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Post by Colin Anderton on Mar 26, 2010 15:25:54 GMT
In 2008 - in reply to my query about survival of BBC Apollo coverage - you wrote:
Apollo 13; some fascinating material here including studio recordings of the live bulletins. These include Burke discussing the tone he will use with the producer. Various of these bulletins survive across a series of compilation tapes. The Splashdown programme is intact in colour.
Are you sure this is so? I know some other coverage exists on colour VT - but the only splashdown footage I've ever seen from the BBC has been a black and white t/r.
The reason I'm asking is that I have bought the latest "Sky at Night" magazine, which has some of the BBC coverage of the Apollo 13 splashdown - but it's black and white, and has definitely not been copied from VT!
Surely the colour recording would have been used if possible?
Colin.
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Mar 27, 2010 16:34:59 GMT
In 2008 - in reply to my query about survival of BBC Apollo coverage - you wrote: Apollo 13; some fascinating material here including studio recordings of the live bulletins. These include Burke discussing the tone he will use with the producer. Various of these bulletins survive across a series of compilation tapes. The Splashdown programme is intact in colour. Are you sure this is so? I know some other coverage exists on colour VT - but the only splashdown footage I've ever seen from the BBC has been a black and white t/r. The reason I'm asking is that I have bought the latest "Sky at Night" magazine, which has some of the BBC coverage of the Apollo 13 splashdown - but it's black and white, and has definitely not been copied from VT! Surely the colour recording would have been used if possible? Colin. Hi Colin, In actual fact, there were two programmes transmitted on the splashdown date. Just to put things in perspective, I think the only mission from 1969 that survives intact is Apollo 10, but that's black and white with chroma dots. It's a good pointer to how things ended up being recorded in the first place. For Apollo 13 there is an insert tape with a compilation of the mission so far. This includes launch etc... But on the same tape there is an obviously hurried recording (it doesn't quite get up to speed in time for the start) from the studio of James Burke announcing the accident to the public. This is obviously all first generation colour VT. There is also a PasB colour VT recording around the time of the mid course correction burn which is around an hour long. On the splashdown day there is a colour VT recording PasB for the morning programme which is for the separation of the command module from the service module and the command module from the lunar module. The actual spalshdown recording is in black and white as you've rightly pointed out, although there are colour VT's of the satellite footage, so all of Mike Charlton's bits do survive in colour and of course the stuff from the OB on the ship, but the famous re-entry footage is I'm afraid black and white. It was me that sorted out some of the Apollo 13 material for 'Sky at Night' magazine although I've not looked at the disc yet. As an aside, I did find some colour film inserts on the old Apollo Space Unit programme number. Logged as just "Space Films", there was one from the splashdown programme (but in colour) about the divers and another for the aborted landing/moonwalk programme about the new colour video camera they were going to be using. That was never screened. Regards, Paul |
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Post by Colin Anderton on Mar 27, 2010 17:29:07 GMT
Thanks for the reply, Paul. Glad to know Apollo 10 might be restored to colour one day....
Cheers,
Colin.
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Post by Philip Hindley on Apr 5, 2010 13:52:39 GMT
What happened to James Burke and Peter Fairley?
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Post by Colin Anderton on Apr 5, 2010 16:22:19 GMT
Hi Philip.
Sorry to report that Peter Fairley died some years ago (about 1998, I think). Cancer, I believe.
James Burke is - as far as I'm aware - still going strong. The perfect choice for the Apollo coverage, don't you think?
Colin.
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Post by Tim Disney on Apr 9, 2010 10:44:48 GMT
Hi Colin I recently acquired some 8mm footage for my archive that was filmed directly off the television screen during many of the Apollo missions, 11 included. I thought I'd post the link here for anyone interested in trawling through it all. I've transfered the lot, but have not got round to researching or making a detailed index of what it contains yet. There are tantalising glimpses of studio material, but as you'd expect, the shots are very short and sharp as cine film was expensive. For anyone who's interested, here's a link to a playlist of all 7 sections that are online right now. bit.ly/apolloatthetdaOn the subject of tv filmed off-screen, I was talking to someone who transfers a lot of home material for people every week and he said that he regularly sees shots of material filmed off screen when doing his job. So there's hope that there are visuals out there that could be matched up with audio for all kinds of things. He recently transferred some Beatles footage filmed off the television. It's a difficult situation to get hold of this stuff as the transfers are private jobs and he can't release any of it to a third party as a result of the understandable data protection laws. |
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Apr 10, 2010 10:42:18 GMT
It's fascinating stuff this and I think this clip you've linked to is all Apollo 14. Of course, unless I've missed anything, no PasB's exist of that so seeing the captions over the satellite footage is great.
