BBC Wiping Material as late as 1993?

[Paul Cooksley]

Hi all

Just read on Wikipedia, and I quote:-

"There is lost material in all genres – as late as 1993, a large number of videotaped children's programmes from the 1970s and 1980s were irretrievably wiped by Adam Lee of the BBC archives on the assumption that they were of "no use"...without consulting the BBC children's department itself"

I know Wikipedia can be inherrently inaccurate at times, but is this actually true and if so, does anyone know what was wiped?

I know later in the article it mentions 'Rentaghost' but I am pretty certain that all of this actually exists, hence why it got me thinking how much truth there was in the statement above?

[Greg H]

This has been covered a few times, but I can never find what im looking for with the search function!!!
As far as im aware, a large body of recordings were wiped around about that time on grounds of having no further commercial value or somesuch tosh.
Correct me if im wrong anyone, I think rentaghost exists as off air recordings now rather than the master tapes. I dont know if that applies to the earlier episodes of rentaghost.
Its typically shortsighted archiving policy there from the BBC.

[dennywilson]

This is Crazy - how much is held in the BBC Archive will never see the light of day that's IS of further use.

Who gave the order to Lee to wipe/dispose/recycle the tapes?

[Paul Varley]

As Adam Lee was in charge, it seems he himself gave the orders for the tapes to be junked. Tragic really!

And the junked Rentaghosts were recovered from UK Gold dubs, not as off-airs, but broadcast quality fortunately.

[Greg H]

Ah, I remembered UK gold being in the equation somewhere! Thanks for clearing it up

[davidstead]

Hi Guys,

I have copied my posting from a few days back on the 'cheggers plays pop' post.

Hi Guys,
I must say, I keep seeing posts about material that was purged by Adam Lee at the BBC Archives from around late 1991 onwards.
As most of you probably know by now, I was Steve Bryant's (and then Adam Lee's) Assistant in the Archive department from 1986-Feb 1991.
I think it's a disgrace so much was wiped after I left to Join Enterprises. I must say Steve Bryant was brilliant at the Job of Archiving and I like to think I helped to that end.
However, Adam Lee was not of the same breed.
What is not generally known is that when Steve got the Job at the NFA as Keeper of Television (probably the ideal job for him), only 1 person at the Film Library applied to fill his post, a chappie called Bob White (sadly long deceased), however the 'powers that be' at the library did not want him doing the job and as far as I understood at the time, a call went out for ANYONE to apply for the job and the afternoon of the last day of applications, Adam Lee was pursuaded to apply. Well suprise suprise he landed the job! The rest as they say is history.....
I would rather not go into more detail here, but lest say he wasn't the ideal candidate for the job, but he wasn't Bob White. Bob White had apparently been at the Film Library from the time it was at Ealing (almost as long as Anne Hanford), but he wasn't a qualified Librarian. Adam Was.

As those of you who have read the WIPED book, I carried on assisting finds, with regard to TOMB and Death to The Daleks:1 . It seems while I was helping even while at Ents, Adam at the library started wiping.
Perhaps I moved jobs at the wrong time.

Of Course Adam has the sole distinction of being the only Archive selector to actually mark original archive prints (should you really damage the only survivng prints?). The prints of the Ice Warriors were marked (discreetly) as were Ian Levine's duplicate prints, in an effort to acertain where bootleg copies were being sourced from!
As Michael Caine would say....not a lot of people know that!

Ah well, all that was in the dim and distant past, but I thought you might all find it of interest.
Davidx


It might explain a little about Adam Lee being the Archive Selector in the first place - he definately was an ill fated choice to be the Archive selector! (The Anne Hanford mentioned, was the head of the Film Library until sometime in the mid 90's).

It certainly explains a few things....

Davidx

[Rob Moss]

So, the differences/similarities between what Adam Lee did and what Pamela Nash did. Discuss...

[Paul Cooksley]

Thanks for all your comments so far, very interesting reading.

So, it would obviously seem this is indeed correct - sadly.

So, does anyone know, apart from Rentaghost, what else was wiped around this time?

[Rob Moss]

I believe it was just pruning back - I don't think anything was completely junked.. I think a fair few Play Schools went, some of Chock-a-Block, some of Bod, Ragtime, some Jackanory Playhouse.

[Paul Cooksley]

Just unbelievable that this was allowed to happen circa '93......

I know some of the shows that got wiped won't exactly have been the most important of shows - and come to that, probably most of what was junked would never have seen the light of day - BUT - just crazy that this was allowed to happen.

[Simon B Kelly]

And don't forget the 7 episodes of Cheggers Plays Pop!

Yazoo put together a box set in 2008 which included a Bonus DVD of all their BBC TV appearances. It included their 7 TOTP appearances, 1 Saturday Live appearance and sadly only 1 Cheggers Plays Pop appearance. Their 2nd appearance on Cheggers (25 May 1983) performing "Nobody's Diary" no longer exists at the BBC and had to be omitted. Crazy!

[Robert Belford]

Was this when the Swap Shops were junked too?

[Deleted]

I see we have a new definition here now: not "junking" but "pruning back"! ;D

Yes, some programmes were lost completely. The difference between Nash and Lee is drastic. Nash was merely an enterprises employee disposing of what she saw as surplus sales material that may or may not have existed in duplication anyway. Lee was the actual archive selector - the top bod - who took it upon himself to dispose of stuff that he fully knew would be gone once he had made the decision to junk it. Not an enlightened decision for someone in his position to make.

[Simon B Kelly]

The top bod - funny you should mention that, Laurence, as wasn't Bod one of the shows he junked?

Here is Adam Lee, "BBC Television Archive expert" (that's how the BBC describe him - not me - I can think of some better nouns to use) explaining why there is so much missing from the archive:

www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tv_archive.shtml

[Deleted]

Aug 29, 2011 10:54:56 GMT Simon B Kelly said:

The top bod - funny you should mention that, Laurence, as wasn't Bod one of the shows he junked?

Yes, i've seen the clip in the link. Makes you laugh, doesn't it! A glorified pen pusher with no real passion for preserving TV as a medium, is my view of him. Worrying though that the BBC are happy to use such a person to talk about the value of their archives (and it doesn't exactly promote confidence). Let's hope no one ever again has the unilateral power to do what he did with the archive (although i'm unclear how much actual sway he has now). David's inside views on how he got to be archive selector make interesting reading though and pretty much confirm my own theories about Mr.Lee.