Diana series alive and well in BBC archives!!!

[Ian Menkins]

Good news!!! The Diana series has survived in BBC archives, and I can prove it!

The BBC is now committed to salvaging and restoring their vast TV history.

They recently took stock of their vast resources and much of the archive has been databased. The database can be searched online from the BBC Archives website (through UK Motion Gallery).

I decided to register last night and conducted a search on Diana. The attached images prove that all 10 episodes of the mini-series are in the BBC Archives.

I excitedly emailed BBC Archives to see if they can make the series available as a digital download in future. However they replied almost immediately to say that they only handle the licensing of clips for business purposes, and all enquiries relating to the purchase of programmes must be directed to the BBC itself. And so the "merry-go-round" continues!!

The interesting thing is that the Diana mini-series has been archived as "clips", yet each of the ten clips are around 50 minutes long, suggesting that they are in fact entire programmes. The "clips" also show up in the programme archive search, so are clearly not just clips. Moreover the descriptions indicate that they are the entire programmes. If the website is to be believed, the clips can be converted to Quicktime clips, presumably if someone has a lot of cash to spare and a good commercial reason.

Members should not hold their breath about a DVD or online release of the series, but at least we now know that the series is still locked away in BBC archives and has not been lost or damaged as some have claimed.

Attachments:

[Ian Menkins]

Description of Episode 1 (as an example of archive details).

Attachments:

[fuguewriter]

You have made my year.

[Phil]

It's wonderful that they've put it up on their archive site, and congratulations on finding it, Ian. Great work!

There was never any question as to if it was in there or not, though. The Beeb have stored everything since the formation of their film and television archive back in 1978 (Previous to that it was just a film - not videotape - archive).

The big question is still: Why won't they release it on DVD?

The only two possibilities I can see are: 1) Rights issues. Diana was made in 1983. Today, everyone involved in making a show has dvd sales options written into their contracts as standard. But 1983 was back in the infancy of domestic videotape, and it's probable that the artists who made Diana just had the standard contracts at the time (One showing, two repeats and overseas sales). This would mean that everyone involved - actors, writer, directors, composer, and the Delderfield estate - would have to be contacted and renegotiated prior to release. Not an impossible task, the BBC do it on a regular basis, but a big one. It may be that the BBC don't anticipate high enough sales to warrant them going to such an expense.

2) Damage: It's unlikely that the vt would have degraded too far to be usable, but I can cite several instances of master tapes being inadvertently damaged by engineers.

Like you, I can't get a reply from the BBC to my enquiries, which is very frustrating. And with the current Doctor Who debacle, with the BBC and their employees openly lying and misleading the public, I don't think I'd trust any reply I did manage to get from them.

It's a sad situation.

[fuguewriter]

One would think they'd just put things up for rental or cut a DVD-on-demand ... would be a way to preserve and monetize their holdings.