Dead of Night (1972)

[Daniel O'Brien]

As I understand it, only three episodes of this BBC series have survived: 'The Exorcism', 'Return Flight' and 'A Woman Sobbing'. The last two exist as the original (?) master tapes, complete with opening countdown. The 'Exorcism' copy I've seen seems to derive from an off-air NTSC recording on a domestic VCR. The picture and sound quality are truly appalling. I guess it's a tribute to the play that it's still compelling viewing. Presumably, the master tape was junked along with the other episodes. Does anyone know if the series was telecined for overseas sales? I suppose it's a little late in the day for any 16mm copies to be retrieved.

[Steve Roberts]

dobrien said:

Does anyone know if the series was telecined for overseas sales? I suppose it's a little late in the day for any 16mm copies to be retrieved.

Can't answer your question, but telecine is the process of converting film into video. The reverse process which you are referring to is called Film Recording.

Steve

[Daniel O'Brien]

Thanks for the clarification. I've heard it referred to as 'telerecording', which never sounded quite right.

[Steve Roberts]

dobrien said:

Thanks for the clarification. I've heard it referred to as 'telerecording', which never sounded quite right.

Telerecording is a bit more of a generic term and covers both film recording and videotape recording. You might also hear film recording called by its US name, Kinescope.

Steve

[andrew]

dobrien said:

As I understand it, only three episodes of this BBC series have survived: 'The Exorcism', 'Return Flight' and 'A Woman Sobbing'. The last two exist as the original (?) master tapes, complete with opening countdown. The 'Exorcism' copy I've seen seems to derive from an off-air NTSC recording on a domestic VCR. The picture and sound quality are truly appalling. I guess it's a tribute to the play that it's still compelling viewing. Presumably, the master tape was junked along with the other episodes. Does anyone know if the series was telecined for overseas sales? I suppose it's a little late in the day for any 16mm copies to be retrieved.

[Andrew Martin]

andrew said:

dobrien said:

As I understand it, only three episodes of this BBC series have survived: 'The Exorcism', 'Return Flight' and 'A Woman Sobbing'. The last two exist as the original (?) master tapes, complete with opening countdown. The 'Exorcism' copy I've seen seems to derive from an off-air NTSC recording on a domestic VCR. The picture and sound quality are truly appalling. I guess it's a tribute to the play that it's still compelling viewing. Presumably, the master tape was junked along with the other episodes. Does anyone know if the series was telecined for overseas sales? I suppose it's a little late in the day for any 16mm copies to be retrieved.

"The Exorcism" does still exist in broadcast format - oddly in fact, the BBC retained two 2" copies of the story, which have both been transferred to D3 for archiving. It's not impossible for "Dea of Night" to have had 16mm film recordings made, this was still being done in 1972, but I imagine it would depend on BBC Enterprises having required any to be made.

[Daniel O'Brien]

Glad to hear 'The Exorcism' still exists in its original form. The duped copy I saw was nearly unwatchable. I'm not optimistic about the lost episodes resurfacing as 16mm film recordings. It's been 34 years and I doubt the series had many overseas buyers.

[andrew martin]

dobrien said:

I'm not optimistic about the lost episodes resurfacing as 16mm film recordings. It's been 34 years and I doubt the series had many overseas buyers.

Chances are you're right, but you never know - e.g. the recent "Out of the Unknown" returned from Germany.

[John Stewart Miller]

dobrien said:

Glad to hear 'The Exorcism' still exists in its original form. The duped copy I saw was nearly unwatchable. I'm not optimistic about the lost episodes resurfacing as 16mm film recordings. It's been 34 years and I doubt the series had many overseas buyers.

Think I'm right in saying 'Dead of night' ran to a surprisingly small episode number run - 6 shows ? Of these, it's odd that from what I recall, two of the surviving entries ('a woman sobbing' and 'the exorcism') were the most memorable. What luck !

The third surviving entry is a story I believe based on true events (planes disappearing in the Bermuda triangle); where a present day contemporary flight is dragged into the past and retraces the flight of a plane bound for disaster.

For many the 'name' attachment there would be writer Robert Holmes (with hindsight).

The missing episodes I think are;

'Four in the morning' (a man regularly awakes at night with premonitions of disaster).

'Smith' (period piece accounts of the search to bring to book a rival to Jack the Ripper).

'bedtime' (a couple purchase a victorian bed which is haunted by its own past).

The other title I can't recall, but the piece involves the idea that every person has an exact doppelganger double on the other side of the world.

I suppose one hope for this series is that as it was short, there isn't that much to be found.

[Nick Eden]

So what is the liklihood of a showing of what survives on something BBC4 or a DVD release. I have "fond" memories of The Exorcism as scaring me half to death as a child!

[Daniel O'Brien]

A BBC4 showing seems more likely - marginally - than a DVD release. I can't imagine that three surviving episodes of a little known series would be seen as a commercial proposition. Given BBC4's fondness for Christmas ghost stories, maybe the 'Dead of Night' episodes could alternate with the more familiar M.R. James adaptations. Come to think of it, the BBC must have produced a lot of ghost stories over the years. Lets hope more of them emerge from the archives.

[Stephen Doran]

is "the dummy" , episode of 1976 series beasts a remake of this segment in the film?

[Daniel O'Brien]

The BBC 'Dead of Night' series bears no relation to the 1945 Ealing film of the same name. I haven't seen 'Beasts', but I believe Nigel Kneale's 'Dummy' script was an original story.

[Stephen Doran]

ok thanks, dobrien.

[Daniel O'Brien]

You're welcome. Spooky ventriloquist dummies also turn up in 'The Great Gabbo' (1929), 'Devil Doll' (1963) and 'Magic' (1978). 'Dead of Night' still has the edge.