Lost Edition Of BBC Show Presenting Peter Nero Bought Off Ebay

A LOST TV showcase for the talents of American musician Peter Nero has been recovered after being bought off eBay.

Presenting Peter Nero (tx 20/9/66) was one of only three BBC shows made by the celebrated pianist and composer.

The 16mm film, believed to be a duplicate one generation down from the original reduction print, was bought for nearly £400 off online auction site eBay.

Arrangements are now being made for the 30-minute show to be loaned to the BBC so the corporation can make a digital transfer for its own archives.

Tim Disney of website findaclip.co.uk described the recovery as a “sweet experience”.

“This is the first time this programme has been seen in public in 44 years!” he added.

Tim, who earlier this year returned a lengthy clip from a lost episode of ’60s police drama No Hiding Place, was able to purchase the print with the financial backing of Steve Birt.

Birt donated the recording to the Tim Disney Archive (TDA) for safekeeping and telecine transfer, which was when the rarity of the show was confirmed.

“Not every film recording of sixties television is rare and at the TDA we have the resources to check the existing holdings of the BBC and ITV,” said Tim.

“On this occasion we knew that Peter Nero had made three appearances on BBC television. One programme was called ‘Peter Nero – In Person’ that was first screened in 1954 and repeated in 1965 and we knew that this already existed in the BBC archives.

“But he had also made two further programmes for the BBC called ‘Presenting Peter Nero’ that were screened in 1966 and 1967. The only way to identify this particular print was to buy it and take a closer look.”

The BBC Enterprises TR turned out to be one of the two missing editions of Presenting Peter Nero. The 30-minute show was broadcast only once, on Tuesday, September 20, 1966.

Tim said: “The print appears to be a dupe. It doesn’t look or sound like it’s any further away than one generation down from the original film recording in terms of picture quality or sound.”

According to Tim, Steve Birt has made “substantial contributions to the cause of recovering lost television” but has until now wished to remain anonymous.

He added: “He is a very modest man who has made substantial financial contributions to the cause of recovering lost television titles in the past.

“He would have been quite happy to remain anonymous, but I thought it was about time his contributions were recorded.”

READ ON: You can read Tim Disney’s original blog post about the find on his website. To see other rare clips in the TDA, visit www.youtube.com/user/findaclip. Peter Nero’s website is at www.peternero.com

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Top Ten Lost Horror Films

WITH Halloween just around the corner, one of my favourite sites – Cinemassacre – has posted a video countdown of the top 10 lost horror films.

Chosen by the Angry Video Game Nerd himself, James Rolfe, the list features some interesting choices among the usual suspects.

Click the image below to see the vid, hosted over on Spike.com.

Showaddy Waddy Top of the Pops Clips Recovered

MISSING Top of the Pops performances by pop group Showaddy Waddy are heading back to the BBC after being spotted on YouTube.

The clips feature the colorful band playing 1970s singles “Heartbeat”, “Under the Moon of Love” and “When” on the iconic pop show.

They were found, along with an as-yet unidentified performance on children’s weekend show Swap Shop, by missing episodes enthusiast Ray Langstone among the collection of poster Chris Dabbs.

DVD copies of the clips – recorded at time of broadcast by a member of the band using a N1500 VCR – are now being forwarded to Classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope and then returned to Andrew Martin at BBC Archives.

The Top of the Pops clips in question are:

Heartbeat (tx 25/09/1975; show presented by Tony Blackburn)

Under the Moon of Love (tx 18/11/76; show presented by Kid Jenson)

Under the Moon of Love (tx 02/12/76; show presented by Ed Stewart)

Under the Moon of Love (tx 16/12/76; show presented by Dave Lee Travis)

When (tx 3/3/77; show presented by Jimmy Savile)

Speaking about the finds, Ray said: “The poster of the clips on YouTube is a member of the Missing Episodes Forum, and was very keen to see this return happen.”

British band Showaddy Waddy made their name with a string of hit rock and roll covers between 1974 and 1982.

Under the Moon of Love, originally a U.S. hit for Curtis Lee in 1961, reached number one in the UK charts in December 1975 while When, originally by the Kalin Twins, got to number three.

The group, once described as an “explosion in a paint factory” owing to their bright suits, had their last hit in 1982 but still perform today. You can find out more, including what survives of their numerous TV appearances, over at the band’s official site: www.showaddywaddy.net

Ready Steady Go! – The Home Movie

BRIEF clips from one of TV’s pioneering chart shows have come to light… as part of a home movie.

