It’s rarely quiet for those of us trying to track down missing television.
Whether it’s scouring YouTube, e-mailing industry people, looking at auction sites or even searching through archives, there is so much that goes on, and yet so much more to do.
I am so pleased we have people like Kaleidoscope, who work tirelessly in the area and in addition to the work people know about, also do so much more in the way of preservation and help. There are others too; as an example, some Dr Who fans have travelled to Africa in the past year looking for those elusive Troughtons and Hartnells!
It’s also good to see that some broadcasters are now starting to realize that their archives have value.
The recent efforts of STV (mentioned on Wiped News) is excellent, and similarly, I feel that other broadcasters and archive holders should take note and follow their lead.
It is mainly down to the activities of Kaleidoscope and others that many archive holders are beginning to wake up – albeit sometimes slowly – and realize what they possess is culturally historic. Certainly, in past dealings with certain archive holders, I was occasionally perturbed by the attitude displayed by staff; one or two who seemed extremely disinterested if the footage I’d spotted or found didn’t appear to be “”saleable””. Hopefully, attitudes are changing!
To recap on what I’ve been up to…. well, just after my last column was posted, I found a performance by Roy Orbison from the Yorkshire TV programme Stars on Sunday from 30/08/70. I have also found a couple of clips from a mainly-missing STV programme that I’ve let the archive holders know about.
In addition to this, I have been asked by a former TOTP presenter to try to find a film called “British Hustle”. It was made in 1978 and made its debut at the Regus Film Festival in London. The film was not given a widespread release; it was a music documentary covering the soul-disco scene. Anyone who has any leads as to its whereabouts, please let me know via Wiped News or the Missing Episodes Forum.
Until next time,
Ray
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