Royle Family repeats

[iwest]

A bit off-topic sorry, but does anyone know what's the deal with these Royle Family repeats currently showing on the BBC? I know the early episodes were shot on 16mm, and have been really impressed with how the first three episodes (from the original series) have looked in the current repeats. They have a very nice film-look to them, to the point where I was beginning to think that new HD transfers had been done from the original film materials. But then we got to episode 4 this week and it looked absolutely horrible, like a really bad DVD. I therefore suspect new transfers have been done from film, but that the original film materials may be unavailable for some episodes and therefore they had to resort to an older transfer? Can anyone confirm?

Here's screenshots from all four eps for comparison:

ep1: ibb.co/n3PVm4C

ep2: ibb.co/vHBQSPZ

ep3: ibb.co/tX5KWQw

ep4: ibb.co/SKh2btb

[markboulton]

Yes you're right... Your episode 4 grab looks just how I remember it in the past. Washed out and yellow looking. I always thought they must have meant it to look like that, to give a tobacco-stained-council-house vibe.

Your grabs of the first 3 episodes look far more vibrant and cheerful and definitely better on detail than the original edits.

Doesn't suit the series though!

[Richard Marple]

I remember when the first series was broadcast it was rare to shoot a sitcom with film (or at least the look of film) and without an audience, though it's become more common over the last 20 years. At the time I thought it was as if they were trying to make it look like a documentary.

[garygraham]

To me that looks almost like Super 8 film quality or like 16mm that isn't sharply focused. Could it be video that was made progressive and post-processed to look like film? That was a trend at that time.

[brianfretwell]

Looks to me as if the telecine machine (flying spot then) was not focused properly, or perhaps de-focused to reduce grain on that print.

[simonashby]

Dec 18, 2020 9:01:20 GMT garygraham said:

To me that looks almost like Super 8 film quality or like 16mm that isn't sharply focused. Could it be video that was made progressive and post-processed to look like film? That was a trend at that time.

It was shot on film stock for sure.