Dad's Army missing episodes
Encyclopedia
Dad's Army missing episodes usually refers to the three lost episodes of the black-and-white
second series of the British
sitcom
television programme Dad's Army
. The whole second series of the sitcom was affected by wiping
, although two episodes were recovered in 2001. An off-air copy of the soundtrack of one of the other missing episodes, and the 1968 Christmas sketch, were recovered in 2008. The episodes were erased (or "junked") by the BBC
during the 1960s and 1970s for a variety of economic and storage reasons. In all, three episodes from the black-and-white second series and two of the four Christmas inserts are still missing, as of 2011.
For the first two series, Dad's Army was made in black-and-white, with most episodes being made on two-inch quad videotape for initial broadcast. As a series thought to have commercial potential overseas, the first series was offered for sale to foreign broadcasters by BBC Enterprises. To this end, 16mm film copies were made of the first six episodes by the BBC Engineering department before the master videotapes were wiped for re-use. In the event, the first series sold very poorly and BBC Enterprises did not express interest in selling series two abroad, resulting in few film copies of series two episodes being made. The episode "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret
" was recorded onto 35mm film instead of videotape, either because it required additional editing (which was easier to perform with film before the advent of modern electronic editing methods) or because no videotape recording facilities were available on the day it was recorded. This inadvertently assured the episode's survival: being effectively a production made on film it fell within the BBC Film Library's remit of keeping filmed productions for posterity.
From the third series onwards the show was made in colour on 625 line videotape. With overseas interest in the series picking up, BBC Enterprises resumed offering the episodes for sale in up to three different formats:
Until 1978 the BBC had no central archive, with the Film Library keeping only some programmes that were made on film (e.g. "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret
"), whilst the Engineering Department handled videotape but had no mandate to retain material for posterity. BBC Enterprises only kept material that was considered commercially exploitable and had limited storage space.
In the mid 1970s BBC Enterprises disposed of much older material where the rights to sell the programmes had expired, whilst the Engineering Department routinely wiped videotapes that were no longer formally required. In 1978 the BBC created the Film & Videotape Library, the first time a permanent archive for all its old programmes was established.
" the only episode of the second series until the episodes "Operation Kilt
" and "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage
" were recovered in 2001, along with the soundtracks of both "A Stripe for Frazer
" and the 1968 Christmas sketch "Untitled Sketch
" in 2008.
The third series was also affected, with the episode "Room at the Bottom
" surviving only as a black-and-white copy until colour restoration in 2008.
The fourth series was briefly affected; the 1970 Christmas insert "The Cornish Floral Dance" still remains missing, despite being made in colour. It could have been either junked around 1971 to reuse the master tape or lost after being broadcast.
, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters
, The Liver Birds
, Z-Cars
and Doctor Who
. Episodes were returned from overseas broadcasters, mainly from those in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, with the result that all episodes now exist in the original 625 line colour format.
By the 1990s the only exception was the third series episode "Room at the Bottom
" which survived only as a 16mm black-and-white film recording. This episode has since been digitally restored into colour.
The first series survives in its entirety, though the 1968 Christmas insert, which was broadcast between the first and second series, remains missing.
Series 2 remains incomplete. In 2001 the two episodes "Operation Kilt
" and "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage
" were returned as 16mm film recordings, to much surprise as it was assumed that very few copies had been made of the second series episodes. It has since been established that the two episodes were film recorded to show to executives at Columbia Pictures
during discussions on the structure of the Dad's Army feature film
. In 2008 the soundtracks of the episode "A Stripe for Frazer
" and the 1968 Christmas insert were returned as off-air copies. Another Christmas episode, "The Cornish Floral Dance" which aired as part of Christmas Night with the Stars
in 1970, is the only colour episode still missing.
The other three second series episodes "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker
", "A Stripe for Frazer
" and "Under Fire
", are still missing and were probably lost for good once the original broadcast videotapes were wiped. The only currently remaining hope for recovery is that the lost episodes may have been recorded during their original UK broadcasts by a person wealthy enough to afford an early videotape recorder such as a Shibaden or Sony CV-2000
machine, and also of sufficient means to be able to afford new tapes rather than wiping and reusing their existing recordings. It should be noted that these three episodes were among 67 adapted for BBC Radio in the 1970s and that recordings of the radio episodes still exist.
