Paul Temple - Recovery of lost 1947 radio serial

[Ed Brown]

The lost 1947 'Paul Temple' radio serial, The Sullivan Mystery, has been found. Wikipedia is reporting the recovery of recordings of all 8 episodes -

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Temple

However, at present these recordings do not appear to be available anywhere. Certainly the BBC site is not indicating any intention to release them.

This recovery may cause some consternation at BBC, since they are currently trying to sell the (rather good) 2006 remake of this serial.

Incidentally, the original 1947 production starred Kim Peacock, not the wonderful Peter Coke. There is one lost Peter Coke serial, but it isn't this one.

[Charles Norton]

This might be true, but I'd take it with a pinch of salt. I certainly haven't heard anything concrete about this. There has been a recent recovery, but this isn't it. I'd await confirmation. Wikipedia is not known for 100% accuracy. Still, wait and see - you never know.

[Paul Ingerson]

Oct 29, 2010 17:29:03 GMT Charles Norton said:

There has been a recent recovery, but this isn't it.

Well, don't leave us in suspense like that. What is it?

[Charles Norton]

Patience is a virtue.

[jameshope]

I think i'd rather see it in print that this has been found rather than believe wikipedia since its not renowned for being wholly accurate

[Stuart Monk]

Charles, I was just wondering... was it the Australian Dick Barton recovery that you referred to in your cryptic replies on this thread last year?
I realise that I've not been sleeping well because a small part of my subconscious is still waiting for news of a real Paul Temple recovery!
All your fault, really...
Stuart

[Charles Norton]

Sorry about the cryptic comments. I was actually trying to help dampen down the whispers of misinformation. I seem to have only succeeded in making it worse.

There was a Paul Temple related discovery made last year. I'm quite pleased about it, but I would warn you not to get too excited.

Hopefully a decision will be made about the newly recovered material within the next few weeks. There are a couple of possible ways in which it might reach your ears and these are being investigated. Sadly these things are never straightforward and there are often all sorts of messy negotiations and discussions that need to be gone through.

Sorry to have everyone on the edge of their seats. As I say, don't get your hopes up too high. It's not an earth-shattering discovery. It's just nice to know that another piece of the jigsaw has survived out there.

In the meantime, if it makes anyone feel any better, there are also some hopes for another remake on Radio 4 some time soon.

[jackgibson]

At the risk of getting eaten alive, I thought I'd better own up as the person who did the recent tidy-up of the wiki page and posted up the list of serials. I seem to have unintentionally opened up a can of worms...

When filling in the details of the individual serials, I did reference the source for the "archive status" column (it's at www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/pt_.log.txt ), and did my best to check up on it. The main list of extant serials tallies with other lists available elsewhere (and with the BBC releases), and the odd early episodes are at least partly right (there's a brief clip from the last part of Front Page Men included in a R4 documentary about PT from a few years back, so that entry is definitely correct). Overall, it seemed a thorough piece of work, and about as reliable as anything else on the internet, so I went with it. Sorry if this turns out to have been a bad idea...

The bit referring to The Sullivan Mystery is admittedly somewhat cryptic:

01 Dec 1947 Mon 13 PAUL TEMPLE AND THE SULLIVAN MYSTERY (serial)
(all episodes have been found but may no[t] be
widely available; episode titles used here
are from the 2006 recreation and may not be
correct.)

Aired on the BBC Light Programme, Mondays at
8:00 PM (ep. 3 at 8:30 PM), repeated Saturdays
at 1:00 PM.

Cast:
Paul - Kim Peacock
Steve - Marjorie Westbury

Episode Listing: (all 30 minutes long)
Ep 1, 01 Dec, Having a Wonderful Time
Ep 2, 08 Dec, Interlude at Augusta
Ep 3, 15 Dec, Introducing Colonel Marquand
Ep 4, 22 Dec, Cairo
Ep 5, 29 Dec, The House of Bahri
Ep 6, 05 Jan, A Message from Sir Graham
Ep 7, 12 Jan, Mr Darwin Entertains
Ep 8, 19 Jan, Still Having a Wonderful Time

Now, on reflection, "have been found" does not equate to "in the BBC archive". "...since the 2006 remake" (in the wiki table) was my inference (at the time I made the edit I was reasonably sure that when I'd seen an earlier version of that document, no holdings for TSM were given).

The author of the source document does give contact details at the bottom - perhaps it would be worth someone getting in touch with him to find out where he got the information? And, of course, any of you is free to delete the offending sentence from the wiki page at any time (I'll leave that to your judgement).

Apologies again for any confusion I may have caused. Hope this is useful.

JG

[Charles Norton]

These mistakes can be easily made. However, I can confirm that no recordings of the original Sullivan Mystery are known to survive.

It's not just a case of it not having made it back to the BBC. It hasn't even made it onto the collectors' circle. I've not been able to find anybody in the UK, America of New Zealand who has any knowledge of any recorded material surviving from this production at all.

I think that we can now say with 99% certainty that this is just a bit of confusion that has been reported by mistake. As I say, these things happen. It's not a hoax, as such. Just a bit of information (reported in all good faith) that has turned out to be incorrect. I think that the recent Radio 4 remake has probably muddied the waters a bit .

[Mark McKay]

I believe I've got copies of the original Vandyke Affair episodes (1950). Although I haven't actually listened to them yet.

[Alan Grover]

I believe I've got copies of the original Vandyke Affair episodes (1950). Although I haven't actually listened to them yet.

Could you please send copies of them to the BBC? Please! They don't have copies! That's a missing serial!

[Charles Norton]

The original Vandyke isn't missing. Technically the BBC don't have a copy, but they do have access to one, should the need arise. The complete serial is actually archived at the British Library.

[Alan Grover]

Ah, sorry... Thanks for clearing that up.

[Mark McKay]

I also have the uncut episodes of Paul Temple Intervenes. I've noticed on the commercial CD release they've edited out all the fluffs and stutters made by the actors. Smacks of rewriting history to me... I wish they hadn't done this.

[Charles Norton]

That was Ted Kendall working on that release. I hadn't realised he'd made any cuts. I take it, we're just talking about pauses, rather than actual dialogue cuts. Is there much missing?