|
|||||
|
12th December 1995 Do Not Adjust Your Set Rare television treasures unearthed at Thames TV As Thames TV continues to re-master all its old 2 inch videotapes onto D3, rare discoveries are being made daily. In late September, archivists discovered a previously-missing Do Not Adjust Your Set. The first episode from the second season was on original 405-line VT and has now been transferred to D3/Betacam. Two weeks ago, an old CV2000 tape featuring all the demos/tests for the original Thames station idents were also unearthed. This truly remarkable discovery occurred when a team of VT engineers noticed a dusty cardboard box sitting in the attic of the old Thames TV studios at Teddington, near London. Upon examination another CV2000 reel contained original ABC promo trailers from 1968. Introduced by David Hamilton, extracts include a 90 second clip from a previously-missing Public Eye and Warren Mitchell on The Eamonn Andrews Show. Another CV2000 had an untransmitted ABC pilot for a sitcom entitled Daft As A Brush, starring Betty Driver. The discovery of an Our House edition on a further CV2000 tape has fuelled interest in how many other gems are still waiting to be discovered... Our House was written by Norman Hudis, original writer of many Carry On films. Likewise, many of the cast (Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey) came from the same source. All these goodies should hopefully premiere at Kaleidoscope's 1996 Main Event. On a technical note, a CV2000 reel-to-reel domestic videotape was the earliest form of domestic VCR recording. Pioneering in 1965, different systems of this type were on the market until 1974 when the Phillips 1500 and 1700 VCRs became the norm. Despite the antiquity of this reel-to-reel system it can unearth real gems: a considerable number of Steptoe and Son episodes were recovered in this way. These have subsequently been re-broadcast on television and released on commercial video. CP |
|
|||||||