Kaleidoscope event to screen rare and recently recovered Associated-Rediffusion shows

“This is Rediffusion, broadcasting on the London station of the Independent Television Authority.”

Kaleidoscope’s 25th year begins with Rediffusion Rewind, an event celebrating the London broadcaster of the fifties and sixties. As well as a special panel on Sexton Blake, we have former Rediffusion continuity announcer Keith Martin on stage to discuss his time at the company and a video interview with veteran director Christopher Hodson. Little of Associated-Rediffusion and Rediffusion’s programming survives today and we are pleased to present a schedule full of rare items, including some recent recoveries by The Tim Disney Archive and Kaleidoscope.

The event will take place on Saturday 9th March 2013 between 12:00 – 7:00pm at our usual venue, The Talbot Hotel, High Street, Stourbridge, West Midlands DY8 1DW. Admission is free, but voluntary donations to our designated charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution are encouraged.

THE MAIN ROOM

• 12:00 pm Recreated Associated-Rediffusion start up – the famous London broadcaster lives again, thanks to some modern technical wizardry…
• 12:05 pm Crime Sheet – “The Superintendent Hedges A Bet”. Ordinarily the second Associated-Rediffusion series to feature Raymond Francis as Det. Supt. Tom Lockhart, due to Francis contracting mumps this fourth episode featured Chief Supt. Carr, played by Gerald Case. An episode of No Hiding Place, the third Lockhart series can be seen in the Second Room at 1.00pm (TX: 29/04/1959).
• 12:30 pm Hodson’s Choice – in this comprehensive video interview, veteran director Christopher Hodson reminisces about his career with particular focus on his years at Associated-Rediffusion and Rediffusion.
• 1:00 pm Our Man at St. Mark’s – “A Previous Conviction”. Recovered by The Tim Disney Archive and Kaleidoscope in 2012, this rare episode of the sixties ecclesiastical comedy stars its original lead, Leslie Phillips. Rev. Parker’s attempt to give an ex-convict a new start has unexpected complications. Also featuring Joan Hickson, Warren Mitchell and Freddie Jones (TX: 23/10/1963).
• 1:30 pm Half Hour Story – “George’s Room”. John Neville and Geraldine Moffatt star in a two-hander scripted by Alun Owen and directed by Alan Clarke. Made in 625-line colour as an engineering experiment, only the last twelve minutes survive, shot directly on film rather than telerecorded. A rare chance to see material in colour from this period, including a colour Rediffusion animated ident (TX: 30/08/1967).
• 1:42 pm Break
• 2:00 pm Guest Panel – Sexton Blake Lives! – A celebration of the much loved Rediffusion adaptation. Roger Foss, Tinker in the series and other surviving cast members talk with Paul Ross, author of a forthcoming book on Sexton Blake. The panel also features surviving clips and photographs from stories now lost.
• 3.00 pm Break – accompanied by Fusion, a compilation of classic Associated-Rediffusion and Rediffusion moments and title sequences including Benny Hill, Woody Allen, The Rat Catchers, Boyd QC and Object Z.
• 3:30 pm Betjeman’s London – “The Royal Mint”. Future Poet Laureate John Betjeman presents this documentary series covering the landmarks of his home city. Copies of the original Rediffusion publicity booklet for the whole Betjeman’s London series will be available to own on the day, in return for a donation to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. There will also be duplicated copies of the final Rediffusion programme schedule, a very colourful leaflet giving details of the final month of the station’s output, again available for a donation to our designated charity.
• 4:00 pm Guest Panel – This is Rediffusion… – Continuity announcer Keith Martin talks about his time at the company and others later in his career. Keith also has the distinction of being one of the regulars “in the bar” on Stars and Garters! Some very rare examples of Rediffusion continuity will feature in the panel.
• 4:30 pm Uncle Charles – “Gentle Counsels”. Based on the stories of Nigel Balchin, Uncle Charles is the endearing rogue and raconteur propping up the bar, always with a compelling tale to tell. Raymond Huntley heads the cast, supported by David Morton, Alfie Bass and Dudley Foster. This programme was recovered by The Tim Disney Archive and Kaleidoscope in 2012. The series, which has never been shown in the Midlands before now also features music by Ron Grainer (TX: 13/01/1967).
• 5:30 pm Stars and Garters. The hugely popular Rediffusion variety show hosted by comedian Ray Martine and set in a fictional public house. This edition features The Alan Braden Band and Quartet, Susan Maughan, Kim Cordell, Steve Perry, Luciano, Johnny Sheldon, Sulky Gowers, Tommy (Pudden) Wright and Diana Dors (TX: 01/02/1965).
• 6:00 pm Maps & Men – “Falkland Islands”. An Associated-Rediffusion schools programme (TX: 20/01/1959).
• 6:10 pm Small Time – Wally Whyton sings in the sole surviving clip, located as an insert in an ITV programme. Followed by Muskit and Dido, the only remaining adventure of this loveable duo.
• 6:15 pm The Hippodrome Show. Rediffusion variety show, with Frank Foster as the Ringmaster and also featuring Alan Sherman, Linda Bennett, The Zombies, The Herculeans, Alma Paia, Tagora, Moni The Elephant, The Three Ghezzis and The Band of The Grenadier Guards (TX: 20/10/1966).
• 7:00 pm Closedown – coverage of the 1959 General Election coverage ends with the Associated-Rediffusion clock and a closedown announcement from Redvers Kyle.

