Rediffusion TV Archive

[Neil Hendry]

Rediffusion TV Archive

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11121/rediffusion-tv-archive

The main purpose of this thread is to keep track of the current information available on what happened to the Rediffusion TV (RTV) archive and to report on any new discoveries; including any available information on the marketing and sales of programmes overseas.

Secondly, to gather information on how RTV operated - including the ways they produced, recorded, transmitted and archived their programmes to try and give some insight into what material may have survived.

This thread is also linked with this one:

A-R/ Rediffusion London Shows And Series

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11209/rediffusion-london-shows-series

William McGregor has kindly agreed to look after this new thread which aims to focus on and discuss the missing programmes from the RTV archive - on a year by year basis. It will also help act as a reminder of the RTV programmes/ series produced - some of which may be less familiar to us.

It also aims to compliment this thread which will focus more on researching and telling the overall story behind the missing archive material - rather than get too focussed on individual programmes/ series.

By all means post about programmes here too, if it helps illustrate a point, helps explain the 'bigger picture' and provides information which may help us answer the question, 'what happened to the RTV archive and where might we usefully search for missing programmes today?'

So let's share info between the two threads when relevant and help make the two threads a great RTV resource for present and future readers and researchers!



Brief History of Rediffusion


Broadcast Relay Services Ltd. (trading as Rediffusion) was a subsidiary of British Electric Traction (BET).

In 1954, Rediffusion joined forces with Associated Newspapers, a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust, to form Associated-Rediffusion and won the coveted London weekday ITV broadcast franchise. They began broadcasting on 22 September 1955. In 1964 they changed their name to Rediffusion London and which they used until their last broadcast on 29th July 1968.

A decision by the ITA in 1967 led to the creation of a new company, Thames Television which would broadcast to London and surrounding areas on weekdays.

Extract from:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated-Rediffusion

"To preserve the sizeable ABC, the ITA proposed ABC TV and Rediffusion London should form a new company: Thames Television. This was not a merger or "shot gun marriage" as is commonly stated and is an urban myth. ABPC, the parent company of ABC TV and BET, the parent company of Rediffusion London, created Thames as a separate entity.

Thames would use the resources and staff of ABC's Teddington Studios and Rediffusion's Television House. Rediffusion's parent company, BET, took a 49% stake in Thames, and was under-represented in the management of the new company. When Rediffusion objected to this, the ITA replied that either Thames took the new contract, or ABC took over. Rediffusion chose the former, and went off the air on 29 July 1968.

Employees based at Wembley went to work for London Weekend Television whilst those at Television House were employed by Thames. Some managerial and presentation staff re-located to the new Yorkshire Television in Leeds."


We've been discussing one of RTV's 'lost' series The Informer on the thread below (2 out of 21 episodes are known to exist - held in the BFI archives), but much of the information there relates to the Rediffusion archive in general and so may be of interest to others. 


A. Related Threads:

A-R/ Rediffusion London Shows And Series

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11209/rediffusion-london-shows-series

The Informer Query - Rediffusion

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/5285/informer-query

Australia: ABC - Associated Rediffusion - BBC 

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/10423/abc-associated-rediffusion-bbc-australia

Rediffusion Christmas Day Extract - 1967

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11085/rediffusion-christmas-day-1967-extract

Rediffusion Finds Forthcoming

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11020/rediffusion-finds-forthcoming

Help Needed - 4 Rediffusion Shows

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/7971/help-needed-4-rediffusion-shows

Associated-Rediffusion Thread From 2005

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/869

At Last The 1948 Show

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11164/last-1948-show-current-status

ITV at 60 Boxset

--> missingepisodes.proboards.com/post/134252/thread


B. Useful Websites 

TV Studio History

--> www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/studio%20history.htm

RTV - History, Programmes, TV Listings/ Schedules and More

--> www.78rpm.co.uk/ar.htm


C. Books

Rediffusion History 1954-1959 by Henry Brownrigg

--> www.lulu.com/shop/henry-brownrigg/history-of-associated-rediffusion-ltd-1954-1959/paperback/product-22277558.html

ITV Drama Guide - 1955-2010

www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk/books-itvdramadownload2010-05.html


D. Search Engines For Episodes/ Programmes

Lost Shows Search - Kaleidoscope

--> www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?


BFI Collections Search:

--> collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/advanced




I'll copy any relevant information I find onto this thread. Please add anything of interest and related too!

