Look And Read: The Boy From Space

[Mark Kerridge]

I've just been reading up about Look And Read on the BBC Cult site which I have fond memories of watching in junior school (Sky Hunter, The Kings Dragon and The Boy From Space).

I've noticed that 1980 version of "The Boy From Space" is having a repeat run on CBBC this week. What I am not able to establish for definite is whether the original 1971 version (same film sequences albeit in B/W but with different linking material) still survives in its original form.

Does anyone know the answer?

[john40dalek]

The Boy from Space original transmission Tuesday mornings - 21/9/71 to 30/11/71 and revised version from 15/1/80 to 25/3/80 on BBC1.

[john40dalek]

episodes 1-10

1. The Meteorite
2. The Spinning Compass
3. The Man in the Sand-pit
4. In danger!
5. The Hold-Up
6. Where is Tom?
7. The Hunt for the Car
8. The Lake
9. Captured!
10. In the Space-Ship

[andrew martin]

The 1971 version no longer exists.

[Mark Kerridge]

Thanks Andrew - I think that's what most people suspected, but it's nice to get confirmation from someone 'in the know.'

Whilst you are here, can you tell me what the general state of play is as regards archive holdings of BBC Schools programmes from the 1960s/1970s?

[Matthew Brannigan]

I'm also very interested in this. You would think that perhaps Schools programmes would be very well represented in the archive compared to regular shows considering how many schools had video recorders in the 60's and 70's. Is this the case? Have any TV companies managed to rescue lost old shows from any schools?

[andrew martin]

Schools programmes are actually comparatively well represented, as they were intended to be repeated many times. Some black and white schools programmes were still being repeated as late as 1977! That said some programmes were junked as being of no further use, as with all genres, "Boy from Space" being an example in that presumably it wasn't thought worth keeping the original when it had been remade in colour.

[andrew martin]

Re recovery of old programmes from schools - no, I'm not aware of any recoveries from this sort of source. I would have thought schools would be unlikely to keep old recordings, as they would be using them to time shift mainly - schools programmes get updated as changes are made to the curriculum, and get repeated anyway, so it would be an exceptional school that would keep archives in this way. There have been some recoveries of schools programmes, but these have been of film recordings kept by producers or official bodies, rather than off air recordings.

[CliveUK]

On the contrary, all the Schools that I attended were notorious hoarders. On leaving my senior School in 1990, I knew of a storeroom with around 20-30 dusty N1700 tapes and indeed my last experience of seeing a working Philips N1700 was watching an old 1970's Horizon documentary for a science lesson in around the same year. Considering the basement of the school was stacked with Science Apparatus and Test Books from the 1950's onwards I've no reason not to believe the N1700's joined them soon after I left.

From 1990-94, and before I realised the relevance, the University of Glamorgan had a Shibaden recorder and a stack of reels sat forlornly, gathering dust in a stairwell.

My own experience in liberating a Research Machines 380Z from my old School was that although they no longer used the machine, they felt they had a duty to hang onto it as it had cost them the Earth to buy in 1980 with lots of fund-raising and donations to aquire it. I eventually made a small donation to schools funds (more than the machine was worth no doubt) to settle their conscience. The feeling amongst the teachers was that all this equipment wasn't theirs to get rid of and owned by the local authority (who didn't give a damn) so rather than throw it out, they just tucked it away at the back of the storeroom.

[Laurence Piper]

This agrees with my own experiences of educational establishments. I also recall when I re-visited my old college around the early '90s that they still had many off-air Philips tapes and open reels of schools and educational / factual broadcasts from the mid-late '70s gathering dust on shelves, mixed in with more modern VHS tapes!

Also, several Uni A/V libraries i've visited during the '90s still had a lot of this older stuff available to students, mixed in with more up to date stuff. There always seems to be a "waste not, want not" attitude pervading these places. And if these were around then, there are probably plenty more even now that are waiting to be discovered...

[Gary]

Doesn't the original Boy From Space insert still exist? its just the original framing progs that don't?