Audio Returns

Now this is what I call a mother lode of returned telly - or, to be accurate, off air audio recordings of old telly. I'm not entirely convinced all of this is missing, but I know a geat deal of it and as this only covers tapes for a year or so in the late sixties, and there are many, many more tapes to be checked, this could turn out to be one of the most significant finds ever.

Collected by Paul Vanezis from an old radio enthusiast, the most important find for me is an off air audio copy of the missing Dads Army episode 'A Stripe for Fraser', but the rest are all important recordings (and equally hopefully there's more to come from this massive collection).

Now, someone just needs to get them out on disc or on the radio (although given that the recovered audios of Ace of Wands didn't even make the dvd box set, I'm not overly confident)

Dads Army
Up until now this has only been available as one of the full cast re-recordings for the Dads' Army radio show.

29/03/69 A Stripe for Fraser

Not Only...But Also
The February show is held in the archives missing some sections. The March show has until now been lost entirely.

18/02/70
18/03/70

'Til Death Us Do Part
Some of these are presumably repeats - for instance there was no first-run episode of 'Til Death of 27 December 1967, and the episode 'State Visit' was originally shown in February of that year.

23/01/67 Caviar On The Dole
06/02/67 A Wapping Mythology
13/02/67 In Sickness And In Health
27/12/67
29/07/67 State Visit
05/08/67 Bulldog Breed
Talkback - Till Death (14/01/68)
26/01/68 The Funeral
02/02/68 Football
09/02/68 The Puppy
28/12/68 Monopoly

Q5
24/03/69
28/04/69
05/05/69

Do Not Adjust Your Set
14/09/66 - Do Not Adjust Your Set There's a Fault in the Programme - Recorded from the ABC in Australia
11/01/68 - #2
26/02/69 - #15
12/03/69 - #17
19/03/69 - #18
30/04/69 - #24
14/05/69 - #26

Horne a Plenty
13/11/68

Harry Worth
02/04/67
14/05/67
28/05/67
04/06/67
23/04/69
30/04/69
19/11/69
02/12/69
09/12/69
16/12/69

At Last...the 1948 Show
The missing episodes of these shows already exist as off-air recordings, but hopefully these are better quality and particularly the recording of 26 September 1967 contains the scene from the beginning which is missing from the - until now - only recording of the show. The recordings from April and May 1967 are presumably repeats of the first series, which finished in March of that year.

25/04/67
02/05/67
09/05/67
16/05/67
26/09/67
03/10/67
10/10/67
24/10/67
31/10/67

Oh Brother!
13/09/68 - The Voice of the Turtle
18/10/68 - Treasures on Earth
18/04/69 - Thine House in Order
25/04/69 - A Mother in Israel
02/05/69 - Behold This Dreamer
09/05/69 - An Uncertain Sound
16/05/69 - In The Beginning
27/08/69 - Root of All Evil
16/01/70 - A Still Small Voice
23/01/70 - By The Fleshpots
30/01/70 - The Laughter of a Fool
13/02/70 - The Hand of Esau
27/02/70 - The Fullness of his Days

The Frost Report
20/04/67 - The Army
27/04/67 - Advertising
04/05/67 - Parliament & Politicians
18/05/67 - Industry
25/05/67 - Culture
01/06/67 - Transport
09/06/67 - Crime
??/??/?? - Europe
29/06/67 - Showbusiness
17/03/67 - Youth
31/03/67 - Countryside

The Rolf Harris Show
Larger Than Life

Comedy Playhouse
Spanner in the Works
The Chars
House in a Tree 25/06/67
Heirs on a Shoestring 09/06/67
To Lucifer a Son (with Jimmy Tarbuck)
Tooth and Claw
The Lovers 12/05/69
The Making of Peregrine 19/05/69
Joint Account 18/12/69
Keep 'Em Rolling 11/03/1970
Better Than A Man 18/03/1970
Mind Your Own Business 08/07/1970

The Galton and Simpson Playhouse
26/04/69 - Friends in High Places
04/05/69 - Never Talk to Strangers
17/05/69 - Pity Poor Edie, Married to Him
21/11/69 - ??

