Benny Hill recovery

[Mark]

A previously missing episode of the BBC Sit-Com series that Benny Hill made in the early 60's turned up on YT a few weeks ago.

It's called "The Visitor" (10/9/63 ) from series 3, hopefully the BBC can get a copy of it.

It would make it, one from each of the three series existing.

[Spiny Norman]

Yeah I believe it was simply uploaded on youtube by someone who had a film copy...

[Mark]

Obtained in Bristol, in a collection of travelogue films.

Another example of the gems that still turn up!

[Spiny Norman]

Obtained in Bristol, in a collection of travelogue films.

Another example of the gems that still turn up!

Oh right, so unrelated to youtube then? In that case there might even be two!

Stuff is still reported in. On the Doctor Who front, there's at least 6 episodes that collector(s) won't return - make of that what you will.
I think I spotted one, maybe two totally forgotten but technically lost 1950s programs in a French catalogue. Only, they were shows no-one was waiting for.
What is still amazing is the 1948 Show story. At least two episodes have been found twice and that was relatively recent. The whole thing went from almost nothing to almost complete.

[Mark]

Related to YT, only in the fact it was put up there and the chap didn't know it was missing.

I had heard about the 'Six episodes' of "Who", doesn't surprise me, there's bound to be some material in private hands.

Sometimes copies are eventually allowed to be taken, or handed back, I think that was the case with the two episodes of "The Likely Lads".

[paul.austin]

Most people don't have an encypediac knolwedge of missing TV. The "average person" might not even be well aware that there ^is* stuff missing!
(I wish educated people would remember that they are not the common person (or average voter!)

[Brian F]

Also some have been treated badly in the past (no thanks and courier fees not reimbursed), or know others who have, so won't return on principle.

[Spiny Norman]

Right so it's "only" one recovery then.

Also some have been treated badly in the past (no thanks and courier fees not reimbursed), or know others who have, so won't return on principle.

Yeah, but they're punishing others.
And people who on principle refuse to deal with the BBC, for reasons of their own, could always contact Kaleidoscope.

[paul.austin]

Right so it's "only" one recovery then.

Also some have been treated badly in the past (no thanks and courier fees not reimbursed), or know others who have, so won't return on principle.

Yeah, but they're punishing others.
And people who on principle refuse to deal with the BBC, for reasons of their own, could always contact Kaleidoscope.

... but the collectors who have been mis-treated know that Kaleidoscope will just hand over film prints of missing BBC material to the BBC, so where's the incentive to co-operate with them?

[Spiny Norman]

Right so it's "only" one recovery then.

Also some have been treated badly in the past (no thanks and courier fees not reimbursed), or know others who have, so won't return on principle.

Yeah, but they're punishing others.
And people who on principle refuse to deal with the BBC, for reasons of their own, could always contact Kaleidoscope.

... but the collectors who have been mis-treated know that Kaleidoscope will just hand over film prints of missing BBC material to the BBC, so where's the incentive to co-operate with them?

I don't know. It seemed like a neutral compromise. Collectors are almost just like humans ;) so every one is different. It's been debated before, so I won't repeat the more obvious arguments, except that I know of no large organisation anywhere in the world that hasn't at some time or the other made a mess of something - stuff's in the end done right or wrong by individuals.
But you couldn't, for example, boycot your government because you were unjustly fined for speeding. It wouldn't work. That's why most of us are still on faecesbook even though we all know the stuff they've done, or are doing even.
By the way I personally know of one case where the last known copy, which its owner declined to share, was damaged in a flood around the time of his death and thrown away.


Although... If someone's deal-breaking concern (for reasons of their own) is that their film should never again reach the BBC, there still is a way.
Going back to the original post, I guess you could have a film scanned, and post it on youtube (and other places) anonymously.
Have the description encourage people to save a copy before it's taken down.
The cat will be out of the bag then.
In fact I suppose that that's what has now - inadvertedly - happened to that Benny Hill episode, similar to other bootlegs. It doesn't have to be insanely expensive to scan film, if it doesn't work well to home record the projection, I've had some done in the past.

If it isn't Doctor Who, I doubt it would even be taken offline anytime soon.
Technically doing this would be a violation, but at least the program would be out there for all to see. Possibly illegal, but not immoral.

[Brock]

That's why most of us are still on faecesbook even though we all know the stuff they've done, or are doing even.

Speak for yourself. I won't join Facebook on principle.

