Dick Barton - How many episodes left?

[David Absalom]

The film versions of Dick Barton are just out on DVD and I was wondering how many episodes of the original radio series still exists. I seem to recall that when they released the Jubilee remake on tape they said that none of the originals were kept, but that was a while ago now. Did some survive or get recovered?

[Greg M]

3 episodes were preserved - 100, 442, 711
1 episode for each actor who played Barton! 711 was also the final BBC episode of the series.

There are also 2 short clips from the 300's series.
Approx 1:30 - just Barton & Jock escaping certain death and a 3 minute + clip of "The Stolen Radium" from the end of an episode.

As far as I'm aware that's all, and excerpts from all of these have been used in documentaries like "Dick Barton and all That".

It should be noted, that an Australian company - A.R.P (Australasian Radio Productions) licensed the series from the BBC and made there own version using the same scripts (From memory it started broadcasting in Aus in early 1949). They made over 300 episodes and most of these survive in within Screensound Australia.

[David Absalom]

Thanks for such a full answer.

It's sad there is so little.

[Fred]

Bit off topic, but there was the TV series as well made by Southern TV, do they survive?

Also (very off topic), for any Dick Barton fans reading this, there's a Dick Barton Special Agent play currently playing at the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon, Surrey, if anyones in the area, worth watching.