Film is Fabulous! and De Montfort University’s Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI) are pleased to announce the recovery of a missing episode from Southern Television. The recovery was made during the pilot study, initiated to establish a practical methodology for assessing, cataloguing, and preserving vulnerable film collections held in private hands. The missing episode, which was found in the private film collection of the late Tim Beddows, is:

The Full Man: The Dramatist and Human Affairs (Broadcast: 11th February 1964)

The episode is the fifth from the thirteen-part television series produced by Southern Television in 1964. Presented by David Daiches, the programme incorporates scenes from plays, such as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Terence Rattigan’s Adventure Story, to demonstrate drama and tragedy. The various scenes feature George Baker, Rosalie Crutchley, Frances Rowe, and Ian Woodruff.

The missing episode was discovered with a selection of other Southern Television programmes. These are either superior in quality to those copies currently held by the major archives, or the sole surviving film prints of episodes for which there are only digital copies currently held. These include:

The Full Man: War Poetry * (Broadcast: 28th January 1964)

The Full Man: Landscape and Background * (Broadcast: 25th February 1964)

Learning to Fish with Jack Hargreaves (Broadcast: 29th November 1965)

*The sole surviving film print (the archives only hold a digital copy).

An essential part of the Film is Fabulous! process is the team must demonstrably prove the existence, and state the whereabouts, of the episodes they recover. The recovered copy of The Full Man will be returned to the ITV Archive.

Film is Fabulous! Preserving film treasures for future generations.

9th May 2024