Lost 1950s cowboy show Hank Rides Again rediscovered after 64 years
Believed lost for over 60 years, 1950s TV cowboy Hank rides back onto our screens – thanks to the Radio Times Treasure Hunt.
It sounds like the sequel to a Wild West classic – which it is of sorts, but only to those brought up with the children's television of the 1950s. Hank, "the world's shortest tall-story teller and the toughest guy in the west", was created by Francis Coudrill and appeared live within the BBC's children's series Whirligig, which launched at Lime Grove Studios on 25 November 1950. The first episode was simply billed as The Adventures of Hank, but in the following edition his slot was titled Hank Rides Again – and so it remained. Each episode would open with cowboy-attired Coudrill talking to the camera with a puppet version of Hank and his horse Silver King to introduce the story. The popularity of cowboy films had already familiarised the television audience with Wild West speak, so Coudrill developed a dialect based on this. By May 1952, his cowboy characters had drawn the attention of Radio Times, which reported: "Many viewers, by no means all children, have written to ask who provides the diverse voices of 'Hank Rides Again', that cheerful Western item in 'Whirligig'. "The answer is simple: Francis Coudrill is a ventriloquist and provides all the voices himself. He also does pretty well everything else connected with the rootin', tootin' old-timer. "We met this amiable 36-year-old man the other day and he told us how the programme comes into being. 'First I think up the story and at the same time devise the animations so that the movements express the idea in the simplest way. (I made my first animated cut-outs at school and have since used animations in various ways, including animated pictures for nursery walls.) "'When the various movements are worked out, I cut out and paint the actual animations which are seen on the television screen. Some of the animations I completely assemble – the rest I leave for Alfred Wurmser and his assistants, who also operate them. Their cues are taken from the dialogue, which I write.' "Coudrill has a keen critic in his six-year-old son Jonathon. 'The entire Hank canon grew directly out of telling him bedside stories.'" We contacted Jonathon, an artist, musician and writer living in Cornwall, to see what he remembered. "What that write-up didn’t explain, because it wasn’t remarkable at the time, is that the animations were all performed live. Hardly anybody today, outside of the brave reporters that cover the news, can understand the thrill and tension of live television; to operate the characters and produce the voices for them all requires an exceptional mind, and my papa sure had that! "He claimed to have drawn Mexican Pete's sombrero 300 times, as opposed to Hank's hat, which he only designed 50 times! I appreciated his unusual gifts when I grew older, but when he started in variety theatre, going out at night and coming home with his suitcase full of money (all the 'turns' were paid cash in hand in the 1940s), I thought he was a burglar!" "As for Alfred Wurmser, he was the obvious person to help in the studio as he was the main supplier of captions for BBC television. Unfortunately, the two men had very similar skills and seemed to be in competition with each other. "Both were physically fit and full of testosterone; while my father appreciated verbal and visual humour but despised practical jokes, Austrian-born Wurmser didn't get British verbal humour but loved playing practical jokes. One of these ended badly when my father found an open jar of cold cream in his coat pocket. The stain never came out and he knew who to blame. "The next time my father saw Wurmser, his reproach quickly descended into a wrestling match on the studio floor; fortunately, the struggle was in total silence as Annette Mills and Muffin the Mule were performing live not 20 feet away. Thankfully, Studio Manager Bob Tronson was able to restore order just in time for my papa, already in his cowboy costume, to perform in his slot." Hank trotted away from Whirligig in 1954 but remained in the junior public’s consciousness through a regular strip in TV Comic. Meanwhile, Coudrill, who had worked as a science teacher, applied his practical skills to setting up a studio at his new home in Beaconsfield. From here, he made a series of ten-minute Hank adventures on film. Jonathon recalls: "Gregories Manor provided studio space for painting upstairs and the cardboard figures would then be filmed downstairs. In the former parlour, my father constructed the tracking and panning rostrum for the Bolex camera; alongside it, a Bell and Howell projector in a sound booth was operated by ingenious foot-pedals and levers which enabled both film shooting and sound dubbing on separate synchronised film stock. "The lights and the hot machinery made for a memorable aroma of roasting celluloid. The music was improvised around my father's