Kerpow! Quest for lost TV gold Rare Batman clip kicks off hunt for missing TV episodes like Doctor Who
ALOST road safety TV ad featuring the world’s best-known Batman, Adam West, has been screened for the first time in over 50 years in Birmingham
The 1967 commercial was used to kick-start a hunt for missing shows, including long-lost episodes of Doctor Who and Dad’s Army, that critics fear may have been destroyed.
The list of wanted programmes, believed to have been binned, was unveiled at this week’s screening at Birmingham City University, the launchpad for film distribution company Kaleidoscope’s campaign.
The rare Batman Green Cross Code commercial starring Adam West – the Caped Crusader in the 1960s Batman series – was never shown outside the UK.
It is hoped that other missing clips will follow after Kaleidoscope revealed the 100 shows topping the “most wanted” list of 1,000 industry professionals, academics and journalists. That list is spearheaded by two Doctor Who episodes entitled “The Smugglers” and “Fury from the Deep”.
This week’s dose of small screen nostalgia also included clips from The Goodies, Sexton Blake and Out of the Unknown.
Birmingham-based Kaleidoscope, dedicated to finding missing footage, has called on people to scour lofts for tapes and recordings that may contain precious material.
They have already major success.
The Avengers Tunnel of Fear episode has recently been found after 55 years, and issued on DVD.
Kaleidoscope boss Chris Perry says: “We spend a lot of time searching through old canisters or looking scored one through people’s lofts to try to find shows or clips which are thought to have been completely erased from history.
“What we wanted to do this time was ask TV fans which shows they wanted us to find and it’s really interesting to see that it’s real British institutions such as Doctor Who and Top of the Pops that came out on top.
“These lost episodes really can end up in the most unusual places – people might not even know they have them. Scenes from Sexton Blake or Callan were only kept because Australian censors cut them out for being too violent for 60s TV.
“We’ve had universities find clips accidentally stored at the end of video tapes and I, myself, have literally clawed tapes from the rafters of Bob Monkhouse’s roof, to get my hands on some Celebrity Squares and Golden Shot episodes.”
Historically, game shows are missing the most episodes, but those lost reels are the most likely to be found spirited away because they’re kept by families who appeared on the shows.
Again, Kaleidoscope has struck gold, unearthing episodes of Celebrity Squares that were thought gone for good.
Significant Top of the Pops finds have also been made. Website www. missing-episodes.com recently revealed how the gems that were July 6, 1967, and August 27, 1967 – both fronted by Alan ‘Fluff ’ Freeman – are back in circulation.
For film hunters, there are a handful of shows regarded as the Holy Grail of home entertainment.
They search high and low for early episodes of Doctor Who featuring Mark Eden as Marco Polo, Hancock’s Half Hour sketch Lady Chatterly’s Revenge from 1957, and 1969 Dad’s Army episode The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker.
The Top 100 also includes The Likely Lads, Steptoe and Son, and The Liver Birds. The number one and two slots on that list are taken by Doctor Who. Others include Sexton Blake, Emergency Ward 10, The Golden Shot, Celebrity Squares and Pipkins.