David

Fonty, I see Tony Hall specificlly mentioned BBC3 content so I think the chances of you getting a re-run of Being Human on oneof the remaining BBC channels have significantly risen!

Right on cue! Hopefully some of the programmes we have been listing on other threads will miraculously re-appear.

No but the production companies would, wouldn't they? Surely someone somewhere must see an opportunity to recoup lost revenue?

I actually checked out Lost in Space again recently. Nostalgia is deceiving. One series that does stand up tho is the TV series of Logan's Run - so much better than the film. I managed to track it down again and it was just as good as I remembered. As is the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - but that's another story. I don't remember Time Travel and must check it out. Is it like Crime Traveller? That's good. There are just so many. Where to stop?

I have been notified that all Vue Cinemas are closed from today and that refunds will automatically be issued in the scheduled month. Tragic! I had booked ahead for a host of ballet, opera and theatre relays including many from the commercial theatres that I had already seen in situ and looked forward to seeing again. Perhaps the theatres will now start issuing discs in the hope of finding al alternative source on income?

Perhaps someone might manage to find the concluding episode that was never shot so that we could find out what happened to them all in the end. And similarly a vote for Sapphire and Steel - another series that was left unfinished coz the two protagonists were left floating in space, the guy who wrote it died and no-one could fathom out where he intended to take it.

Talking Pictures is a great source of many British ScFi Films from the 50s and 60s, usually in black and white and usually starring the same actors. It’s a great channel and I love it. The Devil Rides Out is one of Dennis Wheatley’s brilliant Satanic novels, and, along with To the Devil a Daughter, the best of the Wheatley film adaptations, tho the latter had problems at the very end coz the makers ran out of cash and had to tack on a hastily shot ending. My favourite though would probably be Night of the Demon, known in the States as Curse of the Demon (or vice-versa I forget which) based on MR James’ short story Casting The Runes and which incidentally also gave rise to ructions at the end of the shoot over whether The Demon should be shown or left to the imagination. I would add the John Wyndham and Quatermass movie adaptations but to be honest none of them are a patch on the TV originals. But they are all to be seen on Talking Pictures. British movie-making at its best. The elephant in the room is of course A for Andromeda but chunks of the original TV series with the young Julie Christie in the titular role have been lost and the subsequent re-makes don’t begin to cut it. If anyone could find those missing chunks from the original series, there would be rejoicing in the Heavens!

Such a delight to be chattering about something other than you know what. Thank you Fonty. Very uplifting.

Agree re Being Human. It's available on DVD and Blu-ray - pricey for the box set but if you shop around season by season, you can probably pick up all five seasons for under a tenner! Aidan Turner left after the second series and Russell Tovey after the first episode of the 4th Series so if they are the attraction you may wish to return to it season by season. It's very much more recent than the other programmes you list so I would expect it to re-appear on one or another of the channels in due course but haven't seen it listed for repeat anywhere as yet. It was originally a BBC 3 show so it could pop up anywhere! Re the other series you list I remember the original Poldark with Angharad Rees and the Forsythe saga with Eric Porter, Kenneth Moore and Susan Hampshire - both so much better than the repeats!

Since this is a ballet forum I hold back from commenting on other genres but I'm very much with you on this. The truth is that much of what we say here applies with equal force to all the other branches of the performing arts. It's what I like to think of as the Gesamkuntswerk of the arts. That's probably a misapplication of the term - I suspect you would know that better than I - but it reminds me that I must soon return to The Divine Comedy and all its associations in readiness for Wayne's next challenge. That man really makes me work!

Thanks for this - I'll certainly check it out.

Well I'm certainly at one with you in being fed up with those who slag off the BBC, particularly politicians pre-occupied with their own agendas. As I remember Dante had a special level in hell for the politically ambitious - stuffing them head first down a hole on top of each other in one of the deepest levels. Perhaps Mr McGregor will take that on board for us. But accepting what you say as of course I do, the recordings some of us hold in our private collections are of immense importance which is why I retain stuff on hard drive and and am always willing to burn a copy on disc for anyone who is interested. Blurry videos on You Tube are all very well but surely we can do better than that. Bob Lockyer did an important job for us in describing the breadth of the dance material held in the BBC archives but I don't know if a comprehensive index is available anywhere. If not, we don't even know what we are in danger of losing and we should worry about that. Now that Alison has established a separate thread it does offer an opportunity at least to record the 'lost' programmes that people believe to be important and wish to see again. I shall shut up now!