[Spiny Norman]

That's why most of us are still on faecesbook even though we all know the stuff they've done, or are doing even.

Speak for yourself. I won't join Facebook on principle.

Okay, but it was a general comparison; I didn't mean that that was fully identical to returning missing programs to the BBC.

[Mark]

I suppose there are various reasons for not returning material, not wanting to deal with the BBC, having something no one else has, or just not knowing it's missing material.

There was a story a few years ago on Wiped News I think, about a chap at a film fair, at a stall with just a few films left, asked about a particular can, the dealer said it's "The Troubleshooters", an American TV series, ( there was one called that, late 50's) the chap bought it, and it turned out to be a missing episode of the BBC series!

[paul.austin]

There are missing Doctor Who episodes in private hands but, as illustrated by the cine-clips person choosing to be nameless, they wisely don't want the attention of the psychotic part of DW fandom

[Spiny Norman]

There are missing Doctor Who episodes in private hands but, as illustrated by the cine-clips person choosing to be nameless, they wisely don't want the attention of the psychotic part of DW fandom

Yes; but that is strictly speaking a different subject.

[Brian F]

I wonder if anyone with non-Dr Who missing material is worried about a flurry of "You Don't have any Dr Who?", "If you have that you MUST have some" pestering from the psychotic part of fandom.

[paul.austin]

I wonder if anyone with non-Dr Who missing material is worried about a flurry of "You Don't have any Dr Who?", "If you have that you MUST have some" pestering from the psychotic part of fandom.

As i said, there is an excellent reason why the Australian man or woman who filmed those 8mm DW cine-clips off their TV in the 1960s that they gave to us all to enjoy wisely insisted that their name never be released.

[Spiny Norman]

I wonder if anyone with non-Dr Who missing material is worried about a flurry of "You Don't have any Dr Who?", "If you have that you MUST have some" pestering from the psychotic part of fandom.

As i said, there is an excellent reason why the Australian man or woman who filmed those 8mm DW cine-clips off their TV in the 1960s that they gave to us all to enjoy wisely insisted that their name never be released.

Isn't that quite usual? I'm not even sure we know who had the "new" Avengers episode. (Nor do we need to know.)

As for DW, since it really looks like someone had an arm long enough to pilfer all the way in Nigeria, I'm not ruling anything out. I don't know how many fans exactly would take action if it couldn't be done on the computer or for free.

[paul.austin]

The problem with recovering missing *radio* is that while *we* are interested in the classic DJs and their patter and gags, most people recording 40, 50, 55, years ago only wanted the music. Also a lot of tapes will have been recorded over or thrown out. Also when an elderly person has died, their children will most likely not have an obsolete reel to reel player so into the skip those old tapes will go.

[Spiny Norman]

The problem with recovering missing *radio* is that while *we* are interested in the classic DJs and their patter and gags, most people recording 40, 50, 55, years ago only wanted the music. Also a lot of tapes will have been recorded over or thrown out. Also when an elderly person has died, their children will most likely not have an obsolete reel to reel player so into the skip those old tapes will go.

Absolutely. And the same applies to tons of TV shows that people used to audio-record at home too. The fact that we have the sound of every missing doctor who episode proves that.
And if they report it, they get turned down.

[Mark]

Managed to catch the Saturday screening of "No Hiding Place" on TPTV, most enjoyable and a great cast in it as well.

Recovered by TPTV from... a private collector!...lets hope they come up with more goodies.

[fatcat]

Managed to catch the Saturday screening of "No Hiding Place" on TPTV, most enjoyable and a great cast in it as well.

Recovered by TPTV from... a private collector!...lets hope they come up with more goodies.

Yes they say they are looking for more, but haven't found any yet, its a pity the right arm of the BFI does not know what the left arm is doing as pretty sure they have a few as they supplied TP with a rare once a long lost movie called 'Where has poor Mickey gone'
(Warren Mitchell 1963)

[Mark]

Managed to catch the Saturday screening of "No Hiding Place" on TPTV, most enjoyable and a great cast in it as well.

Recovered by TPTV from... a private collector!...lets hope they come up with more goodies.

Yes they say they are looking for more, but haven't found any yet, its a pity the right arm of the BFI does not know what the left arm is doing as pretty sure they have a few as they supplied TP with a rare once a long lost movie called 'Where has poor Mickey gone'
(Warren Mitchell 1963)

Oh yes, I saw that, a very young John Challis is in it as well, an unusual little film.