There they were in my hands, two video tapes packed full of video recordings of children’s programmes from the mid-1980s. I was going to be reunited with Mop & Smiff, Bric-a-Brac and Hokey Cokey. It was a fantastic moment in the history of Curious British Telly, and all it required was a five-hour round trip. Yes, utter madness, but it had to be done.
Doing things to a ridiculous extreme has always tickled and delighted me. Take my 159 British Children's TV Shows From the 1980s You Forgot About article that I wrote last year. It’s unimaginably big and took about three devoted months to write, but I had to take the listicle-style article to an extreme. And, at 28,000 words long, it was more of a mini-book than an article. Luckily, it’s managed to strike a chord with the internet and, after just a couple of years, it’s become the second most viewed article on Curious British Telly.
I could have turned this marathon article into an e-book, and made around £10 out of it in Amazon royalties. But I decided to stick it online for free, because (sometimes) I’m nice like that. Anyway, talking of e-books, this is why I embarked on my initial tape digging expedition. Back in early 2016, I released my first book, a relatively short e-book which looked at 10 curious children’s programmes from British television’s past. It was far from extreme, I mean 10 programmes is nothing in the grand scheme of things. But it was very much a toe-dipping exercise.
The book is no longer available, I took it down when my slightly bigger print books came out and covered most of the shows in greater depth, but it was an enjoyable endeavour. The main problem I had, however, was tracking down footage of the shows I was writing about. YouTube was helpful, but limited, and the BFI archive was exceptionally helpful but also rather expensive. And the one problem with the BFI viewing service is that you’re hamstrung by a limited amount of time with the materials. When you have them at home, though, it’s much easier to digest them and take notes over repeated viewings.
I can’t remember entirely how it happened, but I made some mention of my proposed book on Twitter and one of my followers got in touch to say they had some tapes which may be useful. Within a few weeks, I was flying up the A1 with a not a care in the world that the cost of fuel and my own personal time was being sacrificed for what most people would call a ludicrous return.
Yes, arranging for the tapes to be posted down would have been much easier. But, at the back of my mind, there was some irritation that they could get lost in the post. And that would be a massive shame for everyone involved, especially the owner of the tapes who was going to receive digitised copies and wanted the tapes back. So, I said I’d go and get them.
With the tapes picked up, I was ready to view them. And, aside from their usefulness as a research tool for my book, there was an instant rush of nostalgia. Not only fiddling about with VHS tapes, but also the knowledge that I was once again sat in my front room watching the lunchtime children’s programmes of my youth. One evening, my mother was over and we watched a bit of Mop & Smiff, so it was truly like it was 1986 all over again. The tapes were watched, digitised and then sent back to the original owner. I didn’t drive them back, as that would have been a step too far even for me. And, besides, the contents were now safely captured and preserved.
I’d have to say that, after nine years of trawling through old video tapes, those first two tapes remain my favourites. Aside from igniting my hobby, they contained programmes which represented important moments in my relationship with television. I’ve found a lot of interesting bits and pieces since, but these initial finds have been the most special.
And it had been such a rewarding experience, to the point where I suddenly realised why people get excited about snippets of continuity, that I was determined to push forwards and gather more tapes to explore. Progress was slow at first, Curious British Telly still only had 2,000 or so followers on Twitter at the time, and my reach was limited. My requests online appeared to fall on deaf ears, although its more likely that people had simply got rid of their tapes years ago, so I turned to Ebay.
Back in 2016, you would regularly find decent looking collections of tapes online. A lot of classic early to mid-80s tape designs, but still with no guarantee on what was on them. Fast forward to 2023, and most of the tapes you see listed on there now seem to originate from the mid-90s onwards. Whilst this may be great for some people, it doesn’t really tie in with my niche, which doesn’t usually go much later than the early 1990s.
So, I took a few punts on Ebay and… well, I didn’t really find much of interest. Lots of tapes full of film recordings, random recordings of Coronation Street and, uh, what I can only describe as dross. Okay, it’s a bit rich of me to describe endless episodes of South Park as dross, and I loved this show at the time, but recordings from 2001 of an American programme did very little to help the activities of Curious British Telly. Occasionally, I would find something interesting, but in terms of the footage I was managing to gather, it was financial stupidity.