[Neil Hendry]

Background on RTV's facilities in London


Few reasons for this research:

1. Firstly, because I wanted to understand the history and geographic location of their facilities in London.

2. Secondly, I wanted to try and find out a bit more about RTV's telerecording capability.

The reasons for this is that after some research into the missing Series 1 of The Avengers, I received this information from one of the cameramen who worked on it's production in 1961. He mentions Iris Productions in this extract, which was the company set up by ABC TV to produce The Avengers:

".....and myself would have recorded them and I’m pretty sure they were shot ‘as live’ for transmission fairly soon after the recording ( for some programmes the same day was not unusual ). At that time video recording tape was relatively very expensive and many programmes were re-cycled very quickly as overseas sales were not a big deal. Remember that at that time 405 lines was the transmission standard, tapes did not copy very well and most sales were on 16mm telerecordings, in themselves not very good !

Iris/ABC did not have telerecording kit and I would suspect they were done at ITN who were very big into film ( for portability ) and telerecording at the time....."

ITN was located at that time in the same building as RTV at Television House. RTV also had strong telerecording capability at their Wembley Studios.


_________________________


A. RTV Facilities in London

- Studios 1 - 5 at Wembley
[The studios at Wembley were first occupied by A-R in 1955 - formerly used for film production the facility had 4 small studios. The site was subsequently redeveloped by A-R with 5 studios, with Studio 5 first opening in 1960]

Interesting to note that in 1956, 'they closed studio 3. The space was later turned into a telerecording area'.

- Studio 6 was the Granville Theatre, Fulham Broadway

- Studio 7 (33 x 24 ft), studio 8 (38 x 25ft), studio 9 (64 x 40ft) and studio 10 (26 x 12ft) - All at Television House, Kingsway
[Studios 7 and 8 were used for 'talks' programmes and Studio 9 Elections and light entertainment and Studio 10 was the continuity studio.

- The Viking studio in Kensington was not part of this numbering system, probably because it was owned by Marconi and hired from them on a daily basis.

B. Television House, Kingsway (building renamed Centurion in 2008)

They moved in during 1955 whilst alterations were still underway which made life very difficult for the new staff. A-R's four studios in Television House were as follows: Studio 7 (33 x 24 ft), studio 8 (38 x 25ft), studio 9 (64 x 40ft) and studio 10 (26 x 12ft).

It contained four small studios used for current affairs, presentation and 'talks programmes' and was also the headquarters of the company.

This building also became the first base for the studios of ITN. They had their studios in this building on the 7th and 8th floors.

www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/studio%20history.htm#television house

C. Wembley Studios, London

A great summary of the history of the studios, including a building layout plan can be found here:

www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/studio%20history.htm#wembley rediffusion


A 1967 brochure produced by A-R has been reproduced here - which mentions Ian Hendry the production of The Informer:

www.transdiffusion.org/2004/01/01/wembley1

_____________________________

2. Telerecording Capability

Interesting to note that in the article above they mention: 'while modern videotape and tele-recording facilities enable the most economical use to be made of the studios.'

The studios were sold to LWT in 1968 after the Rediffusion-London and ABC TV formed Thames TV.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_Studios

[Neil Hendry]

The account below gives some great insight into RTV archive by one of the main people involved in rescuing it in 1968 - John Johnson.

John Johnson worked for Global Television Services, which was a subsidiary of Rediffusion London, responsible for their overseas sales.

This has been transcribed from an original booklet produced for a Kaleidescope event back in 2005.


DRAMATIC RESCUE OF REDIFFUSION HISTORY by John Johnson (Global Television Services/ Rediffusion)

In mid-1967 the results of the new ITA contracts had been announced. Rediffusion and ABC TV were to merge to form Thames. Children's, Current Affairs and Picture Library were to go to the new company. Television House, the head office and studios of RTV, together with all the equipment and furniture, was to be sold off and the rest junked. Part of Programme Department was to remain, and my new job was to salvage all the production records and Library material to enable Global Television, a Rediffusion subsidiary, to continue to sell RTV programmes overseas. What wasn't needed would also be junked. I made a tour of my new empire, starting with the hut on the roof of Television House. This used to be called Adastral House, the old head-quarters of the Air Ministry, and in my days in radio, this hut, which was part of the Met Office, became famous whenever we had a heat wave, rare in those days, as many bulletins would lead with the news that the temperature on the Air Ministry roof today reached 90 degrees in the shade’.