Amongst familial scenes of camper vans and country get-aways, the silent movie features tantalizing snippets from ‘Sixties pop/rock music series Ready Steady Go!

Bands and artists including The Kinks, The Hollies and Sandie Shaw feature on the extract, which lasts just over a minute. The film also preserves ephemeral seconds from a televised Miss World beauty pageant.

The clips were spotted on video sharing website YouTube by missing episode enthusiast Lance Meenach and the discovery announced soon after on forum Missing Episodes.

Speaking to Wiped, Lance said: “I was doing some searches for Ready Steady Go! footage. I discovered a home transferring of a colour standard 8mm cine reel which contains home film material, but more importantly footage from the Miss World 1965 and some rare glimpses from Ready Steady Go!”

The RSG clips, which also include shots of the regular ‘mime time’ spot and an as-yet unidentified male presenter, are believed to hail from the show broadcast 14/05/65.

The Miss World pagent is reckoned to have been transmitted on 19/11/1965.

RSG ran from August 1963 – December 1966. Produced by Associated-Rediffusion and aired across the ITV network, the show featured many top pop and rock groups of the day, including The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

According to Lost Shows.com, out of an original total of 179 episodes, 172 episodes are missing and a further two are incomplete.

You can see the full home movie here.

Arrows Find Has Pop Fans A-Quiver

MISSING episodes enthusiast Ray Langstone has found more missing TV footage, weeks after discovering a lost BBC arts film.

This time he has discovered two missing performances from Top of the Pops, both featuring ’70s pop band The Arrows.

The first clip features the American – English three-piece playing their hit single My Last Night With You (tx 13/2/75), while the second is a specially shot promo film for A Touch Too Much screened on TOTP on 13/6/74.

Ray, who recently found a missing insert from BBC programme Late Night Line-Up, discovered the clips on video-sharing website YouTube.

Classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope were notified and put in touch with the poster, who has since returned DVD copies of the footage to the BBC.

Ray said: “I have decided to try to contact posters of missing footage available on YouTube directly, asking them if they would either consider returning their footage to the archive holder, be it the BBC or whoever, send their footage to Kaleidoscope, or send any copies of films to me, and I will forward it on as they wish.

“I have contact five or six posters, and there are already tangible results from this!”

My Last Night With You peaked at No. 25 in the charts in February 1974. The returned clip comes from an insert tape screened during the 27/2/75 TOTP.

The colour footage is time-coded and features a ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ shot of DJ Dave Lee Travis introducing the song first time round.

A Touch Too Much was the first hit for The Arrows and made the Top 10 in 1974, reaching No. 8.

The promo was commissioned by record producer Mickie Most, who released the song through his label, RAK Records.

It was produced and directed by Mike Mansfield and aired (originally sans “swirling kaleidoscope” F/X) while The Arrows were on tour in Europe, therefore being unable to make the TOTP studio.

The Arrows included singer/bassist Alan Merrill, guitarist Jake Hooker and drummer Paul Varley.

Formed in London in 1974, the group released six singles (including the original version of I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll) and made two series of The Arrows Show for Granada (1976-7) before disbanding in 1977.

A Bird in the Hand…

AN EARLY episode of drama series The Troubleshooters has been returned to the BBC.

The series two episode “Birdstrike”, from 1966, was handed over earlier this month after the intervention of Kaleidoscope.

The classic TV organisation had been called upon to act as an intermediary between the BBC and an unnamed collector due to “concerns” on the part of the latter.

A digital copy of the 16mm telerecording is now back in the BBC archives and Kaleidoscope’s Chris Perry says the recovery demonstrates “that collectors have nothing to fear” about returning lost shows.

He said: “The collector had concerns with the returning of the episode, including the worry that the BBC would retain it and only give him a digital copy – something no enthusiast wants.

“But after we were approached, we were able to expedite the process of returning the episode quickly and smoothly, with the collector getting to keep his original copy.

“It just goes to show that collectors have nothing to fear about returning missing material to the BBC.

“Kaleidoscope is always happy to help facilitate this and collectors can contact us in strictest confidence by email.”

Broadcast between 1965 and 1972, The Troubleshooters was a 50-minute drama series created by author John Elliot, who co-wrote A for Andromeda with Fred Hoyle, and based around international oil company “Mogul”.

