Missing BBC sitcom episodes' audio recovered
- Audio recordings of missing sitcom episodes by Clement & La Frenais have been found
- Five programmes by the duo have been discovered by the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society
- All from the mid-/late-1960s, they include a wiped edition of The Likely Lads
Five wiped BBC TV sitcom episodes from the mid-1960s have been partially recovered, British Comedy Guide can announce.
All written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the creators of Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, the original video tapes were wiped by the corporation, but have now been recovered from off-air audio recordings made by viewer Mike Dodsworth.
None of the programmes have been heard - or seen - since the time of their original broadcasts and are otherwise missing from the BBC's archives.
The collection comprises of one edition of the duo's landmark, breakthrough comedy series The Likely Lads, and the first four episodes of Further Adventures Of Lucky Jim, their television outing for the famed character created by comic novelist Sir Kingsley Amis.
The The Likely Lads episode is the third from Series 2, Talk Of The Town, which aired on 30th June 1965. It sees Bob (Rodney Bewes) wake up the morning after a large party in a state of confusion, as the whole town appears to be excitedly congratulating him - and he has no idea why.
Meanwhile, Further Adventures Of Lucky Jim, which ran for a single series of seven episodes in May and June 1967, starred Keith Barron as the eponymous Jim Dixon, immortalised on film in a hit 1957 Boulting Brothers comedy starring Ian Carmichael.
Created in a celebrated 1954 novel by Amis, Dixon is a young university lecturer in history, beset by a tide of bad fortune. Of the seven television episodes produced only the fifth survives, with the new recoveries making up all four earlier editions of the series.
Aired from 2nd to 23rd May, the episodes are entitled Jim's In, Jim Cleans Up, Look Why Don't We Go Back To My Place? and Jim Freaks Out, respectively.
Clement & La Frenais returned to the character for a further seven episodes, under the subtly different title of The Further Adventures Of Lucky Jim, in 1982. Enn Reitel starred, with all editions surviving in the BBC's archive.
The five recoveries were made by The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, found amidst a collection of reel-to-reel recordings made and donated to them by Mike Dodsworth. Digitisation and restoration has been carried out by Keith Wickham, a comedian, actor, writer, radio archivist and specialist audio restorer.
The Likely Lads Collection
This 6 disc box set contains all 27 episodes of classic sitcom Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?, and the 8 surviving episodes of its predecessor, The Likely Lads, including one never previously released on DVD.
Entente Cordiale
Double Date
Older Women Are More Experienced
The Suitor
The Last Of The Big Spenders
Rocker
Goodbye To All That
The Other Side Of The Fence
This classic comedy series stars Rodney Bewes and James Bolam as Geordies Terry Collier and Bob Ferris.
First released: Monday 16th October 2006
DVD- Distributor: 2 Entertain
- Region: 2 & 4
- Discs: 6
- Minutes: 972
- Subtitles: English
- Catalogue: BBCDVD2110
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