The famous hut was now the RTV Film Library, and as I walked in, I passed a pile of rusty old film cans by the door, and idly asked: what are these? “Oh,” said Maurice the Supervising Librarian, “they’re going to be junked”. I picked up the top can and read the label: ‘C Night of ITV aYou can’t junk that,” I exclaimed, that’s historyl”

Although a lot of the programme admin and films would not be wanted for sales, they certainly could not be junked, as ordered by the Board: this was a goldmine of television history. I went back to the Board, and explained that the BBC had enormous sound and film archives and RTV should preserve its old programmes, otherwise, it would -. never have a history. After outlining my plans, the Board agreed. ‘Very well, then,” said Chairman, ‘you are authorised to preserve our old programmes provided,” he added quickly, provided it doesn’t cost us anything.

The production paperwork was very important, as you cant sell programmes unless you also pay the residuals to writers and artists who had made them, and that meant preserving all the paperwork, yards of it, that supports every production. The first question was: what records did we have left? Lots of old files, dating back thirteen years, had been stored in the basement, where a main drain had overflowed and destroyed r many early documents. Not a pretty sightl The second problem was that every production department, contracts, copyright, music, publicity, billings, script services, and the production office with the all important P as B, all had their own sets of production files, much of which was duplicated. A team of temps was brought in to weed and amalgamate all these departmental files into one Master Production File for every series and episode, and stored in over twenty filing cabinets, , together with new supporting mat erial, such as catalogues, and the master index of the dates of all 1W programmes, starting with Day One. Today we would just put the whole lot on one hard disc.

In June 1968, when the RTV contract came to an end, I moved the Master Files and Library from TVH to a warehouse in Chiswick. I quietly kept all the files and films, irrespective of sales potential, and fortunately nobody noticed that the cost got charged against income from overseas sales. My first assistant, all those years ago, was a young officer’ fresh out of the Army, who has just retired as Controller of Programme Acquisitions. June Valentine, the woman who brought you Seinfeld, Friends, ER, Sex and the City, and the married version, Desperate Housewives, brought a lot of big audiences to C4

I actually made use of the files myself for a series called Those Wonderful TV Times, which I devised and wrote for fl’V network to celebrate its 2 P’ anniversary. That was the first panel game about old television programmes, and went straight to No 4 in the chart.

Some years later, after sales had more or less died off, I had to find a home for all this. I contacted the Television Officer at the BFI, who was not keen. ‘We would like your some of your plays with big stars (such as Judi Dench and Peter Sellers) and the Pinters and Potters, but not the quizzes”.

I protested this. I explained that I wanted to preserve a representative selection of all the RTV output over the years, not just the highbrow plays, but also mass audience material, such as quizzes like Double Your Money. (Over the years I have never seen any Pinter or Potter material on television, but sequences from Double Your Money have often been aired.) I wanted to preserve a wide range of RTV output. No social studies, for example, could be carried out on audience reaction unless programmes were available from both ends of the viewing spectrum. Nor could anyone study the evolution of television itself without a wide range of material. Television, like nature, evolves and is constantly splitting and mutating. Would Z Cars be Z Cars without its ancestors Dixon (30 mins) and No Hiding Place (1 hr)? Monty Python without Do Not Adjust? Or Millionaire without Double Your Money?

I didn’t want to keep all 237 episodes of No Hiding Place and all the other long running series, just the first and final episodes, and a few with major cast changes. But the BFI had their policy. Deadlock. I threatened to destroy all the material, including Pinter and Potter, unless we kept my representative selection.

In fact BFI probably faced a situation they may not have encountered before. Printed books are subject to compulsory deposit: by law all publishers have to deposit one copy of every publication with the national libraries for preservation — and as a researcher, I know how valuable these are. Unfortunately compulsory deposit does not apply to films. Thus, to select a film for preservation, costs the BFI money for a new print (distribution prints are too battered for archiving). Hence the limited budget tended to be spend on classical features, at the expense of B Westerns. Naturally, the BFI applied these criteria to the RTV films.

Once I had made it clear, however, that I would provide all these hundreds of reels of films free, and they would not cost the BFI a penny, we soon reached agreement over my reasonable selection’. Possibly the idea of acquiring a television collection comparable to that of the BBC at the time, also appealed to them, and a full range of material has been preserved.

Ban’ie McDonald, the Librarian at the ITA, agreed to take all the Master Production Files and the Programme Index. Some duplicate programme papers were passed to Gillian Hartnoll, the BFI Librarian at the time.