cowboy songs by Gy Baskin and 17-year-old Lawrence Sheaff. When they went travelling, my father asked me to take over the music and sound effects. I was already multi-instrumental and much into composition; it was huge fun and, at 14 years of age, my first professional job." The new series of filmed episodes were first screened within Let's Get Together, an Associated-Rediffusion series presented by Jon Pertwee. Then in 1960, the old timer returned to the BBC, not within another programme but with his own billing and time slot. The significance was not lost on RT, which ran this profile on Francis Coudrill. The series of six episodes was followed by another seven in 1961. So far as we know, this was Hank’s last appearance on British television, but devotees may have been comforted by RT's words of reassurance: "We know that however wide and dry the desert, however sheer the cliff drop, however near the oncoming express train, however cunning the plans of Mexican Pete or Big Chief Dirty Face, Hank will live to ride again." Sixty-four years on, RT’s prophecy is to come true. Hank is about to return to our screens, but how can this be when none of the episodes were preserved in the BBC or ITV archives? Step forward the Radio Times Treasure Hunt. This appeal for programmes missing from the official archives has now produced over 250 responses, and one of them was from Lee Clarke, a friend of Jonathon Coudrille, who has added an E to the family name. Clarke had been looking after a box of films for his friend which had been spared after Francis Coudrill's studio closed and most of the contents sold. When he saw our appeal, he thought this might be the right time to see if the films could go to a suitable long-term home. On examination, we found over 20 episodes of Hank Rides Again, including those billed in RT in 1960-61. The films were in good condition but the surprise was that they were all made in colour, at least seven years before the launch of colour TV in Britain. "It was a bit of foresight on my father’s part," explained Jonathon. "Later, when Gerry Anderson claimed that Stingray was the first children’s series to be made in colour, my father formally complained to the broadcaster ATV, pointing out that he got there first!" Before the advent of channels devoted to the TV of yesteryear, a revival of Hank would have been unthinkable. But now channels such at Talking Pictures and Rewind TV are making airtime for programmes which, if they lack the technical sophistication of today’s output, make up for it with their nostalgia value. For some, however, there is also a cultural significance in these fragments of a 1950s childhood. One of these is the man who now owns Hank and the other puppets created by Francis Coudrill, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling. We spoke to the former Chairman of the Arts Council, who is also an authority on the Spaghetti Western. "I was one the first generation of children lucky enough to have grown up with a TV in his home," he explained. "It was Hank ‘s adventures which first kindled my interest in European Westerns. Every fortnight, on Whirligig, we could see an English artist in a check shirt reinterpreting American Westerns – especially 'B' Westerns with their whiskery sidekicks – for the enjoyment of British children. "I also loved Francis Coudrill's artisanal kitchen-table style of animation; it was an aesthetic challenge to the cartoons produced by the big American studios. Some of the characters were 1950s stereotypes – Mexican Pete the Bad Bandit and Big Chief Dirty Face – but they were harmless and good-hearted ones, more to do with movies than real life. "In fact, I liked them so much that when the puppets came up for sale in Penzance, I bought them to ensure they had a good home, and so for the past 20 years or so they have lived with me. It is still a bit unnerving to see these characters from the television screen of long ago become real three-dimensional, physical presences." "The end of each episode – a back view of Hank riding off into the sunset and descending below the horizon – is still etched in my memory. For all those of us now eligible for bus passes and who remember sitting in cramped front rooms dreaming of wide open spaces and listening to tall stories which grew taller in the telling, Francis Coudrill and his masterpiece Hank live on..." Rewind TV will be screening Hank Rides Again on Sundays at 3:45pm starting 19th October. The Radio Times Treasure Hunt goes on! Do please continue to contact us with news of anything you unearth. Email treasurehunt@radiotimes.com or write (but don’t send any tapes at this stage, please) to: Treasure Hunt, Radio Times, 44 Brook Green, London W6 7BT. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Likely Lads at 60 – how lost radio episodes of the classic sitcom were recovered
Six decades after their debut, The Likely Lads return with rediscovered radio episodes celebrating their comedy legacy.
