FilmBlokeJ

Earliest surviving 2″ quad videotape masters

I just wanted to add quickly, the screenshot I've provided previously was produced during the ITV colour strike so the colour fringing on objects is more visible (such as on the hats worn by Stan and Jack) were as on series 1 and 2 the colour burst appears in the noise and is more subtle (mainly greens and blues). (This screenshot came from series 2).

Earliest surviving 2″ quad videotape masters

The original master tapes of the sitcom On The Buses survive in the archives. Typically ITV has a better survival record then the BBC (with the exception of Rediffusion and ATV and maybe more regions).
On The Buses began broadcasting on 28 February 1969, 9 months before BBC 1 and ITV adopted full time colour. The first 2 series were produced in black and white and the latter half of series 4 is also in black and white due to the ITV colour strike. All the original tapes survive and were used on the Network DVD (some even include the VT clocks. Some come from later masters because some don't have the original LWT logos and obviously tacked on copyright stamps)
Here's a tacked on copyright date
and you can tell they've seen better days, especially the black and white episodes being prone to drop out.
I am use to watching black and white telerecordings, mainly the surviving black and white episodes of Doctor Who which were extensively remastered on the DVD range and they would often artificially recreate the "video look" using a process called VidFIRE.

Something I picked up on with black and white taped material is it is not pure black and white because while the cameras were recording in monochrome the noise and the edging have colours, such as greens, blues and reds where as black and white telerecordings are pure grey scale.