I feel your pain but I make no apology for returning to this subject. The point is valid but times have changed and we are moving into a different world. I belong to a generation that saw the BBC make a major contribution to the restoration of the performing arts in this country after the War - commissioning new works, encouraging the establishment of properly constituted permanent orchestras, etc. It was through the BBC, particularly the Third Programme of blessed memory that I got to know the operas of Britten and Tippett, the Symphonies of Mahler and Nielsen and so much more besides. As lights go out in theatres and concert halls across the globe and we see companies making brave efforts to keep their art alive through free live streamings and the like, and as so many of us will be isolated in our homes for extended periods, we will be increasing dependant on broadcasts, recordings, etc for our daily fix. There is a philosophical question as to what constitutes the greatest threat to civilization but I learnt my love of the performing arts during a time of war and I’m certainly not going to allow a pesky virus to stand in my way now. This is the BBC's moment if they have the vision to grasp it. They have been under increasing pressure from politicians who feel threatened by its independence but those same politicians are now dependant on the media to “get their message out” and I get the impression that people are increasingly looking to the BBC for unbiased factual analysis of the pandemic threat. All of which is to say that not just the BBC but also all the recording companies should recognize that once more they have a major role to play in sustaining the Arts in this country, including searching through their vaults and doing everything possible to support the arts that are the hallmark of a civilized society. As so have we all - as mention has already been made elsewhere. Which leads me to my final point in this diatribe that many of us have recordings tucked away on our hard discs that we can share, as indeed many of us quietly do - you know who you are and thank you. I have a lot of stuff on my DVD Recorder hard drive that I transfer to disc for my family and friends and others who mention a particular wish but obviously have had to be cautious to stay within the legal boundaries. I feel strongly that this thread should be supported at this point in time and that we should all continue to identify the important performances from the past that must be remembered, disinterred and shared. And before I am ticked off, it is worth remembering that in this world of social media, sharing is the norm and is increasing by leaps and bounds by a younger generation who are certainly not going to see their ship sink!

And yet thankfully most if not all the Margaret Dale productions from the early 60s have been released on DVD albeit some 50yrs later so presumably the problems dimish with time. Fraid I can't hang around for another 50yrs but isn't there a point at which rights are extinguished?.

Oh, yes please.

Ouch!!!

This would seem to be a marvellous opportunity for the BBC to re-broadcast some of the vast amount of dance-related material that we know is in their vaults but which isn't available elsewhere. I'm sure this forum could provide a helpful list - starting for me with Darcey Bussell's farewell performance of Song of the Earth. A similar initiative in other performing arts genres would be equally welcome - in opera for example - again for me starting with Birtwistle's Gawain! And Radio 3 - Edward Downes' almost complete performance of Rienzi on the BBC in 1976 please? Other genres: Theatre - Restoration and 18th Century Comedy perhaps?

I'm looking forward to the Dante Project - McGregor's collaboration the Thomas Adès excites me - but, though I 'm OK with Margaret Atwood's novels I don't warm to the prospect of a McGregor work based on three of those novels. My problem is that, though Christopher Wheeldon is still listed as an Artistic Associate of the Royal Ballet, he is so involved with his other work around the globe that, apart for the occasional token short work, sadly I don't see him making any major commitment to the RB in the foreseeable future and, with the uncertainty surrounding Liam Scarlett's future, the choreographic base there is starting to look thin. Like Mrs BBB above I would not want the future of the large scale narrative ballet at the RB to rest with McGregor alone. I don't know whether Cathy Marston's The Cellist heralds a continuing commitment to the RB but I hope so. After 24 years with the BRB I had been hoping that David Bintley might be persuaded to bring a new work to the RB but I have heard nothing. I am not aware of anything else in the pipeline and I'm looking forward to hearing what Kevin O'Hare has to say when next season's programme is announced: a full-length narrative ballet by Wheeldon, Marston or Bintley would really make my day!

Thank you. I am in two minds about booking but may be swayed by the casting. I'll just have to wait!

Did you have prior knowledge re casting for the NBC's Sleeping Beauty or were you having to book blind? I had been hoping that the casting would be listed on the website by now ie. before the first tranche of booking opened.

I see Northern Ballet's Victoria has been listed for release on 20th March under the Opus Arte Label.

Yes I've had the same email. But I see that the release date on other amazon outlets around the Globe is still 24/1 - eg France, Germany USA. Either Amazon UK is quicker off the mark up-dating the release date or we've drawn the short straw!!!

That is good to know - thank you Alison.

I so agree - part re Dracula and a new recording of Hobson's Choice - the old recording of the latter is one of my favourite disks. The ENB Corsaire was issued on DVD back in 2015 with Cojocaru and Muntagirov - I assume that is the production you mean? But there have been so many productions by Birmingham and Northern Ballet - and Scottish Ballet too - that I so wish could been have preserved on disk: Cleopatra, Le Baiser de la Fee to name but two, not just in their own right but also as memories of the dancers that performed in them. And I'm still waiting for a recording of Bourne's Red Shoes.

While we wait for the remaining two RB live cinema performances from the 2018/19 season to arrive on disk, I am wondering what we can hope for from the 2019/20 season. The Dante Project seems a dead cert. Almost anything McGregor does at the RB gets priority and this for me promises to be the most exciting thing he has done; Coppelia also seems very likely - there hasn’t been a release since the DVD (with Benjamin brilliant as Swanilda and including Nunez as one of her friends) back in 2001 and a blu-ray is very overdue; I would hope to see the two Mixed programmes: The Cellist/Dances at a Gathering; and Concerto/Enigma Variations/ Raymonda Act III but I will be surprised if we see both and I’m not sure, if I had to choose, which one I would prefer; The other two seem v unlikely - there are already two fine performances of Sleeping Beauty available on DVD/blu-ray, the most recent from 2018; and Scarlett’s Swan Lake also has been released very recently. Neither seem a high priority for a new release; For completeness sake, I'll just add that I am less excited by the RO cinema airings but I guess Bryn Terfel singing Don Pasquale and Elektra with Nina Stemme and Karita Mattila would probably turn out to be the pick of a poor bunch for me. I just hope we won’t have the usual interminable wait for the releases!!!! And I'm guessing we will also see recordings of Victoria and The Snow Queen on disk but have no idea what else we might expect from other companies, either UK or elsewhere. If anyone has any info to share I'd be glad to hear.