Unseen 'Only Fools' episode

[Cowfold Seagull]

I don't think I'll ever understand the fascination with only fools and horses.
I had to endure a couple of episodes the other day as the Mrs wanted to watch them. Can't remember the last time I was that bored.

I've no doubt it was a great series, but I don't think it was worthy of all the acclaim that it recieved. For what it's worth, in my opinion David Jason is guilty of over acting in some scenes, maybe not as much in Only Fools, but certainly in his portrayal of Jack Frost.

 

[DavidRyder]

TV was seen very differently in the 60's and early 70's. That's why so many early Doctor Who's are missing. It was incredibly rare and incredibly expensive to repeat a programme, and the actors unions made sure it wasn't a practice commonly undertaken. The idea of a home video service, or anything approaching a VHS market was unthinkable. TV in those days was like the theatre, if you missed it you missed it.

That combined with 3" Quad tapes etc were incredibly expensive meant that they had to be wiped and reused. Most 'missing' Doctor Who has been returned on 16mm film. Copied from the original onto film so it could be shown in foreign markets with systems less cutting edge than the BBC's. Of course these 16mm reels were expensive to store and were occasionally, unsystematically destroyed. A lot of missing TV has come back from overseas TV stations where it's been sitting untouched for 50+ years! Incredible it has survived at all to be honest.

Thanks for the interesting insight. I am forever mourning the loss of the Hancocks, have to hope for an attic find miraculously!

 

[Normal Rob]

Whilst OFAH is funny, the same cannot be said for David Jason. Every interview that I have ever seen of him he has come across as the dullest, most tedious, luvvie imaginable.

 

[theboybilly]

Whilst OFAH is funny, the same cannot be said for David Jason. Every interview that I have ever seen of him he has come across as the dullest, most tedious, luvvie imaginable.

I have to agree and also add that if it wasn't for OFAH Jason's career would have a very poor back-catalogue. From 'Sharp Intake of Breath' to 'A Touch of Frost' his acting and comedy has been mediocre at best. Both he and Nick Lyndhurst were very lucky to get the gig in Only Fools

 

[Biscuit]

Thanks for the interesting insight. I am forever mourning the loss of the Hancocks, have to hope for an attic find miraculously!

I believe they recently found a missing episode of Hancock in Africa.. sadly it was too damaged to be salvageable.

 

[Lower West Stander]

I have to agree and also add that if it wasn't for OFAH Jason's career would have a very poor back-catalogue. From 'Sharp Intake of Breath' to 'A Touch of Frost' his acting and comedy has been mediocre at best. Both he and Nick Lyndhurst were very lucky to get the gig in Only Fools

Agree too.

He was very lucky to get a part which so perfectly dovetailed with his acting persona. I never thought Delboy was the strongest character in the series.

The real beauty in OFAH though was in the fantastic writing and the strength of the lesser characters. Grandad, Trigger, Boycie, Denzil, Marlene and the magnificent Roy Slater were what made the show imho.

The "Cwying" scene was one of the funniest sitcom performances I've ever seen and Delboy was nowhere to be seen.


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[Is it PotG?]

Agree too.

He was very lucky to get a part which so perfectly dovetailed with his acting persona. I never thought Delboy was the strongest character in the series.

The real beauty in OFAH though was in the fantastic writing and the strength of the lesser characters. Grandad, Trigger, Boycie, Denzil, Marlene and the magnificent Roy Slater were what made the show imho.

The "Cwying" scene was one of the funniest sitcom performances I've ever seen and Delboy was nowhere to be seen.


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Indeed, wasn't 'Roy Slater' wanted as DelBoy originally?

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Indeed, wasn't 'Roy Slater' wanted as DelBoy originally?

Something like that

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[clapham_gull]

TV was seen very differently in the 60's and early 70's. That's why so many early Doctor Who's are missing. It was incredibly rare and incredibly expensive to repeat a programme, and the actors unions made sure it wasn't a practice commonly undertaken. The idea of a home video service, or anything approaching a VHS market was unthinkable. TV in those days was like the theatre, if you missed it you missed it.