 

THE SECOND ROOM

• 12:00 pm Blackmail – “Cut Yourself A Slice Of Throat”. Dramatic anthology drama with stories constructed around the theme of blackmail. This episode features Diane Cilento, Aubrey Richards, Dudley Jones and future Doctor Who producer Derrick Sherwin in an acting role (TX: 15/10/1965).
• 1:00 pm No Hiding Place – “The White Stick”. An early episode of the celebrated drama series following the cases of Det. Chief. Supt. Tom Lockhart, played by Raymond Francis. Lockhart is assisted by Det. Sgt. Harry Baxter (Eric Lander). Also featuring Terence Alexander, Pauline Jameson and Jack Smethurst in a script by Bill Strutton (TX: 14/07/1961).
• 2:00 pm Women in Love – a series of short plays on the theme of women in love, with linking introductions by the actor George Sanders. The plays are After So Long by Bridget Balfour, Song Without Words by Michael Meyer and The Stowaway by Charles Terrot. Produced by Peter Graham Scott and directed by Julian Amyes, Peter Graham Scott and Ronald Marriott (TX: 24/09/1958).
• 3:00 pm At Last the 1948 Show. Before Monty Python or The Goodies, John Cleese and Tim Brooke-Taylor edited this famous satirical show, bringing Cambridge Footlights humour to a wider audience. Masterminded by David Frost, the programme was written by and starring John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman and also featured Aimi MacDonald. The edition presented here was not on the DVD release or seen in more recent repeat showings (TX: 31/10/1967).
• 3:30 pm Orlando – “Dangerous Waters 3: Rhyme – But No Reason”. Sam Kydd’s character from Crane, ex-Foreign Legionnaire Orlando O’Connor was so successful he was granted his own spin-off series, aimed at children and young adults. An episode of Crane also featuring Orlando will be shown at 6.00pm (TX: 12/10/1966).
• 4:00 pm Badger’s Bend – “The Animal Hotel episode 1”. First episode of the children’s serial about a girl who moves to the country and becomes interested in caring for animals (TX: 04/01/1963).
• 4:30 pm Double Your Money – a later edition of the long running quiz show, in its day one of the most popular programmes on British television. Presented by Hughie Green, assisted by Monica Rose and Audrey Graham (TX: 22/11/1966).
• 5:00 pm The Dickie Henderson Show – “The Maid”. Sitcom starring the famous entertainer at the height of his fame. Also featuring June Laverick as Dickie’s wife and John Parsons as Richard, his son (TX: 10/04/1961).
• 5:30 pm London – A New Look. Brian Connell presents a discussion programme about the plan to replace the old London County Council with the proposed Greater London Council. Guests are Sir Edwin Herbert KBE, Lord Morrison of Lambeth, Sir Percy Rugg, Professor W. A. Robson, Sir Cyril Black MP, Alderman Leslie Room OBE, Alderman G. A. Pargiter and Alderman W. J. Ridd. This programme has survived on original 405-line videotape (TX: 24.11.1960).
• 6:00 pm Crane – “The Cannibi Syndicate”. An early episode of the adventure series starring Patrick Allen as Richard Crane. As well as series regulars Sam Kydd, Gerald Flood, Bruce Montague and Laya Raki, David Graham and Derek Benfield also feature (TX: 16/04/1963).
• 7:00 pm Closedown

