Post by Adrastia on Mar 14, 2021 1:55:14 GMT
I was reading an article about the BBC's infamous junking of tapes and films throughout the 50-70s: getpocket.com/explore/item/wipe-out-when-the-bbc-kept-erasing-its-own-history?utm_source=pocket-newtab
“We want to find things for cultural value, for what it tells us about the past,” he says. “The more witnesses you’ve got, the more accurate you can be.” Fiddy’s holy grail of sorts remains Madhouse on Castle Street, a 1963 film starring Bob Dylan.
So I decided to google it and found the Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhouse_on_Castle_Street
As was the usual method of BBC television drama production at the time, the play was produced in a multi-camera electronic studio on video cameras, although it was recorded as a 35 mm film telerecording rather than on videotape. This 35mm master was released for junking in 1968, and no copy of the play is known to exist.
Still photographs and scripts for the production survive, as do some amateur off-air reel-to-reel audio tape recordings of four of Dylan's songs.[7] In 2005 the BBC launched a search for a video recording of the play, uncovering some audio recordings of the songs, but it seems that a full off-air audio copy does not exist.[4][8] In April 2007, BBC Four broadcast a documentary about the making of the play in the Arena strand, featuring interviews with Saville, Jones, Martin Carthy, Peggy Seeger, Dylan collector Ian Woodward, and the first re-broadcast of the songs from the play.[1] In November 2008, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a documentary, narrated by Bob Harris, about Dylan's visit to London and the making of the play.
Still photographs and scripts for the production survive, as do some amateur off-air reel-to-reel audio tape recordings of four of Dylan's songs.[7] In 2005 the BBC launched a search for a video recording of the play, uncovering some audio recordings of the songs, but it seems that a full off-air audio copy does not exist.[4][8] In April 2007, BBC Four broadcast a documentary about the making of the play in the Arena strand, featuring interviews with Saville, Jones, Martin Carthy, Peggy Seeger, Dylan collector Ian Woodward, and the first re-broadcast of the songs from the play.[1] In November 2008, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a documentary, narrated by Bob Harris, about Dylan's visit to London and the making of the play.
Given the junking policies of the time I'm surprised it survived that long. No mention of an overseas broadcast that could have saved a copy. From the article I linked it seems that the burn or return policy wasn't widely enforced and many foreign networks just forgot they had the material they borrowed.
I sadly doubt any copies of this teleplay exist. But it's a shame that a film featuring Bon Dylan is pretty much lost to all time. It was broadcast one time. January 1963. It seems odd that they would junk it in 1968 given Dylan's popularity. But such were the policies of the BBC. 
That said, many lost Doctor Who episodes have been found. Some of which were sitting around in Nigerian stations, forgotten for decades. So anything is possible. But I think if a fan saved this or it was accidentally not destroyed we'd probably know by now.
