Dad's Army missing episodes
The Dad's Army missing episodes are
Background
Until 1978, when the
The first two series (12 episodes) of
In the event, the first series sold very poorly and so BBC Enterprises did not express any interest in selling Series 2 abroad. Thus very few film copies of episodes from series 2 were made. Dad's Army was made in colour from series 3 onwards; overseas interest in the series picked up, and BBC Enterprises resumed offering the episodes for sale in film and video format; this meant they were more likely to be permanently retained.
Recovery
In 1998, David Croft, one of the co-creators of Dad's Army, made an appeal on BBC Two asking people if they held copies of the missing episodes. At the time, five of the six episodes of series 2 were missing; "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret" had survived the cull as it was recorded onto 35 mm film instead of videotape, either because it required additional editing (which was easier with film before electronic timecode editing) or because no videotape recording facilities were available in the recording period. The fact that the copy was on film rather than videotape ensured the episode's survival, as it fell within the BBC Film Library's remit of retaining filmed productions.[1]
In 2001, three years after Croft's appeal, 16 mm film recordings of "Operation Kilt" and "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" were returned to the BBC archive.[2] It has since been established that the two episodes were film recorded to show to executives at Columbia Pictures during discussions on the structure of the Dad's Army feature film. The film copies were then junked and retrieved from a skip by an opportunistic collector and stored in a garden shed for 30 years until returned to the BBC.
The three episodes from series 2 that remain missing are "
- The episodes were recorded off-air during their original UK broadcasts using an early videotape recorder such as a Shibaden or Sony CV-2000 machine
- The episodes were copied as 16 mm tele-recordings, which were subsequently saved from being junked
However these three episodes were among the 67 adapted for BBC Radio in the 1970s, and recordings of the radio episodes still exist.
Christmas sketches
Two of the four Christmas
Colour episodes
The colour episodes in series 3–9 have been remarkably fortunate compared with many of their contemporaries. Missing episodes were returned from overseas broadcasters, mainly from those in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, with the result that all full-length episodes now exist in the original colour format.
Restoration and recreation
Colour restoration
By the 1990s, "Room at the Bottom", the sixth episode of Series 3, was the only episode produced in colour that did not have a colour copy in the archive; instead, it survived only as a 16 mm black-and-white film recording. Because of the way in which the original black and white recordings were made, colour information was sometimes inadvertently preserved in them even though it could not be displayed; this colour information is known as chroma dots. In 2008, a computer technique of colour recovery was developed to recover the chroma dot information from black and white recordings to recreate a usable colour signal. "Room at the Bottom" was used as the pilot project to test this process of colour recovery, with the success of the episode's restoration leading to it being used on other 16mm recordings.[4] The new colour copy was officially adopted as the BBC's archive copy,[5] and "Room at the Bottom" was broadcast in colour for the first time in almost forty years on 13 December 2008.[6]
Recreations
Restagings
Although not a deliberate attempt to restore lost material, the "
Animation
In 2008, the soundtrack of "A Stripe for Frazer" was rediscovered in the hands of a private collector. This recording was then digitally remastered for a 2015 BBC Audio CD release. In January 2016, it was announced that the BBC were creating an animated version of the episode, to be combined with the newly discovered copy of the audio, which was released via the BBC Store online service.[7][8]
Pre-production for "A Stripe for Frazer" began in October 2015, and a little under 12 weeks later the finished animated episode was released on BBC Store on 4 February 2016.[9] The animation was produced and directed for BBC Worldwide by Charles Norton and a team that included comic book artist, Martin Geraghty.[9]
In October 2023,
Remake
In 2018,
No. | Title | Original series number | Original episode airdate | Recorded date | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker" | 2.3 | 15 March 1969 | 1 March 2019[21] | 25 August 2019 | |
Walker is called up into the army. The platoon, anxious at how they will obtain off-the-ration supplies without him, fight to keep him. | ||||||
2 | "A Stripe for Frazer" | 2.5 | 29 March 1969 | 8 March 2019[21] | 26 August 2019 | |
Mainwaring has the opportunity to promote someone to corporal. Rather than promote Jones, he tests who has the greatest potential by temporarily promoting Private Frazer to lance corporal. Frazer's increasingly dictatorial manner soon alienates the platoon. | ||||||
3 | "Under Fire" | 2.6 | 5 April 1969 | 15 March 2019[21] | 27 August 2019 | |
When Frazer spots what he believes to be a German spy signalling planes, the platoon arrests a suspect who protests that he is a naturalised Englishman. |
Cast
- Kevin McNally – Captain Mainwaring
- Robert Bathurst – Sergeant Wilson
- Kevin Eldon – Lance Corporal Jones
- David Hayman – Private Frazer
- Mathew Horne – Private Walker
- Timothy West – Private Godfrey
- Tom Rosenthal – Private Pike
List of missing episodes
Series no. |
Episode no. |
Title | Recorded | Original airdate | Notes | Recreations | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Video | Audio | Radio episode | Remake | Animation | |||||
Episodes | |||||||||
2 | 9 | "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker" | 27 October 1968 | 15 March 1969 | Missing | Missing | Exists | Yes | Yes |
11 | "A Stripe for Frazer" | 15 November 1968 | 29 March 1969 | Missing | Exists[22] | Exists | Yes | Yes | |
12 | " Under Fire "
|
27 November 1968 | 5 April 1969 | Missing | Missing | Exists | Yes | Yes | |
Christmas sketches | |||||||||
N/A | 1 | " Santa On Patrol "
|
27 October 1968 | 25 December 1968 | Missing | Exists[22] | None | No | Yes[a] |
3 | " Cornish Floral Dance "
|
4 December 1970 | 25 December 1970 | Missing | Exists | Exists[b] | No | Yes |
Further research
Documentaries
- Dad's Army: Missing Presumed Wiped (2001) – a 30-minute documentary about episode recoveries and restoration.[23]
- Time Shift – Missing Believed Wiped (2003) – a general documentary about archive television, featuring some clips and discussions about Dad's Army.[24]
Overseas broadcasters
The following is a list of overseas broadcasters who purchased the second series of Dad's Army.
