Betamax Finds on Substack

The noble art of trawling through ancient video tapes - part archaeology, part masochism - often turns up fragments rather than complete relics. Betamax tapes throws up all manner of interesting nuggets from the past, but many of them tend to be incomplete. The problem is that the original tape owner's main treasure was usually something like a Bond film, but they may have left the tape running afterwards - hence why I'm eternally being handed the opening minutes of the evening's news before the recording stops.

For those of us in the analogue underworld, this is teeth-grinding stuff. We crave complete programmes, neatly boxed time capsules complete with adverts and in-vision continuity from a friendly face in a makeshift studio. Nonetheless, these glimpses of ephemeral television are still of interest. That's why I regularly upload little snippets to YouTube and, just recently, I've been featuring showcasing them over on the Curious British Telly Substack. So, just a quick reminder to head over there and, for example, check out an extended clip of Bruce Forsyth presenting Hollywood or Bust in 1984.

Bursts of Gaelic Madness: Mag is Mog and Bzzz

I've seen some curious feats of British television in my time, but I'm not sure anything will beat the fever dream which is Darth Vader infused with the spirit of Sutekh from Pyramids of Mars fed through the shoestring budget of BBC Scotland in the early 1980s. But I've double and treble checked, this was no fever dream. It was broadcast and, to make matters even more confounding, it was performed entirely in Scottish Gaelic.

Teetime and Claudia

I never thought I’d get to watch enough of Teetime and Claudia to write an article on it. Aside from one episode which was on YouTube - and half an episode I managed to dig up - it looked as though further footage would remain out of reach. The BFI didn’t hold any copies and, given the lack of people who recognised it, it was unlikely anyone was going to come forwards with a set of episodes. But fortune favours the patient and, finally, someone uploaded several episodes to YouTube a couple of years ago.