The BBC Television Archive
Hear from the people behind the scenes at the BBC Archive
The BBC Television Archive
The BBC Television Archive
An interview with Adam Lee, BBC archive expert
We haven't got copies of everything we've broadcast in the archive. Find out why we've got the items we've got and how the BBC tries to keep them safe in this interview with Adam Lee, BBC Television Archive expert.
- Click on a heading below to jump to that section of the film
- What's in the BBC Archive?
- Why aren't there many recordings from the early days of television?
- Once the technology was available, why weren't all programmes recorded?
- When did the BBC start to record programmes regularly?
- When did the BBC start to ensure that important recordings were not destroyed?
- How does the BBC decide what to keep in the archive today?
- Does the BBC offer recordings it's not keeping for the archive to anyone else?
- As technology evolves, what challenges have you faced in preserving the archive?
- What is the BBC doing to preserve the archive for the future?
Transcript
Once the technology was available, why weren't all programmes recorded?
One of the reasons why TV programmes weren't recorded is that people really didn't think in that way. They didn't see television as a permanent medium. They saw it as something that was transmitted, went out live, and was finished. A bit like if you go to the theatre, you don't expect to see a recording of that theatre performance. There's quite a well-known book of television criticism written in the early 1960s called 'The Ephemeral Art', because that's how people viewed it: as something that went out and was gone.
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