The BFI is bringing a trove of treasure to the big screen in December, as it showcases a host of Christmas television material that was long thought lost, or hasn’t been seen since its initial transmission.
It’s part of the Missing Believed Wiped programme, and in conjunction with The Kaleidoscope Archive, some of the highlights include:
Clapperboard: a newly-discovered set visit to the James Bond adventure The Spy Who Loved Me for ITV’s children’s cinema show
Doctor Who: a rare broadcast interview with Peter Davison chatting about being the fifth Doctor
Cilla: a long-lost episode of Cilla Black’s 1960s variety show.
Horror: BBC 2’s Late Night Horror from the 1960s was believed lost for good, but an episode has been found. It’s called Late Night Horror: The Corpse Can’t Play, and was originally shown on BBC 2 in 1968.
Pebble Mill drama: the long-gone Pebble Mill studio in Birmingham played host to a lot of drama, including Second City Firsts, a series of half-hour dramas that ran from 1973. Some of these have been rediscovered. Thrwum, for instance, stars a young Pete Postlethwaite in a sci-fi story about an imminent alien landing.
Tickets for the Missing Believed Wiped screenings are on sale to BFI members now, and non-members from November 14th. Screenings take place at the BFI Southbank in London on Saturday 16th December. Hopefully, some of these will make it back to broadcast television too…