The Consulting Detective has published new information on Ian Levine’s recent finds in Taiwan including an interview with the man who set the ball rolling Andy Lehrer.
In a fascinating interview by Will Barber-Taylor, Mr Lehrer tells the tale of how he set up initial discussions between Ian Levine and a friend in Taiwan who it later emerged had the episodes in question, adding speculation as to the origin of the prints and the possible existence of more on the island.
“I have a Facebook friend who is a broadcaster in Taiwan – he’s originally from the west but has lived in China for over a decade. He’s also a radio and TV enthusiast and has a large collection of broadcast tapes and films and off air recordings, most of which are in storage, which he’s picked up or purchased over the years from various stations he’s been at, record shops etc. About a year ago he mentioned that he had over 200 Goon Show episodes and that he thought he might have some that the BBC had lost. I asked him if by any chance he had any missing Doctor Who’s. He said he had a few Doctor Who 16 mm reels but he didn’t know what year they were from. I sent him some info about the search for missing Doctor Who episodes but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to catch his interest and I dropped the matter until a few months ago when news of the discoveries in Nigeria broke. I posted a link on his wall about it and asked him about the Doctor Who reels. He’s quite busy with his work and wasn’t interested enough to go back to his storage unit and dig through the tapes so I thought the best thing to do was to try to put him in contact with someone who’d be better able to persuade him to take time out of his busy schedule in order to look for what to him were just reels of a decades old children’s show. Since my Facebook friend produces several music programmes and seemed interested in 70s and 80s music I thought Ian Levine would be better able to establish a rapport with him (and might be someone my friend would want to interview for his show) and so might be able to convince him to go to the trouble of sorting through his storage locker.”
For the complete interview and further speculation on the finds, please visit The Consulting Detective
