2025
January
8 - the new year kicks off with a lengthy post on GB from Aron Challinger, stating that the delays with curating the Melbourne hoarder's collection is that the entire hoard has moved universities twice. It now sits with the University of Southern Queensland.
However in a subsequent post, Aron says that despite the hoarder possibly having taped "all of 60's Doctor Who", the tapes were most likely the ones that were thrown out before Aron was contacted.
10 - Aron makes 2 more fascinating posts giving further background as to what the Melbourne collector recorded - here and here.
February
25 - On X, FIF post an intriguing picture of a huge hoard of film cans, stating they were found in a collector's shed and there are more inside the house. They post that it will take them until at least Christmas to catalogue everything.
March
11 - On FB, FIF announce their new podcast. An extract featuring Tim Burrows speaking with John Franklin is here. FIF's Vimeo account is located here, with a second extract from the podcast available here, where John talks about dealing with private collectors.
Future episodes will feature Sue Malden, formerly of BBC Archives, and Paul Vanezis.
17 - FIF release their third Fab Podcast snippet, featuring Sue Malden, on their website. In this episode the team define "missing episode" and talk about FIF's returns to date.
Their Facebook post is here.
18 - Under this same FB post, FIF reply to a query about missing episodes, saying "there are several missing episodes of vintage television" to be announced soon, and that a number of "important announcements" will be made.
21 - FIF release part 4 of the Fab Podcast, featuring Sue Malden once again. Sue discusses the work of FIF in liaising with official archives such as the BBC and BFI.
The article also mentions the five collections that have formed the case studies:
- the Tim Beddows Collection
- the Terry Burnett Collection
- the Maurice Haynes Collection
- the David Moore Collection
- the Martyn Stevens Collection
27 - On X, FIF announce their upcoming presentation of missing episodes of vintage television, billed as "Recovered". The event is being held on 11 May 2025 at The Phoenix in Leicester. They will showcase some of the episodes of vintage television that FIF have recovered since they've been operating.
Another podcast excerpt accompanies the announcement on their site, in which Justin Smith of De Monfort University states that they have certain items in the pipeline which he can't announce until closer to the event date.
In the replies on the corresponding Facebook post, FIF also say they will be making "several important announcements" between now and the event and some of the recovered episodes come from two collections containing "thousands" of films.
29 - In a discussion about DMP and bond stores, on GB Jon Preddle replies to Servorobot about the APS bond store - an independent bond store belonging to Australian Program Services based in Chippendale, Sydney. APS imported and distributed US and UK television programs.
Servo later clarifies that APS did not hold any BBC programs.
April
6 - On X, FIF announce their team members Sue Malden, John Franklin and Prof Justin Smith will appear on the next episode of podcast The Humming Projector. The podcast's official site is here.
7 - On their FB, FIF confirm they will announce "recently recovered" missing episodes at the 11 May festival.
12 - On their FB, FIF announce they have recovered "hundreds" of 16mm film cans from a converted pig shed on a farm, which once belonged to a important person in the industry. They will announce the details at the Leicester event (see March 27.)
On Richard Latto's X, he mentions that FIF will also announce another find from the Terry Burnett collection.
14 - On FB, FIF announce that one of the episodes of vintage episodes to be announced on 11 May is an episode of Boyd Q.C. - the fourth episode of this series to be recovered by the group.
21 - On their X, FIF post that they have been busy collecting films over the Easter holiday. The following day, FIF show pictures of 2 film cans they say were retrieved from the collections of two former BBC cameramen.
23 - On their FB post announcing the find of a missing episode of ITV drama Emergency Ward 10. FIF also mention that they have found a total of 50 episodes of the program, most of which are missing. While the earliest episodes recovered are from 1961-62, most are from 1964. This is right in the wheelhouse of missing Who.
A link to a short podcast excerpt is here.
25 - On FB, FIF announce the program for Recovered! on 11 May. No episodes of Who are listed.
30 - FIF post their updated list of BBC shows produced in the late 1950's and 1960's to be shown at Recovered! - no Who is among the listed titles.
