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Post by williammuirhead on Jan 7, 2017 14:19:57 GMT
I suspect I've seen the same copy - you're right, it was quite a revelation to see that clip in good quality, stretched aspect ratio and all!
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Post by williammuirhead on Jan 7, 2017 14:08:56 GMT
'Pete and Dud - The Unexplained' from the 26-12-66 Christmas Special. He's describing an uncommon occurrence on the Common, as I recall.
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Post by williammuirhead on Jan 2, 2017 6:41:11 GMT
Short answer is: none. The slightly more nuanced answer is: the documentary didn't feature any material we weren't already aware of.
The 'nine sketches' reported in the Guardian seem to be the three ABC trailer clips used in the prog ('On Sex/On the Bus/Diseases'), apparently found 'in a basement', plus six sketches taken from the Australian episodes.
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Post by williammuirhead on Jan 2, 2017 1:35:26 GMT
Don't know if this actually worth doing, but:
Just for anyone wondering EXACTLY what was dredged up from the vaults for this programme, I've just sped through again (something of a noble sacrifice) to compile the following list of inclusions from the BBC NOBA ONLY. The Australian contents are pretty thoroughly outlined in my post above.
Please note that some sketches were featured for no more than a few seconds ('Superstitions'), often without original sound, and several were excerpted from more than once. They are listed here in the order of their first appearance in the programme:
Pete and Dud: The Unexplained ('66 Christmas Special)/Pete and Dud: Superstitions (s01e06)/Pete and Dud: In Heaven (s02e07)/Aquatic Pianists Opening (s02e01)/Painting on Television (s01e02)/Initials (Old JJ) (s01e01)/London Bus Opening (s01e05)/Pete and Dud: Sex (s02e06)/The Making of a Movie (s03e07)/Swinging London: Rev. Gavin Thistle ('66 Christmas Special)/Pete and Dud: At the Zoo (s02e01)/Swinging London: Ad Lav Club('66 Christmas Special)/Pete and Dud: On the Bus (s01e05)/Pete and Dud: Art Gallery (s01e04)/Gypsy Violinist Opening (s01e04)/Aquatic Pianists Studio Intro-Cilla Black 'Let There Be Love' (s02e01)/A Bit of a Chat(s02e01)/Cinema Opening (s01e03)/Pete and Dud: A Spot of the Usual Trouble (s01e02)/Pete and Dud: Diseases (s02e02).
Goodbyeee Montage: Australian NOBA Show 2/s01e04/s01e02/s01e03/s02e07/s01e04/Australian NOBA Show 1/Australian NOBA Show 2
Sorry if I missed anything - I think this is basically complete.
EDIT: Ah, yes - there were a few clips from the 1964 BBC recording of 'Beyond the Fringe' as well. From memory, these were 'Royal Box' and 'Colonel Bogey', but there may have been another.
SECOND EDIT: Oh, and there was also a very brief clip from 'The Ravens' (s01e01), but bugger me if I can be bothered going back through to find out when it featured.
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Post by williammuirhead on Jan 2, 2017 0:21:42 GMT
Lots of quick clips from many sketches (a surprising number not only from existing episodes, but indeed those available on DVD), all shown in split-second bursts, stretched to 16:9 or shown on a TV monitor, usually covered with voice over.
As far as the 'new' stuff goes, it was indeed footage from the two Australian specials/promo for their visit to Oz, and the ABC trailer material. Celebs were shown reacting to bits of:
NOBA in Australia, Show 1: 'Pete and Dud: Customs', 'Colonel Bogey' and (sorta) 'One Leg Too Few'
NOBA in Australia, Show 2: 'Pete and Dud: At the Beach', 'Pseudolene', 'Bollard', 'Homeward Bound/Goodbyeee'
Some fairly intriguing 'behind the scenes' news footage showing the recording of 'Pete and Dud: Customs' and Cook doing his truly appalling Elvis impersonation on the 'Pseudolene' set, plus brief clips of a radio interview and meet-and-greet.
Australian promo sketch 'exclusive', 'Sir Arthur: Terminated Interview.'
