One of the key contributors to the BFI’s Missing Believed Wiped initiative, Kaleidoscope, the classic TV archive based in Birmingham, returns to BFI Southbank on 5 August to celebrate their 35th anniversary with a bumper Missing Believed Wiped programme hosted by veteran ITV Central news presenter Wesley Smith and host of Kaleidoscope’s The Long Lost Shows Show on Big Centre TV, as well as leading puppeteers, Warrick Brownlow-Pike and Phil Fletcher, best known as playing Dodge the Dog on CBeebies and Hacker T Dog on CBBC as well as work on Sesame Street, Muppets Most Wanted, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and cult BBC series Mongrels.
With a double session of discoveries chosen by different members of Kaleidoscope’s team of volunteers, the line-up represents all aspects of the organisation’s work in recovering, restoring and helping return British television to the archives.
As well as a countdown of their Top 12 finds over the years, programme highlights include rare colour footage of the Bee Gees, unseen since 1968, the long lost, Up The Toga (1972), the un-transmitted US pilot version of Up Pompeii! starring Frankie Howerd (pictured), The Fraggles Are Coming (1983), a recently discovered Christmas Day preview, and the first UK broadcast of Fraggle Rock, plus an ‘in conversation’ with Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, one of Britain’s leading comedy writing duos, and their never-seen 1979 pilot for Holding the Fort, as well as iconic Hammer and Bond star and Those Wonderful TV Times Hostess Madeline Smith, colourised clips of early Doctor Who and the last unheard audio interview with Sherlock Holmes’ Jeremy Brett.
Once More with Felix (1967-1970), presented by popular American-British singer Julie Felix was a popular Saturday night BBC music programme. Unseen since 1968, Missing Believed Wiped will screen an early UK performance by the Bee Gees, of “World” and “Birdie Told Me” on the show. The colour of this rare performance has been recovered using the chroma dots found in the original filmed recording.
Up The Toga (1972) was long thought lost for decades. The pilot was discovered on ebay and has been fully restored and colour graded by Kaleidoscope.
Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, one of Britain’s leading comedy writing duos, responsible for such classics as Shine on Harvey Moon, Birds of a Feather, The New Statesman and Goodnight Sweetheart will discuss their career onstage, before introducing from their personal collection the never-seen 1979 pilot for the pair’s role-reversal LWT sitcom, Holding the Fort, featuring three then up–and–coming actors: Peter Davison, Patricia Hodge and Matthew Kelly.
British versions of Jim Henson's much-loved 80s children’s programme Fraggle Rock, including UK filmed inserts and voiceovers, were wiped in the 1990s. Whilst the US versions of the show have been made available on DVD, many of the British episodes were lost for decades. In the last ten years Kaleidoscope has managed to recover half of the known episodes, which are now preserved in the BFI National Archive and Kaleidoscope archive. These include, The Fraggles Are Coming, the first mini-episode which originally aired in the UK on Christmas Day in 1985, two weeks before the first series TX’d in January 1984. Puppeteers Warrick Brownlow-Pike and Phil Fletcher will introduce the find and talk about their careers, including work on Sesame Street, Muppets Most Wanted and Jim Henson/Netflix produced The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.
A must for Sherlock Holmes fans, the programme will also include a segment featuring the mercurial Jeremy Brett. Brett’s biographer David Stuart Davies will introduce a previously unheard recording of a phone interview between Brett and Davies. Recorded five months before he died, on 25 April 1995, Brett speaks at length about playing Holmes. Davies’ new memoir on Jeremy Brett, Bending the Willow, is published to launch with the event.
The Missing Believed Wiped double session will also screen a long lost early television adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ghost story The Signalman (BBC, 1965). The Dickens tale stars Emlyn Williams, had also starred in an earlier 1955 (ATV/ITV) filmed version of the story. Originally screened as a bedtime story feature on iconic late-night discussion programme, Late Night Line Up, hardly anything was known about this version of the chilling Dickens tale which cropped up on a tape that was being digitised. The Signalman is one of a handful of literary adaptations performed by Emlyn Williams on the tape which pertain to be recordings for the same show.
The celebratory programme also includes Tyne Tees nostalgia TV game show Those Wonderful TV Times compere and Hammer and Bond star Madeline Smith to talk about and introduce a complete previously missing episode from 1976. Kaleidoscope long wondered what early Doctor Who would look like in colour as the show was shot in colour but broadcast in black & white, copies of which have survived. Kaleidoscope decided to go back to original colour production photos shot on set to match the colours in the surviving episodes. The results of their work can be seen in the selection of never seen before colourised clips premiering at Missing Believed Wiped. The celebratory line-up also features a potpourri of missing pop material from ITV’s Southern TV in the 1960s, including some of the earliest television work of Tony Blackburn. The selection includes rare and completely unseen performances and promos from The Dave Clark Five, The Bee Gees, Cilla Black, The Who, Mark Wynter, Sandie Shaw, Julie Driscoll, and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.
Reflecting on 35 years, Kaleidoscope CEO Chris Perry said: “Today’s event celebrates 35 years of Kaleidoscope finding lost television. Each programme today represents the hard work of different aspects of our volunteers. This event showcases beautiful discoveries, the Dickens ghost story was a huge surprise to find. The Bee Gees look stunning in colour, what a fantastic lost early performance to find. Early Doctor Who in colour also looks amazing. Our treasure hunters have worked overtime to find incredible British television gems and then restore them to their best state. Only one film print copy was ever made of Up the Toga, what were the chances of finding it again 50 years later? We’re thrilled to be able to share these finds with the Missing Believed Wiped audience at BFI Southbank”
BFI Archive Television Programmer Dick Fiddy and co-ordinator of the BFI’s Missing Believed Wiped initiative added: “Kaleidoscope and its wide-ranging membership of TV Historians, researchers, enthusiasts and collectors, have been vital contributors to Missing Believed Wiped over the years. This celebratory line-up covers the television waterfront from unaired pilots, to precious Dr Who clips, from rare music performances to fascinating interviews – a typical eclectic mix from Kaleidoscope. And to add an extra gloss there’s Hammer and Bond star Madeline Smith, and comic writing royalty Marks and Gran joining us on stage”
Started in 1988 by a group of college students, Kaleidoscope is a unique archive repository for lost television footage, working alongside the BFI’s Missing Believed Wiped, BBC Treasure Hunt and ITV’s Raiders of the Lost Archive in helping to find, preserve and catalogue the nation’s television heritage. Over the years Kaleidoscope has collaborated with the BFI on programming Missing Believed Wiped, researching archive DVD releases and returning significant British finds into the BFI National Archive. Kaleidoscope stores one of the UK’s largest private archives of British television with over 750,000 items, including The Bob Monkhouse Collection and the Jeremy Beadle Archive, alongside various holdings from both the BBC and the different ITV programme archives. Kaleidoscope also operates a flourishing publishing company, runs TV Brain (the television database equivalent to IMDb) as well as making archival television programmes and DVD range.
Tickets for both Missing Believed Wiped sessions are now on sale here, with a joint ticket option available for both sessions.
