Uganda

[douglaswulf]

I found this website interesting...

www.ubc.ug/about.html

A key quote is found under the section of Corporation Strengths for The Uganda Broadcasting Corporation:

"It has amassed tonnes of archives that are priceless."

Uganda was sent 26 missing episodes from the stories Marco Polo, The Reign of Terror, The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase, The Macra Terror, and The Faceless Ones.

A couple of other quotes from the website:

"The Corporation lacks adequate resources and funding. Both radio and television have inadequate programming and do not have the finances to purchase more popular programming."

"Above all the equipment inherited by the Corporation is either old, mismanaged or run down. The onus is now on the Corporation to turn itself around."

Again, this suggests that there may be an issue of being able to properly view and organize a large television archive.

[douglaswulf]

According to this online book, television service began in Uganda in 1975...

books.google.com/books?id=egV-LkASXCgC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=television+service+began+in+ethiopia&source=web&ots=CL6nzfBu-Y&sig=cWgNK__mBsYwp7rAyIEyNS6pU-s

Uganda is listed as having purchased 26 missing episodes, all from the Troughton era, except for two early Hartnell stories. Does this mean that Uganda was showing Hartnell and Troughton episodes in 1975 or later? That would be somewhat remarkable, it seems to me, that these were broadcast somewhere in the world that late.

Has that large Ugandan archive been searched? Maybe 'The Highlanders' is sitting on some shelf there.

[douglaswulf]

The most intriguing episodes to search for in Uganda would be from the fourth series of Doctor Who.

Uganda purchased the following stories from that Series:

The Highlanders
The Underwater Menace
The Moonbase
The Macra Terror
The Faceless Ones

These stories were also purchased by Zambia. The purchase dates for Zambia are unknown, so Zambia could have bicycled its prints to Uganda or vice versa.

Uganda also purchased Marco Polo and Reign of Terror, but it seems likely that its prints would have been bicycled to another nation that purchased these stories later.

[douglaswulf]

Doctor Who fans:

If you find any good online forums or what have you that might reach people in Uganda, below is the text a suggested posting you could put out there.

Doug

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The BBC is searching for lost episodes of classic television shows, including Doctor Who. Currently 106 episodes of Doctor Who are missing from the BBC archives. At least 75 of the 106 missing episodes were sent to Africa in the early 1970s as 16mm film recordings.

At least 25 of the 106 missing episodes were sent to Uganda specifically.

You can see the full list of missing episodes of Doctor Who (as well as missing episodes from other British TV shows such as Adam Adamant Lives, A for Andromeda, etc.) at:

www.missing-episodes.com

If you think you may have a missing episode as a 16mm print or a copy in another format (8mm off-air or videotape), or have any information about these episodes, please contact the BBC by sending an email to:

[e-mail]

(That's info AT restoration-team.co.uk)

There is further information at:

www.restoration-team.co.uk/










LIST OF MISSING EPISODES SENT TO UGANDA
From the story Marco Polo (A.K.A. (Doctor Who and) A Journey to Cathay)
(episode 1) The Roof of the World
(episode 2) The Singing Sands
(episode 3) Five Hundred Eyes
(episode 4) The Wall of Lies
(episode 5) Rider from Shang-Tu
(episode 6) Mighty Kublai Khan
(episode 7) Assassin at Peking

From the story The Reign of Terror
(episode 4) The Tyrant of France
(episode 5) A Bargain of Necessity

From the story The Highlanders
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

From the story The Underwater Menace
Part 1
Part 4

From the story The Moonbase
Part 1
Part 3

From the story The Macra Terror
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

From the story The Faceless Ones
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
(In addition, the surviving print of Part 3 is damaged)

[douglaswulf]

Here's a website that lists many other websites in Uganda. Perhaps this would be a good source of websites to post missing episode info in Uganda.

www.ugandaonline.net/

[douglaswulf]

Information on Ugandan TV is found at:

downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/uganda/amdi_uganda6_television.pdff

The report states in part:

The 2002 census put ownership of a television at 4.5% of the population, with roughly 144,000 viewers across the country. Broken down, these figures show that 19.6% of ownership is urban as opposed to 2.1% rural (UBOS, 2002). According to research carried out by InterMedia (2005), 21.8% of the population had watched television within the past 12 months.

There is one state-owned TV channel in Uganda, called UBC-TV (formerly U-TV), and several private services: Wavah Broadcasting Services Ltd (WBS), which transmits to the Kampala area and to Jinja, Masaka and Mbarara; Top TV (owned by Christian Life Ministries) in Kampala; Lighthouse TV (part of the global Trinity network) in Kampala; the MultiChoice Uganda pay-TV bouquet of channels (based in South Africa) available via satellite throughout the country; and the pan-African TV broadcaster East African TV (EATV), which broadcasts from Tanzania (UCC, 2005).

Of all media, television is the least developed channel of communication in Uganda. The countryside is still in darkness as far as TV broadcasting is concerned. However, almost all the TV services now available in the country are new since 2000. The only free-to-air Ugandan TV station with near-national coverage is the state-funded UBC-TV, which is based in the capital Kampala but has booster transmitters in the regional towns of Mbale (eastern region), Mbarara (west), in Kabale (southwest), Masaka (central) and Lira (north).

Challenges faced by the TV sector in Uganda include an unreliable power supply for many viewers, the inability of many households to afford a TV set, and the huge capital cost for investors wanting to establish stations.

[douglaswulf]

In a post on January 18, 2011 at www.missing-episodes.com, Paul Vanezis writes:

+++++

Based on what we know and have discovered recently about how film was bicycled around, we think it's unlikely that there is any material in Ghana, Uganda or Zimbabwe. However, nothing has been ruled out regarding them.

Cheers,

Paul

+++++

[douglaswulf]

On January 18, 2011, the following discussion concerning Uganda appeared on missing-episodes.com, with Paul Vanezis replying ...

Re: Africa Progress 2011
« Reply #10 Yesterday at 7:58pm »

Yesterday at 7:39pm, Greg H wrote:
Hi Paul,
can i ask a couple of questions? Do you know from your research where the Ugandan material was sent, if indeed it was.
Also, what other shows were sold to the African countries that are missing?
Im very intrigued to know.


Hi Greg,

I don't have any information about what Uganda did with its films.

Regarding other series; you name it, they screened it. Mogul, Not Only But Also, Comedy Playhouse, Steptoe, Out of the Unknown etc... All the usual suspects and more. TOTP was a big seller to Sierra Leone.

Paul