A thread lead by Paul Vanezis has been ongoing at
www.missing-episodes.com since August, 2007 concerning the search for missing episodes in Africa. Postings were made under the headings Africa Progress, Africa Progress 2010, and Africa Progress 2011.
Here is a condensed version of significant posts that Paul Vanezis has provided there ...
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Africa Progress
« Thread Started on Aug 2, 2007, 2:59pm »
Hello all.
After several months of background research by myself and others, there is now progress in establishing whether there are any BBC tv programmes in the archives of certain specific African stations.
I'm afraid though that I can't reveal more information than that at this stage, nor which countries are involved, but communication lines are now established and an exchange of information taking place.
As soon as any new information appears I'll let you know.
Cheers,
Paul
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Africa Progress 2010
« Result #46 on Dec 29, 2009, 3:02pm »
Hi Everyone,
I've decided to start a new thread as the other Africa progress thread was getting rather unweildy.
There has been a lot of interest in the Africa search since the Radio 4 'Archive Hour' documentary and many have been wondering about precisely what has been found.
That's easy to answer; no 'Doctor Who' I'm afraid, but other material has been identified by Philip Morris in a foreign archive and we hope to be in a position to explain what and where it is soon.
The two countries Phil has visited and for which we can say there is no 'Doctor Who' or other BBC material are Zambia and Kenya. Whilst both displayed evidence of BBC material being there in the past, there is certainly nothing there now.
That's all that we can say at the moment, but as countries are visited and eliminated we'll let you know.
Regards,
Paul
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Adrian Last posted the following ...
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Re: Africa Progress 2010
« Reply #4 on Dec 30, 2009, 9:16am »
I have heard that after Rhodesia declared UDI in 1965 and after the cultural boycott of South Africa in protest at apartheid was imposed in the 1960s copies of various television programmes found their way into those countries via unofficial channels so may be there is something there although it is hard to believe that they would be held in any orderly manner over 40 years on.
We need to be thankful for the likes of Paul and Phil searching so methodically. Obviously these things take time as I doubt many foreign TV stations are interested in devoting much time and resources in looking.
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To which Paul Vanezis replied ...
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Re: Africa Progress 2010
« Result #45 on Dec 30, 2009, 10:05am »
Thanks everyone.
The question of National Archives is an interesting one, particularly in the southern states. Rhodesia does though have its own problems and recent historical differences with the BBC, so that will need a long term solution. But the National Archives and TV archives of Zambia have been checked. Kenya doesn't have a national archive of film in any organised state and the material stored there is as I understand it of mainly cultural importance. Like Zambia they disposed of their stock of foreign film material in the 1980's.
But what Phil has been able to do with the help of others is piece together how the films moved around and this has already thrown up quite a few more avenues of investigation.
This is a big team effort; it isn't just me and Phil. I have to thank Jon Preddle, Richard Bignell and Richard Molesworth and most importantly the staff of the BBC's Commercial Rights department for access to some very interesting documents.
Who knows if anything will come of it, but at least by the end of it we'll be able to say with a 90% certainty that there is nothing else out there.
Regards,
Paul
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Re: Africa Progress 2010
« Result #44 on Jan 2, 2010, 12:18am »
Dec 31, 2009, 1:47pm, John Wall wrote:
Perhaps a brief outline of what's been done/checked in the various countries could be put on a website somewhere ? Then if someone asks "Have the archives of TV station XYZ123 in Timbukthree been checked ?" there's a link that can be posted.
Hi John,
Yes, this is in the works and for the time being it'll be here. But for all sorts of reasons we don't want to say too much until we're certain ALL avenues have been followed up.
Cheers,
Paul
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John Wall posted on Jan 2, 2010 ...
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Re: Africa Progress 2010
« Reply #13 on Jan 2, 2010, 1:45pm »
Zimbabwe almost seems a bit of an internet hoax. There was a discussion early in 2009 on the Restoration Team forum - now closed - about episodes in Zimbabwe. Before we knew it The Sun was running a story about Robert Mugabe hoarding tapes (?) of missing Dr Who !
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To which Paul Vanezis replied ...
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Re: Africa Progress 2010
« Result #43 on Jan 3, 2010, 11:50am »
Yes, I think that any mention of missing DW publicly will bring back memories of that bizarre headline.
The fact is that very few episodes were actually sold to Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), it was back in 1965 and there's no reason why DW would have been illegally smuggled there if frankly there were more interesting and populist programmes from America available. Besides, where would the prints come from? The Rhodesia TV listings still published what was being screened and we haven't found any evidence of DW being screened outside of the original sale.
Regards,
Paul
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Re: Africa Progress 2010
« Result #24 on May 19, 2010, 11:55am »
May 16, 2010, 8:15pm, Paul Vazquez wrote:
Are you able to pass on any further news, or an eta for some further news, since your posting in December
Hi Paul,
I'm afraid we can't release any information at this stage. There are all sorts of reasons why which will become clear when we are in a position to do so.
Regards,
Paul
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Africa Progress 2011
« Result #1 on Jan 13, 2011, 12:12am »
Dear all,
It's a new year and investigation in some African countries is ongoing.
I was hoping to have provided quite a bit more information by this stage and it probably feels to many that nothing is going on and work has stopped.
Nothing could be further from the truth. However, we really can't say anything at this stage for many reasons which I won't go into just yet. I hope you all understand.
However, to confirm what has been posted by us previously, several countries have been visited by Phil Morris. We can confirm that there is no material in either Zambia or Kenya. We also have pending invitations from two other countries, but a visitation to them will depend on overcoming a certain amount of red tape.
Thanks for your patience.
Regards,
Paul
« Last Edit: Jan 13, 2011, 12:13am by Paul Vanezis »
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