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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jan 22, 2011 21:16:07 GMT
I would like to personaly thank you for your efforts, Good work It's really very good of you, but I should say that I'm just one of a small team. Phil Morris is central to it all and has already done an amazing job, but there are others who for obvious reasons we can't mention. Honestly, as soon as there is news we can report we'll let everyone know. Regards, Paul
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Post by Gary Critcher on Jan 22, 2011 23:03:49 GMT
Paul, have you thought of the Bahamas? My girlfriend defintely remembers watching 'UFO' in Nassau in her childhood. So much so, that I had to buy her the dvd boxed set!
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Post by Dave Wood on Jan 23, 2011 16:52:52 GMT
Great work Paul/Phil and many thanks for keeping this thread updated, it's all fascinating reading!
Is this a BBC project (i.e. only interested in BBC broadcast material) or is it a general archive search encompassing missing shows from other UK/international broadcasters as well?
In terms of other currently missing BBC shows I wondered if this project would be hoping to repatriate absolutely everything/anything found, or is the interest limited to those TV shows that would (if found) be likely to have a commercial value for possible future DVD releases (e.g. Hancock/Steptoe/Not only but also etc.).
Here's wishing the very best of luck to everyone involved in this project.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jan 23, 2011 19:29:27 GMT
Is this a BBC project (i.e. only interested in BBC broadcast material) or is it a general archive search encompassing missing shows from other UK/international broadcasters as well? Hiya. This is a jointly sponsored BBC and BFi project. Perhaps the best way to describe this is that we are acting as agents for both. We are looking for any missing material although DW is as good a place to start as anywhere. It's well researched and the hope is that countries that purchased screening rights to DW will have bought other things as well. So far that seems to be the case, at least according to the TV listings we've examined and some material on the ground. Paul
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Post by Doug Wulf on Jan 23, 2011 21:52:23 GMT
There are Commonwealth nations in Africa that use English but that are not mentioned as having shown missing Doctor Who episodes. However, I'm curious what is known with any certainty about these. I wonder if any of these might also be feasible locations to search for missing Who or other missing television in Africa. These are: Botswana, Cameroon, Gambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tanzania.
I mention this only in the sense of it might not be known what is still unknown about TV broadcasts in these nations in the past, especially if documentation is incomplete or unclear and if prints were bicycled around.
For that matter, there are some far flung Commonwealth members in the Pacific and elsewhere also. Is it necessary to call Kiribati? ;-)
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jan 23, 2011 22:21:34 GMT
Hi Doug,
We've concentrated on countries that had a working and established TV system in the 1960's. Whilst it's possible that missing programmes were screened by other countries, they would have had to have purchased them in the 1970's.
South Africa for exmple didn't get television until 1975 as far as I know, so it's unlikely that they will have anything. Swaziland has however been checked. They haven't got anything.
Regards,
Paul
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Post by Rob Hutchinson on Jan 24, 2011 12:08:12 GMT
just a quick question about investigation technique that is not just relevant to Africa.
Has anyone produced detailed timelines for each of the missing stories/episodes. I always found it useful in my job to produce flow diagrams to show how goods were moved around and identify areas for further exploration including areas that have been explored but perhaps the wrong questions were asked.
for example didn't Nigeria have several different regional stations? and if so have they all been explored? And what sort of possibilities were there for prints to fall into private hands?
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jan 24, 2011 15:01:08 GMT
Has anyone produced detailed timelines for each of the missing stories/episodes. Yes. We are working to precisely that. Well, yes, Nigeria did have several stations, but we have been able to ascertain that only a maximum of three broadcast DW. When it was on air, there were 10 in total although now there are over 30. There's been a lot of misinformation about Nigeria. The whole broadcast system was nationalised in 1977 and all material was moved to a central store, which is where the 1984 material was located. We don't think there is anything else there, but we are in contact with the archivist there, as in many other African archives. As for film falling into private hands; we think it's unlikely in Africa. There was little interest in the culture. A film print would have required an expensive projector to run and they were expensive enough over here so unaffordable to the average resident of Lusaka or Kampala. Material is much more likely to reside in private hands in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand than anywhere else in the world and all will be sales prints. Paul Paul
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Post by Ray Langstone (was saintsray) on Jan 24, 2011 15:57:59 GMT
Are any of the former French, Portuguese and Spanish colonies in Africa worth approaching, Paul?
