Rediffusion TV Archive

[markandresen]

Speaking as an ex-Kaleidoscope researcher, I found that "outrageous copyright breaches" never uncovered lost material.

[Neil Hendry]

Oct 11, 2015 14:15:06 GMT richardfitzgerald said:

It's a puzzle isn't it? Mr Rowlands' story from the ABC/Thames perspective is at odds with John Johnson's own recollections from the A-R side. But both suggest hundreds if not "thousands of cans" were collected by the NFA/BFI at some point following A-R's closure. I really think it would be worth BFI digging into their own admin files now to see if more light can be shed on what exactly they picked up/agreed to take. I also wonder if anything came of Tony's investigations into the mysterious warehouse though he clearly wasn't optimistic.

On a side note it's a pity this conversation wasn't held several years ago when I first posted up an extract from this article on the old version of this very forum. But as I recall I was accused of an outrageous copyright breach by a now ex-member who took great offense! Still better late than never!

Definitely a puzzle. But if we can find out more from the BFI/ NFA records then it may help to clarify things. I have a couple of contacts at the BFI - sure other have too - so maybe together we can get some feedback.

This is an outrageous copyright breach safe zone - so you are fine here  

RTV - UCLA Archive Search

As well as continuing to research information on RTV and their archive in the UK, I'm also keen that we start finding out more about their overseas operations as they certainly saw that as a significant potential income source for their programmes; and overseas marketing was of course the role of their subsidiary, Global Television Services led by John Johnson.

The search below was in an archive in the US, but we also know RTV had strong links in Australia as well as other countries.

This quick search was in the UCLA Film and Television Archive - Los Angeles - using the search term 'Rediffusion'.

It returned 6 results, 5 of which have strong links with RTV/ Associated-Rediffusion.

You can access the UCLA search engine here:

--> cinema.library.ucla.edu/vwebv/searchBasic

Interesting to note that one programme was produced by A-R/ RTV in association with NBC - and broadcast on NBC, two others with the involvement of David Susskind/ Talent Associates for broadcast on ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation); and another one just seems to be an RTV programme that ended up in the US!

Also a Bing Crosby Show produced using RTV facilities in the UK.

So joint productions for the US market were being created as early as 1963 i.e. To Bury Cesar (1963) with Jack Hawkins for NBC

Talent Associates

--> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talent_Associates

"Talent Associates, Ltd. (also known as Talent Associates-Paramount, Ltd. and Talent Associates-Norton Simon, Inc.), was a production company headed by David Susskind, later joined by Daniel Melnick, Leonard Stern and Ron Gilbert.

In the years after World War II, Susskind was a talent agent for Century Artists, ultimately ending up in the powerhouse Music Corporation of America's fairly newly minted television program department, managing Dinah Shore, Jerry Lewis, and others. He then went to New York and formed Talent Associates, representing creators of material rather than performers. Susskind converted Talent Associates into a packaging company for new programs in 1952.

Talent Associates produced some of the classic series of the Golden Age of Television......"

[Peter Stirling]

A play with Ingrid Bergman was produced around 1962 using the dual camera set up to obtain NTSC pictures
for the US in B/W.
Later
Some with association with Talent Associates, RTV produced the following in colour.
A couple were produced in the US but most made at Wembley

UK transmissions
11/66 The Human Voice - Ingrid Bergman ( VT survives in the US)
?/66 Dare I weep- Dare I mourn James Mason.(survives in the UK made on film)
Dial M for Murder ?/1967 Lawrence Harvey (producer's unedited studio tape survives in the US)
02.04.68 Laura- Farley Grainger/ Robert Stack (missing)
26.04.68 A Hatful Of Rain -Sandy Dennis/Peter Falk (missing)*
14.05.68 The Crucible-George C Scott (missing)*
17.05.68 Of Mice And Men *
One or more sequences exist, but the complete programme is lost.
15.06.68 Johnny Belinda - Mia Farrow (survives as B/W TR in US)*
25.06.68 The Desperate Hours-Michael Conrad (missing)
09.07.68 A Case Of Libel-Lloyd Bridges (missing)
16.07.68 The Glass Menagerie -Shirley Booth (missing)

* These ones may have been co-produced in the US?

