2018 - July to December

2018

July 2018

1 – The Grumpcasters release episode V, part 2 of their missing episode exposé focusing on the question of whether Philip Morris has more Doctor Who.

August 2018

2 – On MEF, member and BBC Radio producer Richard Latto reveals that earlier in the year (May) he found pristine 16mm original film negatives for all 30 episodes of Worzel Gummidge plus the double length Christmas special. The 40^th anniversary of the program is in 2019.

September 2018

23 – On GB, Mark Humphries posts a 2015 screengrab of eBay user philg128 – suspected to be Philip Morris – looking to pay “top prices” for any 16mm prints of British television programs.

October 2018

5 – After literally years of near radio-silence from Phillip Morris, he makes an unheralded appearance on BBC’s The One Show to announce the recovery of two episodes of The Morecambe and Wise Show, a better quality episode of Steptoe and Son, an episode of The Basil Brush Show featuring an appearance by The Kinks, and an edition of The Rag Trade.

In addition, Morris announces he has found the entire run of Steptoe in its original format.

Paul Vanezis confirms these details on MEF, and Morris tweets “…Morecambe and Wise 2 lost editions plus lots more to be revealed.”

Morris mentions that one of the M&W episodes was found in Sierra Leone, sparking forum discussion about previous denials from Paul implying that the archive facility was destroyed and there was nothing to be found there.

In response to a question on MEF, Paul cannot say whether the rest of the recovered material was also found in Sierra Leone.

On PMF ericthehalfabee points out that parts of the TIEA website have been updated.

Speculation ensues on the forums that this positive step forward may signify good things to come.

6 – Responding to a tweet from an unverified but seemingly official Basil Brush account, Philip Morris says there will be “lots more exciting news” for him!

7 – On GB, Steve Roberts replies to a post by The Space Pirate, explaining that the 50^th anniversary of Morecambe and Wise is being celebrated by the BBC at Christmas and this is the reason for Morris’ announcement. Strangely however, this was not mentioned on The One Show spot.

11 – On PMF, members camaro and Dr Scott quote from Philip Morris’ Facebook page that the latest batch returned to the BBC are non-Who finds (here and here).

12 – On GB, member Alan Matthews shares a screenshot of a tweet from Twitter user @farfromallover which appeared to show five seconds worth of monochrome footage. Posters downthread speculate it might have been from either Marco Polo or The Daleks’ Master Plan.

13 – In response to a query about the deleted tweet and whether it was missing Doctor Who material, @farfromallover simply replies with a “shushing” emoji.

14 – On PMF, anthonycarroll quotes a post from Philip Morris on the Missing Believed Wiped Facebook page:

“We are Delighted to announce we will be at the BFI in December. helping celebrate the wonderful Anniversary of Missing Believed Wiped with Dick Fiddy.We will be showing lost gems from British TV culled from the TIEA Archives.Hope to see you there.”

15 – On the MBW Facebook page, Philip Morris confirms that the event will be held on 15 December and that Doctor Who will not be a discussion topic.

On PMF, GollyGTFC puts forward a theory that a cinema in Sierra Leone was used to view the audition prints of Doctor Who stories sent there.

25 – On Roobarbs, member Alan says that the BFI programme mentions that a newly animated Doctor Who episode will be screened at Missing Believed Wiped on 15 December. 

Speculation breaks out across forums, pondering why an animation would be shown at an event that normally focuses on returned film and television.

For clarity, Alan states that he acquired this knowledge from the printed programme he received from the BFI.

Meanwhile on GB, member phil-mcgill states that once word gets out about which episode it is, “those who are up to speed with the omnirumour will go into melt down”.

26 – A tweet from Philip Morris featuring a large red number 7 causes some to speculate that it could be code for episode 7 of the The Daleks’ Master Plan, “The Feast of Steven”.

28 – In response to a question on Twitter, Paul Vanezis replies that the reveal of TIEA’s comedy show finds is a joint BFI/BBC Archive announcement. Interestingly, Paul refers to the event as a "press launch".

29 – Paul Vanezis tweets that the announcement of comedy show returns has been delayed, most likely by one day. But he comments that “comedy fans will not be disappointed”.

November 2018

1 – On the MBW Facebook group, Dick Fiddy says that the announcement of recovered comedy programmes has been postponed to Monday 5 November.

On GB, Tlotoxl makes two extraordinary posts. First, he claims that the “comedy reveal”, which is scheduled for Monday 5 November, is in fact “the big ‘Who’ announcement we’ve all been waiting for”. Second, he alleges that the BFI are helping with a campaign of “mis-direction” and the animation scheduled to be revealed at MBW on 15 December is “a compilation of clips from the returned haul” (that is, clips from actual returned episodes).

Further, Tlotoxl says that there will be a series of BFI events over the next year that will cover the best of the TIEA finds, starting with a two-day event in January celebrating the Doctor Who returns that will also serve as the announcement of the episodes’ public release.

Downthread, it transpires that on the MBW Facebook group Cliff Chapman had alluded to the animation release being a show reel of animations, but Tlotoxl’s speculation is based on his suspicions about the so-called comedy release necessitating a “press launch”, as quoted by Paul Vanezis (see 28 October).

4 – On PMF, member epalme01 posts a link to a newly listed Amazon DVD release page for currently missing second Doctor story, The Macra Terror. As with the previously listed title The Wheel in Space, other than the price and the region there is no other information given.

5 – The BFI announcement finally comes, but it’s not what was expected. The official press release refers to the MBW event on 15 December and details two sessions; the first will be actual screenings of newly recovered material, but also including a ten minute animated “mini-episode” of part of The Wheel in Space.

The second session will be 'Philip Morris Presents', and will feature such finds as the Morecambe and Wise episode, the Basil Brush episode featuring the Kinks, and an episode of Citizen James found at Monaco Television during a clear out of their premises.

Speculation and disappointment reign on the forums in equal measure. However, on PMF member Prof Travers posts a screenshot of a Facebook post by Philip Morris, saying that the program is what the BFI are choosing to show but the BBC may have more to announce in due course.

Meanwhile on MEF, Paul Vanezis posts that Philip Morris returned a total of 9 BBC comedy productions to the BBC archive a few weeks ago, including all those currently known plus three episodes of Harry Worth. Paul also confirms that Philip Morris will announce further recoveries in the new year.

And on Roobarbs, the producer of the 10 minute animation, Charles Norton, posts to say that there is no larger project afoot to animate the rest of the serial, and “we” haven’t found the lost episodes.

However on Twitter, the animator working on the project, Rob Ritchie, says that now that the cat’s out the bag, he better get back to finishing it!

7 – On MEF, Paul Vanezis claims not to know which additional editions of Basil Brush Philip Morris has in his possession.

21 – On Twitter, in reply to Greg Bakun of From the Archive, Philip Morris says he will also be attending the Chicago Tardis convention on 23 November and will be bringing “some surprises”.

December 2018

5 – On PMF, Scot Ferre posts a link to an announcement about the DVD release of The Macra Terror. The release will feature animations of the four currently missing episodes.

Then on GB, Sir Didymus posts that an article has appeared on Cultbox claiming Marco Polo has been recovered from a 16mm cine film shot by a fan during broadcast of the episodes. A source has apparently said that the BBC will unveil the find “next month”. The article notes there is no word as to whether Philip Morris or TIEA were involved with the find.

The article is later taken down, however member Jeflar posts two sets of screenshots here and here.

Simon Watkins provides a link to the original version of this story, a cached article from the Mirror in 2013.