Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 11 2013, 2:52 PM GMTApparently Peter Cook, upon hearing that 'Not Only But Also' was due to be wiped, offered a lot of money to buy the tapes. They turned him down. Evil.
Yep. I believe he "begged" to be allowed to buy them. Such a horrific, criminal waste.
Why would they DO that? So bizarre.
If Cook physically had the tapes then the legal team would fear possible piracy or them being aired somewhere else without their knowledge. So that makes sense. But I don't think that's what Cook offered to buy. Wiki says copyright issues which is the same thing.
But he offered to buy new blank tapes for the BBC so they wouldn't have to wipe the Pete and Dud tapes. Meaning ownership of the masters still held by BBC, along with the tapes for posterity and the potential for repeats. Which is all Cook wanted, not to own and keep them himself.
I think he saw it as a personal snub, when 'lesser acts' were saved on tape by the BBC. Lots of rubbish was saved, quite a bit of 'gold dust' wiped to make way for new rubbish. The BBC. Weird lot 
Quick!! - someone 'accidentally' wipe every last episode of Gavin and Stacey
Quote: lofthouse @ January 11 2013, 6:10 PM GMTQuick!! - someone 'accidentally' wipe every last episode of Gavin and Stacey
Nowadays when some sad has-been in the jungle camp farts it gets recorded and preserved for all eternity.
Quote: zooo @ January 11 2013, 2:58 PM GMTWhy would they DO that? So bizarre.
No one has been told why, but Cook took it as a personal snub on him and his work. My guess is because they are the BBC and that's the kind of negative way they have often acted. They have always been a bit superior, very elitist minded, conservative thinking and very closed off at board level.
Don't forget also this was the era of the great ratings war with ITV, which they'd been losing for years. They probably didn't want the public knowing they had taken money from an artist to help save recordings; that's a coup for their rivals ITV, we the license payers would question why they had to; they don't like making commercial decisions like that, that's what ITV do, and primarily they were a broadcaster, not a museum. That was the thinking then. Things have changed a lot now, they say, but you're still never sure the Beeb would make the right decision, they are a bit perverse.
I've started watching the third series. Both episodes I've been watching so far ended after 24 or 25 minutes. Is there any particular reason for the relative brevity of these episodes?
Officially scheduled as a 30 minute series I believe, so presumably that's all Galton and Simpson wrote.
S3E3 was even shorter but great as usual...and had Leonard Rossiter in it.
I've seen the episode where S&S get conned by two swindlers who sell and buy a commode. Very similar to the OFAH episode "Cash & Curry".
How you liking Steptoe and Son so far Gordon? have you finished it all yet? Do you agree with me yet that it is far superior to OFAH?
When you've watched it all, watch it again and again and again.
Is there any lost episodes of SAS?
No, thankfully.
Some are now only in black and white despite having been produced in colour, but all exist in their entirety.
The whole of series six is in black & white on DVD except for two episodes.
Is the pilot in Series 1 DVD released as a special feature?