I should say that in the main the Apollo bulletin programmes were short (usually between 5 and 20 minutes) and consisted mainly of presenters introducing and giving live commentary to live pictures from the US and a little bit further away. Often they were compilations of activity that happened when everyone else was in bed. Some of this compiled material does exist but without the captions or interjections from Burke et al.
On the subject of James Burke, yes he's alive and well. I had lunch with him not so long ago and he's just as active as he ever was, although just not in the UK.
Regards,
Paul
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Post by Colin Anderton on Apr 10, 2010 14:11:03 GMT
Often they were compilations of activity that happened when everyone else was in bed.
Paul, I wonder if you're mainly referring to Apollo 17. Because the moonwalks happened through the night in Britain, the coverage was mainly (not entirely) confined to hour-long highlight programmes the following lunchtime. But the other missions were covered in tremendous detail.
As an example, Apollo 14's second (and final) moonwalk was covered in it's entirety between BBC 1 and BBC 2 - even though most of the TV consisted of a static shot of the lunar surface, as the astronauts Shepard and Mitchell were, for the most part, out of view of the camera.
I have hours and hours of audio recordings of BBC coverage.
Many seem to believe that the BBC Apollo coverage faded completely away after the Apollo 11 flight. This just is not so.
Colin.
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Post by Tim Disney on Apr 10, 2010 19:39:35 GMT
It's fascinating stuff this and I think this clip you've linked to is all Apollo 14. Of course, unless I've missed anything, no PasB's exist of that so seeing the captions over the satellite footage is great. I'm glad it's of interest. I found the captions fascinating too. There's about 45 minutes of cine material all available online. I think the Apollo 11 bit comes up in clip 5. I couldn't find a way to make the playlist go through all 7 clips automatically. I think you have to switch it on or just go to my videos page and select clip 5. |
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Post by Paul Vanezis on Apr 13, 2010 16:40:45 GMT
Paul, I wonder if you're mainly referring to Apollo 17. Because the moonwalks happened through the night in Britain, the coverage was mainly (not entirely) confined to hour-long highlight programmes the following lunchtime. But the other missions were covered in tremendous detail. Hi Colin, You're right of course; I'm mainly referring to what exists and why (compilations), but also Apollo 11, where there were many shorter bulletins, many of which we now have on audio, although I wouldn't mind listening to yours if you have any from that mission. Tim, I am pretty sure that your Apollo 11 cine film is the ITV broadcast. The BBC, unlike the US broadcasters in the main tended to show the Apollo material live as you say Colin, apart from where the schedule didn't allow and the Radio Times backs that up. These days of course, there would be a dedicated channel for the missions in the US! Incidentally, I should remind everyone that the fabled missing BBC moon landing PasB does actually exist. It's on one of the compilation tapes and is a dub of the PasB recording complete with caption, although we would have to sync the PasB audio to it as it's now part of a very dramatic music sequence. Paul |
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Post by Dale Rumbold on Apr 13, 2010 18:28:53 GMT
Surely the main issue of what's missing, when dealing with the Apollo missions, is who destroyed the scripts?
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Post by Tim Disney on Apr 13, 2010 18:54:22 GMT
Tim, I am pretty sure that your Apollo 11 cine film is the ITV broadcast. Thanks Paul, I did wonder about some of it. |
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Post by Colin Anderton on Apr 16, 2010 9:26:44 GMT
Incidentally, I should remind everyone that the fabled missing BBC moon landing PasB does actually exist. It's on one of the compilation tapes and is a dub of the PasB recording complete with caption, although we would have to sync the PasB audio to it as it's now part of a very dramatic music sequence.
Hi Paul,
I'm curious.... do you mean it's been somewhat "mucked about" with?
And how much of it exists as a continuous recording (static shots of Mission Control etc included)?
Colin.
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