Repeats, repeats, repeats

[Mandryka]

Yep, some of those royalty payments for overseas sales can definitely be....miildly amusing!

Ferret - the beeb has a Restoration Team of technicians who are also fans of classic television: reading between the lines, I get the sense that they do a lot of their work 'outside office hours' and they have worked miracles on some of the badly kept tapes of yesteryear. Most of their efforts have been devoted to the classic series of Doctor Who, but they've been involved in pretty much everything the BBC has released that has 'historic' value: you'd be amazed at what they have achieved, if you look - for instance - at the cleaned up Forsyte Saga from 1967. I'm pretty sure some battered old ampex tape wouldn't defeat them.....

[Stillhomewardbound]

But could they do something with the drawing room scene in The Pallisers when a BBC camera (logo and all) appears briefly, but very briefly, on the edge of the shot. I have it on DVD and thought it was an absolute hoot.

I couldn't image how they let it pass but I wonder if the master tape then was of a larger dimension than tv screens of the time, so there was a margin of error.

[mangerton]

But could they do something with the drawing room scene in The Pallisers when a BBC camera (logo and all) appears briefly, but very briefly, on the edge of the shot. I have it on DVD and thought it was an absolute hoot.

I couldn't image how they let it pass but I wonder if the master tape then was of a larger dimension than tv screens of the time, so there was a margin of error.

I suspect the reason may have been that editing Ampex videotape was a cumbersome and difficult process. If it was a "blink and you miss it" shot, it may have been felt not worth doing. Microphone booms in shot were rather more common then than now, too.

[Petrushka]

Two series I'd like to see again are 'War and Peace' with Anthony Hopkins and the gorgeous Morag Hood (whom I adored as an 18 year old) and 'Vienna 1900' with Robert Stephens.

I know thst 'War & Peace' is on DVD but wonder if 'Vienna 1900' survived the wipeout vandalism.

[Nick Armstrong]

Two series I'd like to see again are 'War and Peace' with Anthony Hopkins and the gorgeous Morag Hood (whom I adored as an 18 year old)

Now you're talking, Petrushka! Morag was one of my first televisual flames... I was however only 11 (precocious? moi? ). I was riveted by that series, and remember even at that tender age being magnetised by the bloke playing Pierre, and thinking he was displaying a calibre of acting I'd not seen before. Quite proud of spotting Sir Anthony despite my tender years..

I have the DVD set but haven't watched it again yet

[Ferretfancy]

There was a classic case in the days when TV plays were performed live. Sherlock Holmes boarded a train at one end of the studio, complete with masses of dry ice smoke to disguise the deficiencies of the set. Cut to a short film clip of the train puffing through the countryside, while the cameras reversed for the country house drawing room at the other end of the studio. Unfortunately the extractor fans didn't work, so the whole scene was played with the actors only visible from the waist upwards!
Sherlock seemed to invite trouble, as on another occasion a whole scene appeared twice due to an Ampex edit being overlooked.
It was more fun then !
It's true that some MR James adaptations have survived, notably Michael Horden in O Whistle and I'll Come to You my Lad, but The Ash Tree and The Mezzotint seem to have disappeared, perhaps because they were not directed by Jonathan Miller.

[Mandryka]

I remember Schalken The Painter....very disturbing dramatisation of the Le Fanu story. Broadcast Christmas 1978. Would love to see it again.

[Stillhomewardbound]

For some reason I am suddenly reminded of a film with a wonderful performance by Benjamin Whitrow on the life of JR Ackerly. Must have been an Arena or Omnibus film c.late 70s, early 80s.

*** the best chance of survival for telly of the gold age was if it happened to be on film. Video was utterly recyclable.

There is an awful lot of great material though that is it extant, and we know so because it has been dug up for various specials, such as the Badel/Merchant Pinter play which I think I'm right in saying was featured in that marvellous, though brief, season, TV Heaven on Channel 4 fronted admirably by Frank Muir (1994ish). But what efforts are being made to preserve this media.

I wonder if preservation has been looked into as an obligation of the BBC Trust. I think it is fair game that an organisation which has been so guilty of erasure-vandalism ought to make amends.

[aeolium]

It's true that some MR James adaptations have survived, notably Michael Horden in O Whistle and I'll Come to You my Lad, but The Ash Tree and The Mezzotint seem to have disappeared, perhaps because they were not directed by Jonathan Miller.

Most of the ones I remember have been repeated fairly recently (I mean within the last few years), including Lost Hearts, A Warning to the Curious, Stalls of Barchester Cathedral and The Treasure of Abbot Thomas. That Jonathan Miller adaptation was imo one of the worst - Hordern was hopelessly miscast as Parkins. The Tractate Middoth was another very good production - I hope that has survived.