The Film Library was moved to the National Film Archive. The collection includes some programme, like documentaries and This Week inserts that were actually shot on film, but the majority of the material was originally shot on video and later transferred to telerecordings. Younger members of the industry might well ask why we didn’t sell tape copies, as we do now. Britain was the first country with a regular television service, and we started with 405 lines, whilst all later television services, apart from Eire, used a higher line standard. So tapes weren’t interchangeable, and had to be transferred to telerecordings. These were made, to put it crudely, by pointing a film camera at an EBU Grade 1 monitor and shooting the pictures, although the later equipment, the Marconi 16 mm fast pull down machine, produced good quality negatives. Usually the material supplied to NFA included the negs, sep mag sound, and a comopt print. Some major series might also have a sep M&E. On the handover, many prints were however left overseas as the contracts still had a year or more to run, and since the main deposit, Kaleidoscope has rescued some prints, as has the BFI’s Missing Believed Wiped’ campaign Some incomplete short series, (Do Not Adjust Your Set) have been added to, and partially reconstructed with the aid of the production files.

Obviously RTV programmes transmitted before videotape was invented, were simply lost for all time, (as was the first television series I presented and produced in 1953: when Controller asked me to repeat the series, we had to go back in the studio and do the whole production all over again). In addition to the films, we also held the Videotape Library, which included many recordings of productions that were never sold overseas, and this too was offered to the BFI, but declined.

Thus many early Schools programmes were also lost. Nowadays, the BFI records all the BBC output on tape.

The two collections (films and files) include some exceptions. Some files exist for which no film is held, and H conversely, we had film galore of Opening Night, but no file.

The film collection includes one colour production, UK television - was black and white for the whole of the life of RTV, but towards the end of its contract, the company began to prepare for colour, and one of the Half Hour Stories was shot in colour to gain some experience, although it had to be transmitted in monochrome. That was probably the first ITV programme made in colour.

Towards the end of the life of the l’FC (formerly the ITA) the Library, ‘ including all the Master ProductionFiles, was transferred to the BFI, and stored in the t at Aston Clinton. For convenience, the k BFI holds in London a list of RTV programmes, although somewhere over the last thirty years, the filing system has got changed.

Originally, the majority of the files consisted of RTV productions, with a last small separate section consisting of files of purchased programmes, mainly I Somehow, these Separate groups have been combined, and in addition files for production made by other ITV companies have been places in the collection, with the result that some 1W, American and even Australian series are now credited as RTV productions, which they are certainly not. We would have loved to have made The Avengers, but we didn’t (ABC did). And were also blamed for Tugboat Annie. Yes, we made a few dud series, but never one as bad as that!

These errors have been transposed into the BFI titles list. The original television 4 companies, RTV, ATV, OW and ABC were strong rivals, and to merge 4 their programme titles would be to lose their identities, and make life very difficult for researchers trying - to clear sequences. It would be like lumping all features made by MOM, RKO, Warners and UA under MOM.

From this material, the Programme Index, the Master Production Files, the Catalogues, the Film Library,- (and other sources which provide background) a fairly comprehensive picture may be built up of the output of Britain’s first commercial television company, that started life fifty years ago this September.

The BBC has plans to put some , of its most popular programme sequences on line, and will follow that with material from its Written Archives within a year or two. “It’s on the radar,” I was told, Rediffusion - Television would be a good candidate 4 for the first ITV archives to go public.

Pinter and Potter were perhaps the most famous playwrights to grace Rediffusion productions, but plenty of actors who went on to find both large- and small-screen fame appeared in a number of AR/RTV productions too. Here’s just a columns.worth…


[Note: The list below was appended by John Johnson in his original article. The version I found on the web had been scanned to digital text from the original booklet and contained many typos as a result. Thanks to Richard Fitzgerald for tidying up this episode list and adding his notes on the current holding status]