Sixty years ago today, The Likely Lads made their television debut. Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the comedy which gave birth to characters Terry Collier and Bob Ferris came to be seen as a classic of the period. "James Bolam and Rodney Bewes, two young Northern actors, play the heroes in this new situation-comedy series," reported Radio Times. "Around 21, working as apprentices, earning £12-14 a week, acquisitive, irreverent, but with a streak of Northern commonsense: these are the Likely Lads. "They are neither Mods nor Rockers, thugs nor intellectuals; they fit into none of the neat pigeon-holes of the sociologists. They are not types but normal human beings who have an exceptional propensity for getting themselves into funny situations." Whilst the series was set in the North, many people living in the region it portrayed would have struggled to see it, as the new BBC2 network which carried the show was initially only relayed from Crystal Palace and Sutton Coldfield transmitters. This was put right in time for the second series in March 1965 when the comedy switched to BBC1. Soon after the third and final series in 1966, James Bolam adapted the scripts for radio and these were broadcast in two series between 1967 and 1968. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/12/Likely-Lads-S2E4-Big-Spenders-05-aae1162.jpg" width="1080" height="891" alt="A black-and-white still from The Likely Lads, featuring James Bolam as Terry Collier and Rodney Bewes as Bob Ferris standing with two women, all dressed in mid-1960s attire. The group is pictured smiling and chatting near a van with a sign reading "The Moppetts are coming," capturing a lighthearted moment typical of the show's humour." title="Likely Lads S2E4 Big Spenders 05" /> The combination of 21 television episodes and another 16 on radio had evidently gone into the public psyche. In January 1973, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais created a sequel, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, in which the characters, now a little older, could be seen in colour. Once again, radio adaptations followed and even a feature film in 1976. But what happened to the recordings of the original Likely Lads series? Like many programmes of the period, not all were retained in the BBC archives and only 10 of the television episodes survive. For devotees of the show, the prospect of discovering the missing shows generates considerable interest, and so it goes for the radio series which were largely missing until recently. Happily, the Radio Times Treasure Hunt, launched in October 2022, was contacted by Geoff Honeyball from Enfield with the offer of some recordings of the show. "I grew up in the late 1950s listening to my brother laughing to a lot of comedy programmes on a Sunday afternoon," Geoff recalled. "I didn’t start recording until the early 1960s when I could buy a few tapes. As far as I remember they were quite expensive then. My recordings were all made on an HMV three speed reel-to-reel recorder, with proper connections." Geoff’s last point is important as some home recordings were made by placing a microphone in front of the wireless speaker, which never produced such a good result. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2024/12/Like-Lads-covers-x3-c840510.jpg" width="3276" height="1400" alt="A collage of three vintage Radio Times covers featuring The Likely Lads. Each cover highlights James Bolam and Rodney Bewes in various promotional images for the series, including scenes involving props like a baby, maps, and technical equipment, encapsulating the comedic and relatable nature of the show." title="Like Lads covers x3" /> His tapes were digitised by Keith Wickham of the Radio Circle, our partners for sound recordings recovered through the Radio Times Treasure Hunt. "Geoff’s tapes were really rather good, and replaced a lot of inferior copies we already had," explained Keith. "Although some needed repair, the sound quality and condition of the tapes was far better than most we have to deal with. "Retrieving any series is always good, but this one has a particular place in the comedy landscape. We are lucky people like Geoff spent their hard-earned money on tape machines and receivers, and held on to the tapes for 60 years!" The recovery of all 16 episodes, and the 60th anniversary of the first television series, has given Radio 4 Extra the perfect opportunity to schedule the first radio series for re-broadcast, starting on Monday 20th January at 7:30am. Our thanks to all those who have responded to the Radio Times Treasure Hunt to date. We're hopeful that there are more lost gems just waiting to be unearthed, so if you have old recordings of TV or radio programmes from the 1980s or before, please contact us at treasurehunt@radiotimes.com. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Lost episodes of radio classic The Clitheroe Kid will return to the airwaves
Radio 4 Extra are set to broadcast episodes which haven’t been heard on our airwaves for over 60 years.