May
1 - FIF announce that they have officially established a charitable trust, called "The Film is Fabulous Trust".
11 - At FIF's Recovery event, Sue Malden states she hopes FIF can be involved in returning missing Doctor Who, that there are "one or two" episodes known to be in private collections and and that they know "a few places where they might be".
12 - On the lack of any new announcements at Recovery, despite what FIF said previously online, on GB Scot Ferre speculates that "certain finds were postponed".
13 - On GB, JonGraeme says he spoke to both John Franklin and Sue Malden at the Recovery event and the comment "not ready to announce things at this time" came up more than once.
Meanwhile, the Radio Times publish quotes from Sue Malden that "we know fairly certainly that there are missing episodes in private collections", and that "when the time is right" FIF may be able to assist in returning these to the archives.
14 - On GB, Scot Ferre makes reference to a post in the "Spoiler section" of the forum (original link not found), where someone posted a supposed list of 10 missing episodes and where they are to be found in the UK:
The Daleks' Master Plan, episode 9 "Golden Death", The Daleks' Master Plan, episode 11 "The Abandoned Planet", and The Smugglers episode 3 - a collector in Pembrokeshire.
The Moonbase episode 1 and The Evil of the Daleks episode 3 - Kent
The Wheel in Space, episodes 4 & 5 - Sussex
The Space Pirates episodes 4 through 6 - a collector in Sussex.
Downthread, member The Evil Dalek says he has seen this list many times over the past two years and either someone is repeating a hoax or it is a genuine list. And member JayJohn reminds that this list has also appeared in the self-same thread back in December 2024 (see December 2024, 30).
25 - On The Sirens of Audio podcast, Aron Challinger is interviewed, with an update on the Melbourne hoarder collection (at 1:05:00). Aron confirms the collection does include material from the 1960s and "the BBC has been involved" in talks regarding this material. He also confirms that based on the earliest material, the collector could have recorded everything from The Faceless Ones onwards.
However, Aron reiterates that 95% of the collection was thrown out two weeks before he was contacted. No missing Who appears to be on any of the tapes that were retained. "Only a couple of dozen" tapes went back to the BBC and none of them contained missing Who. Aron does remain hopeful that there may be other large collections out there, primarily film, that may contain missing material.
Aron also speaks to the film can labelled "The Macra Terror", as discussed on the 42 to Doomsday podcast.
Prof. Jason Bainbridge will announce in June/July what else is happening with the collection, from an Australian/pop cultural standpoint, and a YouTube channel may be on the way to discuss the contents of the collection in depth.
June
12 - On GB, after a brief recap of all things omnirumour, Scot Ferre posts that he still believes The Power of the Daleks exists but "it's not in the right hands yet". Steve Manfred adds downthread that he was told in 2013 of a Halloween party where Caroline Skinner was told by Morris that he held all of Power and The Tenth Planet: 4.
Meanwhile, on their FB, FIF post about the return of a copy of 1966 episode of the serial Vendetta: The Running Man. FIF explain the process of how private collectors can liaise with the BBC, have their films scanned to digital for storage in the BBC archive and returned to the collector.
July
17 - The Radio Times give a (random) interview with Peter Purves, the actor who played companion Steven Taylor in many 1960's missing episodes of Doctor Who. Purves says how angry he is that the BBC destroyed so many of his episodes. The article also quotes Sue Malden from the RT interview in May this year (see May 13), where she says "we know think we know where a few of them might be".
27 - On GB, member David John Parker posts about a BlueSky post on the Fesshole account, where the poster says his grandad stole films from the BBC in the 70s.
31 - On the Doctor Who ME FB Group, member Peter Elliott shares a picture of an article from the Daily Mirror. The article features Sue Malden stating the missing episodes could be in private hands.
August
4 - On GB, member vdbn mentions that on the latest episode of Radio Free Skaro, Stephen says that Paul Vanezis told him years ago that the Doctor Who episodes that he is aware of that are in private collections are "not that significant" (at around 21 mins). The podcasters go on to say which episodes they believe are the most likely to be found.
