the woman for her indulgence and bade her farewell.

Exiting the building he decided to forsake the lift and walk down the stairwell.

After one flight waht did he encounter?

Yes a pile of of Quad tapes with BBC lables plastered all over them piled up on on one of the landings!

Unfortunately after a good look at them all - the most interesting thing he discovered was a few episodes of "Lets Read With Basil Brush" from about 1981.

He was tempted to stuff one in his tee-shirt but would have looked a bit obvious with some bloke and a Quad under his clothing!

I informed him after that that Brush series all existed in the UK anyhow thank God!

[Steven S]

For the most part, I don't think it's likely that anything would still be in TV Station archives - although anything is possible. By now, most obvious places have already been searched... The only chance of finding stuff in places like that would be that the items were mis-filed. (And of course, if this happened, then it would take an exhaustive search to find the stuff -- unlikely to happen)...

In many countries, most of the 16mm films were pitched in the 80s and 90s. The good news is that much of this stuff was sold to collectors, so it is *possible* that stuff is still around in private hands..

As I've said before, however, *if* this stuff is out there, the reason it hasn't been returned is a simple matter that most collectors would have no idea that it was being looked for...

I found a batch of missing BBC (and other UK shows) -- I bought them on a whim from another collector because they sounded interesting - I had no idea they were missing until I went to do a little research on the show ...

[Jeff]

Guest-Bob said:

<i>Hi Collie, With respect I find your tone somewhat aggressive. I don't feel I need to defend myself, however I would suggest you compare the amount of recoveries down to BBC investigations vs fan efforts. You are mistaken if you believe an official squad of BBC archivists are regularly actively searching.</i>

Aggressive tone or not, Collie's right. A lot of people on this forum have to face the fact that an amateur investigator is only going to damage the hunt for episodes. Because of the huge numbers of enquiries made by ignorant fans, certain foreign stations have initiated blanket refusal policies to such enquiries and will reply that they have nothing with no checking whatsoever. Who does that help?

While the BBC doesn't have professional episode hunters, there are well experience people working within the corporation and without who have its backing and are in a position to make the appropriate enquiries when a sensible lead emerges. And there lies the problem; not that there are not people following them up, but that there aren't many leads. And whatever some of the fanatasists who use this site think, just mentioning a tv station or the mythical 'hoarders' does not constitue a lead.

There are people who have been hunting episodes - and with success - for over 20 years. They have the contacts and the experience. While the enthusiasm of young fans is nice, it doesn't actually help, quite the reverse sometimes.

Nice to have this explained in a civilised manner without the need for spewing bile and spitting sarcasm!

[William]

Guest-Jeff said:

Nice to have this explained in a civilised manner without the need for spewing bile and spitting sarcasm!

ditto