Lost classic BBC TV episodes recovered after death of collectors - BBC.com

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By Dan Martin

BBC News

Film enthusiasts have discovered three original lost episodes of classic BBC television series from the 1960s.

The episodes from sitcoms Sykes and a..., Hugh and I, and oil industry drama Mogul were recovered from privately-owned collections.

They have been missing from the BBC archives but will be returned so they can be digitally copied.

The finds, described as "treasures", will be discussed at a film convention in Leicester on Sunday.

'Saved from the skip'

The Film is Fabulous! event, at the Phoenix Arts Centre, will be attended by collectors, other fans of vintage film and television and experts, and is being staged by De Montfort University's Cinema and Television History Institute.

Film is Fabulous! curator and principal organiser John Franklin said: "We really have been so lucky to have found these original films.

"We are fairly sure they were likely to have been thrown out by the BBC in a clear-out and been saved from the skip before ending up in these private collections.

"We found them in the collections of people who have sadly passed away and recovered them before they were lost again in house clearances."

Mr Franklin added: "The Sykes episode was among hundreds of canisters of film recovered from one man's collection in 2022. Film was his life.

"The Hugh and I and Mogul films were found in the house of a collector who had 150 old projectors.

"We try to find collectors and encourage them to put it in their wills that old film will come to us for safekeeping and where possible, restoration.

"By doing this we hope to avoid losing much of the physical history and cultural heritage of filmmaking for good, particularly with digital filmmaking and projection now established as the standard."