Post by Andy Henderson on Dec 28, 2003 1:06:16 GMT
TIME SHIFT: MISSING BELIEVED WIPED
Monday 29 December 2003 7.30pm-8.10pm; rpt Wednesday 31 December 10.30pm-11.10pm; 3.05am-3.45am
Time Shift introduces an evening of classic rediscovered British comedy by telling the story of how, when and why some of TV's finest comedy moments have been painstakingly unearthed and restored by collectors and are no longer "missing believed wiped".
Interview: Director/Producer Jo Haywood
BBC Four: Why do you think so much wonderful early comedy was deleted?
Jo Haywood: It seems bizarre now that early Monty Python wasn't considered worth keeping, but people just didn't realise that it was going to be important. Terry Jones sums it up when he says that they were keeping the worthy stuff, Beethoven concerts and serious drama, but nobody thought to keep the comedy. The thing is you can actually see our history in comedy programmes - the social attitudes in Till Death Us Do Part for instance. People will look back at The Office and say, "Look at those old computers".
BBC Four: Where did the title Missing Believed Wiped come from?
JH: Steve Bryant was one of the earliest people at the BBC involved in choosing which television programmes to archive in the 1970s. The BFI had their Missing Believed Lost project for films and when Steve started working there in 1993 he introduced the search for missing television and called it Missing Believed Wiped.
BBC Four: So has the BFI been instrumental in finding a lot of the old material?
JH: They started it off. The BBC is the main broadcaster at fault here, they had more sitcoms out at the time and they started earlier, but ITV have also lost a lot of stuff. When all of the contracts changed hands between Granada and Carlton, in the early days of ITV, nobody kept an archive of those programmes. I think that you need to be careful that you're not just blaming the BBC for all of this. They were the first and they were broadcasting the most so it's really indicative of attitudes at the time.
Dick makes the point that the collectors have a bad relationship with the broadcaster because they see them as being at fault for wiping material in the first place. The BFI plays a role now as an intermediary between broadcasters and the collectors.
Clive Dunn in Dad's Army
The BBC then launched their Treasure Hunt, which has been going really well, and the final clips shown in the programme have all been brought back via the BBC's campaign. The Likely Lads was brought back by the BFI, then Dad's Army, the Morcambe and Wise, which we couldn't show because of copyright problems, and Till Death Us Do Part were all as a result of the BBC's efforts.
BBC Four: Do you think the collectors now have a less difficult relationship with broadcasters?
JH: There are some, like that collector Tim Disney in the programme, who think that it's terribly worthy to return material to the BBC. But he knows of others who absolutely won't. He described it as being like people who collect works of art: they love it and care for it and it's theirs. And they worry that if it should go back to the broadcaster it will go back into a massive vault and never be seen again, particularly by them. So there is kudos for them in holding on to the only copy. Doctor Who fans for instance, can you imagine? And they've got the earliest episode with the Daleks in, or whatever, and they're not going to return it to the broadcaster. They're also quite cross because if they do give it back to the broadcaster they won't be paid any money and then the BBC turn round, make a DVD out of it and make thousands of pounds.
BBC Four: Do you think more material could be recovered if the policy was changed on sharing the profits?
JH: The BBC's very worried about opening that door. What they do offer is, say the collector has returned something special, they get a day in the archive and they can choose any programme they want to take a VHS home. When you go there it is absolutely amazing, you could spend a year in there. That is their prize, but the BBC can't pay them because what they're doing is illegal, they're exchanging stuff that's not theirs in the first place.
Monday 29 December 2003 7.30pm-8.10pm; rpt Wednesday 31 December 10.30pm-11.10pm; 3.05am-3.45am
Time Shift introduces an evening of classic rediscovered British comedy by telling the story of how, when and why some of TV's finest comedy moments have been painstakingly unearthed and restored by collectors and are no longer "missing believed wiped".
Interview: Director/Producer Jo Haywood
BBC Four: Why do you think so much wonderful early comedy was deleted?
Jo Haywood: It seems bizarre now that early Monty Python wasn't considered worth keeping, but people just didn't realise that it was going to be important. Terry Jones sums it up when he says that they were keeping the worthy stuff, Beethoven concerts and serious drama, but nobody thought to keep the comedy. The thing is you can actually see our history in comedy programmes - the social attitudes in Till Death Us Do Part for instance. People will look back at The Office and say, "Look at those old computers".
BBC Four: Where did the title Missing Believed Wiped come from?
JH: Steve Bryant was one of the earliest people at the BBC involved in choosing which television programmes to archive in the 1970s. The BFI had their Missing Believed Lost project for films and when Steve started working there in 1993 he introduced the search for missing television and called it Missing Believed Wiped.
BBC Four: So has the BFI been instrumental in finding a lot of the old material?
JH: They started it off. The BBC is the main broadcaster at fault here, they had more sitcoms out at the time and they started earlier, but ITV have also lost a lot of stuff. When all of the contracts changed hands between Granada and Carlton, in the early days of ITV, nobody kept an archive of those programmes. I think that you need to be careful that you're not just blaming the BBC for all of this. They were the first and they were broadcasting the most so it's really indicative of attitudes at the time.
Dick makes the point that the collectors have a bad relationship with the broadcaster because they see them as being at fault for wiping material in the first place. The BFI plays a role now as an intermediary between broadcasters and the collectors.
Clive Dunn in Dad's Army
The BBC then launched their Treasure Hunt, which has been going really well, and the final clips shown in the programme have all been brought back via the BBC's campaign. The Likely Lads was brought back by the BFI, then Dad's Army, the Morcambe and Wise, which we couldn't show because of copyright problems, and Till Death Us Do Part were all as a result of the BBC's efforts.
BBC Four: Do you think the collectors now have a less difficult relationship with broadcasters?
JH: There are some, like that collector Tim Disney in the programme, who think that it's terribly worthy to return material to the BBC. But he knows of others who absolutely won't. He described it as being like people who collect works of art: they love it and care for it and it's theirs. And they worry that if it should go back to the broadcaster it will go back into a massive vault and never be seen again, particularly by them. So there is kudos for them in holding on to the only copy. Doctor Who fans for instance, can you imagine? And they've got the earliest episode with the Daleks in, or whatever, and they're not going to return it to the broadcaster. They're also quite cross because if they do give it back to the broadcaster they won't be paid any money and then the BBC turn round, make a DVD out of it and make thousands of pounds.
BBC Four: Do you think more material could be recovered if the policy was changed on sharing the profits?
JH: The BBC's very worried about opening that door. What they do offer is, say the collector has returned something special, they get a day in the archive and they can choose any programme they want to take a VHS home. When you go there it is absolutely amazing, you could spend a year in there. That is their prize, but the BBC can't pay them because what they're doing is illegal, they're exchanging stuff that's not theirs in the first place.