Misc. TV programmes

[lee jones]

Hello all,

Do any of the following qualify as "missing episodes" ?

I have a few (not many!) old tapes here with some programmes on (listed below) - 3 of them are betamax, one is N1500. Unfortunatly I do not have anything to play either on properly right now; I do not have a betamax player, and only a semi-functional N1700 VCR (working but with no colour).

The programmes are;

"Rule britannia" (No.2, 3 and 6) (not a film, an early 80s documentary describing the falling apart of the early 80s britain).

"Politics of the bomb" (BBC, early 80s?)

"The Islamic bomb" (BBC ("Panorama"), early 80s?)

"A Turn-up in a million" (17/3/81) (A documentary about Earnest bevin)

"Yellowcake road" (ITV, early 80s, "world in action"?) (Would need some recovering as the recording the last time I had a betamax machine is very poor quality).

Also I have one N1500 tape (but no player alas, so all I can do is recover the sound using an N1700) which contains a TV programme called "Plain sailing" (a programme about boating) which has what I can only describe as some very 70s-sounding music at the end (presumably the closing music to the programme). There are also from memory bits of programmes, one involving dentistry and a sport programme at the end.

Are any of these "Missing" or even worth keeping?


thanks

ljones

[emitron]

Andrew Martin would be able to give you a definitive answer, but generally with a few minor exceptions, all recorded TV shown after 1978 survives in some form. BBC and ITV documentaries made on film are rarely missing and I'd think with 99% certainty that those you list do. They are rare in the sense that they are unlikely to be repreated, so if you can copy them, it would be a good idea to do this now, when you still can. The continuity parts were rarely recorded, except by accident so you have a bit or empherema there too.

[Andrew Martin]

Only two of those - Politics of the Bomb (Newsweek) and The Islamic Bomb - are BBC, and they do both exist in the archive. Current affairs material does tend to have a far better survival rate than some other genres...

[William Martin]

You may have some continuity annaouncements though which would be missing.

[lee jones]

Wonder if any of those programmes on the N1500 tape are missing? (I've not met anyone who has even heard of the show "plain sailing"(!)). BTW who is Andrew Martin ?

ljones

[Richard Bignell]

ljones said:

BTW who is Andrew Martin?

Andrew works at the BBC Film & Videotape Archive at Windmill Road.

Richard

[Peter Chadwick]

richardbignell said:

ljones said:

BTW who is Andrew Martin?

Andrew works at the BBC Film & Videotape Archive at Windmill Road.

Richard

And does us all a massive service by using his own time to check details and post info on various missing/existing material both here and at The Mausoleum Club. Top man.