Mandryka - what I most remember about Schalken the Painter was how wonderful the lighting effects were; it was almost photographed in a painterly way. But yes, it was disturbing.

[mercia]

somebody's put Schalken on youtube, but the quality don't look good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdS7xQYEyMo

ditto Professional Foul

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTt09jaz-PQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL6DEE570E1AD3E6F9

[Ventilhorn]

My memory is hazy but Dad might do a drama and he'd get the full fee again if it was repeated within a year, going down to half the original fee over the next two years. Something like that. There was a difference also if it appeared in its original slot, or as an afternoon transmission

Coming up the to mid 80s onwards though 'buy-outs', as with film fees, became more common in television.

The repeats system arose out of negotiations between Equity and the broadcasters and in an environment where performance fees were far from generous.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ac...h-1338823.html

SHB: message #11

The logistics of paying repeat fees to artists involve considerable difficulties.

What were the terms of the original contract?
Who took part in that production?
How do we trace them?
If they are now deceased, who administers their estate?

In the case of Gramophone recordings, there is no problem. The conductor and soloists would be entitled to royalties on sales in addition to their original fees.
The musicians would have received a one-off fee per session and that would be it.**

If an orchestral concert by one of the regional orchestras was relayed on air (at the time or in a subsequent transmission) the Orchestra Management would receive a “Facilities” fee for themselves and a “Relay” fee for the players involved, but the cash-strapped management had the option to pay the players in hours credited rather than cash; in which case even those orchestra members who did not take part would also benefit(?) from that arrangement.
So who was playing at the time? Were lists kept that accurately?

I cannot speak for drama, but I’m sure that the same sort of conditions and problems would arise. BBC2 would need to have a special section devoted to tracing the beneficiaries of such repeats.

Well, they wouldn’t bother, would they? So how many repeats of plays, operas or orchestral concerts are we going to re-visit?

To use up another of my platitudes ─ “I won’t be holding my breath

Ventilhorn


** The late Ronnie Hunt, who recorded that famous cornet solo for “Coronation Street” told me he received a fee of £8 8s 0d for his work. How many thousand times was that recording played since, before it was replaced years later by an updated version?

[Mandryka]

somebody's put Schalken on youtube, but the quality don't look good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdS7xQYEyMo

ditto Professional Foul

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTt09...EE570E1AD3E6F9

The Schalken link has also shown me the way to Stigma - another ghost story for Christmas which I'd forgotten about - so thanks a bunch for that, mercia!

[Tevot]

Wow - Schalken...

Eerie music and Vanderhausen (John Justin) appearing from the outer darkness to stand behind Maurice Denham - " Gerrit Dou?"

What a super production that was... the lighting and cinematography reproducing the qualities of those paintings.

Here's another link giving the background -

http://www.britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/tv/schalcken.html

And David Mercer - Yep - fond memories of seeing Shooting the Chandelier - also on youtube - but not easily accessible in China for a number
of reasons ;-) Also the first time - aged 12? - I heard the beautiful Czech National Anthem which IIRC featured in the end credits..

Therese Raquin

The Signalman - "Hey Denholm do not go into that tunnel!" Fantastic Christmas ghost stories weren't they?

Heck - the Beeb has stuff to be proud of - particularly Play for Today etc. I hope that - if repeats there need to be -some of these excellent productions can shine again :-)

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Nick Armstrong]

I have The Signalman recorded (the best screen adaptation of a ghost story I've ever seen), and Whistle and I'll Come to You (I disagree with an earlier poster about Hordern - it may not be faithful to the book, which I haven't read, but on its own terms the performance is wonderfully eccentric and creepy, and believable in terms of the absent-minded academic shaken out of his self-absorbed world).

PS It is unaccountable to me that the DVD releases haven't been retained in the catalogue, given the prices that they fetch (if amazon marketplace is to be believed):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Signalman-DVD-Denholm-Elliott/dp/B00007IG4Y/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318087965&sr=1-3-catcorr

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Whistle-Come...?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1318087993&sr=1-1-catcorr

[Anna]

There was, some time ago on another thread, (I think it was Am51) mention of Dennis Potter and Stand Up, Stand Up, for Nigel Barton (I don't know it) and the last interview with DP plus of course all the other Potter transmissions (Blue Remembered Hills, etc), lots of wonderful stuff that could be repeated but unfortunately - it's unlikely. Just think of the audience that would be pulled in by so much brilliant drama being repeated.