The first series, which went out under the title Mogul, was concerned with the internal politics of the company, but was not as well received as expected.

For series two (or one, depending on your viewpoint), the show was renamed and rebooted – shifting and broadening the focus to the actual workings of the company and international dealings of the Mogul field agents, the eponymous “troubleshooters”.

It went on to run for seven series, making the transition to colour from the fifth series in 1969, and ending in 1972.

In the newly discovered episode, “Birdstrike”(tx 04/06/66), the troubleshooters have to investigate who was to blame for the crashing of the first aircraft using Mogul’s new fuel – the company or the pilot?

Geoffrey Keen as Brian Stead

It stars a young Robert Hardy as “ruthlessly ambitious” troubleshooter Alec Stewart and Geoffrey Keen as Mogul’s “tough” deputy managing director Brian Stead.

Archive television enthusiast Marcus Payne was also involved in the recovery of “Birdstrike”, being the first person to spot the episode’s rarity and open a dialogue with the collector.

Marcus, who last year found a missing episode of The Rat Catchers on a file sharing website (read the Wiped feature here), said:

“I was glad to act as a conduit for a second time and am always happy to help as a consultant to anyone else who might want to know the value of what they have or how to return it.”

The recovery now means there are 15 extant episodes from series two, out of 26. Of the other series, 6 of 13 survive from series one (Mogul), six out of 26 from series four, two of 26 from series five, and two of 17 from series six.

Thankfully, all 15 episodes of the final series are still held in the archives, though only as b&w 16mm film copies.

Only one colour episode of The Troubleshooters survives in its original colour 2″ videotape form- “Camelot on a Clear Day” from Series 5 (tx 1/06/70). A copy of this episode can be viewed at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

A well-researched article on The Troubleshooters is posted on the Britmovie forum.

• To contact Kaleidoscope, email: cp@kaleidoscopepublishing.co.uk

Weekly Round-Up – 25/04/10

EACH WEEK Wiped will be bringing you the best of the rest: smaller stories that might have passed you by, but are worth checking out all the same.

So to begin…

OPRHANED OUT OF THE UNKNOWN CLIPS ON YOUTUBE

The only remaining clips from an otherwise-missing episode of 1960s’ BBC sci-fi anthology series Out of the Unknown have been uploaded to YouTube for our viewing pleasure:

Clips from ‘LIAR!’ (tx 14/01/69) TX.14 14th January 1969TX. 14th January 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFJAMiJCQkg

Also posted are the few remaining clips from ‘The Caves of Steel’ (tx 4/5/64), a BBC adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s novel of the same name. Broadcast as part of BBC2’s anthology strand Story Parade, this 75-minute production was adapted by Terry Nation and starred Peter Cushing. It’s success led story editor Irene Shubik to devise Out of the Unknown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nleL8IJxyUU

For a full list of surviving OOTU material, visit this highly informative Out of the Unknown Clips Guide.

RARE TV PLAY FEATURING JAMES DEAN AND RONALD REAGAN ‘DISCOVERED’

Last week, news sites were awash with a story concerning the ‘discovery’ of a 1950s’ American TV show featuring tragic Hollywood icon James Dean and future American president Ronald Reagan.

To cut to the chase, this is a non-news story. The “newly discovered” 23-minute drama ‘The Dark, Dark Hours (broadcast on CBS network’s General Electric Theatre on Dec 12, 1954 is already available on DVD! (see this post on excellent forum Britmovie.co.uk).

I guess it boils down to the same old story of semantics and strong headlines getting in the way of the facts. Still, if you bear that in mind, it is a good yarn.

You can read The Telegraph news story (22/4/10) here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/7620342/Tape-of-James-Dean-and-Ronald-Reagan-brawling-found.html

…and see a condensed (six-minute) version of ‘The Dark, Dark Hour’ over at The Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/21/the-dark-dark-hours-rare_n_546170.html

WEBSITE FOR THE COMPLETE METROPOLIS GOES LIVE

Kino International has launched a website for The Complete Metropolis, which is coming to theatres in the US this summer ahead of home release.

The newly extended version of Fritz Lang’s seminal 1927 sci-fi film follows the discovery, in 2008, of 25 minutes’ worth of lost footage in a film museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Kino’s comprehensive site includes restoration clips and trailers for The Complete Metropolis along with articles on the long journey to reconstruct the silent masterpiece.

