Associated-Rediffusion Television

[MikeD]

Following on from my thread about Our Man At St Mark's, can someone solve the mystery of what happened to Associated-Rediffusion Television? They disappeared in 1968 after providing us with years and years worth of classic series. Then I find out that most of those series don't exist anymore and I can't understand why. I know why the BBC episodes are gone, but what happened with A-R and their films?

Cheers.

[ethantyler]

There's a fascinating thread about Associated Rediffusion here:
missingepisodes.proboards20.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1114638955

I'm not sure that it actually answers what happened, although anyone actually knows for certain.

[C Perry]

John Johnson, the man responsible for looking after Redifussion's final days and the entire archive has just written us 9 pages on what happened to it all, and why, which we will publish in our 50 Years of ITV booklet for the next event.

These booklets will be on sale on the day, but we always sell out so we don't do them mail order.

Sorry.

Chris

[Curious Richard]

Any chance of a sneak preview, Chris? And what chance that a whole stack of this material might, somehow, still be 'out there'?

Yours Curiously,

Richard

[PHNEILL]

Mr Perry

Would there be any chance of putting the 9 page booklet on the web. Not everyone can get to your events?

[John G]

PHNEILL said:

Mr Perry

Would there be any chance of putting the 9 page booklet on the web. Not everyone can get to your events?

come come gentleman thats not cricket is it?

If Mr Perry was to put it on the web , it would de-value his Kaleidescope Event somewhat, plus it would mean
that painstaken research obviously paid for by his company, would be free to any cheapskate TV company which wanted to do one of those tatty clip shows like
' ITV remembers' or something, with Melvyn Bragg taking all the credit.

I have never been to one of Mr Perry's events , but I am
just as curious as the rest of the fate of the AR archive.
So I will have to make some effort if I want to know.

[ethantyler]

C said:

John Johnson, the man responsible for looking after Redifussion's final days and the entire archive has just written us 9 pages on what happened to it all, and why, which we will publish in our 50 Years of ITV booklet for the next event.

These booklets will be on sale on the day, but we always sell out so we don't do them mail order.

Sorry.

Chris

Does that mean that you definitely know what happened and there is no mystery anymore? Any chance of a small hint, for example, is it possible that the missing episodes might one day be recovered? It would be a shame to find out now that they were all burnt and have gone forever.

[Graham Briddon]

C said:

John Johnson, the man responsible for looking after Redifussion's final days and the entire archive has just written us 9 pages on what happened to it all, and why, which we will publish in our 50 Years of ITV booklet for the next event.

These booklets will be on sale on the day, but we always sell out so we don't do them mail order.

Sorry.

Chris

Hi
Wouldn't it be possible to increase the print run, to enable copies of the booklet for this and future events to be sold by mail order.

I feel sure there would be some demand for them (I would certainly buy them). In fact they were available mail order until the last few years, as I have many of the early ones and have not attended an event.

Wouldn't the mail order sales generate extra income for the supported charity?

Just a thought.

Regards
Graham.

[John G]

The mail order thingy sounds like a good idea.

I wonder if Mr Perry ever wrote for Crossroads ?
in this thread he has left the most annoying cliffhanger
possibly ever written ;D

[C Perry]

For contractual reasons John Johnson has only licensed us to publish his article once in that booklet. He will not give us rights to reproduce extracts or full chunks online. This is because he knows that it will contradict a lot of existing so-called experts in the TV industry.

Sorry I can't say more, but we are bound by contract.

Chris

[John G]

Thanks Chris for coming back on that.

Just one more thing---To use an American word would you regard this as "closure" on the myths and legends surrounding the AR archive?

[Graham Briddon]

C said:

For contractual reasons John Johnson has only licensed us to publish his article once in that booklet. He will not give us rights to reproduce extracts or full chunks online. This is because he knows that it will contradict a lot of existing so-called experts in the TV industry.

Sorry I can't say more, but we are bound by contract.

Chris

Is there a limit to the size of the initial print run you are allowed under the contract?

I'm thinking that any leftover copies of a slightly bigger print run could then be sold by mail without breaking your contract.

Regards
Graham.

[ethantyler]

C said:

For contractual reasons John Johnson has only licensed us to publish his article once in that booklet. He will not give us rights to reproduce extracts or full chunks online. This is because he knows that it will contradict a lot of existing so-called experts in the TV industry.

Sorry I can't say more, but we are bound by contract.

Chris

I can't wait to find out what really happened though I fear I will have to as I won't be attending the event. I find the subject fascinating and I'm particularly interested as I've heard stories about viewing nights of "Twizzle" in the UK, so it would be great to find out if it was possible that the episodes were leaked/saved and do still exist.

[Curious Richard]

For the benefit ofthe uninitiated, could you please let me know just where and when this year's 'Kaleidoscope' festival is, if this is the only way of picking up Chris's booklet and discovering the truth?

[Laurence Piper]

Absolutely! When and where is the event, Chris? I need to know what happened to the Rediffusion archive...