By the way, of minor importance, but before I forget, one of the "Bantustans" in South Africa (Bophuthatswana) had its' own TV stations in the late 70's/ early 80's, which was (ahem) meant to run independently from South African state TV. I researched this while I was looking for live footage of a well-known British rock group who played in Sun City despite the cultural boycott.
Also, going back to Oceania, I believe some US Pacific territories had TV prior to 1978, namely Guam, US Samoa and possibly the Northern Mariana Islands.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jan 24, 2011 16:13:26 GMT
Hi all,
It's great that you're all making suggestions of where to look. In reality, we already know which stations around the world had a television service that the BBC was selling programmes into. In most cases we've made contact or are already in talks.
What we don't have complete knowledge of is which programmes were sold into those territories and when. We have some information (for example regarding 'Mogul'/'The Troubleshooters', Comedy Playhouse) but without looking into every series that was sold we actually don't know what we're looking for.
My experience in Cyprus opened up the possibility that a great many series and single programmes were sold almost everywhere the BBC were selling programmes, so if anyone has access to TV listingsfrom around the world in the 1960's and 1970's and has the time to make a list, I'd be grateful.
Regards,
Paul
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Post by Joe Haynes on Jan 24, 2011 18:05:07 GMT
Thanks for keeping us updated. Can you confirm if any missing material has been located?
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Post by Rob Hutchinson on Jan 24, 2011 19:00:29 GMT
yeah I knew that suggestion was a long shot. my wife lived in nigeria in the early 70s as a child and she says there was only one family of expats in her area that had a television let alone a projector.
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Post by John Wall on Jan 24, 2011 19:21:00 GMT
Thanks for keeping us updated. Can you confirm if any missing material has been located? Knowing the number of hoaxes, red herrings, etc that we've had over the years I'd expect all involved to be extremely quiet until they've actually got the material in their hands and preferable into an archive. Then they'll post it here.
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Post by John Andersen on Jan 24, 2011 20:25:17 GMT
Thanks for keeping us updated. Can you confirm if any missing material has been located? Knowing the number of hoaxes, red herrings, etc that we've had over the years I'd expect all involved to be extremely quiet until they've actually got the material in their hands and preferable into an archive. Then they'll post it here. I agree with Mr. Wall here. We don't want another incident like DWO did when they said they had three reliable sources saying that The Web of Fear had been found. That incident only led to a lot of animosity and bad feelings when DWO wouldn't provide their evidence to indicate why they believed that the episodes had been found. When the episodes didn't turn up, that only pissed off a part of Doctor Who fandom even more. The only thing we can do now is wait.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Jan 24, 2011 22:22:16 GMT
We don't want another incident like DWO did when they said they had three reliable sources saying that The Web of Fear had been found. That incident only led to a lot of animosity and bad feelings when DWO wouldn't provide their evidence to indicate why they believed that the episodes had been found. Exactly right. Also, please note that this is the third consecutive year we've had an Africa Progress thread. There's a good reason for that, but it doesn't mean that anything has been found. It does mean we're still working to get the job done properly and methodically. We are, it is. When we can say something we will, but I'm afraid it isn't going to be next week, next month or maybe not even this year. We don't know, so the message is don't hold your breath. If at the end of this we can come back and say there is nothing at all in Africa, then we've still been successful. We'll also be depressed, but hey, sometimes that's the way it is. Thanks for all the good wishes. Paul
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