Luckily, around this time, my Twitter account had started gaining some traction, so my appeals for video tapes could reach a wider audience. And it was an audience who was very interested in the history of British television, rather than random Ebayers clearing out their loft to pay for their summer holidays, so there was more of an impetus to help out. The Curious British Telly site was also attracting more traffic, due to the vast archive of articles it had built up, and this only increased the reach I had.
And sure enough, for a period, every three or four months, someone would drop me an email saying they had seen my articles and had a hundred or so tapes which I was free to have. It made it into more of a community project and allowed me to meet a few of my followers, yes, I was still travelling to pick up tapes - it didn’t bother me so much when it was for a huge number of tapes. The best thing, of course, was that I was finding out a lot more about British TV. For example, I had no idea who Sue Robbie was until I picked up a large number of tapes from the Granada region, but now she feels like an old favourite.
Gradually, as I went through more tapes, I started ticking off various objectives such as finding material recorded before I'd been born and footage which no longer officially exists in the archives. And, just before the pandemic, I got in touch with a house clearance chap who said he regularly picked up collections of tapes from jobs he was on. This led to, at the time, my oldest find (and isn’t that picture quality just cracking?) and it appeared to be full steam ahead.
And then the pandemic hit, and the number of people getting in touch with me about old video tapes seemed to slow down to a barely existent trickle. Maybe everyone cleared out their lofts and cupboards during lockdown. Whatever the reason, it’s nothing compared to the real news stories of the pandemic, so please don’t think that my only heartache over Covid is that I now struggle to find regional news bulletins.
Nonetheless, the purchase of a Betamax player quickly rejuvenated my tape digging passion. And, of course, it’s allowed me to go even further back into the past, with footage dating back to Christmas 1976 being on one of the tapes I secured in 2023 - again, thanks to a kind Twitter follower. Since then, I've had a few collections of Betamaxes come my way - some full of mould, some full of early 00s recordings and one or two of interest.
Now, onto the grievances I have with spending my spare time delving through dusty video tapes! First up, and most important, is tape fatigue. Yes, spending an evening zipping through tapes can quickly wear you down due to the sheer monotony. Seeing another tape labelled Live Aid or Diamonds are Forever truly makes my heart sink now. And certain tapes simply have nothing of value, no adverts, no continuity and no tape left running to catch the evening closedown.
I’ve picked up whole collections such as this, and it’s enough to make me want to give up for good at the time. One standout memory is collecting well over 150 tapes and, after going through 60 tapes or so, finding absolutely nothing. In the end I had to take them all down the tip. Perhaps there was a gem or two hidden on the other tapes, but I sincerely doubt it. You often get a feeling very early on as to whether a batch of tapes is going to yield anything or not. Certain people, you see, had a tendency to record interesting programmes and often leave their recorder running, whereas others simply recorded films and cut out all the adverts.
And, as I upload my finds to YouTube, I'm at the mercy of YouTube comments. Most of these are fine, many are easily recognisable as bots, but then there are the demanders. These are people who constantly ask if you have material of specific shows, and they never seem to learn that it’s highly unlikely I will possess a random episode of a children’s programme from 1989. I’ve seen some uploaders get quite irate with these people, but I just ignore them to keep life simple.
I’ve also had people get in touch who can’t seem to comprehend that I’m not interested in their collection. One chap, who I will never forget, was adamant that I should be interested in his recordings of old programmes, which originated from repeat showings in the mid-00s. Not my cup of tea I’m afraid, but he was resolute that I should be and even questioned my Curious credentials. Again, simply ignore and move on. There’s also been a few instances where people seem to think I’m an endless reserve of cash and an idiot. Sure, you might have a pile of VHS tapes in your cupboard, but I’m not going to blindly buy them, mate. Even if you do claim they’re really interesting.
Irritating as these incidents are, they haven’t put me off continuing with my pursuit of archive material. There’s still plenty to find and, although I’ll probably miss out on a few more amazing collections as I have in the past, I will keep going. Quite how long the tapes and machines themselves will carry on going is another question, but for now everything is working fine And, just maybe, I’ll find another set of tapes rammed to the spools with children’s television from my childhood.
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