[richardfitzgerald]

A stray thought more relevant to the ABC side of the story - I hope there's a thorough examination of Teddington Studios before the bulldozers roll in, as one never knows what might have been stashed away in cupboards or under the proverbial floorboards......

[Neil Hendry]

Oct 13, 2015 22:37:36 GMT richardfitzgerald said:

A stray thought more relevant to the ABC side of the story - I hope there's a thorough examination of Teddington Studios before the bulldozers roll in, as one never knows what might have been stashed away in cupboards or under the proverbial floorboards......

Yes -  I read somewhere that the area was to be redeveloped into residential? I'd hope that the place has been thoroughly searched over the years - but sometimes things are still missed......

On a similar note, a month or so back I wrote to the archivists at Fremantle Media - who now look after the Thames TV archive - and asked them about a specific programme and if it was possible that they might have some ABC TV and RTV material mixed in with their Thames TV programmes. The reply I received was 'in the negative', but there must still be a small chance that material from the original two ITV regions operating in London, became mixed up with other archives by mistake or was not returned after use.

This of course applies to archives in the UK and abroad...

[Neil Hendry]

You may have noticed the new thread created by William McGregor:

A-R/ Rediffusion London Shows And Series

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

William 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 them a great RTV resource for present and future readers and researchers!

[Neil Hendry]

Oct 11, 2015 23:57:18 GMT Peter Stirling said:

A play with Ingrid Bergman was produced around 1962 using the dual camera set up to obtain NTSC pictures
for the US in B/W.
Later
Some with association with Talent Associates, RTV produced the following in colour.

A couple were produced in the US but most made at Wembley

Thanks for sharing that information Peter. Interesting to see that RTV had strong links with Talent Associates and some major US broadcasters in the 60's.

RTV would have also known about the income potential of selling programmes/ series to the US - The Avengers for example was a major coup for ABC TV when sold Stateside.


Interested in finding out more about RTV's operations in the US (and other countries) and the series/ programmes which were sold and broadcast.

[Peter Stirling]

A further titbit about RTV's last years...

A new pop vehicle for Cathy M'Gowan was envisaged after the demise of 'Ready Steady GO' called 'Exit - The Way Out Show' It was going to be produced by Jack Good (I think) in colour.
Later 'Exit - The Way Out Show' did appear, but without Cathy or Jack and probably did not have the expensive aspirations of the original format ?

[Alan Turrell]

Exit - it's the Way-Out Show
Host

Ed Stewart
Co-hosts

Hostesses: Lesley Judd and Jane Tucker

Voiceover: "The Major"
Broadcast

Rediffusion London, 28 September to 28 December 1967
Synopsis

This was an early evening quiz, only shown in London, sandwiched between the ITN national news and Crossroads on a Thursday night when other regions were showing local news - Rediffusion were not big on local news!

The show's opening titles depicted 'Swinging London' and Ed Stewart (looking like Vernon Kay) fresh from the pirates before his Junior Choice days. It seemed like the beginning of a trendy pop show but in fact it turned out to be a simple word game using big letters, a sort of Countdown meets Play Your Cards Right.

There was a voice-only adjudicator who Ed referred to as 'The Major' and also two hostesses, Jane and Lesley. According to a conversation our researcher had with Ed some years ago, they became Jane from Rainbow's Rod Jane and Freddy, and Lesley became Lesley Judd of Blue Peter.

The contestants were members of the public, apart from the last show at Christmas which had Long John Baldry, Monica Rose (of Double Your Money and The Sky's the Limit fame), Lynn Redgrave and Tim Brooke-Taylor playing the game.