You can find the site here: http://www.kino.com/metropolis/

Guys And Dolls Clip Discovery

A MISSING performance from Top Of The Pops has been returned to the BBC after being spotted on the internet.

Guys n’ Dolls performance of ‘If Only For The Good Times’ hails from a wiped 1976 edition of the BBC chart show.

Guys n' Dolls

The three-minute clip, from the 12.08.76 edition, came to light after being posted on video sharing site YouTube by band member Paul Griggs.

Missing episodes enthusiast Ray Langstone contacted Griggs after seeing the video, uploaded from a domestic recording made at the time.

Ray said: “I saw the clip on YouTube, and realized it was from a wiped episode, and after a lot of research, managed to find the Poster’s email address.

“We regularly exchanged emails, and he sent me a copy. It had been taped onto a VHS, and just contains the three or so minutes of the performance you see on YouTube.”

Artist	Track
THE EQUALS	Funky Like A Train
DOCTOR HOOK	A Little Bit More (promo)
STARLAND VOCAL BAND	Afternoon Delight (Ruby Flipper)
STATUS QUO	Mystery Song (promo)
GUYS ‘N’ DOLLS	If Only For The Good Times
THE CHI-LITES	You Don’t Have To Go (promo)
JIMMY JAMES & THE VAGABONDS	Now Is The Time
TAVARES	Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel (promo)
THE BEE GEES	You Should Be Dancing (Ruby Flipper)
JAMES & BOBBY PURIFY	Morning Glory (promo)
CLIFF RICHARD	I Can’t Ask For Anything More Than You
ELTON JOHN & KIKI DEE	Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (promo)

Guys ‘n Dolls formed in 1974. The pop group  went straight in at number two in the UK charts with first single ‘There’s A Whole Lot Of Loving’ and followed with a string of other hits in the UK and Netherlands. The group disbanded in 1985.

‘If Only For The Good Times’ is unusual for a Top Of The Pops performance in that it didn’t chart in the Top 40. The recovered clip (viewable below) includes a brief introduction by that week’s host Tony Blackburn and the whole of the song.

The performance features David Van Day and Thereza Bazar, who left Guys n’ Dolls in 1977  and went on to form Dollar.

Ray received a DVD copy of the VHS clip in mid April. He has now returned the orphaned clip to BBC Archive’s Andrew Martin, in Brentford.

Ray said: “I spend several hours a week looking for missing episodes, although my methods are that of an enthusiastic amateur. Hopefully my contacts and skills will improve as time goes on.

“I mainly look for missing rock and pop TV, but anything I can find that’s been wiped or is missing is excellent.”

Singer Paul Griggs has recently released a book looking back at his days in the music industry, entitled Diary of a Musician.

Get on the Bus for Missing Top of the Pops

A MISSING Top of the Pops performance featuring The Hollies in their heyday has come to light on Youtube.

Standing in front of a distinctly groovy Sixties stage, the Manchester band perform “Bus Stop”, a hit single from the summer of 1966.

MISSING CLIPPY: A still from The Hollies' "Bus Stop" Top of the Pops appearance, June 1966.

The black and white film clip is generally in good condition and runs to 2″58′. It contains the entirety of the song, which reached #2 in the charts. The discovery is especially important for capturing The Hollies with original bassist Eric Haydock, who left the band that year.

Youtube user ‘jleepixprod’ is to thank for the incredible find, which dates from the 23/6/66 edition of Top of the Pops (included as a telerecording of the 16/6/66 performance).

It has been confirmed the poster, a retired film editor based in the US, only possesses the Hollies insert but never-the-less it is an exceptional find, being both the first contemporary performance of the song to surface and also the first material to emerge from either edition of the BBC’s iconic show.

The discovery will only add support to a long-standing rumour that the 16th June edition, which featured The Beatles in their only live appearance (playing “Paperback Writer”), exists somewhere in the States.

Here’s the link to Bus Stop.

New Feature Posted

FAN-MADE reconstructions of missing episodes of Doctor Who are getting ever more watchable and sophisticated.

Wiped shines the spotlight on one such recon, of the end scene of ‘Power of the Daleks’ episode five, and speaks to the talent behind it – amateur computer animator Jon Brunton.

You can find it on the Features Page or click Power Of The Daleks Power Reconstruction Spotlight.