That combined with 3" Quad tapes etc were incredibly expensive meant that they had to be wiped and reused. Most 'missing' Doctor Who has been returned on 16mm film. Copied from the original onto film so it could be shown in foreign markets with systems less cutting edge than the BBC's. Of course these 16mm reels were expensive to store and were occasionally, unsystematically destroyed. A lot of missing TV has come back from overseas TV stations where it's been sitting untouched for 50+ years! Incredible it has survived at all to be honest.

There were still deleting later than that.

Yes storage - which to be honest I suspect was more of a driver than the cost of video tape.

Back in the days where there was little resale value you've got to use some very expensive floor space to hold the stuff.

Incredibly heavy and labour intensive to move around. Film even worse.

Video tape (after film) is starting to degrade now too.

I used to work in tape and film storage (*) - particular in a storage centre that held up to a million video tapes. They've just finished digitising it after ten years.

There is still a fear that the hard drives will blow up.

Even digitising it is very labour intensive - and then you've got to depose of the tapes environmentally which isn't cheap.

So yes - there were lots of good reason for chucking stuff away

(*) I wrote software for barcode scanners - I've led an exciting life. On the note of stuff going "missing" - ever worked in a library ?

 

[Biscuit]

There were still deleting later than that.

Yes storage - which to be honest I suspect was more of a driver than the cost of video tape.

Back in the days where there was little resale value you've got to use some very expensive floor space to hold the stuff.

Incredibly heavy and labour intensive to move around. Film even worse.

Video tape (after film) is starting to degrade now too.

I used to work in tape and film storage (*) - particular in a storage centre that held up to a million video tapes. They've just finished digitising it after ten years.

There is still a fear that the hard drives will blow up.

Even digitising it is very labour intensive - and then you've got to depose of the tapes environmentally which isn't cheap.

So yes - there were lots of good reason for chucking stuff away

(*) I wrote software for barcode scanners - I've led an exciting life. On the note of stuff going "missing" - ever worked in a library ?

Yes, it did go on a little later than that. The reason I said early 70's is because that's when the BBC introduced an archival policy under Sue Malden's stewardship. From memory that was '76? Could be a couple of years out. The major reason quad tapes were junked was expense. There were too valuable not to reuse. Storage was only really a factor for 16mm film reels.

I'm a bit of a nerd on this subject I'm afraid!

Digitising is a huge undertaking - the amount of material that requires HD or 4K scanning is insane, and you'd be surprised how expensive some of the kit can be. Film would need to go into a telecine machine, and that's before doing hand restoration on bad joins etc. Mind boggling stuff!

 

[clapham_gull]

It amazes me, generally with these old shows, how episodes go missing in the first place.

When you consider the volume it's incredibly easy. As I said I used to work with the "back catalogue" of MTV and Discovery.

All digitised these days.

MTVs was immense and remember a 4 minute promo on a video tape. Racks and racks of them all identically looking.

There wasn't much on the outside of a video tape beyond the label and more recently a barcode.

If you were incredibly wasteful (before barcodes) you would try and store them by artist - but that meant making space and moving stuff all round all the time.

I used to help set these places up years ago it was a nightmare. The worst one in Milton Keynes which held film. The processing lab had agreements going back years to store rushes as part of the job. You couldn't get hold of the owner but there were certain industry agreements that you couldn't dump it either.

I remember picking up some rushes from a very old World Cup when they used to make a film of the competition. Who did it belong to ? No-one had a Scooby.

 

[Dirty Dave]

A quick bounce of this thread for those interested - the unseen 19 minute episode will be shown on Gold shortly

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[Wilko]

Really, really enjoying this series, amazing that Grandad (Leonard Pearce) met Hitler!

 

[seagurn]

Whens it being repeated?