I worked for a Charity in 92-99, and I contacted C4 about a film that they made about them in 83-84. They couldn’t find it. On the subject of lost media, I’ll bet that the reels for “The mini-pops” were scrubbed with lightning speed.
The BFI clearly does a great job but it's a charity (not a business) and it has a budget of about £2m. It's not reasonable to expect a tiny organisation like that to provide comprehensive archive services. It's also not reasonable to expect tiny productions companies to pay the cost of longterm archiving. Archiving national heritage is something the government should oversee and finance through taxation.
You are *NEVER*, ***EVER*** going to get political parties (both of whom are really both cheeks of the same neoliberal arse) to fund something like that. They believe it’s up to the private sector (i.e. individual companies) to maintain their own archives.
*Brookside is being released 5 episodes a week, every Wednesday. STV Player is available, free with ads, to anyone in the UK, not just in the STV TV region.
I used to make this point in the early days of TV forums back in the early 2000s and absolutely nobody thought it was worth the blink of an eyelid and that I was just inventing a problem that couldn't possibly exist.
Interesting video, yes the way channel 4 is set up in the early days isn’t very archive friendly, as an publisher broadcaster. During the lockdown, with the schools closed, I was surprised that no real effort was made to try to knock together a 4schools/itv schools archive content program or two, using a modern day host or two, and archive content but loads of that stuff is probably entirely messed up, with production companies 2-3 ownerships ago. It’s amazing that all those programs were used as unofficial VHS learning aids during school time in classrooms in the 80’s and 90’s.
This can affect you personally too if you or someone close to you was involved in a programme or otherwise participated in one. In our family's case, my uncle and grandad, both of whom have passed away in the last six years, appeared twice on Fifteen to One, the cult quiz hosted by William G. Stewart, which along with Countdown is one of the first game shows I have childhood memories of watching, with those relatives, which may have started my love of quiz and game shows. Both on Channel 4. Their first time in around 1992/3, can't remember which exactly, their second in 2000. Years ago I found the VHS we taped that broadcast from, and saved it to DVD, but it's still not good quality, and their first appearances are long gone. Challenge repeated some series in recent years, but from the mid 90s, so probably of a better quality, and they had to make cuts for time and to edit out inaccuracies, addresses for contacting the show, and outdated language or questions and answers which have not dated well, etc, which costs money itself. So they didn't go earlier than 1995 or so, in other words not what I was looking for. Where do the rights to the format lie now? The reboot - both the civilian shows hosted by Sandi Toksvig and the celebrity shows hosted by Adam Hills - is available on All 4, but will that necessarily last? It's an interesting thing to think about, but often is overlooked, as you say, in an age of streaming, where we just think, 'you aired it, you own it'. Another personal connection to archiving; doing a work experience week in sixth form, at BBC Radio Foyle, I labelled two DAT tapes of the 9am-1030am programme at the time from a few days prior. It amuses me to think that in a BBC vault somewhere, there are audio tapes from 2004 with my handwriting on the box! Hope someone can read it!
Speaking of Lost Media, Doctor Who got me into it via it’s missing episodes. Then when I began getting into other stuff such as Kamen Rider and Ultraman, they opened more doors for me. Lost dubs of anime and foreign live-action shows in other countries, pilot episodes, movies in general, segments (links) and programming blocks on channels etc. I don’t know why I find lost media fascinating, I just do (maybe it’s the fact of something doesn’t exist anymore or so someone says)
Oh WOW, yes, One Summer was superb, airing here in Australia on our ABC. I had to import a DVD copy from the UK back in 2008 when it got a release through 'Network DVD UK'. Would love to see a remaster, WAIT, just discovered it is!
The way some archive material has been lost boggles the mind. Many times who ever was in charge actively didn't care at all... hoped masters and archive materials would just kind of go away... didn't have any idea or want to know what they had. Then someone thought it was clutter, just because.
As an independent producer in the 80's/90's, I'm annoyed that C4 don't return master tapes that they don't intend to archive to the production company, instead of just getting rid of them (or putting somewhere they can no longer find them.) I have thus lost a couple of master tapes and can't find the safety copies either, so no good quality copies left. Oh well.
Going back some 15 years, it seemed that around 800 editions of The Big Breakfast were archived by ITN. More recently, it appears that something like only 140 are known to exist. Forgive me if my figures are a little off, I don't have immediate access to the information I've gathered. But take them as good ballpark figures. Of nearly 2,500 editions made, that is grim. And when you look at how those 140ish editions represent the show's history, it's really poor. Most are from the later years, with only a handful surviving from the Chris and Gaby era. We're talking about one of the most ground-breaking and influential shows in British TV history. And some 95% of it is lost, seemingly forever. And it makes me wonder about the other Channel 4 breakfast ventures, The Channel Four Daily, RI:SE, and the short-lived Morning Glory. How many of those exist? I have a suspicion that they may be almost wiped out of existence.
I have access to Kaleidoscope's data, and just totted everything up. According to the information they have the survival rates for the Big Breakfast, by year, are: 1992: 21 out of 69 1993: 73 out of 262 1994: 104 out of 261 1995: 119 out of 260 1996: 101 out of 261 1997: 62 out of 261 1998: 48 out of 260 1999: 55 out of 261 2000: 53 out of 261 2001: 55 out of 261 2002: 17 out of 65 TOTAL: 698 out of 2482 In addition there is a May 1996 episode shown as having only one of its two tapes surviving, and a November 2000 edition for which one segment (featuring Patti Boulaye) is known to survive on domestic videotape. I actually worked out the month-by-month figures, which I felt were probably overkill for this comment section, but which seem to show relatively consist archvial rates for periods of time, then sudden abrupt changes to a new archival rate. From Oct 92 to Jan 94 there seems to be a fairly conistent average of about 16 missing episodes per month, then a couple extra survial seem to occur in Feb 94 and Apr 94, before it sticks on exactly 13 missing from every month from May 94 to Feb 95, It then stays at an average of about that (but no longer always the exact figure) between about Mar 95 and Apr 97, with Jul 95 having a couple of extra survivals to normal, and Oct 96 a couple less. Then from May 97 to Feb 02 (its last full month) it seem to average about 18 missing episode a month, so clearly something changed, either in May 97 itself, or subsequently with respect to shows from that month onwards. Based on Kaleidoscope data the month with the most survivals is Jul 95 with 12, whilst the month with the least is Aug 97 with literally none. One other thing I noticed is that, although most episodes don't have presenter and guest details for them in the Kaleidoscope, database there were some that specifically have Bob Monkhouse's name against them, and even some of them are marked as not surviving. I know he later said he hated doing Big Breakfast, but I'm sure he would have recorded them at the time and then still kept the tapes, as he did with virtually everything he was in, and with a large amount of other comedy-based shows, so I expect there are more survivals overall than are in Kaleidoscope's database (not withstanding that a mass-junking, as implied by your comment, could have lost other episode that are in the list as surviving). Finally I can actually add to that survival rate, as I have a VHS somewhere with an edition on, or at least a chunk of an edition. I know it featured the Friday song, which in that edition referenced the opening, and fairly rapid re-closing, of the Millenium footbridge in London, which was found to sway alarmingly from side to side. I reckon this would therefore be the Friday 16th June 2000 edition, which does not survive according to Kaleidoscope, so I'll have to see if I can get it online for posterity.