September
17 - On PMF, the following post appears which I've quoted in its entirety and without additional commentary:
well think of this. in this day and age most people DO NOTHING FOR NOTHING
so if the BBC gave them a percentage of sales for returning a lost episode ALOT MORE MISSING EPISODES ESPECIALLY DR WHO WOULD GET HANDED IN.
THIS IS THE MAIN REASON NOTHING IS BEING HANDED BACK IN.
THINK ABOUT IT. PHIL MORRIS WILL AGREE FOR A START.
ANYONE WHO DISAGREES IS A BBC EMPLOYEE
AND REMEMBER THIS IT WAS THE BBC WHO DESTROYED THEM ALL IN THE FIRST PLACE. YOU WILL GO TO YOUR GRAVES NOT SEEING MOST OF THESE EPISODES EVER AGAIN.
YOU MIGHT EVEN BE READING A MESSAGE FROM SOMEONE WHO HAS MISSING BBC MATERIAL
29 - FIF announce they will participate in The Blackpool Film Collectors Convention on 16 November 2025, together with Dicky Fiddy of the BFI's annual Missing Believed Wiped event. Dick "will introduce four episodes of recovered television, which were found in private film collections by Film is Fabulous! These four previously missing episodes will encompass comedy, drama, and light entertainment."
October
3 - On YT, The Doctor Who Missing Episodes Podcast draws attention to a positive piece of news shared on the FIF Facebook page.
Not only do FIF announce that their application to become a registered charity has been approved (see May 1), but they state in a reply post (see below) that they are aware of "several" missing episodes of Doctor Who in private collections. They hope to make an announcement about this soon.
Interested persons can now make a donation to the charitable trust to assist in the finding, preservation, storage and returning of missing television and film.
The full text of the reply post is:
"As mentioned by Sue Malden at our RECOVERED event in May, we are aware of several missing episodes of Doctor Who (Sue stated one or two, but there are more than this) in private film collections in the U.K. We are liaising with the individuals about cataloguing and preserving their entire collection, including the missing Doctor Who episodes, and ensuring that copies are returned to the BBC. We expect to make a detailed announcement shortly."
See also the May 11 entry above.
Further, FIF say that:
"We’ll announce the recovery of items as soon as we’ve fulfilled all of the criteria we’ve agreed with the copyrights holders and the owners. This is why raising sufficient funds to acquire collections is so important right now."
So this would seem to indicate genuine movement on the missing episodes front. More detail is given in this regard:
"We are working diligently behind the scenes with several film collectors who own missing episodes of television, including Doctor Who. We hope to be in a position to catalogue their entire film collections soon, and to secure copies of the missing material for the copyright holders. Watch this space."
4 - The following day FIF drop a hint about a 60's comedy find, to be announced at the event in Blackpool in November.
Meanwhile on Zeta Minor, member theboosh posts that he is "hearing it could be as many as four episodes".
5 - The conversation continues underneath FIF's initial post, with more fascinating info about a find of a cache of silent film:
"We’re working frantically behind the scenes to preserve vulnerable film collections, several of which contain rare and missing items (not just episodes of television, but silent movies, lost British features from the 1930s and 40s, plus other gems). The conferment of charitable trust status will allow us to raise funds and do so much more.
"With regards to missing television, let’s be clear, Film is Fabulous! is not a treasure hunt. We’ve said this throughout. We are focussed on preserving collections. We only catalogue collections. If we were to treasure hunt, we’d be shunned by the film community in short time.
"Our comment about the early Avengers episodes was clear: we ‘hope’ to provide more information soon. It’s not certain that we’ll be granted access to the collection in question, or that we’ll be allowed to catalogue the films. However, we’ve strongly encouraged the owner, who is in very poor health, to contact the rights holder about one particular item.
"Film is Fabulous! will continue to post regular updates, and be as transparent as anyone involved in the preservation of film has ever been with their followers."
"We’ll continue to preserve vulnerable film collections held privately and, rest assured, we’ll update everyone with details of the rare and missing material we’ve recovered in recent months."
9 - Philip Morris appears on the Sense Sphere Podcast, to discuss missing episodes among other topics. A summary of key quotes follows:
5:40 Morris explains that he does not work with FIF but he is friends with them (particularly John Franklin) and is well aware of the work they do.
