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Post by Doug Wulf on Aug 15, 2008 17:12:33 GMT
Hello one and all, first post on this forum and I'm going to open myself for ridicule and derrision straight away. (Treat me gently please)! I may be showing my ignorance here, but if the African TV archives are in such disarray, then what about the newspaper archives? Surely African newspapers have a TV listings page? Wouldn't finding out when a show was aired, narrow down the hunt to the broadcasting station? I know it would rely on a viewer in Africa remembering when they saw it and doing some leg work, but it is an idea... But the main problem is getting access to foreign newspapers. But ask at your local library - you never know what they might have on microfilm. There are copies of the Rhodesan Herald held on microfilm at the Auckland University here in New Zealand. The TV listings insert magazine supplement however stops after mid 1965, and there is no internal TV listings, so I've only got air dates up to Marco Polo. A Wellington Uni has Singapore newspapers on film, which is where I got the Singapore airdates up to 1974. They are always held on microfilm, but would many African nations have done that? And with so many over the years suffering from coups and being taken over by dictators and the like, usually the first things to be closed down are the newspapers. Jon The Library of Congress in Washington D.C. has a large collection of African newspapers (including newspapers from Zambia and Uganda) going back to the time periods in question. I live in northern Virginia, but haven't had the free time yet to go an browse the microfilm records in their newspaper holdings.
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Post by philg on Jan 4, 2009 20:43:09 GMT
has there been any progress in the search for missing episodes in africa
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Post by John Andersen on Jan 5, 2009 6:15:23 GMT
has there been any progress in the search for missing episodes in africa It has been mentioned in this thread that Africa is supposedly a dead end. I really don't see anything being done until there is some proof that the actual episodes are there.
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Post by John Wall on Jan 5, 2009 13:15:18 GMT
has there been any progress in the search for missing episodes in africa It has been mentioned in this thread that Africa is supposedly a dead end. I really don't see anything being done until there is some proof that the actual episodes are there. Perhaps I'm missing something or I'm not smokin' the right sorta stuff but surely the only way to find out what's there is to go and look ?
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Post by John Andersen on Jan 5, 2009 15:17:49 GMT
Perhaps I'm missing something or I'm not smokin' the right sorta stuff but surely the only way to find out what's there is to go and look ?[/quote] The search of Africa went something like this... BBC - "Do you have any of lost Hartnell or Troughton episodes in your Archive?" Africa - "No." BBC - "The search is completed. There are no lost Doctor Who episodes in Africa." To be honest, I don't think the BBC would invest time or money looking through an archive unles there was a very strong lead to follow.
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Post by John Wall on Jan 5, 2009 15:22:08 GMT
Perhaps I'm missing something or I'm not smokin' the right sorta stuff but surely the only way to find out what's there is to go and look ? The search of Africa went something like this... BBC - "Do you have any of lost Hartnell or Troughton episodes in your Archive?" Africa - "No." BBC - "The search is completed. There are no lost Doctor Who episodes in Africa." To be honest, I don't think the BBC would invest time or money looking through an archive unles there was a very strong lead to follow.[/quote] That ain't good enough imnsvho ! It seems that episodes - not just Dr Who - got bicycled around the continent, we don't know if destruction orders were actually carried out or what lies in basements, filing cabinets, cupboards, etc. These need checking properly - and not just for episodes of Dr Who.
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Post by Greg H on Jan 5, 2009 15:43:23 GMT
I completely agree with you. However, I find it pretty unlikely that the BBC will stump up the cash to have an archivist travel the continent researching and searching archives.
Sadly in the cold light of day it is pretty unlikely that the archives in question would grant any kind of access to someone who turns up on their doorstep asking to have a poke around their archives, unless they are specifically from the BBC. Would you let a complete stranger in to search through your attic and basement?
I share your frustration with the possibility that classic and unique 16mm prints may well be quietly decomposing in some far flung archive, but there it is, theres not a lot that we can do about it. Pity isnt it?
