BR
Let's try and at least get to page 2 before this inevitably turns into a discussion about the TVS archive.
The BFI have announced a mass digitisation project of 100,000 programmes, focusing on shows likely to be forgotten rather than just the classics. This includes one-off dramas, breakfast TV, childrens programming and regional shows.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/29/we-need-mr-mrs-in-200-years-why-the-bfi-is-saving-100000-old-tv-shows
The BFI have announced a mass digitisation project of 100,000 programmes, focusing on shows likely to be forgotten rather than just the classics. This includes one-off dramas, breakfast TV, childrens programming and regional shows.
Quote:
An estimated 100,000 British television programmes – which could include early editions of TV-AM, children’s series such as Tiswas, and fondly remembered, for some, episodes of Border TV’s Mr & Mrs – are to be digitised to prevent them being lost forever.
The British Film Institute has announced the mass digitisation project to save programmes which are held on obsolete video formats, warning that there are only five or six years left to save those most at risk.
The BFI’s creative director, Heather Stewart, said it was too early to say exactly which titles would be digitised, that would only be known after a six-month “discovery phase”.
“Material from the 70s and early 80s is at risk with a five or six-year shelf life,” she said. “Unless we do something about it they will just go, no matter how great the environment is you keep them in.”
Many of the better known British TV programmes from the era, such as Dad’s Army and Morecambe & Wise, have already been transferred to a digital format. But there are around 750,000 programmes on degradable one-inch and two-inch video which no one has touched.
The job now was to sit down with partners and agree which programmes were most in danger of being lost, said Stewart. They will include children’s programming, important one-off dramas, the beginning of breakfast TV and many regional ITV programmes.
Children’s programmes from the 1970s that have not been digitised include Tiswas, the Basil Brush Show, Vision On and Southern TV’s fun and educational programme How (which ranged from the useful – how to get a ship in a bottle – to the stupid – how can you break an egg with a feather? Drop them at the same time.)
Other shows that could be transferred are music series such as the Bay City Rollers’ teatime show Shang-a-Lang and Tyne Tees’ Alright Now, a precursor of The Tube; drama series such as the BBC’s Rainbow City (1967), which was one of the first to feature a black lead character; and current affairs programmes such as the long-running Nationwide.
Stewart said the BFI was not there to decide which programmes deserved to be saved on the basis of quality – even Derek Batey’s Mr & Mrs could be in there. “Where I come from in Scotland, the one TV programme that was made by Border telly was Mr & Mrs … that was their claim to fame and in 200 years’ time Mr & Mrs needs to be there.
“It is our role to look after the whole lot and not make those judgments that Mr & Mrs is not worth keeping.”
The British Film Institute has announced the mass digitisation project to save programmes which are held on obsolete video formats, warning that there are only five or six years left to save those most at risk.
The BFI’s creative director, Heather Stewart, said it was too early to say exactly which titles would be digitised, that would only be known after a six-month “discovery phase”.
“Material from the 70s and early 80s is at risk with a five or six-year shelf life,” she said. “Unless we do something about it they will just go, no matter how great the environment is you keep them in.”
Many of the better known British TV programmes from the era, such as Dad’s Army and Morecambe & Wise, have already been transferred to a digital format. But there are around 750,000 programmes on degradable one-inch and two-inch video which no one has touched.
The job now was to sit down with partners and agree which programmes were most in danger of being lost, said Stewart. They will include children’s programming, important one-off dramas, the beginning of breakfast TV and many regional ITV programmes.
Children’s programmes from the 1970s that have not been digitised include Tiswas, the Basil Brush Show, Vision On and Southern TV’s fun and educational programme How (which ranged from the useful – how to get a ship in a bottle – to the stupid – how can you break an egg with a feather? Drop them at the same time.)
Other shows that could be transferred are music series such as the Bay City Rollers’ teatime show Shang-a-Lang and Tyne Tees’ Alright Now, a precursor of The Tube; drama series such as the BBC’s Rainbow City (1967), which was one of the first to feature a black lead character; and current affairs programmes such as the long-running Nationwide.
Stewart said the BFI was not there to decide which programmes deserved to be saved on the basis of quality – even Derek Batey’s Mr & Mrs could be in there. “Where I come from in Scotland, the one TV programme that was made by Border telly was Mr & Mrs … that was their claim to fame and in 200 years’ time Mr & Mrs needs to be there.
“It is our role to look after the whole lot and not make those judgments that Mr & Mrs is not worth keeping.”
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/29/we-need-mr-mrs-in-200-years-why-the-bfi-is-saving-100000-old-tv-shows
Last edited by Brekkie on 29 November 2016 9:50pm - 2 times in total