A version of this article first appeared in Radio Times magazine. "Monday at Eight, on the Light". These might have been the words spoken by the Light Programme’s duty announcer to promote The Clitheroe Kid, the popular radio comedy which occupied this slot for most of its 290 episodes. Its place in the schedules may owe something to the idea that listeners, up to 10 million of them at the show’s peak, needed a few laughs after the first day of the working week. The show starred comedian Jimmy Clitheroe, who was actually 35 when he started playing the part of the cheeky schoolboy, but because he had not physically grown beyond the age of 11, he could pass for a child of that age, complete with a convincing high-pitched voice. Clitheroe’s first billing in Radio Times was in January 1952 as Wishee-Washee in Aladdin. Listeners heard a 30-minute excerpt from the pantomime production at the London Casino starring Julie Andrews as the Princess. From 1955, Clitheroe started making regular appearances in radio variety shows, notably the Northern Variety Parade series in which he was soon given his own show, Jimmy Clitheroe as the Call Boy. In it, he took listeners backstage to meet the stars of radio music hall but, in one edition, he was given a sketch in which his Clitheroe Kid character was introduced to listeners. The audience reaction was very positive and in 1957 The Clitheroe Kid was commissioned as series in its own right, albeit limited to the Home Service in the north. Only in May 1958 did The Clitheroe Kid move to the Light Programme for transmission across the country. The show became immensely popular and would run for a total of 14 years, finishing in 1972, only 7 months before Jimmy Clitheroe died. Most of the early episodes of The Clitheroe Kid were missing from the BBC archives, but many have been recovered in recent years thanks to our friends at the Radio Circle. Radio 4 Extra is now scheduling another six which haven’t been heard on our airwaves for over 60 years. As is often the case, these episodes have been reassembled from multiple sources, which explains why the sound quality sometimes changes mid-way through a programme. The sources include off-air recordings from Clitheroe aficionado Stephen Poppitt and the late broadcaster Ed Doolan, together with transcription copies (edited recordings put on vinyl discs for overseas sales). The first episode due for rebroadcast is Jimmy the Kid, in which the star develops a cowboy obsession. By the time this was aired on 2 April 1962, the show was in its fifth series and hugely popular. "Do come and join us in radio's happiest family circle, a family circle which is set spinning into a merry-go-round every week by The Clitheroe Kid," said RT. "Besides Jimmy, waiting to welcome you into the Clitheroe home each Monday will be Grandad (Peter Sinclair), Mother (Patricia Burke), Susan (Diana Day), Alfie Hall (Danny Ross), and those two friends of the family Theodore Craythorpe and Harry Whittle (both played by Leonard Williams)." Episodes lined up for the subsequent weeks are: What a good boy am I, What a Guy, Sorry You've Been Troubled, Smile Please and When Grandad Papered The Parlour, all from 1962. Many others remain on the wanted list but may yet turn up as the Radio Circle continues to be offered old radio recordings. The work involved in replaying the tapes on different machines to make digital copies, and then identifying the contents, all takes time, but sometimes gems like these emerge. If you have any tapes or films of old TV or radio programmes dating from the 1980s or before, please contact us at the Radio Times Treasure Hunt at treasurehunt@radiotimes.com, giving details of what you have. The Clitheroe Kid will broadcast on Sunday 8th September at 10am on Radio 4 Extra. Check out more of our Radio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Hancock at 100: Tony Hancock centenary celebrated with broadcast of 'lost' episode
Radio 4 Extra is honoring Tony Hancock with a five-hour special, including previously lost recordings and rare sketches, celebrating 100 years since the comedian's birth.
The centenary of Tony Hancock’s birth on 12th May has presented Radio 4 Extra with the perfect opportunity for a five-hour run of archive recordings featuring the comedian. Introducing the shows, Jim Lee will be joined by Martin Gibbons, president of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. The first item will be a previously lost edition of Star Bill, which went out live on coronation week in June 1953. The recording, which came from the Bob Monkhouse Collection, was Hancock’s last starring radio vehicle before he and writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson teamed again for Hancock’s Half Hour, which began the following year. The centenary line-up also features the 2014 compilation Steve Punt's Hancock Cuttings and two rarely heard sketches from the BBC Light Programme’s Calling All Forces. In the first of these, from February 1952, we hear Hancock reprise his role as the tutor to Peter Brough’s ventriloquial doll, Archie Andrews. For Hancock aficionados, the most significant item is an edition of Hancock’s Half Hour which hasn’t been heard since its first broadcast on 10th May 1955. The episode, later named A Visit to Swansea, was on the missing list until a recent discovery by Richard Harrison of the Radio Circle, our partners in the Radio Times Treasure Hunt. The tape was part of the same collection in which another lost Hancock, The Marriage Bureau, was found in 2022. So why were the two discoveries not announced at the same time? The answer provides an insight into the work of the group which regularly receives old tapes containing off-air recordings, sometimes in their hundreds. Richard Harrison told us that the Hancocks were but two of 600 tapes bought at auction, probably from a house clearance sale. As he went through the reels, anything which was unlabelled was set aside to tackle later; such recordings demand more time as the whole reel has to be listened to and identified. There was a tape box labelled 'Hancock's Return' but, as is often the way, the reel inside didn't match the label and just had music on it. Much later on, Harrison started to work on the unlabelled reels with the benefit of knowing which brand of tape was used for The Marriage Bureau, and the reel that