I would be very surprised if animated Sooty had been reduced to literally one copy that Caddell ended up with. Wiki suggests it was a Cosgrove Hall production (for Meridian) and Cosgrove Hall (having originally started as being part of Thames) eventually ended up as part of ITV who ultimately closed that down, though it was later reincarnated.
Of course a lot depends on the deal that Corbett struck in 1998 when he sold Sooty to HIT, it may have included anything and everything including some of the catalogue. When Sooty came to ITV (having originally started on the BBC) his show was made by Thames so that incarnation is probably at Fremantle. I dare say Richard Caddell only has the rights to the spinoffs made after 1992.
All the Sooty TV rights were included in the deal (the Thames archive was bought by the outfit Matthew set up to produce Sooty & Co).
However, Richard Caddell sold the archive in 2012 to One Media IP (based at Pinewood Studios), which I daresay provided some useful revenue to the Sooty business. I believe Richard's business gets a royalty for use of the Sooty brand/likeness in the archive.
:-(
A former member
So Richard still owns Sooty and get money back for the brand but this new company deals with all the TV/ Radio show made? kind of make sence since I doubt he will have time to deal with the likes of that. Has the new company done anything with them? DVD etc
Considering the era they were made in, that's not suprising.
I'm sure when CITV broadcast an 80s episode as part of their 30th birthday weekend, it ended with a Fremantle ident, I could be wrong though. Weren't the DVDs of it released by Pearson/Fremantle too, or have I got that wrong? I know at the very least some episodes got released on compilations alongside Rainbow and Cosgrove Hall stuff, which was obviously also Thames.
Considering the era they were made in, that's not suprising.
I'm sure when CITV broadcast an 80s episode as part of their 30th birthday weekend, it ended with a Fremantle ident, I could be wrong though. Weren't the DVDs of it released by Pearson/Fremantle too, or have I got that wrong? I know at the very least some episodes got released on compilations alongside Rainbow and Cosgrove Hall stuff, which was obviously also Thames.
I have one of the DVDs somewhere and it was released by PT Video, which was the name used after Thames Video (post VCI split) and FremantleMedia for their releases. The DVD does even have the Thames skyline ident at the start of the first episode on the disc.
Seems to suggest then that Fremantle kept some sort of rights to their version of the show, even after the franchise was sold to HIT, then Richard Cadell?
Probably implies some of the rights to the animated Sooty probably lie elsewhere too (presumably ITV considering it was Meridan/Cosgrove Hall, the latter of which was owned by Anglia by then, in fact weren't Meridian and Anglia both under UNM ownership by then?), and Richard Cadell's copies probably weren't the only ones (and he may not have been serious about destroying them anyway).
I always see that version of Sooty as being the "real" Sooty, I never cared for Sooty and Co that much. I wonder how much longer The Sooty Show would have lasted if Thames had stayed on air?