@@MrDannyDetail Thank you very much for making the time & effort to finding out the full truth of this matter. The real question is however, who exactly was responsible for such destruction? And why was it still being done as late as the Early 2000s. Geldof, Alli & ITV have a lot to answer for.
Unfortunately, Copyright and pc issues mean that even recordings that do exist might as well be lost as they will never see the light of day. Although by no means complete, A lot of this old material can be seen again by sailing the 7 seas. If you know what I mean!
You should do a video on Channel 4 books, they produced many publications over the years. Channel 4 had an award winning coproduction with RTÉ and Irish independent production companies which changed names over the years, Waterway’s is one of the best canal documentary programs ever produced fronted by the late Dick Warner. Now getting hold of that show was very difficult over the years, the vhs versions I had weren’t in a good state. However there was a breakthrough in Australia in 2012, against all odds, when all the episodes were released in dvd form and in remarkable quality. So great things can happen if the original production company is willing to make efforts to get their archive content out. You would think that in the age of streaming, that a lot of old archive content would get an airing considering the risk and costs of physical media is removed.
Also, the intention around Channel 4's setting up was that the majority of the medium and smaller-sized companies felt like their advertising revenues were stagnant and also that their studio use was at a minimum so they wanted a fourth channel which would give them room to manoeuvre because there just wasn't the schedule space available on the main network of ITV.
There's a good and funny docu on 4 player with Adam [Buxton] & Joe [Cornish] 'The Fourmative Years' and you realise that C4 just ran the gamut between groundbreaking and downright bonkers.
The 4Mations block alot is lost media because most was only aired once and TV guides did not say the name of the Animation shorts included so no one knows everything that aired in them until the blockly slowly stoped thanks to South Park. Channel 4 seem to forget how much they did for Animation in the UK though and the last time they tried to get back into they created the really bad Family Guy Clone Full English.
RUclips has been a great place for people to archive channel 4 content. I loved the 4 later shows in the late 90s & 2000's epecially a series called vids the entire run of this show is on here.
If there's one thing RUclips is good for, it's as an archival platform for older television content that would have otherwise been long lost to the ages. It's much the same with American TV, there are tremendous amounts of locally-produced shows that were exclusive to one particular city's broadcast station and only seen in a very small area of the country, and their significance to regional culture would be long forgotten if people hadn't been uploading transfers of their parents' old VHS tapes.
The one silver lining in the cloud is that Channel 4 started the same time that Video Recorder use and ownership took off in the UK. So unlike the sixties there should be a lot of material available even if it isn't in the best quality. I can remember Channel 4 starting but not being able to access it because in Wales we had S4C, so had to wait for Channel 4 programmes to be scheduled however many weeks later, and whatever time of day. Hence the use of the video recorder. I can certainly remember S4C starting up the day before Channel 4. On the subject of missing programmes in the first few weeks of Channel 4 they showed an excellent documentary series called The Sixties a critical overview of that decade in six parts. As with most historical programmes it more reflects the views of the time it was made rather than the period it is analysing. I tried to find it on RUclips about 5 years ago but could only find one episode that dealt with housing in the sixties. That episode has now vanished from RUclips. I subsequently found out the production company that made the series no longer exists. So another lost programme.
The rights holders being different for each territory is what causes uproar from copyright holders with Virtual Private Networks. As VPN's sell the ability to watch content not available in your country because streaming providers don't hold the rights in that territory, you can switch to somewhere else. Reminds me of the legal grey area with satellite television in the 1990s where people would buy decoders and smart cards to receive services and content not available in the UK. In regards to analogue degradation, I wonder if AI will be implemented to "upscale, clean and restore" content from VHS or whether that would be controversial and seen as cultural vandalism?
When companies were taken over, rather than dissolved, how on earth did the solicitors drawing up the agreements not realise the future revenue potential of their back catalogue and put archive plans in the terms!?
@@Firthy2002 In the case of TVS they lost their ITV franchise at the end of 1992 (once VHS had definitely expanded beyond movies) and were subsequently part of several buyouts as larger and large companies gobbled up the previous ones. TVS actually owned the Mary Tyler Moore back catalogue, a purchase that ended up financially problematic for TVS, and which may partially have contributed to them not getting the new franchise contract for 1993 onwards. Presumably the succesive rounds of buyouts were intended to acquire the MTM content, and other more-lucrative tapes that had also been absorbed by other companies archives being added to the pile by its successive owners. I think its believed that the current owners of the TVS tapes, and the rest of the giant stack of tapes it is in amongst, are Disney, who are probably not even aware that amongst there humongous haul of tapes they have a load of stuff made by a small local televison company who served the local needs of the south and south east of England in the 1980s (including presumably a lot of Fred Dineage and Fern Britton). Or even if they are vaguely aware it is in there somewhere I'd guess it's not really on their priority list of what to preserve, digitise and get uploaded onto Disney+.
While the early days may have seen a lot of consideration to the ITV companies, never forget that it was one of those companies that delivered what would become possibly the channel's most iconic programme. Countdown was a Yorkshire production from the outset, and even after all the various mergers and reorgs, it's still produced by an entity in the ITV group.
In the interest of preserving the artistic output of independent producers, I'd like to see the sale of the BFI's analogue archive to the BBC, who maintain (and proactively digitise) the largest archive of its kind. If funding is an issue for the BFI, then this could be a path to solving that problem, as they could explore a shared rights agreement with the BBC, or re-license the digitised output back from the BBC in exchange for allowing the BBC rights to distribute the content on their platforms.
Being a child in southern england in the 80s I was a regular watcher of TVS beacuse of Childrens ITV and the classics such as Knight Rider/The A Team and Airwolf.
I recall some wonderful dance programmes that got used as fillers occasionally: one that sticks in my memory due to its accompanying melody, the imagery grows dim over time though… it involved a cantor singing dressed in I imagine to be a human-sized bowling pin with the other performers dancing around him. The problem with memory is that it gets confused after forty years and I think a chunk of New Order's 'True Faith' has become entangled with the imagery. 😮😵💫
I have the dvd of One Summer, had to preorder it, many years after broadcast. Recognise the lad in the clip? Name of David Morrisey, apparently he is still acting, and is a quite good baker, according to Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith
They did a series in the 90's called "The Secret life of Schools" which was filmed at my primary school and I've tried looking for them but I can't even find a mention of them existing despite me having two episodes on a video cassette.
I'd love to see some of the first Film4 dramas, some, like P'tang Yang Kipperbang are still available but others like Accounts, have disappeared. Along with a series starring a young actor called Kenneth Branagh in his first screen role. I wonder what happened to him?
