Hello,
Going back to the theme of trying to find previously broadcast programmes
here is some help I received from Luke McKernan which both illustrates the
problem and contains some good advice. I can also recommend Bowkers Video
Directory published as a CD Rom 4 times a year which has helped out on more
than one enquiry, but the cost is c£400. As a last resort there is also
brazen cheek and writing to the director or producer for a copy if you can
track them down. This has worked on occasion.
Matt,
Luke wrote
I was intrigued but just how difficult such a seemingly simple question is
to answer. There is in fact a simple answer - the BFI will have the tx dates
on its SIFT database, and as the programme was broadcast on the BBC in 1992,
it falls within the period of the BFI's BBC access scheme, which began in
August 1990, when they started the programme of recording all BBC1/2 output
on VHS. These will only be available to view at the BFI, at present.
Otherwise, the information proved devilishly hard to find. Being in effect
an Australian production it's not listed in Tise Vahimagi's British
Television; there is no simple up-to-date single reference book such as
Halliwell's Television Guide; none of the TV internet sites that I checked
had it, and the Australian TV sites required you to know which channel it
had been broadcast on. As it is, I found the year on the Internet Movie
Database - it's worth remembering that there is quite a large amount of TV
material on the IMDb, and TV series are sometimes listed, especially if the
filmmaker also made cinema films. So SYLVANIA WATERS is listed there, though
without any further details or even mention of Paul Watson's name.
Altogether, a bit of a mess, and this for a notable TV series, pioneer of
docu-soaps, and made by an important director. The BUFVC TV index should
have picked up on it, but I think it was overlooked because they thought it
was simply a soap opera!
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