Entertainment desk
< July 21	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 22

The Reprieve

Has the 1972 short film titled The Reprieve survived or is it now lost. The film was produced by National Film and Television School. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 05:31, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Matthew John Drummond In that case I suggest you ask the National Film and Television School whatever your question is. Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:54, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Our Article includes their website address. By the way, have you been utilising the resources of the BFI National Archive regarding these sorts of enquiries? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 11:59, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I checked the BFI National Archive and it's not shown on the results. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 17:55, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I ask the National Film and Television School my question. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 17:58, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

NFTS, and scroll down to Get in Touch. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:13, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Trial

Has the 1971 British tv series titled Trial has this tv show survived or is it now lost. The show had a total of 13 episodes. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 18:15, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Was it shown live or was it on film or tape? And I'm curious to know where you're finding these things! ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:26, 22 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It was broadcast on television. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 04:10, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That much is clear. But if it was broadcast "live", it might never have been recorded. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:24, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about the UK, but in those days, magnetic tapes for recording television programs were very expensive and often re-used by broadcasters to record a different program after an initial airing or two. In Canada, we've lost tapings of a whole hosts of popular shows from the 1960s and early 1970s that would now be considered classics, as they featured well-known actors, but that were too expensive to preserve at the time. It's even more likely to have happened for made-for-tv movies that were not expected to have much of a shelf life to begin with. Xuxl (talk) 12:30, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It did indeed happen a lot in the UK in that era. See Lost television broadcast#United Kingdom, and Doctor Who missing episodes for a high profile example of a programme that was affected and ways some were recovered. As noted in those articles, it wasn't just tapes that were recorded over but film made of the shows were often destroyed for lack of space. The general article does mention more general recovery efforts (I'm assuming from below this was a BBC programme) but for a programme we don't even have an article, I'm not sure how much effort would have been made to find the lost content. Although possibly there efforts are fairly widespread to cover all lost content of theirs, especially since if copies to do exist somewhere they're likely to be lost over time. Nil Einne (talk) 13:50, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Getting old episodes is hampered by a common belief that the BBC sued someone for having old archives that were supposed to be wiped or returned long ago. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 14:07, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed that Trial (TV series) redirected to an unrelated show, but the lists of BBC shows linked to that page for the 1971 series. So, I broke the redirect. If you hurry you can see that it is an independent page for the moment. I'm sure someone will revert my change within the next 30 seconds. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 12:25, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. It was reverted. I gave up on attempting to do much on Wikipedia long ago as any effort I made was reverted with one click. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 11:31, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The solution to that is to make your efforts in accordance with Wikipedia's policies. If you add something, cite it to a reliable source. If you remove something, give your policy-based reason in the edit summary. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 12:57, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that no matter how much research, explanation, and work you do, it only takes one click to revert it without a reason or explanation. In this case, the Trial article is linked to from pages referring to the 1971 television series. But, someone (who knows who, who knows why) thinks it should link to a completely unrelated television series. That cannot be undone. No amount of research, explanation, discussions, or voting can fix it. Try to split it out to two article... click, revert. Have multiple threads agreeing to make it two articles... click, revert. It is simply too easy to revert without giving a reason. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 14:58, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No research was in evidence for the page, which is why it was reverted by user JalenFolf just today. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:52, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

An unsourced statement in the Trivia section on IMDb says, "All episodes of this series are still intact and still all exist to this day.".^[1] --Lambiam 14:15, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Trying to watch them is the problem. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 15:42, 23 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

TV Brain indicates most of the episodes are missing - three survive. https://www.tvbrain.info/tv-archive?showname=the+trial&type=lostshow TrogWoolley (talk) 08:28, 24 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]