Reminds me of the time the US Library of Congress convened a special hearing in 1994 to determine the whereabouts of the archives of the Dumont Television Network, which existed from 1945 to 1956. Turned out, 95% of it had been trashed.
STV hasn't made every episode of Brookside available. They're releasing them at a rate of five per week: 65 at the time of writing. You don't have to be in Scotland to use STV Player but you don't get the full range of ITV programmes if you don't use a Scottish postcode. Presumably this is to avoid overlap with ITVX.
It's quite soothing to be rewatching these programmes. It's so odd that, I don't even connect with half the things that I now see on social media. TV was indeed a very entertaining thing back then as well. And less of other forms of entertainment. And why doesn't BFI actually try to find volunteers or even actually find some charities to try and protect those films ? Even looking at this clip now.. it feels so actually forefront... and it is a lot better than actually watching a repeat film on satelite these days. Never knew that there were SO many actual small producers and indie companies at that time. Really enlightening....
The other thing to think about regarding digital formats and digitising old analogue formats is that digital formats can change. What format do you digitise to? Codecs and formats fall out of use (just look at the size of the Multimedia Wiki which documents pretty much every codec and contianer format ever used) What do you store it on? CDs, DVDs and even BluRays are disappearing, USB won't last forever and even hard drive technology has changed over time.
Even though I was 10 when C4 started, I really remember a very early series of Nicholas Nickleby by Dickens. It was basically just a film of a stage play, but it felt so different. I wonder if that exists somewhere
"the Scottish ITV" You do realise if you'd said that to anyone up here a few years back,Adam,that would have been a bit of a sore point! (thinking of the period where we didn't get some ITV networked programmes because of the STV/ITV dispute at the time!)
Would be an interesting video that topic as it lead to a new contract relationship for itv programs from the main itv network. The situation with border itv being in a bit of an grey area, regarding its requirement to show absolutely minimum local programs for the Scottish side or the region.
I know these days with digital media it is not as important to archive but I like to do it when I can more for my benefit. I record off TV in hd where I can and save to Blu ray discs as I hope they will last longer than hard drives. I think if you really feel like you enjoy having plenty of content to watch and don’t want to deal with the platform squabbles you get with streaming, it is an essential thing to do. I think if you are a long time soap fan or something like that too you will get a benefit from it aswell. There’s so many moments I am so glad I caught on video from my end too. This is where I wish all the channels did HD broadcasting as that would make it possible to archive all of the Freeview network in High quality. I know if I had been around in the 80s, I’d have a pretty large archive now and migrated it to Blu ray discs or something more long lasting.
I might soon do something similar myself. Roughly speaking, how much memory do you have dedicated to archiving TV content? If I was to do it (I'm pretty sure I will), I'd want to have stuff backed up on at least 2 separate 'memory devices', so that if 1 goes bad, I still have the other.
@@nathanpollard1223 I do not have a specific amount of memory dedicated as I felt hard drives or SSD drives were too much of a uncertainty. I basically use single layer (25gb) Blu ray discs and burn as needed. I have used Blu rays because they are HD compatible and can store In my case either 6-7 hours of HD video or 13 hours of standard definition video. I don’t have a backup solution because Blu rays are said by manufacturers to last for 30-50 years maybe longer. Plus the way the setup works for me, I can only do one disc for every programme due to copy protection. I wouldn’t suggest using any other discs such as dvds as they are really bad in quality these days and solid state drives or flash memory can fail very quickly. Hard drives aren’t as bad if you don’t access often and have a backup. But I personally will still go discs. I hope this helps. Basically build as you go but make sure you have researched average lifespans for your storage method and you go with well made equipment. Also I’d suggest no scrimping on quality (eg using a lower file quality) as it may not look bad now but you’ll notice in future.
After reading the Transdiffusion Article (credit to them for brining light into an previously little discussed topic and credit to Adam for bringing that article to a wider audience), this is the current state of the Channel 4 Archive (in other words I'm summarising the article itself): *Anything produced by the ITV Companies (bar TVS) is basically in the hands of ITV plc, STV Group plc, FremantleMedia and the the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA). So that's not a concern at present. *Now when it comes to TVS; despite the article claiming that "it is no longer clear who owns the rights to TVS archive", the evidence suggests that Disney (via a series of takeovers) which ultimately owns this archive (apart from certain programmes owned by ITV plc) and I believe that Disney has stated this in the past. The real issue however is that there is little information on its current archival state (especially confirmed information) and it's believed that the paperwork itself has gone missing, which makes it very difficult to actually release their programmes on any format. Hence the possibility that much of the TVS Archive might no longer survive (not helped by the fact Disney cares little about this matter). What's particularly disappointing is that the BFI has done very little to help with this particular situation, not even make sure that the TVS Archive itself is kept safe at the BFI National Archive, at least until the paperwork issues are sorted. *Now we get to a real problematic issue, or rather the programmes that where merely licensed by Channel 4 by Independent Production Companies for a few screenings. Many of them where small operations and virtually all of them have either been taken over or have even gone out of business, hence there being a lot of uncertainty over the fare of their collective archives. Honestly, that seems like a dumb arrangement compared to Channel 4 simply financing the programme themselves (& thus keeping the rights). *Finally; we come to the programmes that that both commissioned and funded solely by C4. Which fortunately do seem to be with the BFI National Archive or in Channel 4's own Archives, even if the article doesn't make clear how many of these programmes ended up in said archive and also makes clear that there are many programs that need to be digitised. However, things are still quite messy on this front. For example, some of these programmes have been given back to their original producers (After Dark being a good example of this). While the International Rights of these various C4 Commissioned & Financed Programmes are now owned by All3Media these days, mainly because Ofcom was dumb enough to have Independent Producers retain more rights to the programmes they made for BBC, ITV & Channel 4. So moral of the story, the likes of the BBC, ITV & Channel 4 should no longer rely on Independent Production Companies to make Commissioned Programmes, certainly Ofcom should drop the legal commitments on this front. Anyway, my advice on sorting out these issues would be this: *Use National Lottery Funding to Digitise & Restore Channel 4 Programmes (in the BFI National Archive & Elsewhere) still on Tape. *Get the TVS Archive stored in the BFI National Archive ASAP. Alongside any archive holdings that Channel 4 directly has. *Use Company House + Birth, Death & Immigration Records to find out any copyright owners (of C4 Shown Programming) that cannot be traced.
The TVS paperwork issues are unlikely to ever be sorted as you’d have to spend time (therefore money) tracking down all contributors to negotiate what they get paid - more money, especially if a contributor wasn’t famous at the time but now is, so demands more for appearing. Assuming they are still alive or traceable. The rights paperwork exists, but the royalties paperwork doesn’t. Which is why it’s important channels like mine present content stuck in copyright limbo or actually missing otherwise it will never be seen again. The BFI is publicly funded, do you honestly think any Government is going to give them enough money to sort this paperwork issue out?
