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 Rankin 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.
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.)
