DWA has been shown a consignment of E-Mails from within the British Film Institute (BFI) surrounding the recovery of missing episodes of Doctor Who.
These E-Mails comprise part of a Freedom of Information request that was placed to the BFI meaning the Institute has already allowed their release and we have been given leave to publish them by the recipient. We shall however not be releasing the full content of these E-Mails nor the names of the figures involved, suffice to say they are all employed as some of the senior figures within the BFI. The documents have been provided by an individual outside of our usual sources and are not to be confused with rumours of the existence of other E-Mails that have been seen on a variety of forums in recent days.
It would be remiss however not to offer some level comment.
The E-Mails are from the days immediately prior to the BBC’s announcement of Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear.
The BFI were indeed involved in the recovery of missing material discovered by Phil Morris but will not be revealing their involvement until later this year “when a more extensive revelation of the finds is made” and in terms of numbers the phrase “the complete number may be as high as 90″ is mentioned as speculation, indicating a lack of definite knowledge on the part of the BFI at that time, but equally potentially a belief that it may be possible. An exact number of episodes returned to the BBC cannot be provided due to a section 41 exception.
Despite some rumour last month, the BFI hold no missing episodes of Doctor Who.
Other finds by Phil Morris, from the same source, have included Morecambe and Wise. Unfortunately one episode in question was badly vingared and unrecoverable, which may be a bad indication for any other finds.
Speculation will immediately be that a “more extensive revelation of the finds” may refer to an announcement of more Doctor Who but it could just as easily be a reference to a more detailed account of the Web and Enemy finds or an indication that, as has been speculated, Phil Morris’ other finds will be announced in the coming weeks. These other finds include gems such as the Basil Brush Show mentioned by the Telegraph this past week and the Morcombe and Wise mentioned in this article, which sadly was beyond repair.
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