51Âþ»­

Lost episodes of classic BBC programmes from the 1960s have been unearthed by a team of 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) experts and avid film collectors organising a new national film event.

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 The collectors, together with academics from 51Âþ»­’s Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI), are holding ‘Film is Fabulous!’ at the Phoenix Cinema and Art Centre in Leicester at the end of the month.

Ahead of this, they have announced the discovery of three classic BBC TV programmes from the 1960s. All three are currently missing from the BBC Archive:

• SYKES – Sykes and a Marriage (Broadcast: 1st February 1961)

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• HUGH AND I – New Year Resolutions (Broadcast: 4th January 1964)

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•  MOGUL [The Troubleshooters] – Is That Tiger, Man? (Broadcast: 30th April 1966) 

The three finds will be returned to the BBC Archive for scanning shortly. They are part of a series of discoveries made by Film is Fabulous! in recent months. More classic British television finds will be announced in the coming days.

The finds will be a central part of the Film is Fabulous! event, which aims to bring together film collectors from across the country, who have thousands of rare and unique original films and programmes stored in cellars and attics around the UK.

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Many of the collectors who own these films are elderly and have made no provision to secure the future of their prized assets, meaning we stand to lose much of the physical history and cultural heritage of filmmaking for good, particularly with digital filmmaking and projection now established as the standard.

As such, a group of avid film collectors, together experts from CATHI are staging Film is Fabulous! – a film event at Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema, on Sunday 29 October 2023.

The convention aims to put these vulnerable film treasures in the spotlight and create a support network to help older collectors ensure their films will be preserved in the future.

The  and the Film is Fabulous! team is already in-touch with several high-profile collectors from the world of TV and film who are attending.