Tunnel of Fear 'Home Entertainment' Release Date 15 Jan 2018

[Frankymole]

P.S. I hope the German set (50th anniversary "book") has the same DVD extras for Honor Blackman's Series 3 Disk 5. Otherwise I'll have to buy it again - meaning I have bought her episodes five or six times - VHS, French DVDs, Contender DVDs, Canal+ DVDs (and again?), German DVDs.

been down the road, myself..i.e. purchasing...again and again...items world wide...

Maybe I'm wearing them out!!

Still, it's a nice problem to have. In the mid-1980s there was a very real risk Honor's episodes would never be available and the last surviving materials (then mainly telerecording film negatives) were in danger of being destroyed as of no economic value. A campaign by Patrick Macnee and Dave Rogers to save them bore fruit.

[mousemeat]

P.S. I hope the German set (50th anniversary "book") has the same DVD extras for Honor Blackman's Series 3 Disk 5. Otherwise I'll have to buy it again - meaning I have bought her episodes five or six times - VHS, French DVDs, Contender DVDs, Canal+ DVDs (and again?), German DVDs.

been down the road, myself..i.e. purchasing...again and again...items world wide...

Maybe I'm wearing them out!!

Still, it's a nice problem to have. In the mid-1980s there was a very real risk
Honor's episodes would never be available and the last surviving materials (then mainly telerecording film negatives) were in danger of being destroyed as of no economic value. A campaign by Patrick Macnee and Dave Rogers to save them bore fruit.

a familiar tale of woe...how many times have production companies, studios, labs, etc have done similar deeds ? destroying material, for space, resources, save (?) money..Think of all season one episodes, that got bulked erased to save storage space..and re used video tape....years ago, I remember RCA in the states, was closing down one of their warehouses...and thousands of rare masters, out takes, etc of music, was taken out and dumped in the ocean, and what was left was bull dozed into the ground.as the warehouse was taken down...I cringe thinking about episodes like that...and if it wasn't the efforts of Macnee and rogers, among others, Honor's episodes would have been history..

[Lee]

We are indeed really lucky to have everything from 1962 onwards. So many programmes have missing materials from the late 60s into the 70s and 80s.

I think it is more forgivable from the 60s as probably no one could foresee the coming of the home entertainment market. As TV had come out of theatre, you would see a play and then it was gone. Quite a lot of TV was still live in the early 60s and just like the theatre productions was an ephemeral product. Dr Keel's episodes were produced for people watching TV in 1961. Would anyone have thought that in 60 years time others might want to watch it for the first time?

Don't get me wrong: I mourn the loss of many episodes of The Avengers and Doctor Who from the 60s, but in a way I can understand it.

It would, however, have been a disaster to lose Cathy Gale episodes in the 80s had they survived for over 25 years. That would have been unforgivable bearing in mind the market that was coming through then. Thanks Pat and Dave for ensuring these gems were saved to enjoy over and over again.

[Frankymole]

All very true. I'm glad thanks to some very eager fans we have the Doctor Who soundtracks for the 90-odd missing episodes.

I do still wonder why three (well, two and a bit) episodes ended up at the UCLA archive in America, including a second copy of The Frighteners, and also the route that Tunnel of Fear took to get to the private film collector. Mysteries to which we may never know the answer.