Thank you very much James.
I'm interested not simply in 'Just A Minute', I knew you had already
investigated this show, but also in the possibility that other light
entertainment shows may survive in the World Service archive.
My understanding is that the recordings which it has are tagged in at least
three categories: drama, documentaries, and comedy. Which suggests that
there actually are World Service drama and comedy recordings.
Do you happen to know if any of this content can be accessed today?
There are various references on the BBC website to World Service Digital
Archive, but I can't seem to find it. I am not even looking for a place to
listen to audio. Initially I would be happy to find a purely written source,
e.g. a database, simply listing what comedy recordings survive in WS
archives.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: James R Curry
scratchy@... [just-a-minute]
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 6:20 AM
To:
just-a-minute@...
Subject: Re: [just-a-minute] James R Curry - World Service edits
This is going back a bit!
The World Service versions of the episode seemed to be completely separate
edits, based off the original UK versions rather than the Transcription
Service versions.. They were closer in length to the original shows and
didn't exhibit the runtime restriction that the vinyl format of the
transcription service imposed on material.
I ripped every episode that was posted on the site and catalogued some of
the edits at the time, mostly in the interests of getting the most complete
version of the show into our collective archives. My enthusiasm waned when
my incessant posting about minor differences ran at least one gentleman off
the list.
That I remember, the cuts to these versions tended to be out of racial
sensitivity to not risk upsetting an international audience. Derek Nimmo's
story about "An untouchable in Bombay" was excised from episode #462, for
example.
I don't believe I still have the set, unfortunately. I rather regret
deleting it, but I only kept material that was either missing from our
collection or in notably better quality. I didn't have much extra disk
space at the time. Of course, today I have 40TB of network attached storage
in the house and would have no problem stashing multiple versions of
everything.
On Mon, Oct 15, 2018 at 6:13 PM, Clitheroe Kid
clitheroekid@...
[just-a-minute] <
just-a-minute@...> wrote:
I have a note from some time ago, about the existence of BBC World Service
edits of 'Just A Minute', posted by James Curry.
Can anyone add anything? I'm interested in the fact that a separate World
Service archive exists, which potentially contains an entire series of
transcription edits on vinyl discs, entirely separate from the ordinary
Transcription Services edits held by BBC Worldwide.
Potentially, this might mean a different set of episodes existing as World
Service edits; or possibly the same shows, but containing some rounds which
were not included in the ordinary TS edits.
Asking about World Service recently, I'm told that it's an entirely separate
archive, and has totally different rules. Will they hold different versions
of the shows? Was 'Just A Minute' specially edited for WS? To what extent
did World Service use the regular TS versions of the episodes?
I'd be interested if anyone can cast any light at all on any aspect of the
World Service's archives, or its archiving policy.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
To:
just-a-minute@...
Subject: [just-a-minute] 462 - Goose - a new edit
The ABC broadcasts are another thing entirely. While the World Service
is/was an international broadcast fully owned by the BBC, international
stations such as ABC picked up their copies from the BBC Transcription
Service (now BBC Radio International), the syndication arm of BBC Radio.
Historically, Transcription Service copies were shipped on records with a
limited total length, and so the episodes were edited down to fit that
length. In the case of Just a Minute (and I'm sure many other BBC quizzes
and comedies), they unfortunately would make that target by removing at
least one entire round from the show.
As such, there are now likely three edits for a lot of shows:
1. The original Radio 4/Home Service transmission version.
2. The World Service edit.
3. The Transcription Service edit.
------------------------------------
Posted by: Clitheroe Kid <
clitheroekid@...>
------------------------------------
James R Curry
scratchy@...
Posted by: James R Curry <
scratchy@...>