New for 2025, this year the Blackpool Film Collectors’ Convention will host a 2-hour screening of vintage television, courtesy of Film is Fabulous!
Working with film enthusiasts and individuals from within the film and TV industry, and in collaboration with film historians at De Montford University and the official film archives, Film is Fabulous! is a charitable trust set up to save vulnerable film collections for future generations. As well as supporting collectors and identifying rare and missing films, one of their aims is to champion the need for recovered films to be screened.
To this end, the Film is Fabulous! team, together with Dick Fiddy, the co-ordinator of the BFI’s annual Missing Believed Wiped event, will be participating in the Blackpool Film Collectors’ Convention in a new session during the Sunday Film Fair called ‘Missing Episodes at Blackpool’. It will be held at 2.30pm on Sunday, 16th November, in The Lancaster Suite of The Grand Hotel.
Dick Fiddy will introduce four episodes of recovered television, which were found in private film collections by Film is Fabulous! These four previously-missing episodes include comedy, drama, light entertainment and music and will undoubtedly provide a nostalgic link to TV from the 1950s and 1960s, perhaps not seen widely since then.
Emergency Ward 10
The first of these will be an episode of the hospital drama Emergency Ward 10, one of 53 recovered earlier in the year (of which 30 were missing from the archives). The episode stars Charles Tingwell, Jane Downs, Jill Browne and Desmond Carrington.
The episode to be screened was first broadcast on 18th October 1960. Doctors Lawson (Tingwell) and Anderson (Carrington) rush to the hospital after witnessing mechanic Tom Barrow get accidentally crushed. Upon arrival, Lawson learns his fiancée, Audrey Blake, is ill, initially suspected of having meningitis. On the short-staffed ward, Lawson diagnoses Tom with a ruptured kidney and consults on his treatment. Meanwhile, Audrey’s illness is confirmed as sinusitis.
Hugh & I
The second episode to be screened is one of several comedies recovered. Hugh and I stars Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd and has not been seen since originally broadcast by the BBC on 4th January 1964. The recovered film print has now been returned to the BBC archive.
The episode is entitled New Year Resolutions. Terry starts the New Year with resolutions, forcing Hugh to follow suit. Hugh then reveals he’s given up smoking, much to Terry’s surprise, who impulsively resolves to do the same. Their strained, sleepless night of craving ends when they are both caught outside by a policeman, secretly trying to find a cigarette.
Tell Mummy (c. 1964)
This recently-recovered 9 minute BBC telerecording offers a unique insight into the corporation’s directors’ course, showcasing the early work of Tina Wakerell. It features Wakerell directing actor Ronald Lacey in a scene, demonstrating the expertise required for staging, blocking, and creating vintage television drama like the acclaimed shows she later directed, including Z Cars and Dr. Finlay’s Casebook.
Vendetta: The Running Man
The “Film is Fabulous!” team collaborates with collectors, like Francis Niemczyk, to return rare film materials to copyright holders for wider public release.
Francis has generously made the missing episode Vendetta: The Running Man (Broadcast 30th December 1966) available for screening at the upcoming Blackpool convention. Starring Neil McCallum, Janet Munro, Sebastian Breaks, and a host of recognisable British actors from the period, this tense drama follows prisoner Angelo James pursuing organized crime figures, including the escaping Johnny Barbiere. Barbiere forces Patricia Rattan (also escaping her unhappy marriage) to drive him away. As they bond, relentless investigator James closes in.
Vendetta: The Running Man features a superb theme tune by the late John Barry.
This 16mm print will be digitally scanned and archived by the BBC, as they currently lack a copy.
Venue, Time & Admission
Missing Episodes at Blackpool takes place at 2.30pm on Sunday, 16th November, in The Lancaster Suite of The Grand Hotel, North Promenade, Blackpool, FY1 2JQ.
Entry to the Missing Episodes screening is included in the £6 entry fee to the Film Fair, payable in cash on the door. The Film Fair opens at 10 AM.
More information on the Missing Episodes at Blackpool event, and about Film is Fabulous!, can be found at filmisfabulous.org.uk/
Blackpool Film Collectors' Convention 