Rentaghost

[Ady]

Does anyone know if Rentaghost exists in the BBC archives? According to this site it does

www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?search=rentaghost

but I believed it to have been junked in the mid-90s.

Also, if junking was still happening then, is it still happening now? I thought it was supposed to have stopped in 1977.

[William Martin]

as far as I know they all exist, and yes junking still happens to many programs mainly news and sometimes to live programs.

[Andrew Martin]

The 2" masters of some episodes of Rentaghost were wiped in the early 90s, but (when it was pointed out that they were still being shown on UK Gold!) the junking was stopped and Beta SP copies of the wiped episodes were recovered from BBC Worldwide (the UK Gold transmissions were from Beta SP) - so all of Rentaghost is currently held.

The BBC is obliged by its Charter (and has been since the late 70s) to keep an archive, but that does not mean it has to keep every programme it ever makes or commissions from independents. Certain genres such as drama, news and current affairs, and many others, have all their output archived, meaning that it will probably never be wiped (I say probably because who knows what might happen in the future). Some genres have representative samples of their output archived, and the other editions of such shows may be wiped - or may be kept if there is another reason for retaining them.

That is to say, news bulletins and cut stories (the individual pre-recorded items) are not junked (the exception is World News Tonight which for some reason doesn't seem to be recorded by News, unfortunately the archive can only keep material that exists in the first place...); live programmes in other genres are almost always recorded off-air, whether they will have some of their editions wiped in future would depend on the genre and other factors pertaining at the time, but some examples would always be kept of such series.

[Greg H]

I can barely believe they had a crack at junking rentaghost that late!
I have heard that it hasnt stood up very well to time though. Maybe someone had a grudge against claypole?

[Daniel O'Brien]

gh said:

I can barely believe they had a crack at junking rentaghost that late!
I have heard that it hasnt stood up very well to time though. Maybe someone had a grudge against claypole?

I know I did.

[Andrew Doherty]

We may be very thankful that UK Gold broadcast the series. What is surprising is that some of the 2" master tapes were wiped without being offered to the BFI, which I am given to understand is, now, standard practice. Also, this junking took place fourteen years after the set up of a film and video tape archive situation, wherein television dramas were to be kept.

Yours,

[Andrew Martin]

Dramas aren't wiped any more - how does that affect Rentaghost?! And how do you know that the BFI weren't offered the episodes that were wiped and turned them down? The BFI/NFA in the end took the vast bulk of 2" tapes that were transferred, and ended up running out of storage space, that number being so large. They did take some shows that the BBC were not going to transfer, but even they probably recognise that you're not adversely affecting the picture of our tv heritage by not retaining every episode of Play School.

[lpmoderator]

gh said:

I can barely believe they had a crack at junking rentaghost that late!
quote]

That'll be the controversial unilateral Adam Lee archive decisions made at this time. Let's hope no one has the same power to wipe again in this way.

I hope the BBC have the vision to preserve more rather than less in the future!

[Stuart Douglas]

gh said:

I have heard that it hasnt stood up very well to time though.

I've got the first series DVD and though it's not absolutely the best kids' tv ever, it's not bad at all.

Stuart

[Peter Elliott]

Rentaghost brings back mixed memories for me... I saw the entire original run and many of the UK Gold repeats. I was 4 when the first one was shown and even as a young kid I felt the show went drastically down the drain when Mumford and Davenport left the show leaving us with Claypole who was the most irritating character and surrounding him with even more irritating characters especially Popov and the panto horse. Losing Mumford also meant his parents being written out and they were real funny characters. The 1980s episodes I find intensely cringe inducing and don't hold up at all well and the only thing that kept me watching were Ethel and Harold Meaker! So, in my opinion the show got much worse as the years went by.

The first three series - or was it four? - with the original ghosts remain very enjoyable and fun. Yes, it inevitably looks and feels a bit dated now, but I am sad no further DVDs were released.

[Greg H]

hmmmmmm...... im getting all nostalgic I might have to track a few down for old times sake

[robb]

does dobbin the panto horse still survive, or was he used in an episode of Hi-De -Hi (where he's seen riding a real horse, and Mr Partridge thinks he's drunk)