should have been in the ‘Hancock's Return’ box was one of those. Only on playing the tape was he able to confirm the identity of the episode which we now know as A Visit to Swansea. Incidentally, the person we must thank for making this recording almost 70 years ago hadn’t got the title wrong; most episodes didn’t have official names until the history of the show came to be written in 1978. Rarity value aside, the episode A Visit to Swansea is significant for its place in the story of Hancock’s Half Hour. The first series, which launched in November 1954 and concluded in February 1955, must have gone down well as a second series was commissioned to start just two months later. But what became one of the most enduringly popular radio comedies of all time almost came to an early end when Hancock went AWOL just before the cast were due to start recording again. Throughout the first series, a footnote under Hancock’s listings in RT informed readers that he was in appearing in The Talk of the Town at the Adelphi Theatre, London. The stage show continued into the spring of 1955 but the stress of a long run combined with the prospect of recording a second radio series became too much for Hancock. Overcome with nervous exhaustion, he walked out of the theatre and took a flight to Rome. Emergency meetings were convened at the BBC and producer Dennis Main Wilson asked Hancock’s friend Harry Secombe to step in. The evolving situation is reflected in the billings of Radio Times, which had already gone to press. The first episode on 19 April has Hancock listed as usual but the repeat of the second episode has Secombe’s name in his place. By the time of the third episode, RT was catching up. "Mr Harold 'Micawber' Secombe, Esq takes over from his old friend Hancock, the celebrated waif, to find that 'something always turns up'", read the summary, indicating that Galton and Simpson had started to adapt the script for Secombe. In fact, they were doing more than that and preparing to replace Hancock permanently, renaming the show Secombe's Half Hour. Meanwhile, in Positano, Italy, Hancock must have sensed that the BBC’s patience was running out and returned to London. Taking advantage of a format in which most of the cast played versions of themselves, the writers decided that the next episode should be all about Hancock’s reappearance. "The celebrated waif makes his return after all too long an absence" read the synopsis in RT, describing the storyline in which Hancock made his way to Wales to say thank you to Secombe for stepping in. It can’t have been easy for Hancock to face the rest of the cast when they assembled for that recording on 8th May. The episode starts with Andrée Melly and Bill Kerr enjoying the sound of Harry Secombe singing The Heart of a Clown. "It must be one of the best records he’s ever made," comments Bill. "I’m going to miss Harry," laments Andrée. Soon after, when Hancock appears, Kerr wastes no time in telling him what a wonderful job Harry did. Whatever Hancock may have been feeling inside, his script allowed him to respond indignantly, in the unapologetic attitude of his character. If he had lingering doubts over being usurped by Secombe, the audience figures for this edition provided much reassurance: they had shot up by a million! While none of Secombe’s three episodes survive, he makes a brief appearance at the conclusion to A Visit to Swansea. The rediscovered recording, which is missing its first two minutes, is introduced by Keith Wickham of the Radio Circle. In total, the radio series ran for six years, clocking up 107 episodes, 20 of which are still missing. If you have any recordings of television or radio programmes dating from the 1980s or before which might be missing from the official archives, please contact us with the details at: treasurehunt@radiotimes.com Hancock on the cover of Radio Times 14th November 1954. This was the only cover to publicise the radio series of Hancock’s Half Hour, which had only just started its first season. This scene is taken from the second episode later named The Diamond Ring but there must have been some confusion over the transmission order as this edition had been broadcast the week before! RT got its first mention in this episode when Kenneth Williams says "Where have I seen that face before?" and Hancock replies "Oooh, could have been anywhere. Film magazines, stage papers, Radio Times, noticeboard outside, anywhere." 8th December 1957. The first cover to promote Hancock’s Half Hour on television, albeit the third series. RT’s commentary read: "'Cover Boy' Hancock tonight turns his attention to newspapers. Not, as you might imagine to read his notices, but to have a bash at the competitions – all the competitions – with the promise of riches, fame, and whatever else they have to offer. After all, someone's got to win them, and why not Tony? Maybe Sid has an answer to that one." 9th February 1958. The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol was Hancock’s only straight role on television. In it, he played a lowly government clerk who had lost his money gambling (sounds familiar?) but was mistaken by the local citizenry for a high-ranking official inspector. 20th September 1959. RT photographer Don Smith recalled taking this picture after the Saturday dress rehearsal of the episode featured, The Economy Drive. Hancock later asked Don if he had taken the picture. Don feared that he didn’t like it and considered saying it was the other photographer, so he'd get the blame! But he told the truth, which was just as well because Hancock loved it! 28th February 1960. The cover for the start of series six, titled The Cold, was also printed as a poster to promote RT on newsstands. The design was re-used in April 1985 with photographer Don Smith using an old print of his original, curled at the edges. 20t' May 1961. The final TV series was simply named ‘Hancock'. The comedian wanted a new image and RT’s Art Editor Ralph Usherwood had an idea; he would show the new Hancock looking at the old, as if on a billboard. When photographer Don Smith next saw Tony Hancock he said "what a brilliant idea!". Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How lost episodes of Dixon of Dock Green and Softly, Softly were returned to the archives
The Radio Times Treasure Hunt has uncovered more episodes thought lost for ever.
