Raiders of the Lost Archives 2010 list published

[Adrian Petford]

Kaleidoscope is pleased to announce the publication of this year's Raiders of the Lost Archives Recoveries List, detailing the previously missing television material returned to official archives by organisations, groups and individuals in 2009-10. Working in partnership with the BFI, ITV and the BBC, Kaleidoscope is proud to present the results of this third year of the ongoing campaign to find lost television treasures.

Raiders of the Lost Archives Recoveries List 2009-2010 (PDF Format)
www.kaleidoscope.org.uk/kaleidoscope-raiders.of.the.lost.archives.list.2010.pdf

This year's list was published at Kaleidoscope's Salute To The Past awards presentation and book launch, which took place at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London on Saturday 23rd October 2010.

Regards,


Adrian Petford,
Kaleidoscope.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the link, Adrian.

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

I'll second that thank you. Hopefully, this will encourage all of us to find even more footage in 2011! :-))))

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

We forgot this one!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q51ZqOxGsQ

It's from the 500th TOTP. This was found by Troy Walters and was aired on this past January's Rage retro season in Australia. The quality is indeed very very poor; ABC got a 16mm B&W kinescope film copy of the clip and GTK itself was kinescoped to 16mm B&W film so hence further degradation, so it's a kinescope of a kinescope!

Can we put this on next year's list? My error for leaving it out on the e-mail I sent!!!!!!!!!

[John Fleming]

Unless it somehow passed me by I'm amazed the Swap Shop recovery got so little attention. Visual XTC footage is few and far between and a previously-lost performance is something to cherish. I know some people don't care about off-airs, nor recoveries from the 80s, but to me this is one of the finds of the year.

[Deleted]

Do you know how much TV XTC did / how much is missing, John? Just curious as I like them a lot but know little about their early appearances. I know of a filmed live clip for So It Goes and (I think) a Revolver performance. Later on I can recall seeing a TOTP for Senses Working Overtime and a 1982 Oxford Roadshow / ORS studio appearance at the time of English Settlement. How much more was there in the early days?

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

In addition to this find:-"Recovered by Kaleidoscope via LostShows.com:
Multi-Coloured Swap Shop( BBC) tx: 21/02/1981. 1700 cassette of sequences including XTC."

there's also this:-""Returned by Chris Dabbs via Ray Langstone:
Showaddywaddy - clips copied from 1500 tapes that were of performances made by the band on
Top of The Pops and other shows, some of which are missing from archives. Two clips are from a TOTP
in 1975 (Heartbeat), and also a clip from Swap Shop from 1976, and also three clips of Under the
Moon of Love.
Chris Dabbs says "The story is that myself and showaddywaddy.net man, Paul Fixter, financed the
transferring to DVD of some N1500 cassettes. These were generously loaned to us by a former band
member who recorded his and the group's TV performances.”"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LouT8Nzm8TU

All finds are great, and I am on the lookout for missing XTC footage. I will keep you posted if I find anything.

[John Fleming]

Laurence, I doubt there is much missing XTC footage, but I don't think there ever was a significant amount of footage considering the importance of this band. It's not surprising though considering their reluctance to perform live. These are the XTC UK TV appearances I know about for definite, all still existing in the archives:

Dance band OGWT 11/10/77
Neon Shuffle So It Goes 27/11/77
All Along the Watchtower So It Goes 27/11/77
Radios in motion OGWT 14/02/78
Set myself on fire OGWT 14/02/78
Statue of liberty OGWT 14/02/78
This Is Pop Revolver 20/05/78
Life begins at the hop TOTP 17/05/79
Making plans for Nigel TOTP 04/10/79
Making plans for Nigel TOTP 18/10/79
Generals and majors (Video) TOTP 18/09/80
Sgt Rock is going to help me TOTP 22/01/81 (rpt 05/02/81)
Senses working overtime TOTP 21/01/82
Senses working overtime TOTP 04/02/82
Yacht dance OGWT 11/02/82
No thugs in our house OGWT 11/02/82

I wasn't aware of the ORS performance. I'm sure they made more than the one appearance (21/02/81) on Swap Shop, and also at least one Tiswas appearance but my memory could be letting me down there. I have a vague recollection of them performing "Respectable Street" on kids TV, perhaps this was the recovered Swap Shop performance, could someone from Kal confirm this?. It is a very vague memory though and could be wrong. Any Swap Shop/Tiswas appearances are presumably wiped.