 

All material at Kaleidoscope events is screened with the permission of the copyright holders.
Programmes and timings may be subject to change before the day.
Guests appear subject to professional and personal commitments.

In 2013 Kaleidoscope is supporting the
Royal National Lifeboat Institution once again.

Advertisement

Hallelujah! Lost episode of Our Man at St. Mark’s recovered

A LOST episode of Our Man at St. Mark’s — the ’60s ecclesiastical comedy starring Leslie Philips — has been recovered after being bought on internet auction site eBay.

PRAISE BE: Leslie Philips starred in A-R comedy show Our Man at St. Mark's.

The 16mm film print of “A Previous Conviction” was bought with the assistance of classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope and The Tim Disney Archive.

It’s recovery brings the total number of surviving episodes to four and doubles the number of surviving episodes to feature Carry On . . . star Philips in the lead role.

It will now be transferred to digital format before being offered for loan to the British Film Institute. A public screening is also expected at some point “in the not too distant future”.

Broadcast by A-R between 1963 and 1965, Our Man at St. Mark’s was a “light-hearted but superior” comedy that revolved around the day-to-day exploits of a parish vicar.

“A Previous Conviction” (Tx 23/10/63) hails from the first series of the show and stars regular cast members Philips, as the slightly eccentric Reverend Andrew Parker, Anne Lawson as his girlfriend Anne Gibson and Joan Hickson as his housekeeper, Mrs Pace.

In the episode — guest-starring Warren Mitchell, Frank Tregear and Freddie Jones — Revd Parker’s attempt to give an ex-convict a fresh start in life becomes more than complicated when Anne decides to take a hand.

With the recovery of the print, four out of the 35 broadcast episodes are now known to exist. The others are the very first episode, “The Facts of Life” (Tx 25/09/63), “We Do It on Saturday” (Tx 18/06/64) and “A Funny Thing Happened to Amanda” (Tx 26/04/65).

Philips only appeared in series one of the show. For the remaining two series (1964–5), Donald Sinden took over the charge of St Mark’s as vicar Stephen Young.

• READ ON: You can read more about Our Man at St. Mark’s over at Television Heaven. There’s also a handy episode guide (you’ll need to scroll down to find it on the page). Finally, you see can see the very first episode, starring Leslie Philips, on YouTube. Visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX3F6F-Zl04.

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.

At Last… Another Episode of 1948 Show Recovered

COMEDY sketches featuring John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Frankie Howerd have come to light after being missing for over 40 years.

The long-lost material, dubbed “comedy gold dust”, also features early appearances by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Arthur Mullard and Yootha Joyce.

The black & white footage, which dates from the 1960s, was handed over to the British Film Institute as part of its ongoing campaign to plug gaps in the British TV archives.

Dick Fiddy, TV consultant at the BFI, says that a private collector is to thank for the recovery of a missing edition of “Monty Python” precursor “At Last The 1948 Show” and an absent episode of “The Frankie Howerd Show”.

He said: “Recently, a private collector contacted the BFI’s “Missing Believed Wiped” project and handed over two priceless missing items of 1960s TV comedy.

“It’s good news all round with these finds – they feature some of the UK’s finest clowns at their peak and are pure comedy gold dust.