12:30 Phil goes on to explain the work of TIEA is still ongoing (cataloguing overseas archives) and as with the work of FIF, it's this cataloguing work that can take a long time.
12:50 Phil also confirms that The Web of Fear was found in its entirety and further states the initial plan was to "release everything" but plans for the 50th anniversary changed that plan (15:50). (Ed:- So, where is "everything"?)
16:30 Phil claims the source of the omni-rumour was Ian Levine and that "he has the evidence" (Ed:- this seems to be based purely on Levine's tweets at the time. The omni-rumour has several other known provenances prior to this.)
20:47 Phil says he does have contact with private collectors but it's in confidence, and even if they have something of interest you can't coerce them, you have to wait until they're ready to deal.
21:45 The interviewer asks Morris whether he might see any of the missing Hartnell stories (Marco Polo, The Savages, etc) before he dies. Phil replied yes, he may see "parts of them", for instance some of the historicals. However he won't specify further than that but he does question the wiped status of The Massacre. Later (53:40) he says it would also be nice if The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet:4, The Moonbase and The Evil of the Daleks turned up.
23:25 Morris mentions he knows the owner of the skip company that served Villiers House, and that when films were returned and rights expired, this person would "help himself to titles" found in the skips. He says he knows this from "first hand testimony", so some might have gone to landfill but others didn't. Morris says "anything could be out there".
24:30 Phil appears to reiterate the claims of FIF that "we know for a fact" there are some private collectors who hold episodes of Doctor Who (Ed:- he doesn't specify whether these are missing episodes).
34:25 Phil confirms that Web:3 does still exist, and at 51:40 he says he has "a fair idea" where it is. Phil explains that he'd had to leave the relay station at Jos, with his assistant remaining on site. The films were transferred to the NTA station, however the assistant claims the Jos station manager took 2 episodes away prior, one of which was Web:3 and the other was an episode of The Troubleshooters.
Phil also reiterates his previous claim that when asked the station manager replied "I don't know anything about missing Doctor Who" and Phil believes this means the manager was bribed to steal the two films. (Ed:- and why not more?)
40:45 Phil mentions as an aside that TIEA has brought at a lot of film back from Saudi Arabia and that he has been very busy this year with travelling abroad and continuing TIEA's work.
46:30 Phil says that "when the time is right" FIF will announce their finds, and that "they have been through clearances". Fans need to be patient but they won't be disappointed, "it will be fantastic". He also states he does have more missing BBC material, but won't specify what it is.
56:13 Phil confirms that he did excavate some film prints from a desert landfill and that despite this the prints were "fine".
1:06:10 Phil says he will write a book one day if there is enough interest, if he has time and that he has also already been in talks with a publisher.
He goes on to say that the search is still not over, he is not finished checking relay stations across the world - including storage hubs and even radio stations which were also used to store films.
1:04:55 In Phil's opinion there is still hope for complete stories to turn up.
1:17:02 Phil thinks it's entirely possible that Marco Poio and The Reign of Terror could be completed by finds of the episodes.
1:20:35 Phil elaborates on the "bicycle system", saying that whether a program was bicycled on depending on sales negotiations. While this were under way, the films sat at their last location, then if a sale was eventually made the films were transported to the next location. Third party providers were involved in this process, and Phil confirms he has already checked those and cleared out what they had ("mundane" stuff, mostly feature films).
1:22:40 In most cases Africa and the Middle East were the final destinations for prints.
1:31:50 Phil confirms that private collectors in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia have been contacted.
1:34:10 Phil has the tracking records from all the relay stations he's checked and knows what went where.
1:36:00 When asked why Marco Polo was part of the rumours about Enemy and Web, Phil once again says this is due to the omni-rumour and Ian Levine. He also says he doesn't want to start another omni-rumour and prefers playing things close to the chest. However Phil confirms he DOES have more missing BBC material - however TIEA is still cataloguing "some" of this.
1:39:00 Phil says he has never had any money from the BBC and that all his work has been undertaken using his own money.