Ray, I'm sorry if you thought I implied your finds were unimportant. Quite the contrary, to me your finds are THE most important discoveries of the year. My comment was more like "how has this passed me by, was it not well documented" whereas I have been well aware of your finds all along.

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

Don't forget the RPM stuff. Andy talking about Swindon, for example. That was on BBC iPlayer for a while.

I'd also read this:- missingepisodes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=totp&action=display&thread=5295

XTC certainly appeared on Swap Shop. Not found any footage YET.

Graham Gourlay knows a lot about Tiswas, maybe the man to ask, perhaps? There is a Tiswas Forum too!

[Deleted]

Many thanks for the listing, John. Very useful to me. Yes, XTC definitely appeared on Oxford Road Show / ORS. One of the tracks I can remember them performing was Snowman. It's a long time ago so I can't remember what the other song(s) were. There was more than one song played though and I think all / both were from English Settlement, which was either just released or due out.

I'm not certain of the archive status of the show but i'd hazard a guess they all still exist (?) Does anyone know for sure?

[Ray Langstone (was saintsray)]

XTC, ORS, 2/5/82, Snowman, Jason and the Argonauts, Ball and Chain:-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YB8zGUZol4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj0_Ny6ziLc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABy2RLY-VIM

[RWels]

Oct 23, 2010 19:15:06 GMT Adrian Petford said:

Returned to the BBC on DVD by Simon Moreby:
Much of this footage has been in private hands for several years, but this is the first official return.
Some footage belongs to ITV and will be passed on to them. The material is all ex-reel to reel
videotape material originally transferred by Terry Martini in the 1990s.
The Dick Emery Show – tx: 05/06/1967. Last eleven mins sketch
The Very Merry Widow – Treble Chance would be a Fine Thing tx: 15/01/1968. Last eleven mins.
Written by Alan Melville; designed by Gordon Toms; produced and directed by Graeme Muir.
With Moira Lister (Jacqueline Villiers), Terry Scott, Rex Garner, Peter Bayliss, A. J. Brown, Anthony
Sharp, Richard Caldicot, Julie May, Alan Hockey, Sally Thomsett.
The Rolf Harris Show tx: 30/03/1968. Complete except for last three mins.
With Rolf Harris, Vince Hill, Don Partridge and the Seekers.
The Benny Hill Show tx: 26/12/1968 with Tammy Jones, June Whitfield, Henry McGee, Jenny Lee-
Wright, John Wright, Doris Rogers, Jim Tyson, Kedd Senton, Carolyn Moody, David G. March and
Richard Mottau
Shut That Door – (ATV) tx: 08/09/1972 with Larry Grayson, Noele Gordon, Rod Hull and Emu.

That's what I've been saying for years. I've had those 5 dvds for ages and I've often asked questions about them, wether it had been returned or not and if a better transfer wasn't possible. (My DVD copies are pristine but were taken by means of camera pointed at TV, AKA primitive optical transfer. But apparently(?) the tapes have crumbled since that was taken, so we won't get another chance (even though 405 line reels CAN be transferred electronically).)
And shouldn't there also be a Tommy Cooper show and a half with that? And some other bits and pieces (Jimmy Edwards, Hancock, ABC previews)?

[cperry]

There are all sorts of bits on old reel to reel tapes still in private hands but only a few are returned every year, normally when the archives decide they can find a use for it.

c

[Jeff Leach]

Is the Benny Hill show the Colour "Spotlight" ATV show ?

[RWels]

Oct 26, 2010 20:30:18 GMT Jeff Leach said:

Is the Benny Hill show the Colour "Spotlight" ATV show ?

Hard to tell. It's the last 5 minutes of an ATV special, and a full 45 minute BBC programme. It certainly isn't in colour anymore... I'm not a fan myself and I wouldn't know how to identify it further.

Oct 26, 2010 18:28:22 GMT @cperry said:

There are all sorts of bits on old reel to reel tapes still in private hands but only a few are returned every year, normally when the archives decide they can find a use for it.

c

It would be great if the archives could indeed decide when a show was to be returned. But seriously, complete shows of Benny Hill and Tommy Cooper, I really am surprised nothing was done about it before. The quality is a problem of course - contrast is often low and there are many glitches. The Benny Hill show is perhaps the best in the set.