What was found
At Last the 1948 Show, Associated Rediffusion, tx 31 Oct 1967, Series 2, Programme 6	Includes: Police Banquet/Return Of The Sydney Lotterbies/The Chartered Accountant dance/MI5 Banquet/Dentistry With A Difference/The Four Yorkshiremen
The Frankie Howerd Show, BBC tx 15.01.65	With Yootha Joyce, Arthur Mullard., Julian Orchard, Felix Bowness; Wr: Galton & Simpson; Prod: Duncan Wood

“The ‘Frankie Howerd Show’, for example, not only features more rare Frankie stuff but boasts a script from Ray Galton and Alan Simpson and – particularly precious – the great Yootha Joyce hamming it up as a tipsy vamp trying to have her way with the aghast Frankie.”

Until the late 1970s, broadcasters regularly wiped TV shows to re-use expensive video tape and save space in their archives.

Both newly-recovered shows were casualties of this purge.

Thames Television destroyed all but two episodes of famous pre-”Python” sketch series “The 1948 Show”, which ran between 1967 – 8 and starred John Cleese, Marty Feldman, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Aimi Macdonald.

The BBC, meanwhile, wiped the entire second series run of “The Frankie Howerd Show”, aired in 1965.

Mr Fiddy says the BFI, in conjunction with key partner organisations including classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope, has done much to undo the damage.

He said: “The ‘1948 Show’ episode plugs yet another gap in what has become the most successful rebuilding project of the entire “Missing Believed Wiped” initiative.

“Material has come back from Sweden, Australia, industry personnel and private collectors to rebuild the once-thought-lost programme.

“This latest retrieval is a near-complete episode which can be restored with the help of an existing clip of one of the two missing sketches and an audio recording of the other.”

Chris Perry of Kaleidoscope added: “Once again our partner organisation the BFI have found some brilliant examples of previously-lost TV. Hats off to Dick Fiddy and his team for tracking down these hilarious episodes.”

Both items will be shown later this year at Missing Believed Wiped, to be held at BFI Southbank.

If you want to check if you have a missing item, please contact Dick Fiddy at the BFI (dick.fiddy@bfi.org.uk).

Titles – At Last the 1948 Show

The Four Yorkshiremen sketch: (From left) John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Marty Feldman, Graham Chapman

Titles – The Frankie Howerd Show

Ooh err missus: Frankie Howerd embraced by a vampish Yootha Joyce

The Rat Catchers – The Unwitting Courier Update

The recently rediscovered episode of 60s spy drama The Rat Catchers – The Unwitting Courier (see the original Wiped story about the find here) – is a classic slice of prime-time television at its best. Dark and gritty but with some great moments of comic relief to lighten the tension, The Unwitting Courier boasts strong performances from all the regulars – Derek Flood, Glyn Owen and Philip Stone – who make the most of a literate, intelligent script by writer Raymond Bowers. From the opening notes of the memorable theme tune right through to the end credits, The Unwitting Courier demands the viewer’s full attention.

Below you can watch the first few minutes and see for yourself.

Rat Catcher Caught: Missing Episode of 60s Spy Show Discovered

A missing episode of 1960s spy drama The Rat Catchers is making its way back to the archives after being discovered on a P2P file-sharing website.

The Associated Rediffusion show, which ran for two seasons between 1966 and ’67, concerned a top secret British Intelligence Unit (the ‘rat catchers’ of the title) which battled enemy spies and criminals in order to protect the security of Great Britain and the Western Alliance.

In total 25 60-minute colour episodes were produced, but until the find only the first episode, Ticket To Madrid, was known to exist, along with an incomplete print of season two’s The Heel of Achilles.

Now season one’s The Unwitting Courier can be added to that list, after being located by a classic television enthusiast on a popular torrent site.

The finder, ‘Marcus’, broke the news on the Mausoleum Club forum, which you can read here.

The uploaded episode doesn’t originate from a 16mm film print but a VHS copy obtained at a film convention. Nevertheless it is said to be of good quality and classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope has downloaded a copy with the intention of handing it over to Dick Fiddy at the British Film Institute.

Wiped hopes to bring you a follow-up to this exciting story soon.

The Rat Catchers