Just back from MBW......

[John Wall]

Well, all of the trains to and from Waterloo were running nicely to time and I got in my front door a little over an hour after leaving NFT1.

There were some empty seats, but that was to be expected due to the weather.

All in all it was quite a good selection. I now know what Chris Perry looks like - very extinguished - thanks to the video about the Monkhouse collection. The "His lordship entertains" could be seen as a proto Fawlty Towers - I wonder if there are any chroma dots on the t/r ? Seeing some of the recoveries from BSB I wasn't that impressed - some missing things are, perhaps, best left missing !

I was somewhat exhausted after "Til death" - 40+ years on it's still powerful.

The second programme was less, personally, interesting - but still worthwhile. I used to watch TOTP in the 70s religiously - as a pennance ! - and it was more or less as I remember it. Tony Blackburn from the late 1960s was fun - but his jokes were terrible ! Look! Hear! was something I have no recollection of - pity the volume was so high. The 1967 TOTP extracts were interesting.

[Kev Mulrenan]

Jan 9, 2010 21:58:21 GMT John Wall said:

pity the volume was so high.

When it's getting too loud, you're getting too old... ;D

p.s. don't the policeman look young these days.

[John Wall]

They say that a man's as old as the woman he feels....

[Dan S]

Jan 9, 2010 21:58:21 GMT John Wall said:

The 1967 TOTP extracts were interesting.

Did you see the clip of Pink Floyd - "See Emily Play"? Can you describe it, what was the quality like, was it the complete song or a fragment, etc...

[adriane17]

As ropey as it was the TOTP footage from 1967 was fascinatinating. The highlight of it was undoubtedly the Floyd footage although it was probably the most damaged - unreleasable other than as an extra on a Floyd documentary if they ever get round to that. It was good to be reminded how well most of the pop around at that time still stands up now unlike a lot of the stuff on the 1976 TOTP!

The Till Death was as funny as they always are. There is surely enough of the monochrome material now to justify a comprehensive DVD release although judging from a conversation I overheard in the bar between a few of the younger members of the audience - "racist, sexist" etc which, of course, misses Speight's point entirely - I doubt we'll get one anytime soon...

Roll on Missing Believed Wiped 2010 II!

[Jonny Williams]

This was my first MBW, braved a freezing cold South Bank for this one although driving in out of of London was a dream, virtually no traffic at all.

Anyway onto the event itself. The Monkhouse documentary didn't really tell us anything new but was put together well and demonstrated a remarkable before and afer restoration of an edition of the Golden Shot. The BSB clips in the next item did maKe me wonder if some things were better left not archived after all! The Ronnie Barker show 'His Lordship Entertains' was good in parts and reminiscent of 'The Hotel Inspectors' episode of Fawlty Towers. It even included David Jason as the hotel porter unrecognisable in a wig and full facial hair! The highlight of Programme One for me was Til Death Us Do Part, a very funny episode of a classic series and I for one would like to see a full DVD release of this as well.

Moving onto Programme Two I really enjoyed Time For Blackburn, great performance from the Who. Some really good live bands on the Look! Hear! footage too. The 1976 edition of TOTP didn't include many songs that don't exist in other editions but there were some different performances and good to see Pan's People at their brilliant best as well ;-) Undoubted highlight though was the TOTP footage from 1967. It was great to see how the show looked and sounded on a regular week for that year and despite obvious tape damage most of the performances were very watchable and the atmosphere in the studio really shone through. There was a classic TOTP moment where Fluff Freeman introduced Dave Davies as Ray Davies, cueing Dave to say over his intro, "Dave Davies, you done that on purpose!" Great to catch a glimpse of Samantha Juste as well, she was hot! Unfortunately the Pink Floyd footage suffered from a complete picture drop out for a long section during the midle of the song but in the parts where both picture and sound were present and correct it was very good indeed.

All in all definitely a worthwhile visit. It was good to put faces to the names of Dick Fiddy, Paul Vanezis and Chris Perry (via the Monkhouse film) too. I'll certainly be attending again in future.

[Deleted]

Can you post comments on the MBW music content in that section, chaps? Cheers.

I thought His Lordship Entertains was a gem (slightly like Fawlty Towers), possibly the most entertaining item of the day. Very well written and performed by Barker and the cast. Why was such a quality programme junked while The Two Ronnies, which was running at the same time, was being saved (along with Porridge only a year or two later)? Odd that the predecessor, Hark At Barker, featuring the character three years earlier survives whereas this series does not. I daresay this has the chroma dots though and so a restoration may be possible. All I can say is that I hope more episodes turn up!