NOBA Trailer Clips (basically whole, but often shot from behind Josie Lawrence's shoulder):
S01e05 'Pete and Dud on the Bus' (1min25sec, amusingly described in V/O as 'untransmitted for over 50 years', which must be a strange new euphemism for 'in the five weeks since The Undiscovered Peter Cook') S02e02 'Pete and Dud on Music' (1min25 sec, preceded by some establishing off-air audio, extremely funny indeed) S02e06 'Pete and Dud on Sex' (50 secs)
Which, if memory serves, is basically it for 'recovered material'. As I say, though, there's quite a lot of short clips from existing shows, some of which might not be immediately recognisable as they've sat in a BBC vault for fifty years.
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 31, 2016 22:36:38 GMT
With tear in either eye, it looks like once again my optimism was misplaced, at least according to chatter on the Kaleidoscope FB. Is anyone here able to provide a run down of what sketches were included/excerpted/stretched to 16:9 for a poor Colonial?
EDIT: No need, am watching now. Oh dear.
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 29, 2016 5:24:51 GMT
Hello again, friends! On the subject of the Australian NOBAs, here's the sketch list as printed in the 'Publish and Bedazzled' Cook fanzine in late 2000:
Show 1 (broadcast on ABC 8th February 1971, and on BBC1 June 18th): Pete & Dud: Customs/On the Beach/At the Cricket/Sir Arthur: Teaching Funnel-Web Spiders to Swim/Shirt Shop (originally written for Kenneth Williams in the early sixties)
Show 2 (broadcast on ABC 15th February 1971, and on BBC1 25th June) 'Colonel Bogey'/One Leg Too Few/Bollard (these past three all previously performed in 'Beyond the Fringe')/Job Interview (aka 'Pseudolene', possibly a remake of a sketch from NOBA s01e05)/Pete & Dud: Homeward Bound
Now, the particularly observant Muldoon will notice that this is a very different sequencing for Episode One (and therefore, presumably, for Episode 2) than a Certain Video Site would suggest. The 'Ep 1' presented on said site offers the following sketches:
Show 1: Pete & Dud: Customs/Pete and Dud: Cricket (film sequence and locker room VT)/Dudley Moore Trio/Shirt Shop/Colonel Bogey/One Leg Too Few/Goodbyeee
And an extant Aussie off-air from Show 2, accordingly, has the remaining sketches in this order:
Show 2: Pete & Dud: At the Beach/Sir Arthur - Funnel-Web Spiders/The Dudley Moore Trio/Job Offer (Pseudolene)/Bollard/Pete and Dud: Homeward Bound/Goodbyeee
So that would seem to be, at least, the correct contents for the original Australian transmissions. Irrelevant to the conversation, perhaps - but, in the words of the estimable Mr Cook (from 'Prospective Son in Law', NOBA e01e04), 'Not that it matters, but it is important.'
EDIT: And of course it turns out that just this info is already available on IMDB. Sorry for the redundant posts, chaps!
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 29, 2016 4:52:14 GMT
Thanks John, I quite take your point and I hope I haven't been coming across as antagonistic in my previous posts. The Guardian at least is pretty well respected, isn't it? (I remember rolling my eyes at those 'Polo' articles in the Mirror at the time - obvious fantasy!)
Anyway, I have no more info than anyone else here, and am prepared for further disappointment. Just the thought of nine new sketches, however, is a tantalising prospect indeed.
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 27, 2016 13:58:20 GMT
My thoughts is an announcement of a special with not seen material is not the same as a list of what was found. Unless the material found is small, then the odds of it all beingin the special are small. Also I doubt during the event they will say, x and you were found recently. They will simply focus on being an entertaining show. As much as I hope this is a find, it's disappointing that bbc, bfi, kaleidoscope, or anyone hasn't confirmed anything . And makes me doubt there was any Sure. I don't think anyone here would question a dose of healthy skepticism. Nor do I believe that during the event there'll be a freeze frame during a sketch in which an episode number and transmission date is shown. As you say, they'll 'focus on being an entertaining show' (on which note, three cheers for two Cook docs on TV within two months!) And it has already been stated in press articles linked to above that, indeed, the format will be clips from sketches interspersed with talking heads ('the odds of it all beingin the special are small'). While not ideal or our preference, that can't be any enormous shock. What matters to me is that footage from this elusive and largely wiped show may have resurfaced. To go back to what I have tried on multiple occasions to articulate above: there has been specific press confirmation on a) the number of sketches recovered and b) the type of room in which they were found. One article has explicitly stated the prog features newly found material 'unseen for over 50 years' - meaning pre-1967 at the very latest - as well as clips from the '71 Australian eps. This is not a matter of vagueness over what 'recently discovered' might mean - the details of chronology (unseen for 50 years), volume (nine sketches), and location ('found in a basement') are there. I genuinely do not understand this level of pessimism at this juncture. We may, of course, end up disappointed, as we have been before. But unless the Guardian is actively making things up - and BradfordZone just randomly concluded that the show would include both newly recovered NOBA material AND clips from the Australian specials - then something's back. The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but so far all previews of that pudding indicate it'll taste gooooood.
