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Post by Peter Elliott on Dec 15, 2008 20:32:59 GMT
It just keeps getting better!
What a great man he was... he spent his life entertaining so many and in death left behind a precious archive... and Bob certainly knew this archive would end up being treasured which is probably the most fitting tribute to him.
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Post by Alan Scott on Dec 16, 2008 15:44:29 GMT
I remember him speaking about his collection a couple of years before he died. He didn't mention old telly though, he spoke about the rare films that he had. He said he had already made plans to donate his collection to the National Film Archive on his passing. This was definitely before he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2008 16:01:19 GMT
A quick recap on what I said yesterday for those that missed it: We established quite quickly that Bob had The Flip Side, 2 eps of My Pal Bob and the 12+ 1970s Golden Shots. Further to that resume, we have now found a third Sunday Night at the LOndon Palladium, 2 more Golden Shots from 1968, about 60 editions of Family Fortunes that were wiped in 1981 and about 300 assorted radio shows including: Mostly Monkhouse Calling All Forces Fletcher's Fayre Workers Playtime Starstruck Startime Blackpool Night and TV soundtrack recordings of This is Your Life, The Arthur Askey Show, The Frankie Howerd Show and lots more besides. The upshot of this massive restoration and recovery project will be several special events over the next few years to celebrate the life of Bob Monkhouse. Thanks Chris Fascinating. I knew i'd heard about the 12+ Golden Shots before, as early as the first MBW, in fact, when a ball park figure of something like this was mentioned as existing in Bob's collection! What format are the Family Fortunes, Chris? Off-airs or masters? Just curious. With regard to the programme notes for Sunday's MBW, it makes reference to all of the second series of My Pal Bob existing as they were made outside and sold to the BBC. Is this not the case then and are these two the only survivors? Still good news anyway. Can you keep us updated as to the contents of all the reel-to-reel videos recently located at Bob's, Chris? I'm absolutely dying to know the contents of these! All in all, an excellent year for recoveries (with many items still to be checked) - well done all, but particularly Kal, Dick Fiddy and James Insell! Good news about those 30 admags too. It just goes on (happily)... |
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Post by Greg H on Dec 16, 2008 16:22:06 GMT
I have to agree with Laurence. This has been a classic year for recoveries of all kinds! Im really looking forward to seeing some of this material eventually, some of what ive heard being mentioned sounds fascinating  Has anyone found out what is on the unlabeled tapes yet? Could be some interesting vintage comedy or something. Good on Bob for having such great vision, that this material would be very much of interest to future generations. It sounds like you could fuel a whole retro channel with all the stuff he archived |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2008 16:46:26 GMT
I'll bet that the unlabelled reels (and it was announced at MBW on Sunday that another cache of them have now been found residing in his collection that they didn't know about) will take some time to catalogue (and to coax to play again probably, i'd guess!) as there are quite a number. So basically time will give us the answers. I'm as keen as you to know what's there but very optimistic as far as the possibility of finding some rare / unique / missing material is concerned though...
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Post by Greg H on Dec 16, 2008 17:20:34 GMT
Yep! It certainly is an intriguing prospect! Working with the information I have about the Monkhouse collection, its a reasonable bet that it was either something he was involved in or some kind of comedy or variety show; but given the ammount of missing material there is, it opens up interesting opportunities. (We know he wasnt a massive sci fi collector) Does anyone know what era they are likely to be from? 60s? Or maybe 70s? The imagination always twitches when unlabeled retro recordings are unearthed  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2008 17:43:20 GMT
The TV collection goes right back to the '50s onwards (in the form of film prints or t/rs) but for off-air video reels, about 1966, which was when he first had a machine. So it could be anything from then onwards that turns up, hence the London Palladiums and Golden Shots from shortly after this which have so far been uncovered. I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed for some missing Rediffusion material (sitcoms or variety), including a bit of in-vision continuity too!
