The BFI Southbank and MBW recoveries news

[Andrew Doherty]

I visited the newly re-vamped National Film Theatre (now called the BFI Southbank) on Thursday. Having entered the complex through the riverside cafe I did not notice very much difference at first. The walls of the corridor next to NFT1 had been given a fresh coat of paint and the foyer next to NFT2 and 3 seemed to be pretty much as it had been, but without the booking office. However, a new staircase leads from the old foyer to the new areas of the BFI Southbank.

The new booking office is contained in a much larger foyer and there looked what seemed to be a restaurant with a rest area alongside. The new book and DVD shop is larger than the previous shop, but I only gave it a glance as there were two other areas which were of particular interest.

Over the next few years more and more of the film and television archives will become available to be seen at the new BFI complex. The eventual aim being to call up any film and television programme (that still survives, of course) ever shown in the United Kingdom. It is three months since the two new venues, specially set-up for this purpose at the Southbank site, became operational and open to the public.

The 'Studio Theatre' seats up to 36 viewers, so I gather, and does not require a ticket to be purchased. Shows last up to two hours.

The other venue of particular interest is the 'Mediatheque', which consists of 14 double seat viewing stations where the viewer requests a free ticket for a period of half an hour, one hour or the maximum two hours. Once the ticket containing a code is given along with a headphone set, the code is typed in and a menu appears with the various categories from which further menus give lists of television programmes and cinema films available to view. By the way, the monitors are of the flat, wide screen type.

There is the 'Gallery' that will be opened, shortly.

From the quick glance I would say it is well worth a visit.

I did see Dick Fiddy who said that a private collector (not Terry Jones) has sent in another 'Complete and Utter History' show.

There is another comedy programme that has been returned along with a 1964 ITV (Granada) 'Play of the Week' drama featuring Michael Caine titled, 'The Other Man'. Previously only reel one was available, but thanks to the 'Raiders of the Lost Archive' effort, a collector returned reel two. Apparently, it was the longest 'one-off' drama to be made at the time.

The date of the 'Missing, Believed Wiped' event is expected to be held sometime in December.

Yours,

ANDy

[LanceM]

Great news on the new addition of the BFI Southbank. Looks like some intriguing material has already been located.

Deffinitely am looking forward to seeing what the recoveries are like screened, and what else can be found before the expected December event takes place!

Lance.

[Daniel O'Brien]

'The Other Man' sounds interesting, with an extraordinary cast (including Brian Cant and John Noakes).

[Deleted]

andy said:

I did see Dick Fiddy who said that a private collector (not Terry Jones) has sent in another 'Complete and Utter History' show.

There is another comedy programme that has been returned along with a 1964 ITV (Granada) 'Play of the Week' drama featuring Michael Caine titled, 'The Other Man'. Previously only reel one was available, but thanks to the 'Raiders of the Lost Archive' effort, a collector returned reel two. Apparently, it was the longest 'one-off' drama to be made at the time.

ANDy

Thanks for all the info, Andrew. I'm very pleased that another Complete & Utter History has surfaced. Anybody know which one and on what format?

Hopefully we'll eventually get to find out in full what was uncovered by the Raiders campaign..!

[Peter Roberts]

andy said:

I did see Dick Fiddy who said that a private collector (not Terry Jones) has sent in another 'Complete and Utter History' show.

I was under the impression that only one episode of "The Complete and Utter History of Britain" was missing (it says so on Wikipedia, amongst other places). So why "another"?

And, crucially, is the one sent in the missing one? If so that's quite an exciting find.

[Deleted]

It's totally wrong then. One episode as transmitted exists as a t/r (the first, I think i'm right in saying) and two other on non-broadcast format as kept by the director; edits containing material from two shows, some of which was later discarded (?) Terry Jones kept the film inserts for the series. I'm sure someone can provide more detail than this.

If another episode has turned up, it's a significant find. Anyone know the format and what episode it is?

[Peter Roberts]

I've seen episode 2: it's available on torrent sites.

Regarding episode 1, you posted the following last year:

laurencepiper said:

two versions of episode 1 exist (one is a t/r of the transmitted version and the other an early reel format - as saved by the director - of an early edit featuring deleted sketches from the first two eps as originally envisaged before they were merged into one episode).

The early reel format recovery was featured on the Timeshift: Missing Believed Wiped documentary. Picture quality was not great (not many lines). I liked the "Patents Office" sketch featured Terry Jones demonstrating his new invention - a chair.
"What does it do?"
"Well sir, it helps you sit down higher up"
"I think you'll find it's called standing and it's already been patented"

[Peter Roberts]

There's no reply to Laurence's question yet, so I thought I'd ask again - does anyone know which episode has turned up, and in what format?

This sounds like a very significant find, so I'd love to know the details.

Also, a definitive list of what's available would be welcome. Currently the most detailed information I can find is in Laurence's 2006 post, but he did not claim to know for sure.