In 2001 the BBC launched the BBC Archive Treasure Hunt, a public appeal for the wiped episodes, encouraging anyone with copies to contact them.
". It was transmitted in colour for the first time in almost forty years on 13 December 2008. This technique has since been used on other programmes that were produced in colour but only have black-and-white copies surviving, such as the 1972 pilot episode of Are You Being Served?
which has now been restored and broadcast in colour for the first time since 1973.
Two of the four Christmas sketches of Dad's Army (broadcast as part of Christmas Night with the Stars) survive only as off-air soundtrack recordings:
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
second series of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
television programme Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...
. The whole second series of the sitcom was affected by wiping
Wiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
, although two episodes were recovered in 2001. An off-air copy of the soundtrack of one of the other missing episodes, and the 1968 Christmas sketch, were recovered in 2008. The episodes were erased (or "junked") by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
during the 1960s and 1970s for a variety of economic and storage reasons. In all, three episodes from the black-and-white second series and two of the four Christmas inserts are still missing, as of 2011.
Background
Between approximately 1967 and 1978, large amounts of material stored in the BBC's videotape and film libraries were destroyed or wiped to make way for newer programmes. This happened for a number of reasons, not least the restrictions negotiated by unions to prevent programmes being heavily repeated at the expense of new productions, making the old material redundant.For the first two series, Dad's Army was made in black-and-white, with most episodes being made on two-inch quad videotape for initial broadcast. As a series thought to have commercial potential overseas, the first series was offered for sale to foreign broadcasters by BBC Enterprises. To this end, 16mm film copies were made of the first six episodes by the BBC Engineering department before the master videotapes were wiped for re-use. In the event, the first series sold very poorly and BBC Enterprises did not express interest in selling series two abroad, resulting in few film copies of series two episodes being made. The episode "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret
Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret
-TV episode:Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 22 March 1969.-Synopsis:...
" was recorded onto 35mm film instead of videotape, either because it required additional editing (which was easier to perform with film before the advent of modern electronic editing methods) or because no videotape recording facilities were available on the day it was recorded. This inadvertently assured the episode's survival: being effectively a production made on film it fell within the BBC Film Library's remit of keeping filmed productions for posterity.
From the third series onwards the show was made in colour on 625 line videotape. With overseas interest in the series picking up, BBC Enterprises resumed offering the episodes for sale in up to three different formats:
- PALPALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
625 line colour videotapes for countries with the same broadcast standards as the United Kingdom, including (from 1975) Australia - NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
525 line colour videotapes for countries such as Canada and the United States - 16mm film records for countries still broadcasting in black-and-white (such as Australia until 1975)
Until 1978 the BBC had no central archive, with the Film Library keeping only some programmes that were made on film (e.g. "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret
Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret
-TV episode:Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 22 March 1969.-Synopsis:...
"), whilst the Engineering Department handled videotape but had no mandate to retain material for posterity. BBC Enterprises only kept material that was considered commercially exploitable and had limited storage space.
In the mid 1970s BBC Enterprises disposed of much older material where the rights to sell the programmes had expired, whilst the Engineering Department routinely wiped videotapes that were no longer formally required. In 1978 the BBC created the Film & Videotape Library, the first time a permanent archive for all its old programmes was established.
Episodes affected
The first series of Dad's Army survived as a complete set of black-and-white film telerecordings. However, the second series was badly affected, with five of the six episodes not being held by the BBC in 1978, leaving the series two episode "Sgt. Wilson's Little SecretSgt. Wilson's Little Secret
-TV episode:Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 22 March 1969.-Synopsis:...
" the only episode of the second series until the episodes "Operation Kilt
Operation Kilt
-TV episode:Operation Kilt is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army which was originally transmitted on Saturday 1 March 1969.-Synopsis:The platoon have to defend the church hall from a platoon of Highlanders on an exercise.-Plot:...
