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Post by Ant Harvison - WIPED NEWS on May 2, 2008 20:46:37 GMT
From the Doctor Who Restoration Team website: www.rtforum.co.uk/read.php?id=227852Appears (silent?) footage from early 70s Z-Cars have been discovered. Not a fan myself, but always good to read about somehing actually rediscovered
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Post by JeffL on May 3, 2008 18:26:50 GMT
I agree. Any found footage is good news. If it is silent, I wonder if a fan may have recorded the audio and stored it away in a personal collection.
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Post by Robert Manners on May 5, 2008 12:55:59 GMT
I know that user 'richlive' has some Z Cars audio recordings, he might be able to help! You never know!
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Post by Greg H on May 5, 2008 13:18:43 GMT
lIt would be good to complete the episodes. I wonder if people have already been asked?
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Post by Stuart Douglas on May 5, 2008 17:51:55 GMT
From the Doctor Who Restoration Team website: www.rtforum.co.uk/read.php?id=227852Appears (silent?) footage from early 70s Z-Cars have been discovered. Not a fan myself, but always good to read about somehing actually rediscovered I read that earlier on, but can't see any mention of it being silent footage - did I miss something? Stuart
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Post by Paul Ryan on May 5, 2008 22:14:01 GMT
Wonderful news. I've never seen Z-Cars (I live in Australia, and I've never seen it rerun on ABC), but I'd love to check it out. There was a quip in Life On Mars that referenced both it and Softly Softly which was pure gold!
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Post by Adrian Gregg on May 6, 2008 8:39:32 GMT
Yep the ABC has never Rerun it!! Ive seen about 10-20 epps recently and its great. it's a pity that z-cars seems to never get the attention of ep seekers that Mr Who has.. Pity
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Post by Adrian Gregg on May 6, 2008 8:51:09 GMT
Yep the ABC has never Rerun it!! Ive seen about 10-20 epps recently and its great. it's a pity that z-cars seems to never get the attention of ep seekers that Mr Who has.. Pity I tread the boards a bit and love watching pro's and thier craft. and the skills of frank winsor blessesd and straff johns are a joy to behold ( even though it was recorded to VT it still was like live thetere) and i admire em.. it a pity most epps are now gone for good.. when i was a lad my father was a drama/english/history teacher and i found an old textbook of his for teaching drama. guess what it was.. yep 3 epps of z cars with loads of telesnaps to boot!! so its been a Holy grail type show to me to see after all these years!!
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Post by Peter Elliott on May 6, 2008 13:49:42 GMT
What is frustrating about "Z Cars" is the fact that the BBC do have a decent amount of them spanning its lifetime yet they are just sitting there in the archive doing nothing with just an occasional episode getting a repeat. Also just as frustrating is the fact that all the focus is on the 1962 to 1965 era which was indeed excellent, but so are the early 70s episodes I've seen, yet the 70s material seems to get completely ignored by the BBC which makes all these film discoveries rather bittersweet because what are the chances that we'll ever get to see those, never mind complete episodes?
Though it obviously looks dated in terms of the cars, fashions etc, it holds up extremely well because because it was well written and performed and puts most of todays drama output to total shame. In all, I have seen about 14 episodes and every one of them have been excellent and enjoyable. They are priceless social documents of the times in which they were made. Sadly, most who were lucky enough to see the original transmissions are not getting any younger and I think it's sad they can't have the chance to see them all again... I know for a fact certain cast members would love to see them again... Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen to name two until recently didn't even have copies of any of their work on the show... I helped provide copies of some episodes for them.
An ideal solution would be for BBC4 to do a regular repeat slot and show as much as possible in chronological order from beginning to end since I doubt very much we'll ever see DVD releases. BBC4 certainly have enough time and space to consider such an approach and that way, we'd all get the chance to see the many hours of excellent TV that's still left.
That's what bothers me about any recoveries in general - it's great material keeps being found but when it just ends up getting just one screening at a MPW event and then sits doing nothing on the BBC archive shelves where the majority of us cannot see or access the material, it is very very frustrating.
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Post by Andy Howells on May 6, 2008 14:34:05 GMT
I agree, I'd love to see more of these shows, Z Cars, Softly Softly and even Dixon of Dock Green are but distant childhood memories to me now.
I'm often amazed that UK Crime Shows before The Sweeney, Juliet Bravo and The Bill all seem to go largely ignored, especially as these probably paved the way for later shows.
Nice to hear you'd got some material for Bernard and Ian Peter, I just saw Bernard in some Please Sir episodes this week and never realised he'd done that as well - both very popular actors and familiar faces on TV in the 1970s!
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Post by Mark Smith on May 6, 2008 15:58:09 GMT
I'm often amazed that UK Crime Shows before The Sweeney, Juliet Bravo and The Bill all seem to go largely ignored, especially as these probably paved the way for later shows. This is quite true. However, I'd suggest (commercially speaking) the general public is somewhat ambivalent to the genre. Even sales of a later series like Juliet Bravo (on DVD) for example, were lower than anticipated, so the final DVD release was cancelled. Perhaps one can only imagine how poor sales of something like Z Cars might also prove...
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Post by Stephen Doran on May 6, 2008 16:05:46 GMT
There was a VHS of Z Cars released with 3 episodes on in the 90s.
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2008 18:34:54 GMT
I'm often amazed that UK Crime Shows before The Sweeney, Juliet Bravo and The Bill all seem to go largely ignored, especially as these probably paved the way for later shows. This is quite true. However, I'd suggest (commercially speaking) the general public is somewhat ambivalent to the genre. Even sales of a later series like Juliet Bravo (on DVD) for example, were lower than anticipated, so the final DVD release was cancelled. Perhaps one can only imagine how poor sales of something like Z Cars might also prove... It's chicken and egg though. Series only become popular by visibility. TV has never done itself any favours as regards promoting it's own output whereas it's always been more than happy to trot out all and sundry ancient cinema B movies for their 43rd repeat. Z-Cars has been a particularly overlooked example though, with virtually nil visibility since the original transmissions (despite it always being referred to as a "landmark" series in documentaries etc.) so it's no wonder it has no profile and no one knows what it is! You have to stimulate interest though, as with anything. It's always frustrated me that series with such strong pedigree (and quality) as Z-Cars and Public Eye - two landmarks of British TV if ever there were - have been so totally ignored for so long. Fortunately the latter is finally available and surprising many as to it's quality!
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Post by Mark Smith on May 6, 2008 18:51:11 GMT
It's chicken and egg though. Series only become popular by visibility. TV has never done itself any favours as regards promoting it's own output whereas it's always been more than happy to trot out all and sundry ancient cinema B movies for their 43rd repeat. Oh, I agree with your point Laurence. Well put. Mind you, one could say much the same for all vintage/archive television, not just Z Cars - sadly.
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Post by Paul Ryan on May 6, 2008 23:20:49 GMT
So is there any word on which episode this footage comes from?
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