And meanwhile on X, FIF post that the collection of "a former industry professional", comprising over 1,000 films is being collected, to be catalogued and preserved.
11 - On X, FIF post that they have recorded an interview with them by Tim Burrows of The Doctor Who Missing Episodes Podcast, to be published "this weekend".
Meanwhile on GB, erstwhile Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury drops a bombshell - that in 2013, post the reveal of Web and Enemy and after DWM conducted an interview with Morris, a member of the Restoration Team told Tom that Phil wasn't even in Jos when the Web/Enemy/Troubleshooters films were found; it was actually his assistant. Further, the RT felt they had to "go along" with Phil's account in order to ensure he returned more episodes, which in a separate post he says there was definitely a feeling at the time he had.
Tom follows up with this post, that the RT felt they were "walking on eggshells" around Morris, and that he was so unpredictable that it seemed possible he might never give anything back, "ever".
12 - On GB the plot thickens, with Tom Spilsbury replying to a poster saying the assistant's name was Humphrey. Tim B responds that he recalls the gentleman in question may have been a representative of Zambia TV. Scot Ferre concurs that this name rings a bell.
Given this new information, member Frax Owen speculates what if Morris himself was the superfan who rang the station manager to withhold Web:3?
Meanwhile on PMF, Servorobot confirms that 'Humphrey' worked for Zambia TV.
13 - The DWMEP publishes their interview with FIF, featuring Sue Malden, Prof Justin Smith of De Montfort University and John Franklin.
They recap their own backgrounds as well as the reason FIF came into being: to preserve the at-risk collections particularly of elderly men who were sick or who passed during COVID, and why achieving charitable status has been so crucial to obtaining access to collections and preserving the films.
They explain they are often dealing with ill or distressed collectors, and also their families who are grieving their loss. So the circumstances are very sensitive and require human understanding and compassion. FIF also plan to start obtaining oral histories from collectors, to tell the stories of the collectors and their collections.
Among the finds so far, FIF say they found a nitrate film of the earliest known appearance of Oliver Hardy in a silent film - in much better condition than the copy held by the US Library of Congress.
FIF say they are also concerned with liaising with broadcast services to ensure that found vintage film and television can be seen by audiences. Their first priority however is to consult with rights holders about restoration and scanning of films.
The ability of FIF to raise funds will assist them in handling the logistics and costs of operating to obtain and preserve at-risk material.
At present FIF are poised to return an episode of the "Late Night Horror" series plus 4 episodes of Simon Dee's "Dee Time", which they are in the process of returning to the BBC once restored. Two early Avengers episodes are with a collector and FIF are encouraging them to return to copyright holders.
As regards the potential Doctor Who finds, John says that both a "former industry professional" and other collectors are involved; there are "several" collections with "several" missing episodes. FIF are actively working to preserve and catalogue these collections in their entirety.
John specifies that the recent FB comment related to one collection in particular, comprising 1000s of films with one known missing episode of Doctor Who - and there may be more. Once FIF achieved their charitable status they were due to go in and obtain the collection - on 10 October, the day of recording the podcast (Ed:- and coincidentally, the 12th anniversary of Web/Enemy); however the collector sadly passed in the interim, preventing FIF gaining access.
The collector's estate has now gone to administration (as both executors of the will had also passed), however FIF's solicitor believes they have an excellent chance to regain access.
Most reprehensibly - apparently some Doctor Who fans have resorted to demanding access to De Montfort University, even to the point of making physical threats against FIF personnel. (Ed:- THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE. To those indulging in this sort of disgusting behaviour - sort your bloody selves out quick smart).
FIF say that we will be "very, very happy" with the announcements of finds when they come. This is just the beginning and there is far more to be done.
And meanwhile, on PMF, member nig4life references a FIF Facebook reply (Ed:- I can't find the original FB post) in which they state:
"As regards the legal situation with the deceased collectors estate, following a post stating that 'I hope your lawyer is right about the good chance of been able to access the collection', FiF have stated 'The application will be made to the court next week. We’re very confident that the court appointed executors will allow us to proceed."
