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
When did the BBC start to record programmes regularly?
Videotape, the format that everyone's been familiar with for the past 25 years, didn't actually come into the BBC until the late 1950s. Of course, the earliest videotape format, which was two-inch, was very difficult to use, so they used to do all these programmes as if they were live, but then if you had a complete disaster, it didn't matter, you could go back and start again. So it was seen as a production tool. And I think a really important point to remember is that videotape was not seen as an archive medium, not as a long-term carrier for the television picture. What would happen was, after the programme was transmitted, then the tape would be re-used again.
