Monkhouse Archives

[Tony]

Hello...I hope I`m not being morbid, but has anybody ever thought about approaching the Monkhouse Estate?, I gather he had a vast collection of material, I did hear that the Beeb used to contact him for material, was there any truth in this?, if his collection still survives, who knows what "Gems" could be there?

[Kev]

I'm surprised Bob did not stipulate something in his will.

There has to be interesting stuff there.

I think I remember reading in the Daily Wail a letter he wrote saying he had his sixties appearance at the London Palladium.

His autobiography refers to the only copy of a Golden Shot with Norman Wisdom.

[Tony]

It makes you think what other `celebs`might have material stashed away....I did hear about Cliff Richard haveing an archive...I suppose Bruce Forsyth may have something...being around for so long...

[Andrew Doherty]

I met one of the Agents responsible for the Bob Monkhouse collection on Wednesday evening at the National Film Theatre .

I have been told that the Bob Monkhouse Collection is in the process of being dealt with by the National Film and Television Archive and the BBC, and a series of events is being considered to show items from this collection sometime in 2005.

One drama to be shown (I hope) will be the BBC Thirty Minute Theatre production "The Flip Side" from January 1967.

Yours sincerely

[Tony]

Thats very interesting news Andrew, I dont suppose there is a "Taster" of what else is in there?

[H Hartley]

Bob's archive has been often misquoted as a television collection it was not, he collected old films primarily,which are probably not much interest to this forum? his television collection is possibly restricted to his own appearances ?.

[steve davies]

Hi Chaps,

I was speaking to Dick Fiddy recently and I asked about this subject, again like many, I was under the impression that he was a huge tv collector.
I do recall a feature in a sunday magazine about him stating that he had about eight videos in his home all wired up ready to record stuff.
But, as Dick corrected me, Bob's collection was 90% film and 10% tv.
The good news is that the BFI/NFT et all have been granted first choice or look in on his collection when all other issues have ben dealt with.
Details will come out in due course, it seems that he has some variety stuff (Not London Palladium) though, and on the surface, neither is there anything that would make your eyes pop out in amazement (Hope Im wrong on this).
There is also a heck of a lot of vhs tapes.
So someone will have a nice headache as well as the patience of a Saint to go through all this material and archive it.
I suppose time will take its course, but with the internal wranglings rearing its head now, I hope it doesnt take too long a time.
I guess the best person to answer this is Dick.

Best wishes

Steve

[Andrew Doherty]

Yes, most of the Bob Monkhouse Collection is related to Early Cinema.

It must be said that 10% of a very large collection will still represent a considerable amount of television material, some of which will almost certainly not be present in the archives.

However, if just a few television programmes including the BBC play "The Flip Side" (in which Bob Monkhouse plays a D.J.) are recovered and shown, it will have proved to be worth the effort.

Being optimistic is the best approach on such matters.

Yours sincerely

[dubs honest]

Whats the details of The Golden Shots he holds?

Theres three or four stories:

1) he had 12 to 18 episodes on TRs.
2) he was presented with a TR of the last Shot in 1975 (pity it wasn't a Quad!)
3) he had one with Norman Wisdom as stated above.
4) he had a copy of his first guest appearance made for Lew Grade (fact), whather he retained this is not commented on.

If story 1 is true he's singled handledly quadrupled the number of existing eps in one stroke.

[Laurence Piper]

I was at the MBW event at the NFT that Bob Monkhouse appeared at in the '90s when he himself stated that he had a video nachine in 1966 ! Therefore, i'd expect there to be some material around from that time in his collection (even if - in the worst scenario - the tapes were re-used many times, they probably stopped being used sometime in the '70s, meaning that potentially missing material from that time would be on them). If the tapes just wore out, maybe he even transferred stuff to other formats from them. It's worth checking into anyway.

[Andrew Doherty]

Incidentally, the tape of the “The Flip Side”, apparently, came from some students who had recorded it for media studies purposes at a technical college. I have been told that a semi-professional video tape recording machine was developed for schools and colleges of further and higher education as far back as 1958 (broadcasting for schools certainly was around in 1957). This would indicate that Bob Monkhouse might well have had a similar type of machine from the early 1960s.

It should be noted that senior members of a production team (including engineers) and the cast of a programme could request complimentary copies on telerecording in the 1950s. Bob Monkhouse would have been in a position by the late 50s to ask for recordings of productions in which he had been involved.
Moreover, I know that this was the case with Ben Lyon who had all the BBC television “Life with the Lyons” recorded. In 1968 the BBC were offered these recordings and turned them down. I believe they do have one or two of these programmes held as examples.

So, there is every reason to suppose that there will be items not just involving Bob Monkhouse but other performers in other programmes as well.

Of course, only the Archivists will be able to confirm this.

Yours sincerely,

[Helpful Hartley]

Apparently when Bob knew about his illness, he had stuff dusted down and transfered to VHS so that he could watch it again, including a 1966 Sony VTR of a London Palladium show and a few Philips VCRs from his shows in the 1970s such as 'quick on the draw' .

[Laurence Piper]

That ties in with the comments he made at the NFT; he may have mentioned his '60s VCR in relation to the Palladium show. I should have made notes on what he said but he most definitely said that he hade a machine in '66 - so i'd be very surprised if there aren't some early domestic reel-to-reel videos in that collection somewhere. Even if they of stuff that isn't missing, they may be framed my valuable continuity, ads etc. Hopefully someone here can keep us updated on the Monkhouse collection as it is checked.

[dubs again]

The NFTVA hold a big cache of "Quick On The Draw" something like 45+ episodes they told me.

[Tony]

I seem to recall some back Bob had a lot of tapes taken by the police...cant remember what they were....did he get them back?....Also i wonder if he had any of his "Mad Movies" series....now that was funny!.....