TIE ltd

[Rob Hutchinson]

Just some idle speculation from reading the BroaDWcast link (brilliant BTW).

But TIE interests me a little. I know it no longer exists but has anyone researched it's holdings? Lots of questions come to mind such as:

Did it have a central storage depot or did it arrange to have it's acquisitions sent direct from the BBC?
What was the process of returning prints? For instance did they return them or just hang on to them in the hope they could sell them somewhere else?
Are there any records of TIE returns to the BBC?
If they did have quantities of film lying around what happened to them after the company folded?
Also did they fold or were they actually subsumed by a bigger fish?

I think the WIPED book speculated they were also arms dealers of some sort... maybe we need to be checking the arms depots of some of the african countries! all the DWs are probably rusting next to the kalashnikovs

[Richard Bignell]

From what I understand, they never physically had any material, they just acted as the middle man, representing the countries and their stations to the various broadcasters.

There's no indication that Television International Enterprises were "arms dealers", but they were started up by David Stirling, the founder of the SAS and the offices were shared by Watchguard International, which had "mercenary" dealings and it's thought that TIE may have occasionally acted as a cover for some of their work.

[Rob Hutchinson]

ahh, I see... so no chance of the episodes being returned to their offices?

ahem... and apologies to any of the SAS type ex-employees of TIE frequenting the board for spreading unfounded rumours about your... ahem... completely legit operations...

[Tim Burrows]

Hahahahaha. ;D

(not sure if this counts as a legit. post, so it's expecting to be moderated!)