Top of the Pops
15/06/67
13/07/67
05/10/67
25/12/68
26/12/68
20/03/69
03/04/69
10/04/69
24/04/69
01/05/69
08/05/69
29/05/69
11/09/69
13/11/69
18/12/69
26/12/69
18/02/70
19/03/70

Of Detectives, Elves and Neo Fascists

For anyone wanting to listen to the type of Sherlock Homes radio plays I mentioned the other day, you can do so for nothing at this excellent site.

http://www.botar.us/sherlockholmes.html

On the subject of freebies (and thanks to Simon for pointing this out) Tor books is giving away pdf versions of twelve of its sf novel catalogue, if you sign up at

http://www.tor.com/

Within a day of entering your details, you get links to the books. The first one is Mistborn by Branden Sanderson (available here and if the cover is anything to go by probably rotten and featuring elves). And the second is Old Man's War by John Scalzi, a novel once described by t'other Simon as "unpleasant right-wing polemic" and 'neo-fascistic drivel', so perhaps best to stick with the Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Case of the Centenarian Detectives

Anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes will be aware of the series of movies made by Universal in the late 30s and early 40s, starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as his chronicler and side-kick Dr Watson.

I can only say with certainty that they'll be aware of them, since for many Holmesians these films are the thin end of the wedge, the point at which presentation of the Holmes stories went horribly awry and many undesirable elements were introduced (Holmes taking part in non-canonical mysteries and Watson being a bumbling half-wit, specifically).

For those of us with a love of the slightly askew though, these films are a Godsend. Starting off in 1939 with the traditional Hound of the Baskervilles and running via another 13 films to 1946 and The Secret Code the series soon left behind Victorian England and became a propoganda tool for the allies as Holmes foiled one sinister Nazi plan after another in a modern day setting.

Even better though, the two actors starred at the same time in the radio series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - and that's mad as two hungry weasels in a sack.

The series ran in full from 1939 until 1947, though Rathbone jumped ship in '46, and the ones I've heard (courtesy of Paul) are from Rathbone's final season.

So what's so peculiar about them, I ask both of my readers ask at once?

Might as well start with the big one. The series as a whole at this point was sponsored by a company called Petri Wine and, as was the custom of the day, this involves a spokesman for the company doing a little speech at the beginning and end extolling the virtues of the sponsor's product*.

So far so good.

What marks these stories out though is that once the spokesman finishes his spiel he then starts chatting to Nigel Bruce in character as Watson, asking after his health, his latest case and his fondness for Petri Dry Sherry! Even better, Watson gets obviously peeved by this and makes occasional comments sotto voce along the lines of 'Oh good, talking about that damn wine again".

All of which has a knock-on effect on the series' timeline. You might expect that the writers simply wouldn't mention the fact that every story is set some sixty years after the original stories? But no, the series revels in the fact that Watson is well over a hundred - in the 'April Fool's Adventure' Watson even specifically dates a story to 1881.

Then there's the incidental music, which is completely mental. It's like the most outre of outsider music or the results of the Elephant Man randomly smashing the keys of an organ with his face. Just loud, discordant parping noises basically: the output of a man who learned his trade doing sound effects for James Whale horror movies.

All of which somewhat tongue in cheek comment should not be taken as genuine scoffing. The acting is first rate, the scripts inventive and intelligent and the series as a whole both highly professional and extremely entertaining. The little oddities of the day add to the pleasure to be had in listening, rather than taking anything away.

You can download free, legitimate copies of some of these shows here. Go on, give one a try while enjoying a cool, refreshing glass of Petri Sherry, perfect as a before dinner drink or as a light, summer wine with dinner.

* I did think it was a nice touch having the widow of the writer Robert Green topping and tailing some of the episodes with reminisces about Nigel Bruce.