Film is Fabulous! and De Montfort University’s Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI) have completed the cataloguing of the films within the first case study of the pilot scheme. 620 films from the private collection of the late Tim Beddows, founder and former Managing Director of Network Distributing, were the basis of the first study.

John Franklin, of Film is Fabulous!, said: 

‘We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the estate of the late Tim Beddows, for allowing us access to his private film collection. The sample we catalogued proved to be a veritable treasure trove. We identified a number of vintage television items that are missing from the archives, and several sole surviving film prints.’

The Film Is Fabulous! team, and archivists at De Montfort University, catalogued the following missing items:

Basil Brush Show (Broadcast 20th November 1970)

Black and White Minstrel Show (Broadcast: 5th February 1966)

Clapperboard: Death on the Nile (Broadcast: 23rd October 1978)

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

Play School: Auditions (Recorded: 1st December 1976)

Star Soccer (Broadcast: 16th April 1977)

Z Cars: Take it with a Pinch of Salt (Insert Rushes: 23rd August 1967)

The team also recorded the following sole surviving film prints:

Calling Dickie Valentine (Broadcast: 23rd August 1961)

Close Up: These Were the Days (Broadcast: 20th June 1967)

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

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

Likely Lads: A Star is Born (Broadcast: 23rd June 1965)

Likely Lads: Far Away Places (Broadcast: 14th July 1965)

No Hiding Place: A Bird to Watch the Marbles (Broadcast: 19th March 1963)

The sole surviving prints are not missing from the archives. However, they are important for possible future restorations. 

Prof. Justin Smith, Director of the Cinema and Television History Institute, noted: 

‘DMU’s Cinema and Television History Institute has enjoyed a long and warm relationship with Tim Beddows and we’re honoured and delighted that material from his private collection formed the first case study for this pilot project, and are excited by the remarkable discoveries our archivists have uncovered.’

The pilot study is the culmination of many conversations with film collectors, and the estates of recently deceased collectors. The plan is to catalogue samples from six collections, and to publish the results in November 2024. The 500 films for the second case study are already in-situ, within the state-of-the-art facilities at De Montfort University’s Special Collections department. While those for the third study are being provided by an external source. 

The film archive team at The National Motor Museum in Beaulieu have begun cataloguing 500 films from the collection of the late Terry Burnett. The work is being undertaken to the identical protocols to those employed by De Montfort University. Terry is famous for returning two missing episodes of Dr Who to the BBC in 2010, and later returned the missing episode ‘The Girl On The Poster’ from the ‘Hugh And I’ comedy series. Richard Latto, one of the Film is Fabulous! team, is assisting with the cataloguing at Beaulieu.

Film is Fabulous! Preserving film treasures for future generations.

4th June 2024