" and "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage
The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage
-TV episode:The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army, which was originally transmitted on Saturday 8 March 1969.-Synopsis:...
" were recovered in 2001, along with the soundtracks of both "A Stripe for Frazer
A Stripe for Frazer
"A Stripe for Frazer" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 29 March 1969.This episode is currently missing from the BBC's television archives after they wiped the tapes to reuse them. This is one of three Dad's Army episodes still missing...
" and the 1968 Christmas sketch "Untitled Sketch
Untitled Sketch
Untitled Sketch is the first Christmas Night with the Stars insert of the British comedy series Dad's Army that was originally transmitted on Wednesday 25 December 1968.-Synopsis:It's Christmas and Mainwaring can't forget his sense of duty...
" in 2008.
The third series was also affected, with the episode "Room at the Bottom
Room at the Bottom
-Synopsis:Room at the Bottom is the 17th adapted radio episode of Dad's Army. The synopsis remains virtually unchanged from the TV episode, although there are a few minor changes in terms of actions performed by certain characters.-Plot:...
" surviving only as a black-and-white copy until colour restoration in 2008.
The fourth series was briefly affected; the 1970 Christmas insert "The Cornish Floral Dance" still remains missing, despite being made in colour. It could have been either junked around 1971 to reuse the master tape or lost after being broadcast.
Recovery
The colour episodes in series 3-9 have been remarkably fortunate compared to many of their contemporaries, even series with very well preserved 1970s holdings such as Steptoe and SonSteptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters
All Gas and Gaiters
All Gas and Gaiters was a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of "John Wraith" when writing the pilot...
, The Liver Birds
The Liver Birds
The Liver Birds is a British situation comedy, set in Liverpool, Merseyside, North-West of England, which aired on BBC1 from 1969 to 1978, and again in 1996. It was created by Carla Lane and Myra Taylor. The two Liverpool housewives had met at a local writers club and decided to pool their talents...
, Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
and Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. Episodes were returned from overseas broadcasters, mainly from those in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, with the result that all episodes now exist in the original 625 line colour format.
By the 1990s the only exception was the third series episode "Room at the Bottom
Room at the Bottom
-Synopsis:Room at the Bottom is the 17th adapted radio episode of Dad's Army. The synopsis remains virtually unchanged from the TV episode, although there are a few minor changes in terms of actions performed by certain characters.-Plot:...
" which survived only as a 16mm black-and-white film recording. This episode has since been digitally restored into colour.
The first series survives in its entirety, though the 1968 Christmas insert, which was broadcast between the first and second series, remains missing.
Series 2 remains incomplete. In 2001 the two episodes "Operation Kilt
Operation Kilt
-TV episode:Operation Kilt is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army which was originally transmitted on Saturday 1 March 1969.-Synopsis:The platoon have to defend the church hall from a platoon of Highlanders on an exercise.-Plot:...
" and "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage
The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage
-TV episode:The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army, which was originally transmitted on Saturday 8 March 1969.-Synopsis:...
" were returned as 16mm film recordings, to much surprise as it was assumed that very few copies had been made of the second series episodes. It has since been established that the two episodes were film recorded to show to executives at Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
during discussions on the structure of the Dad's Army feature film
Dad's Army (film)
Dad's Army is a 1971 feature film based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Directed by Norman Cohen, it was filmed between series three and four and was based upon material from the early episodes of the television series...
. In 2008 the soundtracks of the episode "A Stripe for Frazer
A Stripe for Frazer
"A Stripe for Frazer" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 29 March 1969.This episode is currently missing from the BBC's television archives after they wiped the tapes to reuse them. This is one of three Dad's Army episodes still missing...
" and the 1968 Christmas insert were returned as off-air copies. Another Christmas episode, "The Cornish Floral Dance" which aired as part of Christmas Night with the Stars
Christmas Night with the Stars
Christmas Night with the Stars was a variety television show broadcast each Christmas night by the BBC from 1958 to 1972 and also in 1994. The show featured the top stars of the BBC as they appeared in short versions of their programmes, typically five to ten minutes long. The show was voted 24th...
in 1970, is the only colour episode still missing.