@@stickytapenrust6869 It is a real shame really about the TVS situation. I have read of it before and put comments on other videos about it. The shame of course is that all their series are not able to be reshown on ITV or any other channels; as well as not being released on DVD as other series are or were. Difficult really too?
@@brucedanton3669 A few series are able to be shown as the rights to them were purchased before the rights for the rest of the archive were messed up. Ruth Randell Mysteries, How 2, Finders Keepers and Art Attack are all OK.
@@stickytapenrust6869 Yes I see of course too. The Ruth Rendell Mysteries-I guess aka Inspector Wexford that starred George Baker. But other of their series like CATS Eyes and Perfect Scoundrels that TVS did for the ITV network then presumably were lost, which is a shame really?
@@stickytapenrust6869 *I acknowledge that the TVS Paperwork issue is the biggest barrier to getting TVS Archive Programming from getting released on Home Media & Streaming (although I believe that the TVS made series of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries might be an exception to this). That can only be addressed by someone big in the Media Industry taking a serious interest in solving this particular issue. However, I find it quite interesting that you mention that some of the TVS Paperwork does actually survive, because I got the impression that virtually none of it survived. *However, the more immediate issue is the current location & surviving status of the actual TVS Archive itself. After all, it has never been properly established where exactly the archive itself is currently located at present, nor it's current state. That doesn't bode well when we are talking about a company (Disney) that isn't (for reasons that are very clear) going to give a dam about the TVS Archive, is not going to be particularly keen on paying to store tapes & films it cannot commercially exploit and would be very tempted to dump said archive to save some money. That's why I find it incredibly surprising (& disappointing) that the BFI has made zero effort to store the TVS Archive itself in its own BFI National Archive. Because at least under those circumstances, we could be assured that the archive will continue to remain safe if & when the paperwork issues are solved. Something they one cannot expect from Bob Iger...
I know that there is some four-mation (a block on channel four that was all about animation) that has become lost I can remember a documentary called “an eye for sound” from this block of program it use to be on RUclips but the channel I watched it on has been deleted
Alot of that block is lost media because most was only aired once and TV guides did not say the name of the Animation shorts included so no one knows everything that aired in them until the they slowly stoped thanks to South Park. Channel 4 seem to forget how much they did for Animation in the UK though and the last time they tried to get back into they created the really bad Family Guy Clone Full English. I did have some parts of the block from VHS and put them online alot was lost media before I did that which was some shorts and Idents.
Hello , Am in Scottish Borders and wee don’t get STV we get ITV1 Border think this includes Dumfries and Galloway . Midlothian think is the start of STV . My opinion is we should all get STV in Scotland. This may be a new idea for video check what regions in Scotland, get STV and what we didn’t get itv 1 Border Television or new channel about random TV stuff?
Probably the only time that will happen is when at some stage in the future, itv plc buy out stv plc. That could be many years away! Doubt itv are so very keen on much bar absolute minimum programming in the Scottish Borders anyway. Buying out stv plc is unlikely to be cheap, so it’s a matter of how economic cycles go and if stv stay stable financially. UTV really messed themselves up in 2015, it wasn’t too long before itv finished them off as the second last independent region. At least they managed to get some sweeteners into the deal so at least some local programs still go out, alike itv wales and stv will probably push for something alike too.
What was the name of the Channel 4 program that was shown during the day time which showed various landscapes with ambient or chillout music background?
I’m a massive eurovison fan and there’s no where I can find of older eurovison with graham Norton commentary. There’s clips and bits but nothing fully and it seems such a shame. Idk what is going on with that.😢
I'm pretty sure that there's an episode of the Crystal Maze which is semi-lost. I've seen reruns of the original series where there is 1 episode which is always shown with sign-language (I think that the original episode recording was lost)
Hard drive or cloud storage and acceptable high resolution (i.e. 1080p or better) has only been ubiquitous for about a decade😬. 1990s digital formats such as Digibeta were tape-based and are definitely not robust either!
I'm from the U.S. and this video was a fascinating one for me to learn more about U.K. TV. I'm glad I came across it as well because you might be able to shed some light on something for me. I've been searching for a movie that was produced by Granada and aired on ITV in 1995 - "The Perfect Match" starring Con O'Neill and Saskia Reeves. It's not available for purchase or streaming anywhere and I haven't seen anything to indicate it's been archived anywhere publicly accessible. Do you think ITV would be the rights holder? Granada itself? Or would Granada productions be owned by someone else now? Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide!
Long lost for years already has been - they came from somewhere else 1984..i saw this at broadcast aged just 12 and loved it..thankfully its on youtibr but jn a really poor vhs upload..it wont be released because apparently the copyright is too complicated..i asked nerwork tv about possibility of them releasing it.
Everyone can get STV player, it's not regional. In fact it's a great idea for those whose TV's or devices can't upgrade to ITVX, just use STV player & put in a Scottish postcode. I'm a Clydebank post office 😂👍
At between 12 minutes and 50 seconds to 12 minutes and 55 seconds in you said that the BFI is business, that is not true the BFI is a public body under Royal Charter like the BBC.
@Nathan Pollard in my personal non professional eyes all piracy is fine except small individual people creators or companies or indie games developers as it actually harms them
"Going for the lowest common denominator " that is and was a snobbish way of saying at the time that ITV was a popular network liked by the great unwashed and Channel 4 was a Channel for the elitist ok yah crowd.
Hi I am Aquisition's Director at Transdiffusion, thank you for the shout out to our site.
It’s sad that many mainstream channels don’t have bigger and better archives. Which is why I love your channel and RUclips.
I worked for a Charity in 92-99, and I contacted C4 about a film that they made about them in 83-84. They couldn’t find it. On the subject of lost media, I’ll bet that the reels for “The mini-pops” were scrubbed with lightning speed.
The BFI clearly does a great job but it's a charity (not a business) and it has a budget of about £2m. It's not reasonable to expect a tiny organisation like that to provide comprehensive archive services. It's also not reasonable to expect tiny productions companies to pay the cost of longterm archiving. Archiving national heritage is something the government should oversee and finance through taxation.
You are *NEVER*, ***EVER*** going to get political parties (both of whom are really both cheeks of the same neoliberal arse) to fund something like that. They believe it’s up to the private sector (i.e. individual companies) to maintain their own archives.
*Brookside is being released 5 episodes a week, every Wednesday. STV Player is available, free with ads, to anyone in the UK, not just in the STV TV region.
I used to make this point in the early days of TV forums back in the early 2000s and absolutely nobody thought it was worth the blink of an eyelid and that I was just inventing a problem that couldn't possibly exist.
Interesting video, yes the way channel 4 is set up in the early days isn’t very archive friendly, as an publisher broadcaster. During the lockdown, with the schools closed, I was surprised that no real effort was made to try to knock together a 4schools/itv schools archive content program or two, using a modern day host or two, and archive content but loads of that stuff is probably entirely messed up, with production companies 2-3 ownerships ago. It’s amazing that all those programs were used as unofficial VHS learning aids during school time in classrooms in the 80’s and 90’s.