By the way, Chris, do any of the Palladiums / Golden Shots etc. from '67 / '68 that have thus far been uncovered contain any continuity either side of the programmes? What's the general quality like? Roughly the same as My Old Man's A Tory / Up The Polls / the early colour Steptoes etc?
Thanks for the collection, Bob - wherever you are! I think the planned idea of upcoming screening events to celebrate what he's left us is a wonderful idea too.
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Post by Rich Cornock on Dec 16, 2008 17:52:13 GMT
hopefully someone will make a tv documentary about this collection as its all fascinating stuff
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Post by Greg H on Dec 16, 2008 18:01:46 GMT
Hopefully so! It would make for an interesting watch. I always enjoy seeing the people involved in these recoveries telling their story |
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Post by Peter Elliott on Dec 16, 2008 22:44:30 GMT
hopefully someone will make a tv documentary about this collection as its all fascinating stuff Actually, that's a great idea. There is a good documentary waiting to be made about Bob's life and work. However, one devoted entirely to his archiving would indeed be fascinating and allow us a glimpse of some of the things found in there. This is modern archaeology... plenty of docs on archaeology and finds of ancient material so why not one devoted to the Monkhouse collection? |
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Post by LanceM on Dec 17, 2008 7:32:52 GMT
Like This Idea as well, thinking of the sheer amount of material discovered, and the apparent interest it has generated.There have been the recent BBC 4 screenings of archive material which have seemed to fair quite well, many classic and vintage based documentaries, agreed that "The Monkhouse Legacy" Series sounds like a fantastic idea.
Am ever hopeful about these mentioned Video Reels and N1500 tapes that were discovered that the BFI missed which may or may not contain some interesting material?
This year has indeed seemed to fair quite well as far as recoveries have gone, some very interesting finds, and material which has come to light. Heres hoping a "Goodbye to ABC" and "Monkhouse Legacy" special may be forthcoming.
Cheers,Lance.
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Post by cperry on Dec 17, 2008 9:04:07 GMT
Hi people
To answer a few points:
Bob often crashed the opening ident of his early recordings so there is little contunuity on the 1960s/1970s material, but there are adverts in most breaks. He often deleted Star of the Month from The Golden Shots though.
The 2 x 1968 editions - 1 is Harry Secombe and the Four Musketeers (West End play cast) and the other is Tanya the elephant :-)
Only 2 film prints of My Pal Bob survive though we have found 3 VHS transfers. I have empty cans for some others so I don't know where the prints are.
Kaleidoscope has been keeping an audio-visual record of Bob's house etc and we will probably use some of that for one of the Bob special events, if the family are happy to let us do so.
It is highly unlikely we will find anything 1950s/1960s based unless it actually has Bob in it. He only seems to have recorded stuff he was in. He would often buy his blank tape from TV companies and we do find the odd bit of footage from underneath, hence that 9 mins of Ace of Wands, but it is still a remarkable collection.
The BBC sent me a list of sound holdings yesterday for the radio shows we have rescued from Bob. Suffice to say that whilst they have officially only one Calling All Forces, we have all 50 in Bob's archive, so the future looks very good indeed for radio comedy. Indeed, it will be a 500% increase for the holdings of shows like Workers Playtime.
Hope that helps.
c
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Post by Richard Bignell on Dec 17, 2008 9:28:22 GMT
Where on earth did Bob keep all his thousands of tapes, Chris? I can't quite imagine the amount of room all of these would have taken up!
Had he actually created a library of them or just boxed them up and put them in storage?
Richard
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2008 10:02:40 GMT
Thanks for all the info, Chris. Most helpful!
I think it was said that Bob had a specially designated shed-building to house a lot of the material. It is mind-boggling the amount of stuff he housed. I recall a Radio Times feature on him back in the '80s when he remarked that he started each day by scanning the TV listings and setting X amount of timers on various VCRs! That was always something that stuck in my mind. A born archivist!
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Post by cperry on Dec 17, 2008 11:59:25 GMT
Bob had a separate building for his tapes, and a loft converted to store the film. :-)
c
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