Alan Bates:
Television Playhouse: The Jukebox’ (17.04.59) JUNKED
“Incident” 22.01.60 JUNKED
Play 0f the Week “The Square RIng (02.06.59) JUNKED
Sean Connery:
Women In Love “The Return” JUNKED (though separate VT segments survived)(24.09.58)
Play Of The Week “The Square Ring” (02.06.59) JUNKED
Michael Crawford:
Play Of The Week “Frenzy” (22.10.58) JUNKED
The Chequered Flag (13.09.60 - 27.09.60) JUNKED (as are all 6 episodes of this series)
Antony Hopkins in two educational programmes:
Ways With Words: Trapped (26.01.67) JUNKED
Decision” (09.03.67) JUNKED (as are all other 25 or so episodes of this schools programme that ran from 1966 to 1967) .
Judi Dench:
Play Of The Week “Family On Trial” (21.04.59) JUNKED.
The Terrible Choice five episodes (20.01.60 - 24.02.60) JUNKED (as are all 9 episodes of this series that showcased extracts from classic plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe) .
Play Of The Week “Marching Song” (03.02.64) JUNKED
Playhouse “0n Approval” (22.01.68) JUNKED
Adam Faith:
No Hiding Place: Wheels Of Fury (30.09.59) JUNKED
Seven Deadly Sins: In The Night [wrath] (13.06.66) ONLY PART 1 EXISTS – but 3 other episodes exist as master copies held in the National Film Archive!
Susan George:
Television Playhouse “Adam Apple” (18.01.63) JUNKED.
December Child (24.12.63) JUNKED
Susan Hampshire:
Television Playhouse “The Reading Room” (25.04.63) JUNKED
31 Backyards (16.05.63) JUNKED
Donald Pleasence:
One (16.04.56) JUNKED
Hotel Imperial “The Murderer In 512” (27.05.58) JUNKED (as are all other 22 episodes of this series),
Television Playhouse Fate & Mister Browne (08.08.58) JUNKED
“Mr Browne Comes Home” (10.07.59) EXISTS in the NFA!
SM S “Episode’ (10.03.60) JUNKED (as are all other episodes of this series).
Seven Deadly Virtues: “The Good And Faithful Servant” [faith] (04.04.67) EXISTS in the NFA ! (Note this play was written by Joe Orton)
Peter Sellers:
Television Playhouse: “Snowball” and “The Birdwatcher’ (both 27.12.56) both JUNKED
Maggie Smith
Play Of The Week “The Big Knife” (30.12.58) JUNKED
Home And Beauty: (04.10.66) JUNKED
Playhouse “On Approval’ (22.0 1.68) JUNKED
Patrick Stewart:
Finding Out: Water (2) (27. 09 .67) JUNKED

[Neil Hendry]

Bit more information on John Johnson and Global Television Services from Chris Perry at Kaleidoscope who knew John well.

120+ boxes of RTV archive paperwork - saved by John Johnson - was kept at the IBA in Foley Street but is now in the BFI Special Collections.

www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk/news.html

Chris Perry mentioned:

'I have read 90% of the special collections. Its mainly contracts for artistes so they get paid, mingled with scripts, stills and limited overseas sales stuff.'

RTV Archive Moved To Chiswick Warehouse - June 1968

Global TS was a subsidiary company of RTV responsible for overseas sales and closed in 1971. This was confirmed in a conversation between Chris and John. This seems to tally with the anecdotal evidence that the BFI were offered the RTV archive material around 1972/ 73.

John Johnson was the key negotiator in trying to get the BFI to accept the material for free. The film archive had been taken from the rooftop archive of RTV at Television House together with the paperwork archive from the basement of the building and stored in a warehouse in Chiswick for several years after Thames TV was formed in 1968.

Extract from John's account of what happened at the time:

".....my new job was to salvage all the production records and Library material to enable Global Television, a Rediffusion subsidiary, to continue to sell RTV programmes overseas. What wasn't needed would also be junked. I made a tour of my new empire, starting with the hut on the roof of Television House. This used to be called Adastral House, the old head-quarters of the Air Ministry, and in my days in radio, this hut, which was part of the Met Office, became famous whenever we had a heat wave, rare in those days, as many bulletins would lead with the news that the temperature on the Air Ministry roof today reached 90 degrees in the shade’.

The famous hut was now the RTV Film Library, and as I walked in, I passed a pile of rusty old film cans by the door, and idly asked: what are these? “Oh,” said Maurice the Supervising Librarian, “they’re going to be junked”. I picked up the top can and read the label: ‘C Night of ITV aYou can’t junk that,” I exclaimed, that’s historyl.........”

and:

"Although a lot of the programme admin and films would not be wanted for sales, they certainly could not be junked, as ordered by the Board: this was a goldmine of television history. I went back to the Board, and explained that the BBC had enormous sound and film archives and RTV should preserve its old programmes, otherwise, it would -. never have a history. After outlining my plans, the Board agreed. ‘Very well, then,” said Chairman, ‘you are authorised to preserve our old programmes provided,” he added quickly, provided it doesn’t cost us anything."

and:

"In June 1968, when the RTV contract came to an end, I moved the Master Files and Library from TVH to a warehouse in Chiswick. I quietly kept all the files and films, irrespective of sales potential, and fortunately nobody noticed that the cost got charged against income from overseas sales."


RTV Archive - Chiswick Warehouse Emptied c.1972

Chris also mentioned this which is particularly interesting:

'John Johnson always hinted that 'shedloads of film' was taken away privately rather than be junked but I don't know how true that was.'