The Radio Times Treasure Hunt has received hundreds of responses since it was launched in October 2022. The majority have concerned radio programmes, most recently giving rise to the BBC's Hidden Treasures season covered by David Crawford last week, but now we have a television discovery to celebrate. On Saturday 30 March, an episode of Dixon of Dock Green from March 1959, thought to be lost forever, will be screened on Talking Pictures TV, which has been running a series of repeats of the classic police drama that ran from 1955 to 1976 and starred Jack Warner as the avuncular PC George Dixon. The episode Duffy Calls the Tune came to the attention of the RT Treasure Hunt from collector David Stead. "I knew that most episodes of Dixon of Dock Green didn't exist as the early ones went out live and only a few were recorded on film," explained David. "I wasn't sure how the 16mm film would look after it was digitised, but was delighted by the quality of the sound and picture. After being lost in the woods of Dock Green for so long, it's great that people will get to see the episode again!" "I purchased the film some years ago from another collector who didn't appreciate the importance of it. I had planned to return it in 2022 for the BBC's 100th anniversary, in the name of my closest friend of almost 40 years, Martin Holder. He had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and it would have been his parting gift to the TV world, something he would be remembered for. Unfortunately, progression of his illness came too fast. That hit me hard and it wasn't until the middle of 2023 that I arranged the film's return to the BBC through the Radio Times Treasure Hunt." David also returned a missing episode of the BBC series Softly Softly from 1968, entitled The Good Girl, and an episode from a comedy series called Them that was assumed to have been wiped without trace. Them was made in 1972 and is one of Johnny Speight's lesser-known creations, following two hapless 'gentlemen of the road' played by Cyril Cusack and James Booth. The humour, which is largely visual, is not what one expects from Speight, and has a guest part for Bond girl Maddy Smith. The episode was screened to an enthusiastic audience at the BFI's Missing Believed Wiped event last December at which Maddy gave her recollections, the main one being a good-looking young cameraman who she took a special liking to! The episode was originally screened in colour but only survives on black and white film – however a recent discovery in the RT photo archive gives us a glimpse of what the characters looked like in colour. Meanwhile, our partners at The Radio Circle, who handle radio enquiries to the Treasure Hunt, have drawn up a list of the material which they have recovered and offered back to the BBC. There's more to come but, being mindful that Radio 4 extra welcome suggestions from listeners, we thought you'd like to see what's been found so far – you can find the full list here. Its breadth is testimony to the interests and tastes of those making home recordings 40, 50 and 60 years ago; The Ken Dodd Show (1966), John Gielgud reading Lycidas (1972) and a talk for Sixth Forms on the influence of Brecht (1969) to name but three from the list of almost 400. There is also an edition of Top of the Pops from 1961 featuring Helen Shapiro, Elvis and Danny Williams. Television sound often features in audio collections as this was how people captured TV programmes before home video came along. It helped a lot if you saw the programme when broadcast as then you could replay the pictures in your mind as you listened to the sound track. The Radio Circle is also on the lookout for recordings which are superior to those returned from other sources. A recent example is Wrinkles, a comedy by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor who later created the cult television sitcom Red Dwarf. The series, which starred Tom Mennard and Anthea Askey, was set in an old people's home and was originally aired in 1980 and 1981, but not retained by the BBC. When the first series was re-broadcast over 40 years later, it was preceded by an 'archive quality' warning because the 'off air' recordings were less than perfect, prompting other collectors to offer something better. One of these was 94-year-old Tony Lee from Gravesend who was seeking a good home for his collection of over 2,000 cassettes. "Working through them, we found all of Wrinkles series 1, and four editions of series 2 with very good sound quality," explained a delighted Steve Arnold from the Radio Circle. "It goes to show that finding a copy of a missing show isn't always the end of the story, we mark it as a reference copy and continue to look for improvements until the show is fully restored." Our thanks to all those who have responded to the Treasure Hunt to date. We're hopeful that there are more lost gems just waiting to be unearthed, so if you have old recordings of tv or radio programmes from the 1980s or before, please contact us at Treasurehunt@radiotimes.com. Read more about the BBC's Hidden Treasures season Check out more of our Radio coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Radio Times 1967 cover star Linda Lawrence remembers iconic photoshoot
Radio Times put out a call late last year in an effort to identify the cover model.