The other three second series episodes "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker
-Notes:Graham Stark replaced James Beck in the role of Private Walker for this radio adaptation.-External links:...
", "A Stripe for Frazer
A Stripe for Frazer
"A Stripe for Frazer" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 29 March 1969.This episode is currently missing from the BBC's television archives after they wiped the tapes to reuse them. This is one of three Dad's Army episodes still missing...
" and "Under Fire
Under Fire (Dad's Army episode)
-TV episode:"Under Fire" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 4 April 1969.-Synopsis:The platoon arrest a suspicious gentleman whilst on fire watch, but the truth is soon revealed.-Plot:...
", are still missing and were probably lost for good once the original broadcast videotapes were wiped. The only currently remaining hope for recovery is that the lost episodes may have been recorded during their original UK broadcasts by a person wealthy enough to afford an early videotape recorder such as a Shibaden or Sony CV-2000
CV-2000
CV-2000 was one of the world's first home video tape recorders , introduced by Sony in August, 1965. The 'CV' in the model name stood for 'Consumer Video' and was also known as Portapak. This was Sony's domestic format throughout the 1960s....
machine, and also of sufficient means to be able to afford new tapes rather than wiping and reusing their existing recordings. It should be noted that these three episodes were among 67 adapted for BBC Radio in the 1970s and that recordings of the radio episodes still exist.
In 2001 the BBC launched the BBC Archive Treasure Hunt, a public appeal for the wiped episodes, encouraging anyone with copies to contact them.
Colour Restoration
Due to the way in which the original black & white telerecordings were made, colour information was sometimes inadvertently preserved in them even though it could not be displayed. In 2008 a computer technique was developed to recover the information from telerecordings to create a usable colour signal. One of the first telerecordings to undergo the process was the Dad's Army episode "Room at the BottomRoom at the Bottom
-Synopsis:Room at the Bottom is the 17th adapted radio episode of Dad's Army. The synopsis remains virtually unchanged from the TV episode, although there are a few minor changes in terms of actions performed by certain characters.-Plot:...
". It was transmitted in colour for the first time in almost forty years on 13 December 2008. This technique has since been used on other programmes that were produced in colour but only have black-and-white copies surviving, such as the 1972 pilot episode of Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served?
Are You Being Served? is a British sitcom broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was set in the ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments of Grace Brothers, a large, fictional London department store. It was written mainly by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, with contributions by Michael Knowles and John...
which has now been restored and broadcast in colour for the first time since 1973.
Episodes still missing
The following three episodes from the second series are still missing in their entirety:| Series No' | Ep No' | Title | Broadcast | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series 2 | Episode 3 | The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker -Notes:Graham Stark replaced James Beck in the role of Private Walker for this radio adaptation.-External links:... |
15/3/69 | both picture and soundtrack still missing. |
| Series 2 | Episode 5 | A Stripe for Frazer A Stripe for Frazer "A Stripe for Frazer" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 29 March 1969.This episode is currently missing from the BBC's television archives after they wiped the tapes to reuse them. This is one of three Dad's Army episodes still missing... |
29/3/69 | soundtrack found in 2008, picture still missing. |
| Series 2 | Episode 6 | Under Fire Under Fire (Dad's Army episode) -TV episode:"Under Fire" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 4 April 1969.-Synopsis:The platoon arrest a suspicious gentleman whilst on fire watch, but the truth is soon revealed.-Plot:... |
5/4/69 | both picture and soundtrack still missing. |
Two of the four Christmas sketches of Dad's Army (broadcast as part of Christmas Night with the Stars) survive only as off-air soundtrack recordings:
- "Untitled SketchUntitled SketchUntitled Sketch is the first Christmas Night with the Stars insert of the British comedy series Dad's Army that was originally transmitted on Wednesday 25 December 1968.-Synopsis:It's Christmas and Mainwaring can't forget his sense of duty...
" (1968) - soundtrack found in 2008, picture still missing
- "The Cornish Floral Dance" - soundtrack found (can be heard on the DVD boxset), picture still missing