Junking of ABC material

[C Perry]

Hi

Thought I'd clarify this once and for all, after reading Hartley's posting in the Callan thread.

J G Reeder is a Thames show and Verity Lambert had no dealings with any wiping of Thames' shows.

Callan, Armchair Theatre, Public Eye etc began as ABC shows and the videotapes of these shows were kept complete at Teddington until 1976 when the archive ran out of room.

Since they were Drama Dept tapes the archive decided to junk them to make space for Thames shows on their shelves and sent a memo to Verity asking if she wanted to keep the shows. She said no so they were crushed.

Hope that clarifies the situation. Verity was unaware they were the only surviving copies, in those days producers didnt consider such implications.

c

[hartley967]

Chris
I have removed the other posting to stop any confusion and as a respect to you,with a nod to your hands on, more informed knowledge of the subject.

However I recall Callan as a respected high profile programme (while also in the 1970s Edward Woodward's star was starting to shine). So I cannot honesty see why this was junked (unless for the reasons I mentioned) ?.
This may or may not been produced by ABC but it was shown in the Thames era with Thames idents IIRC

Special Branch was saved, while boring programmes like Frontier
and lack lustre editions of Armchair Theatre were junked- therefore I am still of the opinion that whoever was junking were doing it with thought and consideration, rather than just sweeping reels off the shelf.