This can affect you personally too if you or someone close to you was involved in a programme or otherwise participated in one. In our family's case, my uncle and grandad, both of whom have passed away in the last six years, appeared twice on Fifteen to One, the cult quiz hosted by William G. Stewart, which along with Countdown is one of the first game shows I have childhood memories of watching, with those relatives, which may have started my love of quiz and game shows. Both on Channel 4. Their first time in around 1992/3, can't remember which exactly, their second in 2000. Years ago I found the VHS we taped that broadcast from, and saved it to DVD, but it's still not good quality, and their first appearances are long gone. Challenge repeated some series in recent years, but from the mid 90s, so probably of a better quality, and they had to make cuts for time and to edit out inaccuracies, addresses for contacting the show, and outdated language or questions and answers which have not dated well, etc, which costs money itself. So they didn't go earlier than 1995 or so, in other words not what I was looking for. Where do the rights to the format lie now? The reboot - both the civilian shows hosted by Sandi Toksvig and the celebrity shows hosted by Adam Hills - is available on All 4, but will that necessarily last? It's an interesting thing to think about, but often is overlooked, as you say, in an age of streaming, where we just think, 'you aired it, you own it'. Another personal connection to archiving; doing a work experience week in sixth form, at BBC Radio Foyle, I labelled two DAT tapes of the 9am-1030am programme at the time from a few days prior. It amuses me to think that in a BBC vault somewhere, there are audio tapes from 2004 with my handwriting on the box! Hope someone can read it!
Speaking of Lost Media, Doctor Who got me into it via it’s missing episodes. Then when I began getting into other stuff such as Kamen Rider and Ultraman, they opened more doors for me. Lost dubs of anime and foreign live-action shows in other countries, pilot episodes, movies in general, segments (links) and programming blocks on channels etc. I don’t know why I find lost media fascinating, I just do (maybe it’s the fact of something doesn’t exist anymore or so someone says)
always fascinated by lost media, no matter what it is! great work!
Thank you!
Oh WOW, yes, One Summer was superb, airing here in Australia on our ABC. I had to import a DVD copy from the UK back in 2008 when it got a release through 'Network DVD UK'. Would love to see a remaster, WAIT, just discovered it is!
The way some archive material has been lost boggles the mind. Many times who ever was in charge actively didn't care at all... hoped masters and archive materials would just kind of go away... didn't have any idea or want to know what they had. Then someone thought it was clutter, just because.
As an independent producer in the 80's/90's, I'm annoyed that C4 don't return master tapes that they don't intend to archive to the production company, instead of just getting rid of them (or putting somewhere they can no longer find them.) I have thus lost a couple of master tapes and can't find the safety copies either, so no good quality copies left. Oh well.
Going back some 15 years, it seemed that around 800 editions of The Big Breakfast were archived by ITN. More recently, it appears that something like only 140 are known to exist. Forgive me if my figures are a little off, I don't have immediate access to the information I've gathered. But take them as good ballpark figures. Of nearly 2,500 editions made, that is grim. And when you look at how those 140ish editions represent the show's history, it's really poor. Most are from the later years, with only a handful surviving from the Chris and Gaby era. We're talking about one of the most ground-breaking and influential shows in British TV history. And some 95% of it is lost, seemingly forever. And it makes me wonder about the other Channel 4 breakfast ventures, The Channel Four Daily, RI:SE, and the short-lived Morning Glory. How many of those exist? I have a suspicion that they may be almost wiped out of existence.
I have access to Kaleidoscope's data, and just totted everything up. According to the information they have the survival rates for the Big Breakfast, by year, are:
1992: 21 out of 69
1993: 73 out of 262
1994: 104 out of 261
1995: 119 out of 260
1996: 101 out of 261
1997: 62 out of 261
1998: 48 out of 260
1999: 55 out of 261
2000: 53 out of 261
2001: 55 out of 261
2002: 17 out of 65
TOTAL: 698 out of 2482
In addition there is a May 1996 episode shown as having only one of its two tapes surviving, and a November 2000 edition for which one segment (featuring Patti Boulaye) is known to survive on domestic videotape.
I actually worked out the month-by-month figures, which I felt were probably overkill for this comment section, but which seem to show relatively consist archvial rates for periods of time, then sudden abrupt changes to a new archival rate. From Oct 92 to Jan 94 there seems to be a fairly conistent average of about 16 missing episodes per month, then a couple extra survial seem to occur in Feb 94 and Apr 94, before it sticks on exactly 13 missing from every month from May 94 to Feb 95, It then stays at an average of about that (but no longer always the exact figure) between about Mar 95 and Apr 97, with Jul 95 having a couple of extra survivals to normal, and Oct 96 a couple less. Then from May 97 to Feb 02 (its last full month) it seem to average about 18 missing episode a month, so clearly something changed, either in May 97 itself, or subsequently with respect to shows from that month onwards.
Based on Kaleidoscope data the month with the most survivals is Jul 95 with 12, whilst the month with the least is Aug 97 with literally none.
One other thing I noticed is that, although most episodes don't have presenter and guest details for them in the Kaleidoscope, database there were some that specifically have Bob Monkhouse's name against them, and even some of them are marked as not surviving. I know he later said he hated doing Big Breakfast, but I'm sure he would have recorded them at the time and then still kept the tapes, as he did with virtually everything he was in, and with a large amount of other comedy-based shows, so I expect there are more survivals overall than are in Kaleidoscope's database (not withstanding that a mass-junking, as implied by your comment, could have lost other episode that are in the list as surviving).
Finally I can actually add to that survival rate, as I have a VHS somewhere with an edition on, or at least a chunk of an edition. I know it featured the Friday song, which in that edition referenced the opening, and fairly rapid re-closing, of the Millenium footbridge in London, which was found to sway alarmingly from side to side. I reckon this would therefore be the Friday 16th June 2000 edition, which does not survive according to Kaleidoscope, so I'll have to see if I can get it online for posterity.
@@MrDannyDetail Thank you very much for making the time & effort to finding out the full truth of this matter.
The real question is however, who exactly was responsible for such destruction? And why was it still being done as late as the Early 2000s.
Geldof, Alli & ITV have a lot to answer for.
Unfortunately, Copyright and pc issues mean that even recordings that do exist might as well be lost as they will never see the light of day.
Although by no means complete, A lot of this old material can be seen again by sailing the 7 seas. If you know what I mean!
You should do a video on Channel 4 books, they produced many publications over the years.
Channel 4 had an award winning coproduction with RTÉ and Irish independent production companies which changed names over the years, Waterway’s is one of the best canal documentary programs ever produced fronted by the late Dick Warner.
Now getting hold of that show was very difficult over the years, the vhs versions I had weren’t in a good state. However there was a breakthrough in Australia in 2012, against all odds, when all the episodes were released in dvd form and in remarkable quality. So great things can happen if the original production company is willing to make efforts to get their archive content out.
You would think that in the age of streaming, that a lot of old archive content would get an airing considering the risk and costs of physical media is removed.
