Burkiss Way missing Reginald Bosanquet sketch

[Jan Henning]

Hi,

does anybody know whether a copy of the Burkiss Way's Reginald Bosanquet sketch has survived anywhere?

It featured in S03E09 - Lesson 28 - Ignore These Program Titles The Burkiss Way and was part of the Lord Russian-Emigré sketch near the end, where he wants to start a "The Two Reggies" show with Reginald Bosanquet and Sandy Gall.
According to the "Celebrate the Burkiss Way" documentary, there then followed some musical number about Reginald Bosanquet's supposed drinking habits, which was then pulled from all subsequent repeats at the advice of Bosanquet's solicitors. So that sketch was apparently only ever broadcast once and in all subsequent repeats (including the material I've found circulating on the internet), after mentioning the idea of "The Two Reggies" the show is directly cutting to the following sketch.

So the big question is this - has an off-the-air recording of the original broadcast of that episode survived somewhere (like possibly on these tapes, seeing that off-the-air recordings of the Burkiss Way are mentioned there as well, although I guess it might be too unlikely a coincidence)?

Jan

[darrenlee]

Has this turned up yet, Jan? I noticed you seemed to be making progress a couple of months ago on another site!

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

""A sketch in Lesson 28 featuring unsubtle references to newscaster Reginald Bosanquet's alcoholism was cut following the first broadcast and was never reinstated. The last episode was cut short by 6 minutes on its first repeat transmission, on the instructions of the controller of BBC Radio 4. The missing material lampooned the grovelling approach of Radio 4 to the Queen Mother's 80th birthday celebrations. Repeats on BBC7 remained censored until a restored version was first broadcast in Celebrate The Burkiss Way on BBC7 on Saturday 4 April 2009."" (wiki)

[darrenlee]

The 'last episode' was on 4 Extra just last week and is still being broadcast cut (by 3 1/2 minutes compared with the presumably uncut 'Celebrate the Burkiss Way' version). So I won't hold my breath waiting for the Reginald Bosanquet bit to be reinstated.

[Jan Henning]

I'd completely forgotten about my post here, but yes, a copy of that missing sketch has turned up.

[Stuart Monk]

Hi, Jan,
Has the no longer missing section of the show been shared anywhere?
Cheers,
Stuart