Boyd QC on ebay

[Ben]

I'm hoping to get a reply from Dick Fiddy tomorrow (as it's the first working day since I e-mailed him), but I have a feeling that this one might slip through the net. I hope the BFI contacts the buyer and, if they're unwilling to return it, scares them into returning it with possible legal action.

[Steven Sigel]

Hello Ben

What legal action would that be?? It's an original 16mm film print -- there's no legal problems with owning it.. The new owner cannot, however, sell copies of it , or use it for public performance... However, if he or she wants to keep it for him/herself and never let it see the light of day, there isn't a whole lot anyone can do about it...

BTW Phil - just curious -- if you are so worried about it getting returned, why did you let $50 stop you???

I would have bought it myself if it was a BBC show, but the last non-BBC show that I tried to return was a fiasco -- the people I sent it to kept it for months, and even though they promised to pay the shipping costs - they didn't do it, so it ended up costing me a lot of $$ and I'm not even sure a copy got back to the rights holders.

(The BBC on the other hand has been very responsive in handling the stuff I've returned to them)

[Ben]

I thought the BBC owned the actual prints too. For example, if this episode of Boyd QC was directly from the BBC archives and was supposed to have been junked, but was stolen, surely the BBC is the lawful owner of that print?

By the way, has anyone made contact with the buyer? Dick Fiddy never replied to my e-mail and I fear this episode may have slipped through the net - so close, yet so far...

[H Hartley]

BEN as Humph sort of said in Casablanca
" it doesn't take much to see that the films of few little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world".

Many of the prints that find their way onto the market today were actually given away in the first place as promotional items. Sometimes actors/directors etc would pay the BBC etc for their own copy and use it as part of their CV.

With regards to Boyd Qc (which apart from everybody possibly being dead who were connected with it ?)
it was Rediffusion production which nobody gives two hoots about.

[Andrew Doherty]

I would say that this is the problem with this method of recovery. Boyd QC (an Associated Rediffusion programme) was an interesting court room drama series of the late 1950s/early 1960s. But 'interesting' is a word that could be said for other drama series of the time. Still, it is a pity that this programme was not caught.

It should be said that Laurence Piper (as many of his postings show) certainly does care about Rediffusion programmes along with others and that includes myself.

Yours,

[Ben]

Shouldn't someone who knows how to handle negociations (just one person!) contact the buyer? It's worth a shot. I can get you their address if you don't have an eBay account yourself.

Whilst I can understand that no one cares much about Boyd QC (I didn't even know what it was about!), it does seem such a shame to drop it just as we reached out to hold it. If this was a Z Cars or Doctor Who episode, we would be putting more effort into recovering it!

[Steven Sigel]

Hi Ben -

As others have said, Boyd QC was not a BBC show, so the certainly don't own that. But as for other 16mm prints, there are plenty of ways that people could have legitimate prints -- for example, Dr. Who 16mm prints were sold (by the BBC) to at least one collector in the 1980s. Also, (at least in the USA) most of the distributors sold off their warehouses full of prints in the 80s and 90s -- all of those prints are now legitimately in the hands of collectors. Check on ebay and you will see hundreds of 16mm prints everyday.

[Ben]

I've been looking at the buyer's feedback and it seems he hasn't received the episode yet (as he hasn't left feedback), which means he can't do anything about returning the episode himself as it stands.

[H Hartley]

Please dont get me wrong !
I did not mean that no one HERE cared about the retrieval of old programmes (especially Rediffusion ones).
I was talking about the wheels of industry which as we know turn very slowly, sometimes too late..

Today's audiences might consider them as junk and therefore not worth saving, but in the end though they must be considered as art, and therefore like Van Gough's trashed paintings maybe more appreciated in the future?

[Ben]

Sorry about my mistake (referring to Boyd QC as a BBC series). I think it originated from the eBay auction - "BBC TV".

[Ben]

I've just realised who bought this print and, without revealing their identity, we can safely say that they are trustworthy and, if the episode does exist, it will likely be returning to the relavent folk.

[Ben]

(Which means that I can stop worrying about an evil hoarder who with two heads and red skin.) ;D

[Steve Tyler]

Ben said:

It's sold! Please say it was someone from here...

Sorry to to resurrect a dead thread but does anyone know whatever happened to this film? Since the film was sold I have been checking the Boyd QC missing list virtually every day and yet The Light Tackle Job remains a missing episode. Has the film entered the collection of a hoarder or did the seller prove unreliable?