Also, the intention around Channel 4's setting up was that the majority of the medium and smaller-sized companies felt like their advertising revenues were stagnant and also that their studio use was at a minimum so they wanted a fourth channel which would give them room to manoeuvre because there just wasn't the schedule space available on the main network of ITV.
I suspected you were going to make a video about the Transdiffusion article, and I am so glad you did!
Me too!
My pleasure!
@@AdamMartyn No worries!
There's a good and funny docu on 4 player with Adam [Buxton] & Joe [Cornish] 'The Fourmative Years' and you realise that C4 just ran the gamut between groundbreaking and downright bonkers.
The 4Mations block alot is lost media because most was only aired once and TV guides did not say the name of the Animation shorts included so no one knows everything that aired in them until the blockly slowly stoped thanks to South Park. Channel 4 seem to forget how much they did for Animation in the UK though and the last time they tried to get back into they created the really bad Family Guy Clone Full English.
RUclips has been a great place for people to archive channel 4 content. I loved the 4 later shows in the late 90s & 2000's epecially a series called vids the entire run of this show is on here.
If there's one thing RUclips is good for, it's as an archival platform for older television content that would have otherwise been long lost to the ages. It's much the same with American TV, there are tremendous amounts of locally-produced shows that were exclusive to one particular city's broadcast station and only seen in a very small area of the country, and their significance to regional culture would be long forgotten if people hadn't been uploading transfers of their parents' old VHS tapes.
At least One Summer is not lost at least, see that Network has released it on DVD & even Blu-Ray, looks like an interesting drama.
Good video, but people like Sticky Tape 'n' rust are finding plenty of early 1980s channel 4 content on VHS...
Thats good! The more that count be found and archived the better!
The one silver lining in the cloud is that Channel 4 started the same time that Video Recorder use and ownership took off in the UK. So unlike the sixties there should be a lot of material available even if it isn't in the best quality.
I can remember Channel 4 starting but not being able to access it because in Wales we had S4C, so had to wait for Channel 4 programmes to be scheduled however many weeks later, and whatever time of day. Hence the use of the video recorder.
I can certainly remember S4C starting up the day before Channel 4.
On the subject of missing programmes in the first few weeks of Channel 4 they showed an excellent documentary series called The Sixties a critical overview of that decade in six parts.
As with most historical programmes it more reflects the views of the time it was made rather than the period it is analysing.
I tried to find it on RUclips about 5 years ago but could only find one episode that dealt with housing in the sixties. That episode has now vanished from RUclips.
I subsequently found out the production company that made the series no longer exists.
So another lost programme.
The rights holders being different for each territory is what causes uproar from copyright holders with Virtual Private Networks. As VPN's sell the ability to watch content not available in your country because streaming providers don't hold the rights in that territory, you can switch to somewhere else. Reminds me of the legal grey area with satellite television in the 1990s where people would buy decoders and smart cards to receive services and content not available in the UK. In regards to analogue degradation, I wonder if AI will be implemented to "upscale, clean and restore" content from VHS or whether that would be controversial and seen as cultural vandalism?
When companies were taken over, rather than dissolved, how on earth did the solicitors drawing up the agreements not realise the future revenue potential of their back catalogue and put archive plans in the terms!?
Nobody predicted the home video market would expand to more than Hollywood films back then.
@@Firthy2002 In the case of TVS they lost their ITV franchise at the end of 1992 (once VHS had definitely expanded beyond movies) and were subsequently part of several buyouts as larger and large companies gobbled up the previous ones. TVS actually owned the Mary Tyler Moore back catalogue, a purchase that ended up financially problematic for TVS, and which may partially have contributed to them not getting the new franchise contract for 1993 onwards. Presumably the succesive rounds of buyouts were intended to acquire the MTM content, and other more-lucrative tapes that had also been absorbed by other companies archives being added to the pile by its successive owners. I think its believed that the current owners of the TVS tapes, and the rest of the giant stack of tapes it is in amongst, are Disney, who are probably not even aware that amongst there humongous haul of tapes they have a load of stuff made by a small local televison company who served the local needs of the south and south east of England in the 1980s (including presumably a lot of Fred Dineage and Fern Britton). Or even if they are vaguely aware it is in there somewhere I'd guess it's not really on their priority list of what to preserve, digitise and get uploaded onto Disney+.
@@MrDannyDetailI’ll bet the people in what was left of TVS who turned down the offer from LWT to buy them outright are kicking themselves now.
While the early days may have seen a lot of consideration to the ITV companies, never forget that it was one of those companies that delivered what would become possibly the channel's most iconic programme. Countdown was a Yorkshire production from the outset, and even after all the various mergers and reorgs, it's still produced by an entity in the ITV group.
In the interest of preserving the artistic output of independent producers, I'd like to see the sale of the BFI's analogue archive to the BBC, who maintain (and proactively digitise) the largest archive of its kind. If funding is an issue for the BFI, then this could be a path to solving that problem, as they could explore a shared rights agreement with the BBC, or re-license the digitised output back from the BBC in exchange for allowing the BBC rights to distribute the content on their platforms.
Excellent video as always. We have the greatest tv in the world, so sad that a lot had disappeared or is only in people’s memories. Sad.
Being a child in southern england in the 80s I was a regular watcher of TVS beacuse of Childrens ITV and the classics such as Knight Rider/The A Team and Airwolf.
Actually got hold of one summer earlier today, 1 series 1983
I recall some wonderful dance programmes that got used as fillers occasionally: one that sticks in my memory due to its accompanying melody, the imagery grows dim over time though… it involved a cantor singing dressed in I imagine to be a human-sized bowling pin with the other performers dancing around him.
The problem with memory is that it gets confused after forty years and I think a chunk of New Order's 'True Faith' has become entangled with the imagery. 😮😵💫
Great video Adam, reall enjoyed it
Thank you!
I have the dvd of One Summer, had to preorder it, many years after broadcast. Recognise the lad in the clip? Name of David Morrisey, apparently he is still acting, and is a quite good baker, according to Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith
David Morrissey was actually in doctor who a few years back.
They did a series in the 90's called "The Secret life of Schools" which was filmed at my primary school and I've tried looking for them but I can't even find a mention of them existing despite me having two episodes on a video cassette.
I'd love to see some of the first Film4 dramas, some, like P'tang Yang Kipperbang are still available but others like Accounts, have disappeared. Along with a series starring a young actor called Kenneth Branagh in his first screen role.
I wonder what happened to him?
I am pretty sure I have P'tang Yang Kipperbang either on hard drive or video. I have watched it in the last 10yrs so I am pretty sure I have it.
I always remember Channel 4s first film4 film with Ian McKellen called Walter, his character Walter had life hard shall we say.
That one is safe as it was made by Central.
@@stickytapenrust6869 yea available on dvd with the sequel Walter and June (83)
The Inbetweeners pilot 'Baggy Trousers' is currently lost media. I did find a clip but had to take it down. Would love to see you cover it!