That comment from John most likely refers to 1972/ 73 when the warehouse at Chiswick needed to be emptied. Global TS ceased trading as a company in 1971 and the ability for John Johnson/ GTS to divert funds to pay for the warehouse storage would have come to an end as well.

The BFI took some of the RTV archive - agreed after negotiations with John Johnson - and the remainder had to find a home somewhere or be junked. It seems that a lot was salvaged and ended up safe somewhere. Probably in the hands of individuals/ former employees and private collectors. The question then is what has happened to that material in the subsequent years?

A-R Archive Material Today

So if more RTV material does survive in the UK (apart from what is held by the BFI) it would seem most likely that it is held in private collections/ storage.

The other likely source of surviving RTV material is overseas - episodes/ series distributed by Global Television Services and not returned for one reason or another. After Thames TV was formed in 1968, Global TS continued to market RTV programmes overseas for A-R's parent company BET. So there may be cases, for example, where overseas material wasn't able to be returned when Global TS ceased trading in 1971.

I'll post more information relating to RTV and Global Television Services overseas operations next.

[Neil Hendry]

Rediffusion Archive + Overseas Sales/ Programming



"....most of the surviving Rediffusion programmes are either films or film telerecordings. Some were donated during the 1960s by Rediffusion. A large number of them were obtained from Global Television (responsible for overseas distribution of Rediffusion programmes) around 1973/4. The NFTVA took them when Jeremy Isaacs who had worked for Rediffusion informed it that Global Television had no further use for them."

Tim Disney Archive

www.timdisneyarchive.com/telecine/rediffusion/

"Rediffusion exported much of their programme output far and wide through their distribution arm, Global Television. Many of the film prints distributed around the world were returned to Global Television in London after their contract with the company had expired and these were destroyed. Thankfully, some of these companies did not return their material to London and the prints found their way into the private film collector’s circuit. This is the source of many programmes recovered by the Tim Disney Archive who hold a number of titles produced by Rediffusion.

It should be noted that although Rediffusion no longer exists, all intellectual rights to the company’s programming belong to Archbuild Limited. Existing programmes are spread between Archbuild themselves, the British Film Institute, private film collectors and The Tim Disney Archive."

also:

TV Ark Article

www2.tv-ark.org.uk/itvlondon/rediffusion-main.html

".....The remains are held in private collections and at the National Film Archive, within the British Film Institute; copyright in the original programmes is held by Archbuild Ltd of London.

During the 1990s, Victor Lewis-Smith, the broadcaster and TV critic, bought the rights to the name Associated-Rediffusion. His Cumbria-based company Associated-Rediffusion TV made the series "TV Offal" for Channel Four and "Ads Infinitum" for BBC2. These series made a virtue of recycling poor-quality clips derived from long-forgotten TV adverts, idents, title sequences, music videos, gag reels and 'Christmas Tapes', re-dubbed and accompanied by sarcastic, knowing commentaries...."

Rediffusion Pamphlet - 1967

Extract from a 1967 pamphlet produced by Rediffusion:

www.transdiffusion.org/2004/01/01/wembley2

"Since 1955 Rediffusion Television (originally Associated-Rediffusion) has been providing the London weekday programmes of ITV. Together with the three other major companies in London, the Midlands and the North (ATV Network, ABC Television and Granada Television) Rediffusion provides a network service of programmes which are seen in the 10 smaller regional areas. Many of these programmes are recorded or are on film and are distributed overseas by Global Television Services (3 Vere Street, London, W.1) acting as agents for Rediffusion Television."

Global Television also acted on behalf of ABC TV in selling The Avengers series overseas during the 60's - and no doubt other programmes series as well.


Overseas Rediffusion

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated-Rediffusion#Overseas_Rediffusion

Extract:

"BET and Rediffusion Limited had strong links with the former British colonies. These included holding the concessions for wired and over-the-air radio and television stations. A subsidiary company, Overseas Rediffusion, operated these stations and also sold advertising time and programming for them. Stations included the radio station Rediffusion Barbados, Singapore, Malaysia, Malta, Thailand and the wired television service Rediffusion Television in Hong Kong, the latter now known as Asia Television."

Further Edit/ Update (5th July 2015):


Hong Kong Connection:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rediffusion_Television

Rediffusion Television became the first television station in a colony of the British Empire, as well as the first television station in a predominantly Chinese city. It initially offered a four-hour-per-day English language and Chinese language service. When competitor TVB made its first free-to-air broadcast in 19 November 1967, RTV had 67,000 subscribers. It was renamed Rediffusion Television Limited or RTV on 1 June 1973 when it was granted its free-to-air terrestrial broadcasting license. Cable television broadcasts were ceased thereafter. On 24 September 1982 it was renamed as Asia Television or ATV.

