"It's just a ruuumour" - Beatles TV recoveries

Maybe there's something to it or maybe we'll never hear another peep, but some rumors have it tons of once-"lost" vintage television, mostly British, has been recovered, including appearances by The Beatles. For instance, from Wog Blog:

Here is a page with a list of Beatles TV appearances.

The most visible proof of some basis for rumor are the recent recoveries of "lost" 1960s episodes of the TV program, Doctor Who. Those recoveries were made by TIEA under direction of Phil Morris and are said to be just a few of a whole lot of UK TV their operations have recovered from overseas TV libraries.

Think I'd be most interested in 1966 TOTP. Are there any "lost" Beatles TV appearances you're interested in? Are you not too fussed with it? Did you see any back in the day that now seems lost?

 

Audio of John and George discussing meditation on David Frost's show survives, but it'd be fascinating to actually see the show.

 

I wish something like this could happen for The Rolling Stones. Of course, then they'd just be accused of copying The Beatles.

 

while growing up the only Beatles on TV I saw was on American TV until VHS came around...

 

Maybe this bit of news is carried over from comments made about what may be released after 2 BBC "Live at" & "On The Air" settled down, was it Michael Heatley who said there's a Special something in mid 2014? Apple also is working on "Live Anthology" special of some kind.

 

Since you lived in America at the time, that would definitely make sense, Michael...

 

ouuu that was funny!

 

Is there a list of all the BBC wiped Beatles video material with specific songs?

 

I'd LOVE to see them miming to Yes It Is!

 

A silly 'video' - not sure where to put this, so here it is...
A new Beatles video clip is released of band's cover of Buddy Holly's Words of Love
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...rges-bands-cover-Buddy-Hollys-Words-Love.html

Lot of caps and pics too. (Be warned, heavy celebspam all over that site). Someone far more a Beatles expert than I might catch if there's anything new there. If not, it's cute.

 

I saw some interesting posts elsewhere recently from someone who works in video restoration. One seems to indicate that he'd recently seen the lost Juke Box Jury appearance featuring all four. If true, this is a considerable find, as there's currently only two surviving episodes from the original 1959 to 1967 run. As Juke Box Jury wasn't sold to overseas broadcasters, it's a mystery to me as to where this would have been recovered from. Was a huge cache of hidden recordings discovered during the recent redevelopment work at BBC TV Centre in Sherpherd's Bush? Or has a private collector handed the material over?

The other lost Beatles BBC footage includes the several appearances on Top Of The Pops, all featuring the group miming to a current hit single. Of all their appearances on that show, all that currently survives is a short excerpt of a performance of Ticket To Ride that was lifted for an episode of Doctor Who.

 

That's curious. As mentioned elsewhere, it's known there were telerecordings of two episodes of The Sky at Night (this is one) from the same era returned. I heard it said they were not thought to have been telerecorded since they were not sold overseas, yet these were reportedly recovered in Africa (possibly also facilitated by the work of Phil Morris that also produced the recent Doctor Who returns). If I recall right, quite a bit of TOTP was sold there. That doesn't account for Juke Box Jury, but it would seem to suggest what you heard can't be as easily ruled out as might have been thought a few years back. It may also suggest a possibility for more TOTP finds.

Seems strange, BBC leaving BBC Television Centre. I'm hoping they kept a look out for anything of archival interests and didn't just clear it out on the cheap.

 

I wish I could find more on that episode of Juke Box Jury, but the person who claimed to have seen it seems to have stopped posting. He may have been asked to keep quiet for the time being. As for episodes of The Sky At Night turning up in Africa, could they have been recovered from an astronomical observatory?

Television Centre isn't being abandoned for good, but some of the studios will be lost due to the redevelopment work. The site was underused anyway, as many drama and comedy productions are now shot entirely on location and they therefore don't need studio facilities. Furthermore some BBC departments have moved elsewhere - children's programmes and sports presentation now comes from Manchester, and news and current affairs tends to use the extended Broadcasting House in Central London.

 

I don't know how reliable it is, but Getty Images, who now market the BBC's TV archives, lists that edition of Juke Box Jury as available. It says "16mm film" which perhaps might suggest it was a private recording.

 

Basically I think it was cheaper for them to sell up and move out...have someone else renovate the building...then move back into a lot of it.

 

It was standard procedure at the BBC at the time to distribute material overseas on 16mm film. Not only was videotape then prohibitively expensive, but apart from a Hong Kong based cable network, no-one else used the UK's 405-line TV system.

 

Several of these missing episodes of TOTP may not see the light, because of certain talent as host. Ever since 2012, the BBC began acting like Jimmy Savile never existed, by banning his episodes.

Wonder if anyone here agrees with the BBC's decision on that? And what about Pop Gear? Will that film be shelved from now on, just because Savile was the host?

 

I bet it's a 16mm kinescope.

 

It's not just Savile; the BBC has also pulled all the editions of 'Top Of The Pops' hosted by Dave Lee Travis from their current run.

 

So, do you agree with the BBC's decision to ban all episodes hosted by Savile and Travis?

 

Something similar happened here in Australia - the host of a popular show "Collectors" was charged with having child porn and ever since not one of his episodes has been rerun.

 

No; simply because one of the (I think) 1977 shows they repeated featured Gary Glitter. How do you justify one action but not the other?. IIRC, Jonathan King has also been in a couple of shows.