It is a shame things no longer exist or will never be released and so may as well not exist. So much just sitting on a shelf.
Reminds me of the time the US Library of Congress convened a special hearing in 1994 to determine the whereabouts of the archives of the Dumont Television Network, which existed from 1945 to 1956. Turned out, 95% of it had been trashed.
STV hasn't made every episode of Brookside available. They're releasing them at a rate of five per week: 65 at the time of writing.
You don't have to be in Scotland to use STV Player but you don't get the full range of ITV programmes if you don't use a Scottish postcode. Presumably this is to avoid overlap with ITVX.
It's quite soothing to be rewatching these programmes. It's so odd that, I don't even connect with half the things that I now see on social media. TV was indeed a very entertaining thing back then as well. And less of other forms of entertainment. And why doesn't BFI actually try to find volunteers or even actually find some charities to try and protect those films ? Even looking at this clip now.. it feels so actually forefront... and it is a lot better than actually watching a repeat film on satelite these days. Never knew that there were SO many actual small producers and indie companies at that time. Really enlightening....
The other thing to think about regarding digital formats and digitising old analogue formats is that digital formats can change.
What format do you digitise to? Codecs and formats fall out of use (just look at the size of the Multimedia Wiki which documents pretty much every codec and contianer format ever used) What do you store it on? CDs, DVDs and even BluRays are disappearing, USB won't last forever and even hard drive technology has changed over time.
Even though I was 10 when C4 started, I really remember a very early series of Nicholas Nickleby by Dickens. It was basically just a film of a stage play, but it felt so different. I wonder if that exists somewhere
"the Scottish ITV"
You do realise if you'd said that to anyone up here a few years back,Adam,that would have been a bit of a sore point! (thinking of the period where we didn't get some ITV networked programmes because of the STV/ITV dispute at the time!)
Would be an interesting video that topic as it lead to a new contract relationship for itv programs from the main itv network. The situation with border itv being in a bit of an grey area, regarding its requirement to show absolutely minimum local programs for the Scottish side or the region.
I know these days with digital media it is not as important to archive but I like to do it when I can more for my benefit. I record off TV in hd where I can and save to Blu ray discs as I hope they will last longer than hard drives. I think if you really feel like you enjoy having plenty of content to watch and don’t want to deal with the platform squabbles you get with streaming, it is an essential thing to do. I think if you are a long time soap fan or something like that too you will get a benefit from it aswell. There’s so many moments I am so glad I caught on video from my end too. This is where I wish all the channels did HD broadcasting as that would make it possible to archive all of the Freeview network in High quality. I know if I had been around in the 80s, I’d have a pretty large archive now and migrated it to Blu ray discs or something more long lasting.
I might soon do something similar myself.
Roughly speaking, how much memory do you have dedicated to archiving TV content?
If I was to do it (I'm pretty sure I will), I'd want to have stuff backed up on at least 2 separate 'memory devices', so that if 1 goes bad, I still have the other.
@@nathanpollard1223 I do not have a specific amount of memory dedicated as I felt hard drives or SSD drives were too much of a uncertainty. I basically use single layer (25gb) Blu ray discs and burn as needed. I have used Blu rays because they are HD compatible and can store In my case either 6-7 hours of HD video or 13 hours of standard definition video. I don’t have a backup solution because Blu rays are said by manufacturers to last for 30-50 years maybe longer. Plus the way the setup works for me, I can only do one disc for every programme due to copy protection. I wouldn’t suggest using any other discs such as dvds as they are really bad in quality these days and solid state drives or flash memory can fail very quickly. Hard drives aren’t as bad if you don’t access often and have a backup. But I personally will still go discs. I hope this helps. Basically build as you go but make sure you have researched average lifespans for your storage method and you go with well made equipment. Also I’d suggest no scrimping on quality (eg using a lower file quality) as it may not look bad now but you’ll notice in future.
Take 5 is technically a children's programme block for channel 4 but it's still lost media which is a shame.
Bonkers how much media will be lost - really interesting video 📹 ❤️
After reading the Transdiffusion Article (credit to them for brining light into an previously little discussed topic and credit to Adam for bringing that article to a wider audience), this is the current state of the Channel 4 Archive (in other words I'm summarising the article itself):
*Anything produced by the ITV Companies (bar TVS) is basically in the hands of ITV plc, STV Group plc, FremantleMedia and the the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA). So that's not a concern at present.
*Now when it comes to TVS; despite the article claiming that "it is no longer clear who owns the rights to TVS archive", the evidence suggests that Disney (via a series of takeovers) which ultimately owns this archive (apart from certain programmes owned by ITV plc) and I believe that Disney has stated this in the past.
The real issue however is that there is little information on its current archival state (especially confirmed information) and it's believed that the paperwork itself has gone missing, which makes it very difficult to actually release their programmes on any format. Hence the possibility that much of the TVS Archive might no longer survive (not helped by the fact Disney cares little about this matter).
What's particularly disappointing is that the BFI has done very little to help with this particular situation, not even make sure that the TVS Archive itself is kept safe at the BFI National Archive, at least until the paperwork issues are sorted.
*Now we get to a real problematic issue, or rather the programmes that where merely licensed by Channel 4 by Independent Production Companies for a few screenings. Many of them where small operations and virtually all of them have either been taken over or have even gone out of business, hence there being a lot of uncertainty over the fare of their collective archives.
Honestly, that seems like a dumb arrangement compared to Channel 4 simply financing the programme themselves (& thus keeping the rights).
*Finally; we come to the programmes that that both commissioned and funded solely by C4. Which fortunately do seem to be with the BFI National Archive or in Channel 4's own Archives, even if the article doesn't make clear how many of these programmes ended up in said archive and also makes clear that there are many programs that need to be digitised.
However, things are still quite messy on this front. For example, some of these programmes have been given back to their original producers (After Dark being a good example of this). While the International Rights of these various C4 Commissioned & Financed Programmes are now owned by All3Media these days, mainly because Ofcom was dumb enough to have Independent Producers retain more rights to the programmes they made for BBC, ITV & Channel 4.
So moral of the story, the likes of the BBC, ITV & Channel 4 should no longer rely on Independent Production Companies to make Commissioned Programmes, certainly Ofcom should drop the legal commitments on this front.
Anyway, my advice on sorting out these issues would be this:
*Use National Lottery Funding to Digitise & Restore Channel 4 Programmes (in the BFI National Archive & Elsewhere) still on Tape.
*Get the TVS Archive stored in the BFI National Archive ASAP. Alongside any archive holdings that Channel 4 directly has.
*Use Company House + Birth, Death & Immigration Records to find out any copyright owners (of C4 Shown Programming) that cannot be traced.
The TVS paperwork issues are unlikely to ever be sorted as you’d have to spend time (therefore money) tracking down all contributors to negotiate what they get paid - more money, especially if a contributor wasn’t famous at the time but now is, so demands more for appearing. Assuming they are still alive or traceable. The rights paperwork exists, but the royalties paperwork doesn’t.
