New 'Old' Episode of Bric-a-Brac Emerges onto YouTube

In what can only be described as excellent news, Neil Miles (tape archaeologist extraordinaire) has captured a complete episode of Bric-a-Brac and uploaded it to YouTube. Starring the inimitable and highly charming Brian Cant, Bric-a-Brac focused on the wonder of phonetics and ran for two series in 1980 and 1982.

Don't Forget About the Curious British Telly Substack

 

Just a quick reminder that the Curious British Telly Substack is alive and well. If you're not familiar with Substack, then read on. Substack is, in fact, many things: a newsletter, a blog, a website and, indeed, whatever you want it to be in terms of a publication. It can be read either online or you can sign up for all updates to sent to you via email. I've been fairly active on there recently, so there's all sorts of extra Curious British Telly bits on there. If you want to take a closer look then head over to curiousbritishtelly.substack.com/

Random Episode: Thinkabout (25/11/1985)

Over the many years that Curious British Telly has been running, I've covered plenty of children's programmes which have become obscured by the mists of time. However, barely any of these have fallen under the sub-genre of educational programming. You know the type, the programmes which you watched at school when the teacher would wheel out the TV in a caged fortress. So, today, we're going to take a look at a fine example of these in the form of Thinkabout.

Four Fantastic Minutes Straight from 1979

My ongoing quest to salvage ephemeral goodness from British television's distant past continues, and, once again, I've been able to dig all the way back into the 1970s. And it's all courtesy of the mammoth haul of Betamax tapes which I picked up back in June. These intriguing tapes all date from the early 1980s, but the owner had previously owned a Philips VCR and had copied several of these tapes over to Betamax. Previously, I had found some very brief BBC continuity for Top of the Pops, but I've now uncovered four minutes of footage which contain nearly everything you could want.

YouTube Pick of the Day: Tees Street Isn't Working (1985)

The Thames channel on YouTube is packed full of fantastic gems from the archive, and that's exactly where today's YouTube Pick of the Day comes from. The video itself is part of an edition of current affairs programme TV Eye, which aired between 1978 - 1986, and focuses on the socioeconomic problems blighting the lives of those living on Tees Street, Birkenhead.

A Bertha Comic Strip From September 1986

Digging through my pile of Buttons comics, which I picked up on Ebay a few years back, I spotted this exclusive Bertha comic strip and thought it would make a fine addition to Curious British Telly. It hails from September 1986 and features a quick story about fireworks which didn't feature in the television series. So, yes, being an official piece, this is part of the Bertha canon, an intriguing body of work which, no doubt, Disney will be snapping up in no time to milk dry.

I've Dug Up the 1976 Christmas BBC1 Ident

I wasn't aware, until the last 24 hours, that the 1976 Christmas BBC1 ident had only been preserved in a particularly poor picture quality. However, after I stumbled across some Christmas 1976 recordings... well... I was informed the version of the ident I'd found was a significant upgrade.

So, if you cast your eyes upwards, there it is. All the way from 1976, it's a clearer view - although faaaaaar from HD - of this 47 year old ident. In my opinion, it's far from knocking the daddy of the BBC Christmas idents off the top spot, with that position obviously taken by the 1977 rotating Christmas pudding. Nonetheless, it's a nice find and hopefully it'll tickle your fancy.

Archive Tape Digging: June 2023 (Betamax Special)

It's been a long old time since I last did an edition of Archive Tape Digging, a situation enforced on me by a lack of tapes in the last few years. Sure, I've picked up a few in the last year, but in such small quantities there's been little to get excited by. Thankfully, following the purchase of my Betamax player, I've had not one, but two pickups of Betamax tapes.

As a result, I've now got close to 400 Betamax tapes to plough through. Progress, so far, has been relatively slow. But this is actually a good thing. You see, the reason that I've barely made a dent in this mountain of tapes is that they keep throwing up interesting finds. And these all need digitising in real time, so it's time consuming affair. The amazing payoff, of course, is that I've got a veritable bounty of finds to share with you.

Curious British Telly Enters the Betamax Age

Yes, the rumours are true, Curious British Telly has finally invested in a Betamax player. It's something I've wanted to get hold of for years, ever since I first started trawling through old VHS tapes. But the price of a fully functioning, excellent condition model had always been a little prohibitive. Okay, £175-ish wasn't exactly going to send me into a financial meltdown, but it was difficult to justify in the grand scheme of things. Luckily, the Substack I set up a while back has managed to secure a few paid subscribers and their funds have made this possible. Eternal thanks, once again, to them.