[Peter Prentice]

Oct 15, 2015 7:47:06 GMT Alan Turrell said:

Exit - it's the Way-Out Show
Host

Ed Stewart
Co-hosts

Hostesses: Lesley Judd and Jane Tucker

Voiceover: "The Major"
Broadcast

Rediffusion London, 28 September to 28 December 1967
Synopsis

This was an early evening quiz, only shown in London, sandwiched between the ITN national news and Crossroads on a Thursday night when other regions were showing local news - Rediffusion were not big on local news!

The show's opening titles depicted 'Swinging London' and Ed Stewart (looking like Vernon Kay) fresh from the pirates before his Junior Choice days. It seemed like the beginning of a trendy pop show but in fact it turned out to be a simple word game using big letters, a sort of Countdown meets Play Your Cards Right.

There was a voice-only adjudicator who Ed referred to as 'The Major' and also two hostesses, Jane and Lesley. According to a conversation our researcher had with Ed some years ago, they became Jane from Rainbow's Rod Jane and Freddy, and Lesley became Lesley Judd of Blue Peter.

The contestants were members of the public, apart from the last show at Christmas which had Long John Baldry, Monica Rose (of Double Your Money and The Sky's the Limit fame), Lynn Redgrave and Tim Brooke-Taylor playing the game.

Jane was model Jane Bates and not Jane Tucker of Rainbow fame. Not a woman easily forgotten on the evidence of Popdown and everything else I've seen.

[Neil Hendry]

Four great articles on how RTV was set up to start broadcasting in 1955, a '10 year' review of RTV in 1967 and some of the people behind the company:

'Just Start A 5-Day TV Service' They Said!

By Lloyd Williams, Assistant Controller of Programmes, Associated-Rediffusion

Reprinted from The Television Annual for 1957, published by Odhams:

--> www.transdiffusion.org/2004/01/01/williams

and:

That Was A Decade That Was

By James Green, who was a TV writer for the London Evening News in 1967

He first started writing about radio and television in 1951. In ‘Fusion 3’, under the headline ‘They Say’ Frank Comment from an Outsider’, he gave his opinions about the company and its programmes. In this piece for ‘Fusion 46’ (Easter 1967), nearly 10 years after that article, he took another look at Rediffusion to recall some of the people and programmes which stuck out in his memory:

--> www.transdiffusion.org/2004/01/01/decade

and:

Who's Who In Presentation

By Sam Simmonds, who recalls the people and life in the Presentation Department, 1961-68

--> www.transdiffusion.org/2005/10/30/arpres

and:

Captain Thomas Marcus Brownrigg - RTV General Manager

By David L. Wilde

--> www.transdiffusion.org/2006/03/01/neverbaffled

[Peter Prentice]

As a postscript to my earlier comment, here is the reply I received from Jeremy Langford, son of the late Barry Langford, director of the show, when I emailed him back in 2009. It was to be the last I heard.

Hello Peter,

I forwarded this to my father. I asked him about it and he has absolutely no recall about such a person. He will try to wrack his brains and look over his archive material- he has a huge chest of press cuttings from those days about the various pop shows he trail blazed back then. If anything comes up I shall let you know.

Good luck,
Jeremy Langford

This was after I had contacted Jane Tucker, who in 1967 was in drama school, and prior to my accessing the Daily Mail Archive. Jane Bates features in a 23/09/1967 article entitled "Way In for Way-Out Jane". She can also be seen, along with Lesley Judd and host Ed Stewart, in the 16-22/12/1967 London edition of the TVTimes.

Had no luck with Lesley or Ed, despite getting word through to both.

[williammcgregor]

Hi Peter,

You've posted just as I was sending you a P.M. asking if you had anymore information.

So thank you for the post above.

[Peter Prentice]

Oct 15, 2015 12:17:03 GMT williammcgregor said:

Hi Peter,

You've posted just as I was sending you a P.M. asking if you had anymore information.

So thank you for the post above.

Just replied, William.

[williammcgregor]

Thanks Peter