BBC vs ITV

[Deleted]

Hi,

Just as a matter of curiosity, why does there apparently appear to be a higher survival rate with series made by ITV and in particular LWT (Please Sir, On The Buses, Catweazle, The 'Doctor' Series (all of which exist in their entirity) against those made by the BBC during the same period (Dad's Army, Till Death Us Do Part, The Likely Lads etc).

Regards

Peter

[Nosmo King]

All the separate ITV companies would have had their own different policies as regards archiving (or possibly no coherent policy at all in their early days) .. which would have been different again to the BBC guidlines (or lack of them).

Unless documentation survives from the various periods .. it's all guesswork I'd have thought.

Trying to pin down fixed reasons I suspect will lead not very far except possibly to a headache and frustration .

Oh and "fortune/luck" almost certainly features highly in the survival rate of any named programme - whatever the channel or company

[Laurence Piper]

As far as comedy, drama etc are concerned, some ITV companies are better than others. Anglia (who have kept virtually everything), Granada (who are pretty comprehensive right back to the '60s, although with some very notable exceptions), Yorkshire and Central (virtually all kept by both from day 1) are the best archivally. This is followed by LWT and Thames (although both have some notable gaps from their first two or three years). ATV are very erratic as a lot of their output survives from way back...but a lot doesn't as well. Other companies are less comprehensive although some of their output exists (e.g. Tyne Tees, Southern, Westward). ABC are fairly poor although certain parts of their archive remain. Rediffusion fares probably the worst of all ITV companies, with most of it's 13 year history junked.

[andrew martin]

To a certain extent at least, there is the fact that ITV companies tended to have a lot of money, and because of the structure of ITV, smaller individual archives, so their storage problems were less pressing than the BBC's. That said, since they were less secure (as they discovered in 1967) there was always the chance that they would lose their franchise, as Rediffusion effectively did, and thus not think it worth keeping much of their archives - especially with the arrival of colour.

[williamM]

big question but, is there any 1960s tv company output that is complete (just the pre-recorded/filmed material)

[Deleted]

Also ITV had a better relationship with the NFTVA than the BBC, which meant ITV sent more copies to the NFTVA for keeping than the BBC.

[Laurence Piper]

williamM said:

big question but, is there any 1960s tv company output that is complete (just the pre-recorded/filmed material)

Did you mean to say "NOT just the pre-recorded/filmed material"? Wiliam? Presumably you're talking about Drama / Comedy mainly. If so, then Anglia are the nearest to being complete (very little seems to be missing, it seems, and what survives is almost all still on VT too!) I'm sure someone else can elaborate on this further...

[Gareth Randall]

FWIW, there's a lot missing from LWT's first few years.

[Laurence Piper]

As you'd know more about this, Gareth, can you elaborate with a bit of detail? We know mainly about the drama / comedy stuff but what about chat shows like Frost, music and light entertainment stuff, arts programmes, factual and regional progs etc? LWT are still a bit of an unknown quantity in this respect.

Also, any idea why LWT were so haphazard for about the first three years and then suddenly became archivally comprehensive? Others that came about at the same time (such as Yorkshire) don't have the same "three year hitch" that LWT (and Thames) seem to. Just curious, that's all.

[Gareth Randall]

I've no idea; the people who would have been directly involved with the archiving are long gone. However, I would imagine that all the problems, both financial and industrial, that beset the early years of LWT were at least partially responsible... in other words, they had more important things to worry about than archiving.