Country[25] | TV Network(s) |
---|---|
Australia | ABC |
Bahrain | BRTC |
Barbados | CBC |
Finland | Yle |
Gibraltar | GBC |
British Hong Kong | RTV |
Jamaica | JBC |
Malta | TVM |
Netherlands | NOS |
New Zealand | NZBC |
Nigeria | |
Saudi Arabia | |
Singapore | |
Sweden | SVT |
SFR Yugoslavia
|
JRT |
Zambia | ZNBC |
See also
- Wiping
- BBC Archive Treasure Hunt
- Missing Believed Wiped
- Doctor Who missing episodes
Notes
- ^ Renamed as "Poles Apart" for the animated version broadcast by UKTV Gold in November 2023.
- ^ Video still missing, amateur soundtrack recording found (can be heard as an extra on the Christmas Specials DVD). The script was recycled for a scene in the radio adaptation of The Godiva Affair and as part of the Dad's Army stage show (a segment of which was also included in the 1975 Royal Variety Performance).
References
- ^ a b Documentary: Dad's Army: Missing Presumed Wiped, BBC, 2001
- ^ "Lost Dad's Army shows found". BBC News. BBC. 1 June 2001. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
- ^ The missing episodes at the BBC Treasure Hunt site, URL accessed 4 June 2006
- ^ Norton, Charles (11 December 2008). "Unscrambling an army of colours". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
- ^ Re-Colouring the Past, Radio Times, 13–19 December 2008, pages 24–25
- ^ "Press Office – Dad's Army episode to be seen in colour". BBC. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
- ^ "'Lost' Dad's Army episode to be released as an animation". Radio Times. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
- ^ https://store.bbc.com/a-stripe-for-frazer[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Bowles, Chris (5 February 2016). "Dad's Army Animation / Release day". LinkedIn. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
- ^ Godfrey, Jake (11 October 2023). "Dad's Army: Animated versions of missing episodes to air on GOLD". Film Stories. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ Elliott, Dave (19 October 2023). "UKTV Gold sets November date to air 'Dad's Army: The Animations'". Geektown. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Dad's Army Radio Show - About". Dad's Army Radio Show. 21 July 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Dad's Army The Animations - Cast and Crew". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ Braxton, Mark (3 October 2018). "Lost episodes of Dad's Army to be remade with a new cast". Radio Times. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "Kevin McNally and Robert Bathurst to star in new Dad's Army". comedy.co.uk. 9 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
- ^ "Bernard Cribbins, the new Private Godfrey". The Oldie. 12 November 2018. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- ^ "Cast revealed for Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes". comedy.co.uk. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
- ^ "Timothy West replaces Bernard Cribbins in Dad's Army remakes". comedy.co.uk. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- ^ Gold [@goldchannel] (20 June 2019). "Don't panic! Not long now... #DadsArmy: The Lost Episodes starring @exkevinmcnally, @RobertBathurst, @ItsKevinEldon, David Hayman, Timothy West, @rosentweets and @mfhorne will transmit this August only on Gold.pic.twitter.com/n0jVv9dGwZ" (Tweet). Retrieved 24 June 2019 – via Twitter.
- ^ "Dad's Army Lost Episodes | Yesterday Channel".
- ^ a b c "Bernard Cribbins leaves Dad's Army remake". chortle.co.uk. 19 February 2019. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
- ^ a b "Missing Episodes". Dad's Army Appreciation Society. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
- BBC Genome. 28 December 2001. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
- ^ "Have A Very Merry Digital Christmas!". BBC. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Homewood, Dave (2008). "Dad's Army - Abroad". Dad's Army - An Appreciation. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
External links
- BBC Missing episode list
- A Stripe For Frazer: Animating the lost episode of Dad's Army at BBC Blogs
- Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes at IMDb
- Dad's Army – The Lost Episodes at British Comedy Guide
- Dad's Army - The Animations at British Comedy Guide
- Dad's Army: A Stripe for Frazer (animated episode) at IMDb
- Dad's Army: A Stripe for Frazer (animated) at British Comedy Guide