When Radio 1 hit the airwaves in September 1967, it was Tony Blackburn whose voice was first heard on the 'swinging new radio service'. It was also Tony who was seen on the TV news coverage of the day with Controller Robin Scott looking on. Readers of Radio Times, however, were presented with something different: a young woman dancing to the music coming from her transistor radio. The use of a model rather than a broadcasting personality was quite a departure for Radio Times but the cover image so epitomised the archetypal Radio 1 listener that a cartoon of what seemed to be the same girl regularly appeared next to the Radio 1 listings. The cover was the first edition of RT to be regularly printed in colour and, as time went on, the 'Dolly Bird' came to represent more than the start of Radio 1; she was the embodiment of a new pop era at the BBC. And so when we came to select our ten covers from key moments in history, this had to be one of them. But who was this uncredited model? Our recent appeal was answered by reader Glenn Reuben who recognised her as Linda Lawrence, a member of the then recently formed song and dance group The Young Generation. We wasted no time in tracking Linda down to see what she remembered. "I just went for an audition and they told me I'd got it. Then they said – the BBC being cheapskates – can you provide shoes in orange? So I just chose a pair of my shoes and dyed them with Lady Esquire." It was a good match for the Radio 1 logo printed on her dress, which was made from paper. "It was massive at the back with great Bulldog clips attached and, to make it stand out, they had a fishing line pulling on it from the side." The morning’s photo shoot over, Linda was then asked to star in a short promotional film for Radio 1. "I had to be in bed and then Tony Blackburn’s programme started on the radio and I jumped out of bed, ran downstairs and got into a car (my Morris 1100), and drove off. It was like a little commercial for the radio station. I've never seen it and I don't even know if it was aired." We checked the BBC archives and found there was a specially shot Radio 1 trail screened on BBC One before Juke Box Jury, three days before Radio 1 went to air, but the film itself doesn’t survive. For Linda this was just one of those occasional extra jobs she did between performing with the Young Generation, the BBC’s song and dance troupe which appeared in many music shows between 1967 and 1977. They appeared with many of the leading artists of the day, so what did Linda remember of them? "As the dancing group we just got on with our work and were told not to talk to them or befriend them unless they spoke to us. But it was interesting to watch them and, if they came into rehearsal, it was great to say that I'd seen Tom Jones, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davies or The Osmonds, but we never socialised with them." Later, she went to London Weekend as one of The Second Generation appearing in 2 G’s and the Pop People and then performed in 'Shades', a vocal group which appeared on the Mike Yarwood Show. "This was the last thing I did before getting married and having a baby. We had some great times making those shows. I often think back to those days and all my dancing friends with great affection," Linda told us from her home in Spain. In all the years that we didn’t know the identity of our cover star she was simply the 'Radio 1 Dolly Bird'. It’s a term that would seem sexist today but "that was fine at the time", Linda conceded. And when that Radio 1 launch issue hit the newsstands, did anyone recognise her? "Much, much later when people saw the cover they would say, oh my God, that's you, but it didn't make me famous at the time! All the excitement was for Tony Blackburn. No adulation, I was just the girl on the cover – that was it!" Radio Times: The Sixties bookazine is on sale now. Visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Radio Times Treasure Hunt for lost TV and radio gems draws huge response
An update on our search for old and missing recordings.