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Post by John Wall on Jan 5, 2009 19:05:08 GMT
I recall reading somewhere that the United Nations were interested in helping these archives. What about UNESCO ?
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Post by Greg H on Jan 5, 2009 21:19:01 GMT
Its probably a fairly low priority for them to be honest. I did suggest starting a charity to try and fund these archives, but.................
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Post by John Wall on Jan 5, 2009 22:34:42 GMT
Its probably a fairly low priority for them to be honest. I did suggest starting a charity to try and fund these archives, but................. Good idea :-)
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Post by Greg H on Jan 5, 2009 22:40:58 GMT
Yeah, I spose the idea would be that even if we cant get out there to have a look we could help them preserve whatever they do have, even if its just local produce. It would be good for their future generations to have their native archive as complete as feasible. And they might have a complete run of season 5 somewhere........... pretty unlikely though...........
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Post by John Wall on Jan 5, 2009 23:07:32 GMT
Yeah, I spose the idea would be that even if we cant get out there to have a look we could help them preserve whatever they do have, even if its just local produce. It would be good for their future generations to have their native archive as complete as feasible. And they might have a complete run of season 5 somewhere........... pretty unlikely though........... imho they need outside help to catalogue/digitise what they've got. Indigenously produced stuff is potentially important for local historians. It took a while for TV to be recognised as something culturally important here - we need to try and help other countries avoid the same mistake. How many are prepared to put their money where their mouths are ? Ten interested people contributing a fiver each month is six hundred quid in a year. Twenty is one thousand two hundred pounds....
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Post by Greg H on Jan 5, 2009 23:48:08 GMT
Quite so. Outside help is required. Im certain that ethnic television will be percieved as being culturaly important in the future, at the very least to the culture it concerns. Just look at the resurgence in interest in Turkish cinema in the last 5 / 10 years. I read an article that said Turkish films from the 50s - 70s were mostly gone, something like 90%. A pretty grim statistic for a collector like me. Its a great shame no one stepped in to help preserve stuff that was percieved as being culturaly valueless at the time.
Judging from what ive read about the African situation, there wont be a lot left to save in a few years time. Such is life. Im not wealthy, but I would contribute a few quid to such a fund. Its all academic anyway really. I cant see anything being done about it.
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Post by John Wall on Jan 6, 2009 0:10:15 GMT
Quite so. Outside help is required. Im certain that ethnic television will be percieved as being culturaly important in the future, at the very least to the culture it concerns. Just look at the resurgence in interest in Turkish cinema in the last 5 / 10 years. I read an article that said Turkish films from the 50s - 70s were mostly gone, something like 90%. A pretty grim statistic for a collector like me. Its a great shame no one stepped in to help preserve stuff that was percieved as being culturaly valueless at the time. Judging from what ive read about the African situation, there wont be a lot left to save in a few years time. Such is life. Im not wealthy, but I would contribute a few quid to such a fund. Its all academic anyway really. I cant see anything being done about it. If you can mobilise a lotta people you can achieve big things - think of ants. Out of (masochistic) interest I signed up for emails from Obama and McCain during the recent US Presedential election; almost every day I got an email updating me on the campaign, issues, etc - and every message asked me to "donate". Interestingly, McCain was asking for twenty five bucks whereas Obama was only asking for five ! Obama mobilised vast numbers of people to contribute relatively small amounts - and he'll be crowned on the 20th of January. The average archive TV enthusiast is probably reasonably well off - not rolling in it but not scratching around for a bob or two. I think there's scope for raising reasonable amounts of dosh to try and move things forward.
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Post by philg on Jan 6, 2009 1:09:03 GMT
..africa has by and large been searched ,the last b/w prints were sold circa 1976,they dont exist most missing material from the entire lost catalogue of bbc output was sold to africa ,but was either sent back destroyed sent on ..a very long time ago how do i know this ..ive been and looked
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