See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Television


And finally!

Link between RTV and Australia:

missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/10423/abc-associated-rediffusion-bbc-australia?page=2

[Neil Hendry]

New Rediffusion TV Archive Discoveries

Tim Disney - ‎Kaleidoscope Facebook Group

Reported on the 'Rediffusion Finds Forthcoming' thread

missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/11020/rediffusion-finds-forthcoming

27 June 2015 at 12:37

"Hello again. I know I've not been around these parts for sometime. I'm a one-man scheduling and traffic department for Big Centre TV at the moment. Anyone who's worked in tele and understands those roles will appreciate why I'm never around smile emoticon TV is a hungry beast that constantly needs feeding and burping!

However, I thought I'd perk things up with a teaser of some forthcoming lost Rediffusion returns which includes a few episodes of a kid's programme that will fill in some of the gaps in a well known series, an episode of a long lost Rediffusion sit-com, a drama that was possibly never even transmitted, the return of an incomplete edition of a certain well known crime drama and I think three, from memory, editions of another well-known A-R drama series, along with some Intertel / Rediffusion documentaries.

All in all, quite a nice recovery of a Rediffusion stash. It came at a price, but all will be revealed soon. I'm hoping to shoot an interview with the collector who sold me the stuff and put something together for you to watch as soon as I can.

Watch this space for now...."

[Neil Hendry]

Update: Tim Disney on the Kaleidoscope Facebook Group

www.facebook.com/groups/213621825197

Date: 16th August 2015

Apologies for the delay in announcing details of the recent Rediffusion recoveries, a combination of being very busy and working on the basis of only releasing information when material has been transferred and correctly identified. I'm hoping you'll have a chance to see some of this stuff once I've managed to pin the original source down to shoot an accompanying interview with him. He's got some great, if not heartbreaking stories to tell!

Confirmed recovery #1
Series Title: H.M.S Paradise
Episode: (23) Hail Lieutenant Hathaway And Farewell
Transmitted: Rediffusion London 17/12/64
Condition: Very good and complete with the exception of ad caps and end credits.

[John Green]

Nice one! H.M.S. Paradise is otherwise entirely missing.Lostshows gives this episode as 29/10/1964?

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

Aug 17, 2015 8:01:59 GMT Neil Hendry said:

Update: Tim Disney on the Kaleidoscope Facebook Group

www.facebook.com/groups/213621825197

Date: 16th August 2015

Apologies for the delay in announcing details of the recent Rediffusion recoveries, a combination of being very busy and working on the basis of only releasing information when material has been transferred and correctly identified. I'm hoping you'll have a chance to see some of this stuff once I've managed to pin the original source down to shoot an accompanying interview with him. He's got some great, if not heartbreaking stories to tell!

Confirmed recovery #1
Series Title: H.M.S Paradise
Episode: (23) Hail Lieutenant Hathaway And Farewell
Transmitted: Rediffusion London 17/12/64
Condition: Very good and complete with the exception of ad caps and end credits.

Interestingly enough, the only other existing part of HMS Paradise is a title sequence I found in Huntley.

""
22/08/2011 HMS Paradise Rediffusion 0.45 Huntley Archive Discovery Ray Langstone 01/01/1964 unsure www.huntleyarchives.com/viewsynop....ord2=&keyword3= The footage is mute.""

www.huntleyarchives.com/searchresult.php?keywords=paradise&option=all&filmCategory=&filmDecade=1960&filmSound=&filmColour=&filmNumber=

Film: 36758

01/01 for 1964 was a default setting, meaning exact tx date for the episode being unknown.

So someone can add the titles to it, perhaps?

[Neil Hendry]

Good find Ray. See you have already passed these details on to Tim Disney/ Kaleidoscope.

And there are more finds from Tim to be announced.

It will be interesting to see what the collector has to say about how and where he obtained these old Rediffusion shows and whether he knows more about other private collections.

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

Aug 17, 2015 9:22:51 GMT Neil Hendry said:

Good find Ray. See you have already passed these details on to Tim Disney/ Kaleidoscope.

And there are more finds from Tim to be announced.

It will be interesting to see what the collector has to say about how and where he obtained these old Rediffusion shows and whether he knows more about other private collections.