Which is why it’s important channels like mine present content stuck in copyright limbo or actually missing otherwise it will never be seen again.
The BFI is publicly funded, do you honestly think any Government is going to give them enough money to sort this paperwork issue out?
@@stickytapenrust6869 It is a real shame really about the TVS situation. I have read of it before and put comments on other videos about it. The shame of course is that all their series are not able to be reshown on ITV or any other channels; as well as not being released on DVD as other series are or were. Difficult really too?
@@brucedanton3669 A few series are able to be shown as the rights to them were purchased before the rights for the rest of the archive were messed up. Ruth Randell Mysteries, How 2, Finders Keepers and Art Attack are all OK.
@@stickytapenrust6869 Yes I see of course too. The Ruth Rendell Mysteries-I guess aka Inspector Wexford that starred George Baker. But other of their series like CATS Eyes and Perfect Scoundrels that TVS did for the ITV network then presumably were lost, which is a shame really?
@@stickytapenrust6869
*I acknowledge that the TVS Paperwork issue is the biggest barrier to getting TVS Archive Programming from getting released on Home Media & Streaming (although I believe that the TVS made series of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries might be an exception to this). That can only be addressed by someone big in the Media Industry taking a serious interest in solving this particular issue.
However, I find it quite interesting that you mention that some of the TVS Paperwork does actually survive, because I got the impression that virtually none of it survived.
*However, the more immediate issue is the current location & surviving status of the actual TVS Archive itself. After all, it has never been properly established where exactly the archive itself is currently located at present, nor it's current state. That doesn't bode well when we are talking about a company (Disney) that isn't (for reasons that are very clear) going to give a dam about the TVS Archive, is not going to be particularly keen on paying to store tapes & films it cannot commercially exploit and would be very tempted to dump said archive to save some money.
That's why I find it incredibly surprising (& disappointing) that the BFI has made zero effort to store the TVS Archive itself in its own BFI National Archive. Because at least under those circumstances, we could be assured that the archive will continue to remain safe if & when the paperwork issues are solved. Something they one cannot expect from Bob Iger...
I know that there is some four-mation (a block on channel four that was all about animation) that has become lost I can remember a documentary called “an eye for sound” from this block of program it use to be on RUclips but the channel I watched it on has been deleted
Alot of that block is lost media because most was only aired once and TV guides did not say the name of the Animation shorts included so no one knows everything that aired in them until the they slowly stoped thanks to South Park. Channel 4 seem to forget how much they did for Animation in the UK though and the last time they tried to get back into they created the really bad Family Guy Clone Full English.
I did have some parts of the block from VHS and put them online alot was lost media before I did that which was some shorts and Idents.
Got one summer on dvd, classic series.
Thanks for letting me know about Brookside on STV player. Would never have known otherwise!
G21 4Pa to Pz if you want postcodes. High rise flats.
Doesn't that service uni students use have archive access to TV broadcasts dating back 70s 80s 90s present
Hello ,
Am in Scottish Borders and wee don’t get STV we get ITV1 Border think this includes Dumfries and Galloway . Midlothian think is the start of STV . My opinion is we should all get STV in Scotland.
This may be a new idea for video check what regions in Scotland, get STV and what we didn’t get itv 1 Border Television or new channel about random TV stuff?
Probably the only time that will happen is when at some stage in the future, itv plc buy out stv plc. That could be many years away! Doubt itv are so very keen on much bar absolute minimum programming in the Scottish Borders anyway. Buying out stv plc is unlikely to be cheap, so it’s a matter of how economic cycles go and if stv stay stable financially. UTV really messed themselves up in 2015, it wasn’t too long before itv finished them off as the second last independent region. At least they managed to get some sweeteners into the deal so at least some local programs still go out, alike itv wales and stv will probably push for something alike too.
What was the name of the Channel 4 program that was shown during the day time which showed various landscapes with ambient or chillout music background?
It was called The Art of Landscape as far as I know then too.
I think it was on Channel 4 in about 1990 at times from 9.30am to 12.00 Midday noon from what I remember so too.
I’m a massive eurovison fan and there’s no where I can find of older eurovison with graham Norton commentary. There’s clips and bits but nothing fully and it seems such a shame. Idk what is going on with that.😢
People need to find some Lost Channel 4 Content and upload them onto the internet or onto TV
I'm pretty sure that there's an episode of the Crystal Maze which is semi-lost. I've seen reruns of the original series where there is 1 episode which is always shown with sign-language (I think that the original episode recording was lost)
Other then Countdown, Channel 4 has had many changes throughout the years.
Hard drive or cloud storage and acceptable high resolution (i.e. 1080p or better) has only been ubiquitous for about a decade😬. 1990s digital formats such as Digibeta were tape-based and are definitely not robust either!
I'm from the U.S. and this video was a fascinating one for me to learn more about U.K. TV. I'm glad I came across it as well because you might be able to shed some light on something for me. I've been searching for a movie that was produced by Granada and aired on ITV in 1995 - "The Perfect Match" starring Con O'Neill and Saskia Reeves. It's not available for purchase or streaming anywhere and I haven't seen anything to indicate it's been archived anywhere publicly accessible. Do you think ITV would be the rights holder? Granada itself? Or would Granada productions be owned by someone else now? Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide!
Long lost for years already has been - they came from somewhere else 1984..i saw this at broadcast aged just 12 and loved it..thankfully its on youtibr but jn a really poor vhs upload..it wont be released because apparently the copyright is too complicated..i asked nerwork tv about possibility of them releasing it.
Everyone can get STV player, it's not regional. In fact it's a great idea for those whose TV's or devices can't upgrade to ITVX, just use STV player & put in a Scottish postcode. I'm a Clydebank post office 😂👍
The Max Headroom show never got repeated made at Carlton now owned by all3media
At between 12 minutes and 50 seconds to 12 minutes and 55 seconds in you said that the BFI is business, that is not true the BFI is a public body under Royal Charter like the BBC.
Channel 4
I'd love to rewatch Kid in the corner it was a 3 part series in 1999 about a child with ADHD
Brillant .. thankyou
So long as the oldie episodes of Countdown still exist them fine
What about chip’s comic?,or pob’s programme?
First! But seriously, this is amazing!
Nope you’re not first
Thank you!
This is another reason why piracy shouldn't be frowned apon because of this restoration
This wouldn't excuse all piracy.
@Nathan Pollard in my personal non professional eyes all piracy is fine except small individual people creators or companies or indie games developers as it actually harms them
Does the bbc have any lost media?
I'd contact Steve Woodgate who has the copyrights to the TVS logo and so on, if not, ITV1 Meridian may have some in its archive...
I saw the prototype logo of C4
"Going for the lowest common denominator " that is and was a snobbish way of saying at the time that ITV was a popular network liked by the great unwashed and Channel 4 was a Channel for the elitist ok yah crowd.
They'd better not have got rid of the SF sitcom "They Came From Somewhere Else" with Pete McCarthy! I need to see that again!
Lost media?