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Post by Andrew Parker on Jul 19, 2013 10:53:28 GMT
Did the BBC decide to hang onto the Quatermass 35mm film recordings, did they give them to the BFI who preserved them, or were they returned from abroad?
I've been looking online but can't find anything to why this show (for the most part thankfully) is still with us today.
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Post by brianfretwell on Jul 19, 2013 11:49:28 GMT
As (if you are talking about The Quatermass Experiment) it would seem only the first 2 episodes were film recorded they would never have been sent abroad, I'm sure a return can be ruled out. I suspect they were retained by the BBC despite the idea they were below standard either by being sent to the film library or kept due to the popularity of the series and its sequels. From what has been said elsewhere about their TV policy I doubt if the BFI would have accepted them at the time.
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Post by Andrew Parker on Jul 19, 2013 12:25:34 GMT
All three, Experiment, II and Pit. On a restoration piece the belief is that Experiment parts 1 & 2 were recorded for sale to Canada, but the BBC felt the quality was so bad they cancelled the sale and didn't record the last four parts. However, II and Pit were recorded/copied onto 35mm film.
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Post by Simon Smith on Jul 19, 2013 13:24:54 GMT
How is it that all fourteen recorded Quatermass episodes survived Pamela Nash's ruthless destruction? After all, there couldn't have been any sales value to the two episodes of Quatermass Experiment.
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Post by Alex Taylor on Jul 19, 2013 14:05:17 GMT
Because they were in the film-library, not at Enterprises, and as such nothing to do with her.
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Post by Andrew Parker on Jul 19, 2013 14:45:46 GMT
Because they were in the film-library, not at Enterprises, and as such nothing to do with her. Were they forgotten about, or was the film library specifically to keep stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2013 14:57:08 GMT
The film library kept stuff for BBC re-use. Not necessarily for archiving though.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2013 16:15:01 GMT
Don't forget, the BBC also hung on to the omnibus editions of "The Pit" dating from the early 1960's which was VERY fortunate sincethey actually spliced in the original 35mm location footage into the new 35mm transmission master... of which there was an unusually large amount for a TV production of that time. Had the omnibus versions been trashed, then we'd had been left with what was transmitted in 1959 with all the inserts in a lower generation, prone to double imaging etc.
So, when the Restoration Team worked on that, they were able to use all those 1st generation 35mm elements to create what I regard as the Restoration Team's finest moment - it looks stunning. The in TV studio stuff was also in good shape so when VidFired and combined with all the 35mm film material, it probably looked better than it did on original transmission!
The "Quatermass Collection" is still one of the best DVD sets the BBC have ever released with good extras, remastered throughout and with Andrew Pixley's excellent deeply informative booklet. A crying shame most of the rest of their archive stuff hasn't been given the same treatment.
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Post by anthonyforth on Jul 19, 2013 17:55:33 GMT
The first episode was transmitted in Canada according to TV listings from the period.
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Post by richardwoods on Jul 19, 2013 18:48:04 GMT
The first episode was transmitted in Canada according to TV listings from the period. Interesting, didn't the Canadians bother with the rest of the serial and was this the motivating factor behind stopping the tele-recordings after episode 2 I wonder?
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Post by Richard Marple on Jul 19, 2013 19:18:01 GMT
The restoration Team site mentions the poor quality of the telerecodings of the 1st episodes, the 2nd having a fly caught in the equipment.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2013 19:30:44 GMT
The restoration Team site mentions the poor quality of the telerecodings of the 1st episodes, the 2nd having a fly caught in the equipment. Indeed - and that was the main reason why the BBC didn't bother to carry on telerecording the series after the 2nd episode since they felt the results were technically too poor. A pity, but that's the way it panned out.
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Post by richardwoods on Jul 19, 2013 19:33:24 GMT
Is there any record of the Canadian broadcaster citing this as a reason to discontinue showing the serial, as well as the more well known explanation of the BBC being unhappy with quality for the reasons stated?
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Post by richardwoods on Jul 19, 2013 19:34:39 GMT
Dodgy double post WiFi issues!
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Post by Andrew Parker on Jul 22, 2013 10:36:20 GMT
Is there any record of the Canadian broadcaster citing this as a reason to discontinue showing the serial, as well as the more well known explanation of the BBC being unhappy with quality for the reasons stated? I get the impression it was wholly the BBC's decision, there was no input from Canada as to whether they wanted it regardless. I'm just amazed (but happy ) they were all sent the film library and left alone prior to 78 when the junking stop.
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