Hi Neil - I've made a lot of what people would call 'low-grade' Rediffusion finds over the years, stuff on youtube mainly, but also a bit in overseas archives, most notably the missing 'Around the World with Orson Welles' that's now out on DVD. (Oddly I found a missing 'Double Your Money' around the same time.

An incomplete and out-of-synch 'A Boy Called Donovan' (currently being restored) is another, found in Russia!

All my finds get mentioned on here, from the 8 second fuzzy ones to the 13 episode 16mm series hauls!

[Neil Hendry]

Hi Ray - That's great! Glad to hear that you have had success finding some old Rediffusion footage, including Russia!

I think the overseas angle is one with a lot of potential. Global Television Services (GTS) were actively marketing RTV programmes overseas during the 60s and up until 1971. In theory this material should have been returned to them but that probably didn't always happen. Whilst the material could turn up anywhere overseas, finding more more about which countries GTS were actively marketing too would be very useful. 

I also think there is a lot more material out there in the hands of private collectors which may gradually come to light now; collectors who picked the material up in the 60's and early 70s will be getting older now and possibly thinking about what to do with their collections.

Please keep us updated here on any news or new finds you come across. Thanks for your input.

[Neil Hendry]

RTV Hong Kong Programme

Great find by Peter Stirling. The first example I've seen of a RTV Hong Kong broadcast!

Cliff Richard - ATV Spectacular Show:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o00P0EeRAZU


RTV Hong Kong/ Hong Kong SAR is definitely one potential source for lost episodes as it seems logical that they would have used their UK programming to fill their air-time. And this is great evidence that they used other ITV company programming as well. I know Global Television Services also worked for ABC TV in the 60's and it is quite probable that they were behind sourcing this programme from ATV and no doubt other ITV networks as well.

Maybe all former colonies/ Commonwealth countries should also be on our list?

[John Green]

Aug 17, 2015 8:01:59 GMT Neil Hendry said:

Update: Tim Disney on the Kaleidoscope Facebook Group

www.facebook.com/groups/213621825197

Date: 16th August 2015

Apologies for the delay in announcing details of the recent Rediffusion recoveries, a combination of being very busy and working on the basis of only releasing information when material has been transferred and correctly identified. I'm hoping you'll have a chance to see some of this stuff once I've managed to pin the original source down to shoot an accompanying interview with him. He's got some great, if not heartbreaking stories to tell!

Confirmed recovery #1
Series Title: H.M.S Paradise
Episode: (23) Hail Lieutenant Hathaway And Farewell
Transmitted: Rediffusion London 17/12/64
Condition: Very good and complete with the exception of ad caps and end credits.

For the record,Andrew Downie had the one-off part of Lieutenant 'Superman' Hathaway.
Frank Thornton ... Commander Fairweather (25 episodes, 1964-1965)
Robin Hunter Robin Hunter ...
Lieutenant Pouter (25 episodes, 1964-1965)
Richard Caldicot Richard Caldicot ...
Captain Turvey (24 episodes, 1964-1965)
Ronald Radd Ronald Radd ...
CPO Banyard (24 episodes, 1964-1965)
Angus Lennie Angus Lennie ...
Able Seaman Murdoch (24 episodes, 1964-1965)
Priscilla Morgan Priscilla Morgan ...
Amanda (24 episodes, 1964-1965)

Country: UK
Release Date: 16 July 1964 (UK) See more »
Company Credits

Production Co: Associated-Rediffusion Television See more »
Show detailed company contact information on IMDbPro »
Technical Specs

Runtime: 30 min (26 episodes)

Trivia
This series is believed to be lost. Please check your attic. See more »
Connections
Follows The Navy Lark (1959)

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

Aug 17, 2015 12:27:08 GMT Neil Hendry said:

RTV Hong Kong Programme

Great find by Peter Stirling. The first example I've seen of a RTV Hong Kong broadcast!

Cliff Richard - ATV Spectacular Show:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o00P0EeRAZU


RTV Hong Kong/ Hong Kong SAR is definitely one potential source for lost episodes as it seems logical that they would have used their UK programming to fill their air-time. And this is great evidence that they used other ITV company programming as well. I know Global Television Services also worked for ABC TV in the 60's and it is quite probable that they were behind sourcing this programme from ATV and no doubt other ITV networks as well.

Maybe all former colonies/ Commonwealth countries should also be on our list?

I beat you to this one Neil! 27/04/2012 - actually spotted by Keith Read, not myself - I publicised it and confirmed the date.

missingepisodes.proboards.com/thread/7174/cliff-richard-show-1967-find