The Radio Times Treasure Hunt for lost gems from our TV and radio past, which we launched in October, has sparked hundreds of responses. Steve Arnold, founder of our partner organisation, the Radio Circle, reports: "Over 80 per cent of what’s being offered is radio, so we’ve been very busy. The range of material is quite remarkable, from pre-war programmes on 78rpm discs to cassette recordings made in the 1990s. "Our team of volunteers is carefully checking each item offered against the catalogues to see if it actually is missing." Keith Wickham, the Radio Circle’s restoration expert, is keen to point out that, even if a show is already present in the archives, they are careful not to discard alternative copies too quickly. Quality differences or edits in different recordings mean that a restored show can be made from a dozen or so off-air copies. Richard Harrison, the Circle’s media specialist, says that much of what is coming forward is on 1/4-inch reels that were in common use from the mid-'50s. "Some of the tapes are unlabelled so we won’t know what they contain until they can be played," he adds. "The number of mystery tapes runs into the hundreds so it will take a while to work through them all. "But I feel a sense of anticipation every time I lace up a spool on the tape desk: it just might contain another gem, such as the Hancock’s Half Hour I discovered recently." Any verified finds will be announced later in Radio Times, but the good news is that programmes unearthed so far include classic panel games, comedy, plays and DJ-hosted music shows, some being early examples of commercial radio. While recordings of missing TV shows are rarer, a few interesting offers have been made to us. Some are soundtracks of missing programmes (notably the BBC’s commentary on the Apollo 11 Moon landing), but we’ve also been offered items on film, including music performances from the late '60s. Do please continue to contact us with news of anything you unearth. Email treasurehunt@radiotimes.com or write (but don’t send any tapes at this stage, please!) to: Treasure Hunt, Radio Times, 44 Brook Green, London W6 7BT. Other useful links: BBC archive Kaleidoscope Television International Enterprises Archives Looking for something to watch? Check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast.
Join the Radio Times Treasure Hunt to find lost gems of TV and radio
Do you own old recordings which could help fill the gaps in the archives?
Do you have fond memories of a particular drama series or comedy show, but can’t find your favourite episodes? That may be because they are missing from the official archives. Certain episodes of Doctor Who and Hancock’s Half Hour rank amongst the most wanted recordings by TV and radio collectors but there is so much more, including entertainment, music, current affairs, and children’s – even the continuity announcements and news bulletins are of interest. Perhaps you have some old recordings which could help fill the gaps in the archives? If so, you can join in the Radio Times Treasure Hunt to restore lost programmes to the broadcast archives. Many of the stars of television started on radio and so the discovery of their early appearances on radio can be really significant. Since most early home recordings are sound-only, we are partnering with The Radio Circle, run by expert radio historians, who have successfully restored many classic shows to the BBC, for broadcast on Radio 4 Extra. We’re asking anyone who has recordings of television or radio programmes on old formats (cassettes, reel to reel tapes or even film) to let us know. In most cases, missing programmes date from the 1980s or before but there are some later examples. If you send us the details of what you have, we will run a check to see whether the programmes in question are missing from the archives. If they are, we would be pleased to pass them back to the broadcasters for digitisation so they can be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations. To contact us, please e-mail treasurehunt@radiotimes.com with your name and details of your find. Many programmes survive because off-air recordings were made using domestic equipment whilst others exist because copies were made for producers or overseas transmission and never returned. Because few people now have the machines to replay these, the tapes or films may well be gathering dust in an attic or garage. If you’re not sure what you have, please see our guide to formats below as that will help you describe what you have. Tape and film formats Here is a quick guide to the formats on which missing programmes may be found: Audio: ¼” reel to reel recorders became available in the early 1960s and were used by many people to make off-air sound recordings from the radio and television. This was followed by the introduction of the compact cassette (below) by Phillips in 1963. Both formats remained in common use until the 1990s when the Digital Audio Tape was introduced. Radio programmes were also put on gramophone discs for overseas distribution; a practice which continued until the 1980s. Reel to reel video: the earliest domestic formats date back to the mid-1960s. Peto Scott introduced a reel-to-reel one inch tape machine in 1964 and Sony launched a rival format the following year. In 1968, Shibaden brought out a ½” format. The broadcasters initially used the Ampex two inch tape format and later changed to one inch tape. Video cassettes: A series of formats were introduced in the 1970s. Of these, the VHS was the most popular format, followed by Betamax. Sony introduced the U-matic format in 1971 (two tapes sizes were used, see below) Phillips introduced the N1500 in 1972 (below) Sony introduced Betamax in 1975 Panasonic introduced the VHS in 1976 (below) Phillips introduced the N1700 in 1977 Phillips introduced the V2000 in 1979 Video 8 and High 8 were mainly used for home movies rather than off-air recording (below) Film: 16mm film (below) was widely used in television production, but 35mm was also used and a few shows were issued on 8mm for domestic consumption. Why were some programmes not kept by the broadcasters? There are a number of reasons why TV and radio broadcasts are now 'lost' from the archives – in some cases, no recording was ever made as broadcasting was mostly a live activity, but also, in an age before repeat showings and home media/streaming was commonplace, there was no impetus to keep recordings and recording over existing programmes was more effective. Some recordings were also lost or have been stolen or damaged. For more details, visit the BBC Archives homepage. Find something to watch now by visiting our TV Guide. The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now – subscribe now and get the next 12 issues for only £1. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.