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Lost Doctor Who episodes found – but owner is reluctant to hand them to BBC

cross-posted from: feddit.uk/post/4478496

Veteran film collector John Franklin believes the answer is for the BBC to announce an immediate general amnesty on missing film footage.

This would reassure British amateur collectors that their private archives will not be confiscated if they come forward and that they will be safe from prosecution for having stored stolen BBC property, something several fear.

“Some of these collectors are terrified,” said Franklin, who knows the location of the two missing Doctor Who episodes, along with several other newly discovered TV treasures, including an episode of the The Basil Brush Show, the second to be unearthed this autumn. “We now need to catalogue and save the significant television shows that are out there. If we are not careful they will eventually be dumped again in house clearances, because a lot of the owners of these important collections are now in their 80s and are very wary,” he added.

Discarded TV film was secretly salvaged from bins and skips by staff and contractors who worked at the BBC between 1967 and 1978, when the corporation had a policy of throwing out old reels. And Hartnell’s Doctor Who episodes were far from the only ones to go. Many popular shows were lost and other Doctor Who adventures starring Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee were either jettisoned or erased. A missing early episode of the long-running sitcom Sykes, starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, has also been rediscovered in private hands in the last few weeks.

…

The BBC said it was ready to talk to anyone with lost episodes. “We welcome members of the public contacting us regarding programmes they believe are lost archive recordings, and are happy to work with them to restore lost or missing programmes to the BBC archives,” it said.

Whether this will be enough to prompt nervous collectors to come forward is doubtful. While collectors are in no real danger, the infamous arrest of comedian Bob Monkhouse in 1978 has not been forgotten, Franklin suspects: “Monkhouse was a private collector and was accused of pirating videos. He even had some of his archive seized. Sadly people still believe they could have their films confiscated.”

stolid_agnostic ,

Sounds like it’s up to the BBC to adopt a policy that will leave people safe to come forward.

breakingcups ,

But, I thought an amnesty was already in place?

maxprime ,

If they want it so much why don’t they pay him? Sounds like if it weren’t for him (and the others he seems to allude to) we wouldn’t have this opportunity.

Donjuanme ,

Would you pay someone who stole something from you?

I would’ve.

maxprime ,

I would pay someone who rummaged through my trash and decades later I realized I shouldn’t have thrown it away.

Microplasticbrain ,

Trash is public domain anyways isnt it?

Mango ,

Big. I wanna see them! I don’t even really watch the really old stuff, but lost stuff sounds interesting!

Glowstick ,

I WANNA SEE IT I WANNA SEE IT I WANNA SEE IT!!!

Deebster OP , (edited )
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

Sounds like these 80 year olds need some friendly data hoarders to help them to digitise their collections. (Or for the BBC to promise to return the film, undamaged, once they’ve digitised them.)

user224 ,

Or for the BBC to promise to return the film, undamaged, once they’ve digitised them.

“Yeah, so…, we lost them it seems. But not to worry, here’s a £10 voucher to McDonald’s.”

Deebster OP ,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

Why would the BBC want old film, once they had the footage? They’ve already thrown them away once! It’s only of value to collectors at this point, and the Beeb can’t sell it if they’re claiming it’s lost.

otter ,

Convincing them should be easy enough as long as it’s someone trustworthy

The media is going to be degrading every day that it’s not digitized

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

But the Observer has learned that the owners of the rare, rediscovered footage are not prepared to hand it over to the BBC, even as the clock ticks down to the 60th anniversary of the show’s launch this month.

This would reassure British amateur collectors that their private archives will not be confiscated if they come forward and that they will be safe from prosecution for having stored stolen BBC property, something several fear.

Discarded TV film was secretly salvaged from bins and skips by staff and contractors who worked at the BBC between 1967 and 1978, when the corporation had a policy of throwing out old reels.

Franklin’s plea was supported by Mark Stuckey, a film and projector restorer who appears as an electronics expert on the BBC’s The Repair Shop.

“BBC Studios, the corporation’s separate, commercial arm, have already spent money animating some lost Hartnell episodes, so surely they could spend a little more on restoring the originals and perhaps pay something to these elderly collectors, a few of whom are now unwell, or caring for others.”

After all, as Phil Collinson, executive producer of the new colourised episode has attested, the Hartnell adventures are “a masterpiece of 1960s drama” and “literally the foundation stone of all that Doctor Who has become.”

The original article contains 924 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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