[Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 23: Missing Material II

Fri Apr 20 00:19:38 CDT 2018

Hi Scott,

For an ITV region Granada were unique in having a silent ident/caption. This stood out without the need of animation or music. Quality guaranteed in other words.

In contrast some regions, notably ATV's "In Colour" animation were short features in themselves with a heavy orchestral section!

This practice of idents before the start of programmes ended during 1988.

Brian

Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Scott Filderman<mailto:scottfilderman at yahoo.com>
Sent: ‎19/‎04/‎2018 22:20
To: afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu<mailto:afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>; Brian Renforth<mailto:renforthb at live.co.uk>; john at johnfinch.com<mailto:john at johnfinch.com>
Subject: Re: [Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 23: Missing Material II

Brian,

I completely agree that some editing was probably done to “speed up” for current audiences. The nearly 5-minute scene cut from Geoffrey Lancashire’s [Mr. Finch—Your memory is spot on; so impressed was I with the episode under review, and with John McKelvey, that I ordered Network’s edition of The Cuckoo Waltz, which Mr. Lancashire wrote a few years later, with Mr. McKelvey in 9 of the 26 half-hour episodes, but I’m not expecting AFAW miracles] script seemed to me to run on a bit, accompanied by my pleasure at seeing a TV program delve so into a passing character’s psychology! A 2-minute disquisition on fishing?? That just wouldn’t happen on an American program. Of course, opera houses everywhere used to cut Wagner for precisely that reason: another tuneless monologue?? Cut it! Get on with the bloody thing!!

All the bumper and closing material vary from episode to episode. The Dutch set does have snatches of music dying away, but no bumper titles, and the Granada color credit may or may not appear—frozen—after the B&W AFAW card. There is never any music accompanying that.

The harm to the material is in the content cuts. I’m halfway through Series 2 and have seen maybe 7 minutes in all restored in the Dutch set (as the series was so popular in the Netherlands, just like the slightly later iconic Danish series Matador).

The writing is wonderful and was delivered by a great cast.

On Thursday, April 19, 2018, 4:31 PM, Brian Renforth via Afamilyatwar-list <afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu> wrote:

Hello Mr Finch,

I'm not at all surprised to hear of your frustration at the editing of episodes seeing they distract from the as broadcast episodes you originally approved of.

For years releases of archive material have been  "specially edited" for a modern audience. The early BBC VHS releases were notorious in this respect, often featuring new titles to make them, "Suitable" for the home market. "Fawlty Towers" was a good example and Doctor Who releases were always specially edited feature length versions instead of individual episodes as originally shown.

In recent years they've got the message and now issue programmes as originally broadcast.

There's firms like Acorn and Clear Vision in the DVD era that issued programmes like AFAW in edited form, perhaps to speed up the action for a modern audience or save on DVD space I don't know.

Acorn weren't alone in doing this.

I've never owned either the Acorn or Dutch sets. The latter is clearly superior in being more complete yet omits original break bumpers and finish on the unique  "false" ending, thus omitting the final few seconds of the theme re-starting with the sandcastle film with the slow fade up of the Granada end caption.

There's one firm noted for its policy to issue programmes as they were originally made, Network. I have never several of their releases which are superb. Only one criticism of their releases is most don't carry subtitles, even the special  "Upstairs Downstairs" box set with extras.

One example  I can think of is Thames tv's "Van Der Valk". I previously owned the Clear Vision set which were edited, removing the start Thames ident, break bumpers abruptly chopped out and finishing on 1990s Thames end captions.

Network re-issued it complete and unedited.

I've contacted Network re the possibility of them releasing AFAW and Sam complete and unedited in the future. Here's my Email and reply.

Both deserve releases completely faithful to how they were originally made in every way.

Once again may I thank you for your excellent writing and involvement in some of the best television ever, not only with AFAW but other programmes too such as  "Coronation Street" which was at its peak when you were associated with it. I think the Lake District coach trip episode from 1969, shot entirely on location/film is the best ever. It's included on the Network best of 8 episodes of a year compilation set of 1960s episodes, ie a ten DVD set of 1960s episodes each with 8 episodes from an individual year.

All best wishes,
Brian Renforth

Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: John Finch via Afamilyatwar-list<mailto:afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>
Sent: ‎19/‎04/‎2018 07:26
To: afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu<mailto:afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>; Scott Filderman<mailto:scottfilderman at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Afamilyatwar-list] Episode 23: Missing Material II

On 2018-04-18 23:22, Scott Filderman via Afamilyatwar-list wrote:
> This episode, Your Loving Arms, is by far the most heavily edited so
> far.
>
> Around the 22-minute mark, right before the filmed scene in which
> Sheila meets Colin at the stop, there is a huge cut of 4 1/4-minute
> video scene at the dance club. During this scene, Freda and Penty
> (short for Pentecost [insert reason here for this significant
> name—Mr. Finch??] get to know each other, note Penty’s
> disinclination to get into why he was so named, note Freda’s sense
> of personal drift (“Im like a pendulum. I swing from melancholy to
> cheer and back again!”), and find out about Penty’s home life in
> Whitsun and much about fishing different kinds of fish. This scene is
> typically beautifully written and performed. Freda dons Penty’s army
> hat, which seems to underline her sense of naive play. The scene ends
> with Sheila leaving the club as she has to be at work early next
> morning. This sets up the following filmed scene beginning with Sheila
> walking to the bus stop. During the bus stop scene, there is a brief
> 15-second videotape return to the club.
>
> Additional missing scenes to follow. Total timings show 51 minutes for
> the Netherlands set, and 42:30 for the Acorn set.
> _______________________________________________
> Afamilyatwar-list mailing list
> Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu
> https://mailman.baylor.edu/mailman/listinfo/afamilyatwar-list
Hi Scott,   Going from memory (my written records are very scanty) this
episode was written by Geof Lancashire.  Only Geoff would say where the
name Pentecost came from.  I will have left it in editing since I had
complete trust in Geoff's checking of his sources. He enjoyed drifting
away from the main story I will have given him and I would have
encouraged this as I always tried to respect a writer's individuality.
I had no idea of the editing done in overseas transmissions until you
all pointed it out and I find it very irritating, especially with a
series like FAW which had first class researchers. Your own research and
that of other members is astonishingly good.Some of the overseas
reviewers I found to be very arrogant (Norway an exception) so your
results don't entirely surprise me. Regards,     JF.

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