BBC Appeal - or lack there of. . . .

[moodm]

Hello,

Is it my uninformed opinion or is it fact that considering the amount of money it could make for them, the BBC don't seem to do the right things regarding the hunt.

I have a friend who is an avid fan of the new series Doctor Who, and is interested in classic as well. Yesterday I had a conversation with her and she admitted to me that she had never heard of missing episodes.

Was I the only person who hoped following December's announcement of recoveries, that the Christmas Special would have been followed by an appeal for old footage/episodes?

I seem to recall mention that there was something on Blue Peter, which is a kids program, which is fine, but let's be honest, children aren't going to have 16/35mm film collections locked away with items which they may or may not know the importance of. No, it's going to be people who may pay more attention to the BBC website, or an actual television episode of Who.

Please tell me if I'm wrong and there are more obvious and concerted efforts going on to locate missing television (not just Doctor Who)?

I seem quite angry don't I.

Thanks.

Matty

[Richard Bignell]

Well, for a start, the Blue Peter wasn't asking children if they had any telerecordings themselves. Rather they were asking if anyone they *knew* of anyone, such as family members who might have worked at the BBC in the past, who might have such prints.

There have been several on-screen appeals for the return of lost television over the years as well as the BBC Treasure Hunt appeal that ran online for several years. You won't find appeals being made after episodes of Doctor Who as airtime (and especially on BBC One) is viewed as being far too precious to be used in such a way.

There have been long-standing and on-going efforts to recover material around the world, involving talking to the right people, physically checking overseas archives etc.

[moodm]

Excellent. As I said in another thread. I'm only just finding out about this stuff so it was more speculative than accusatory.

I do find it amazing how so relatively few people know that so much material is missing from archives.

Cheers!

[John Andersen]

Apr 28, 2012 10:54:22 GMT @moodm said:

Hello,

I have a friend who is an avid fan of the new series Doctor Who, and is interested in classic as well. Yesterday I had a conversation with her and she admitted to me that she had never heard of missing episodes.

Unfortunately, it seems that quite a few Doctor Who fans are not aware that the Hartnell and Troughton eras are missing episodes. There are also film collectors who are unaware that episodes are missing.

On more than one occasion over the years, I have seen posters at forums asking when they are going to release the rest of the Patrick Troughton stories on DVD. When these people are informed that he has only one complete story from seasons 4 and 5, they are genuinely stunned to hear that. The message concerning lost episodes is not getting out as well as the Doctor Who community would like.