Paying for trawling the African archives

[Ady]

I read in the papers this weekend that the rights to a single episode of an American import cost up to £1 million, and that the BBC are involved in the bidding. In my opinion they should let Sky or C4 have an expensive import, one season of which could raise £26 million towards searching the African archives. Pay experienced African projectionists UK rates to trawl the archives, a nice incentive to get the job done, this may turn something up. Time is running out before vinegar syndrome destroys them forever. And I for one would rather see a re-run of lost Dr Whos, a complete Dad's Army series 2 etc than yet another American import, certainly now there's no Star Trek in production.

[Greg H]

Dont hold your breath mate

[Simon Winters]

Wasn't Robert Mugabe once in an episode of Tarby's Frame Game?

[Daniel O'Brien]

US imports are still regarded as potential ratings winners - I guess 'CSI' is a good example - though I can't remember the last time that either BBC1 or ITV1 screened a US series in a prime time slot. Vintage episodes of 'Doctor Who' don't have the same mainstream audience appeal. The search for missing material, 'Who' or otherwise, will never attract the kind of money spent on new US shows. While the BBC are pursuing potential leads in Africa, the resources available for this kind of search will be modest.

[Greg H]

Its still a pity though isnt it. The beeb would surely recoup any outgoings in the long run.

Aaah, I give up trying to fathom them

[Steven Sigel]

gh said:

Its still a pity though isnt it. The beeb would surely recoup any outgoings in the long run.

Aaah, I give up trying to fathom them

Um, how is that? What if they spend tens of thousands of pounds looking through boxes of film and find nothing? Or even if they did find stuff, there's no guarentee that it has any commercial value.

[Greg H]

I see your point there StevenS! But if there is commercially valuable material there they would surely make any outgoing back in the long run. If a fund was set up for donations they wouldnt even have to pay the whole whack I reckon, but its a bit of a futile point...................

[Daniel O'Brien]

gh said:

I see your point there StevenS! But if there is commercially valuable material there they would surely make any outgoing back in the long run. If a fund was set up for donations they wouldnt even have to pay the whole whack I reckon, but its a bit of a futile point...................

That's a big if, as they say. And commercially valuable material might still not recoup the cost of its recovery and restoration. Say, for example, that all four episodes of 'The Savages' were recovered, but the prints were suffering from vinegar syndrome. I've no idea what it would cost to restore them and create digital transfers, but I bet it wouldn't be cheap. A black and white story without a famous monster isn't going to make the best-seller charts. I'd buy it like a shot and I'd guess the BBC could shift several thousand units but would that be enough? If the three missing episodes of 'Dad's Army' were recovered, would a restored series two box-set draw enough interest from fans who'd already paid for the combined series one and two set? I'm not saying that profits would be the BBC's only motivation, but trawling through thousands of unidentified, deteriorating film prints would be a massive undertaking with no guarantee of any return on the investment of time, money and resources.

[Greg H]

All you say is true. But it is still tragic that there *might* be incredibly important material slowly festering away to the point of extinction in some distant archive. If I had the cash I would try and do something. But I dont