Parsley Sidings - Lost Show Found

[stearn]

That's right folks, a lost episode of Parsley Sidings, The Purity League, has been discovered through a contact I made on the BBC7 messageboard. A safety copy has been made and the show is currently undergoing digital restoration. It is hoped that, with the owners consent, that this show will be returned to the BBC archives in due course.

More details will be on www.britishcomedy.org.uk

[William Martin]

this is good news , although missing radio hunting is technicaly easier than tv hunting it doesn't seem to have the same glamour which is a pity because audio hunting is something that many more people could do, it means that radio is being lost that could otherwise be saved

[stearn]

Yes and no, it is easier and it isn't. It depends on how far back you want to go. If you consider that home videoing was possible in the 70s and radio recording was possible in the 40s (by cutting to disc) then you have the same sort of problems in finding material, but with a 30 year vintage gap. Of course, radio went into decline when TV came along, so despite the availability of recorders, there wasn't as wide an audience who were going to record. There, thankfully, wasn't the change in recording media that video encountered, so it is easier to play recovered material, but the age does limit the number of times you get to salvage it. I prefer to search for radio shows though as on the whole I don't need so much equipment and the recordings are easier to handle!

[William Martin]

yes, the earliest material I supose would be on disk so I don't know what I would do if I found anyhting on that, I wouldn't play it on an ordinary turntable, that would have to be a proffesional job, but 1/4" tape is ok as I have a few tape machines
how often do you find complete shows as I usualy find bits

[stearn]

Quite often, but then I am usually going through tons of tape, so the law of averages does say that something will crop up. The danger with radio is that old reels are now useless to anyone without an open reel machine (so often get binned) and cassettes are perceived as worthless and binned. With so many of the early shows recorded by collectors around 40-50 years ago we are in danger of the said collectors dying, and their treasured collections ending up as landfill because no-one really knows the value. A good way around this is to publicise the value and have collections, however important or trivial, covered by the terms of a will so that they may be studied later and shows recovered where possible.

[William Martin]

I agree, the problems with reel tape is that as you say, people don't have the tape machines and often there is nothing written on the spool(even if its on its own reel) or leader, as well as ending up in landfill many of the good ones are bought from markets and junk shops and wiped for re-use. My own sources of tape tend to dry up as fewer market stalls and charity shops take then anymore, by the way what do you do with the tapes that you are either not interested in or contain nothing of interest or even nothing?

[stearn]

Depends on the condition. If they have had to be baked before the transfer can be done, you only get one hit, so the tape is binned. If the tape is in good condition and the recording on it is good quality, then the tape is retained in case a better transfer can be done in the future. If the recording is OK, but nothing special, and the tape has seen better days, then it is usually shown the bin. In short, if the tape is worth keeping then it is kept, and if not, binned.