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 27, 2016 6:31:38 GMT
Well, PR has been sent to newspapers announcing the programme and stating that recently discovered sketches are part of it, so that seems pretty close to an announcement. NOBA is a pretty low-profile show these days, perhaps largely because of how much is missing, so a public announcement of 'part of series one episode four and all of series two episode six'* being returned would be unlikely to mean much to be most people, let alone a list of stand-alone sketch titles.
The Guardian has reported (without stating a source) that recently 9 sketches were discovered in a basement, and as I posted last page, bradfordzone.co.uk stated the New Years Eve programme will 'showcase a number of new clips which have recently come to light from sketches which were thought to have been lost forever, some not seen for over 50 years, plus rare footage of routines performed in Australia when Cook and Moore made two episodes of their show, Not Only… But Also, back in 1971.'
So some existing material, yes, and some newly recovered material. Unless the papers are wrong - which is certainly possible, but if so they've been inaccurate in some weirdly specific ways.
* Randomly selected episodes for rhetorical purposes.
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 27, 2016 0:09:46 GMT
The twist being - wait for it! - Cook's in the short crate, and Dud in the tall! I fear I find the first Australian episode pretty heavy going - in my view, there's much better material (particularly 'Funnel Web Spiders') in episode two.
Any other clips used in the trailer that anyone's able to describe?
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 25, 2016 8:38:36 GMT
I wonder if the inclusion of Dick Clement as an interviewee is a clue they have found missing material from the second season of Not Only which he produced? A nice observation - and note this statement from the article I posted above: 'sketches which were thought to have been lost forever, some not seen for over 50 years.' This being 2016, if we assume accuracy, then ' some' of these clips must date from 1966 or before. If we similarly assume the Guardian was earlier correct that 'nine sketches from the series Not Only, But Also were recently found in a basement', then that means we're definitely getting something back from series one, series two, or both. Assuming accuracy, of course.
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 25, 2016 8:19:46 GMT
Oh, and on a connected topic (discussed in context of 'The Undiscovered Peter Cook', but I assume it's okay to continue the conversation here) - I've been doing a bit of digging around online and in my notes - recently augmented by new info generously provided by a fellow NOBA fan - and it looks like the mute sketches from Series 1 Episode 5 ('Canvassing Dracula', 'Cigarette Advertising' etc) we hoped would be included in 'Undiscovered' can't actually be reconstituted from the off-airs and film clips.
In 2010, when Graham Webb's off-airs of 11 NOBAs were uncovered, Wipednews published the linked article giving a run-down of what audio and video material then existed (https://wipednews.com/2010/11/02/audio-recordings-of-not-only-but-also-episodes-found/)and s01e05 was the only episode not to have any known off-air recordings.
It is true that since then additional sound recordings from Australia have come to light, but the only sketch from this installment I can verify was recovered as part of the Aussie batch is 'On the Bus' (the sound for which seems to match up with the audio used in 'Undiscovered', drop-outs, audio tone and all). Which would unfortunately seem to suggest that these surviving mute film clips must, for now, remain so - ironically enough, the one episode we have silent visual material for is also the one with the least amount of off-air audio.
Happy to be wrong on this, of course!
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 25, 2016 8:08:45 GMT
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Post by williammuirhead on Dec 22, 2016 8:29:03 GMT
Got that subscription out of pure impatience: not much more to the blurb - 'Lost for decades, nine sketches from the series Not Only, But Also were recently found in a basement.' From previous PR for the show, which mentions 'Dud playing piano' and a sketch with Barry Humphries, this may well turn out to be the two NOBA Australian specials (which have always existed) discovered in second prints, poorly reported. I, for once, choose to be optimistic.
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