The Comedy Vaults: BBC2's Hidden Treasure

Repeat of this in the Beeb's comedy week, and most welcome, though I'd seen it before; BUT it's not nice to show us these "never been seen before or never been repeated" gems from their archive, if they have no intention of showing the whole one off pilot or "lost" series.

That is just plain cruel.

With the likes of just about anyone you care to mention in ground breaking comedy from the 80s and 90s, with anything from Milligan to a 24 year old Fry and 22 year old Laurie etc.etc. and everyone who was anyone in between, it's a bloody shame that it's all locked in some vault, never to be enjoyed again.

I'm seriously pissed off about it.

In the grand scheme of things at 6am on a Sunday morning you should be putting the kettle on, making a brew and looking out the window at the birds thinking about what meetings are on Herc. (horse racing not dogging) That should put everything in to perspective.

I remember reading about a long term project to digitise vast libraries of analogue tapes so I think effort has been made to preserve material. It makes me wonder if there are vaults somewhere filled with dust covered reel to reels of historic BBC film that has never been seen. Material that has significant historical value but has been stored away for years.

Neither of the examples you mentioned are really the rarest things in the documentary. Oh In Colour is on YouTube at the moment, and the 1982 Cambridge Footlights Revue was included on the A Bit Of Fry & Laurie DVD.

But yeah, as for the rarer things, it's annoying.

Thank you for the tip re Oh In Colour - I didn't realise that, so at least with be able to watch those.

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 14th March 2021, 8:08 AM

In the grand scheme of things at 6am on a Sunday morning you should be putting the kettle on, making a brew and looking out the window at the birds thinking about what meetings are on Herc.

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Fast asleep!

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 14th March 2021, 8:08 AM

I remember reading about a long term project to digitise vast libraries of analogue tapes so I think effort has been made to preserve material. It makes me wonder if there are vaults somewhere filled with dust covered reel to reels of historic BBC film that has never been seen. Material that has significant historical value but has been stored away for years.

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Yes, much has been digitised, although I don't think they've yet achieved 'all' as it is so time-consuming and expensive. We see bits and pieces creep out more and more each year, but still the oddest of gaps - and as Hercules says, it is incredibly frustrating.