TPTV showing 'lost' b/w episodes of Upstairs Downstairs

[Ed Brown]

Talking Pictures TV has an online list of its highlights for this week:

talkingpicturestv.co.uk/about-talking-pictures-tv/


TPTV are running the never seen b/w episodes of 'Upstairs Downstairs'. The first one is on again this Friday coming at 5pm, if you missed the episode yesterday in the Sunday 6pm slot.

The first six episodes are in Black & White due to industrial action in 1971 - the ITV ‘Colour Strike’ - but TPTV will be airing them over the next 6 weeks.

Channel 4 aired 'UpDown' in the 1980s, but I recall they didn't include the black and white ones. This is their first showing since 1971, so far as I know.

[andyc]

I believe the first series was filmed in 1970, but not shown until 1971 because no suitable slot could be found for broadcast.
The first 6 episodes were in B&W due to industrial action, but once the industrial action had ended, the first episode was re-made in colour, and this was shown last week on TPTV.
The original B&W version of the first episode is/was believed to be lost?

[Richard Marple]

Supposedly last series had some extra episodes added onto it so the B&W episodes could be omitted when syndicated but there was still the minimum amount of episodes.

[Peter Stirling]

Dec 7, 2020 22:21:05 GMT Richard Marple said:

Supposedly last series had some extra episodes added onto it so the B&W episodes could be omitted when syndicated but there was still the minimum amount of episodes.

The first one was remade (before the series was transmitted) with the plot altered so that it would segue into the next colour episode and they could then omit the B/W ones in future sales or repeats.

AFAIK The B/W ones got their first and last showings (until now) very late on a Sunday night in Autumn 1971.

PBS channel was starting in the US around 1975 and they needed plenty of cheap material and bought the series after it had finished production so they had plenty of episodes even being short of the B/W ones...It turned out to be rather good for them.

[simoncurtis]

Two of these B&W eps are possibly the best from the entire series - The Mistress and the Maids and A Suitable Marriage. I hope TPTV don't edit the latter.

[Peter Stirling]

Dec 8, 2020 3:38:50 GMT simoncurtis said:

Two of these B&W eps are possibly the best from the entire series - The Mistress and the Maids and A Suitable Marriage. I hope TPTV don't edit the latter.

Saw the Mistress and the Maids for the first time on TPTV, agree it is a great fun episode.It's a shame so many were deprived of seeing it.

If it is rumoured 'On Trial' was also re-filmed because the actors and production had not found it's mojo then they certainly had by the time of The Mistress and the Maids.

[Richard Marple]

I had wondered if some of the plot of black & white episodes had been re-used later on in the series.

The Avengers recycled some of the early storylines when the show switched to colour.

[simoncurtis]

I don't think so Richard. I'm sure I've seen the lot and don't remember any plots being reused.

On Trial was re-filmed with two different endings - One where Sarah leaves Eaton Place, the other, where she stays. This was done for foreign TV companies who didn't want to take the B&W episodes. It's a bit confusing. Both endings are included on the DVD.

[RWels]

Dec 8, 2020 10:26:17 GMT Richard Marple said:

I had wondered if some of the plot of black & white episodes had been re-used later on in the series.

The Avengers recycled some of the early storylines when the show switched to colour.

Billy Bunter too. By chance, two of the few surviving telerecordings of the entire series are the same story.

Although I had always understood USDS to be more like remakes made very soon after the first ones.

Great rarity value of course.

[christian bews]

when honor blackman's run as cathy gale and the first series with ian hendry as dr.david kiel were never sold to the US,a couple of cathy gale episodes were remade in the first 2 colour series the avengers in 1967.at the time the late diana rigg played mrs.peel the mrs.gale episodes were last seen originally in the UK in early 1965.apparantely when diana rigg joined 'the avengers' at that time production was moved to teddington to elstree in a bit to sell it to the US,but her first year as emma peel i think,was consigned to a graveyard slot in the states as the US networks only wanted to show colour programmes on primetime but patrick macnee realises that ITC were making 'the saint' & 'the baron' in colour at the same time in the same studios in elstree and were shown on primetime in the US and requested brian tesler At ABC to convert 'the avengers' to colour in a proper to conquer america and it did!
everyone compares a series that was made in black and white first then in colour although B/W ones never get shown at all they said they were the best but the colour were not only a patch of the monochromes but they were a bit lame and these episodes get repeated so often.

[christian bews]

i think the B/W episodes of 'updown' have been shown again in the UK twice in the 1990s.

LWT began re-running the series in june 1996 only in the london region to mark the series' 25th anniversary and i remembered seeing this in a library they DID show the first episodes in black and white after the colour version of 'on trial'.

granada plus showed all the episodes from 1997 onwards i think as i remembered flicking round the channels they did show a B/W episode.

let me know that if you saw the re-runs of 'updown' on LWT In 1996 & Granada Plus in 1997 to 1999 if they showed episodes 2 to 6 from series 1.

[christian bews]

Dec 7, 2020 16:43:46 GMT andyc said:

I believe the first series was filmed in 1970, but not shown until 1971 because no suitable slot could be found for broadcast.
The first 6 episodes were in B&W due to industrial action, but once the industrial action had ended, the first episode was re-made in colour, and this was shown last week on TPTV.
The original B&W version of the first episode is/was believed to be lost?

i seem to recall that when LWT were planning their autumn 1971 schedule they were struggling to find a programme to fill the 10.15pm slot on sunday nights from october onwards after the news and before 'the frost programme'with a blank square at the time.

from october 1971 onwards every ITV station with the exception of channel TV at the time began colour transmissions with grampian started broadcasting in colour on it's 10th anniversary which is thursday 30th september.

LWT decided to show 'updown' from the 10th of october of that year with no hype,free of publicity & without any trailers and although the first 6 were in B/W and not everyone had colour TV at the time and everyone at ITV were now in the colour age.they claimed that nobody would watch the show as it was made in black and white or viewers will be in bed at the time as they've got work the next morning!

the reason to give it a 10.15pm in october 1971 ITV would end their sunday night transmissions with a play under the title 'sunday night theatre' and i think they had some that were commissioned but not yet been made.

after the first 6 were shown 'updown' was a unexpected hit and it was critically-acclaimed and the rest was history!

[Richard Marple]

I think BBC Scotland remade some episodes Vital Spark in colour, with the same cast.

[John Green]

I've picked up the DVD set of the Black and White Upstairs a few times. It's that 'rare' thing that got me.

I have to admit I still don't follow what was shot, what was broadcast, what (if anything) was re-used.

Think I'm right that the newspaper freebies didn't include the b&ws?

[garygraham]

I have several black and white episodes on a DVD somewhere and which probably came from Granada Plus.