The Till Death was also strong. Maybe not the best example but plenty of good stuff in there. I couldn't see that one being repeated on terrestrial TV again (as they never screen things in their correct context) but possibly BBC-4 would. There are enough b/w Till Deaths now though to make a strong standalone DVD release (about 8 or 9 at last count, including the couple of domestic recordings).

I was pleased to see BSB programming represented but it's tragic how something so recent could be junked in the first place. One bit of pleasing news was that a small handful of broadcast masters of these programmes were held by the BFI as examples (including one I Love Keith Allen edition, a series that had some very strong moments and an unusual format; something that should definitely have been properly archived).

[adriane17]

I would say that describing His Lordship Entertains as being "slightly" like Fawlty Towers is a bit of an understatement although with only the one example to see it is hard to judge. I wonder if reviews of Fawlty Towers at the time it was first screened referenced His Lordship Entertains as its predecessor?

Yes - the eight or nine complete Till Deaths would make an excellent release. It is probably the only landmark comedy from the monochrome era (as much as I loved Here's Harry, My Wife Next Door, Meet The Wife, etc there is only a handful) that is mentioned in the same breath as Hancock, Steptoe, The Likely Lads etc in both histories of broadcasting and social histories that has yet to appear.

[Andrew Doherty]

There isn't much more to add to the previous posts, except to say that it was good to see so many people turn up. A good selection of items was shown. However, once again there was the unpleasant revelation relating to the junking of the BSB archive, a fair amount of which may still turn up thanks to the domestic video tape recorder.

To think this archive was junked nearly twenty years after the Annan Report's recommendation for television organizations to have an archive policy. I find this treatment of an archive in supposedly more enlightened times almost unbelievable.

Also difficult to comprehend was the wiping of the 'Look Here' series. Good to know the producer asked for copies to be made, which are of excellent quality. This has been the way much material has survived to be restored to the archives.

Yours,

[davemachin]

The Ronnie Barker episode was the best for me of the first session. Such a shame no more exists from this series but at least we have one example now, which is more than we had before. I agree with what everyone says in that it is like Fawlty Towers in some ways. A kind of farce set in a hotel with an inspector visiting is the common ground but that is where the similarity ends as the characters are different and it is set in a stately home instead. Definitely reminded me of Futtock's End too.

Everything else shown here was interesting too. It must be quite hard to know how to balance a screening to offer something for everyone but I thought they did it well.

Dave

[Rich Cornock]

any one know how the ronnie barker program was recovered?

[Deleted]

It came from New Zealand as a result of searching for ITV's Raiders campaign.

[LanceM]

Wish I could of been there,so many gems that were shown.But glad all seemed to enjoy the event from the sound of things.What better material to sit back, relax, and enjoy on a stormy evening.Sounds like both The Who and Pink Floyd performances were a big success.I agree,would love to see some of this material as an extracts option on a perspective future DVD release,there is also the BFI's youtube channel,as well as the BBC/BFI Archive Talks had been hearing about towards the end of 2009.Though am surprised there is no mention of the Turtles performance that was to be shown as well as Procol Harum performance.Was wondering about the footage quality for these?

Thanks to all involved here for these fantastic events,hopefully one day may be able to attend one myself.

Cheers,Lance.

[Deleted]

Comments about the MBW music stuff will be found in that section of the forum, as said above.

[markboulton]

I thoroughly enjoyed this as I knew I would, although the bits that slightly left me cold were the BSB stuff and some bits of Look, Hear which seemed to drag a bit for me. Some bits of the latter were storming, others seemed a bit stilted - like the 1976 TOTP.

I have to admit to having a fetish for ANY kind of 60s b/w VT, so of course Time For Blackburn and the '67 TOTP stuff was absolute nirvana for me. I don't care how much the tape sticks and jams, I could sit through any amount of such problems to see the bits that ARE good - and indeed the bits of tape that had not turned to mush looked damn near perfect. Maybe with some careful ironing and/or baking (not to say it hadn't been done already) the currently unplayable sections could be rescued a bit further. The quality of many of the bits show that the underlying signal quality is excellent. And as already mentioned, nice to see where Fluff's nickname came from!

I'd love to see more of 'Lordship', and perhaps this one episode can give us hope that other episodes are floating around somewhere. Sadly it was of my opinion that it appeared to be too substandard in condition for effective colour recovery to take place. But then again, maybe that's something a bit of wetgating and Spriting will fix (I don't know just how sophisticated the BFI's telecine facilities are or how much time they have to spend on telecine - unless of course, as has happened before, the NFT projected it directly off the actual film - it has been known, despite it seeming to be a bad idea where the materials are fragile).