Film is Fabulous! is a charitable trust run by film collectors, cinema lovers, and vintage television enthusiasts. Its primary objective is to ensure that vulnerable film collections held in the U.K. are preserved when private film collectors, and former industry professionals, pass away. Since 2023, the team have preserved many private film collections.
Film is Fabulous! is not a treasure hunt. However, it’s inevitable that missing and rare items, which have been presumed lost for decades, will be found in private collections. Numerous vintage television shows have been recovered. Two recent finds are missing episodes of Doctor Who, which were discovered in a deceased enthusiast’s private collection:
The Nightmare Begins (Broadcast: 13th November 1965)
Devil’s Planet (Broadcast: 27th November 1965)
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The episodes are from the serial, entitled ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. Written by Terry Nation, they were broadcast during the third season of Doctor Who. The serial starred William Hartnell as the Doctor, and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor. It also featured Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon, Adrienne Hill as Katarina, and Kevin Stoney as Mavic Chen.
The recovery means that the first three instalments of a once totally missing 12-part story now exist.They provide a dark and gritty outing for the Daleks, who were being groomed by their creator,Terry Nation, for their own series, and life outside of Doctor Who. Indeed, ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ was not sold by the BBC to overseas broadcasters.
The estate of the deceased owner, in whose collection the film prints were found, wishes that he remains anonymous. Consequently, we will not enter into any discussion on the collector’s identity. All we’re able to say is he cherished the films f
or many years, and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude for preserving these episodes of Doctor Who.
In addition to the recovery, the Film is Fabulous! team have organised a special event, at which the two restored episodes of Doctor Who will be screened. This celebration of vintage television will take place on Saturday 4th April. The full details will be published shortly. The two episodes will be on BBC iPlayer this Easter.
Film is Fabulous! have collaborated with BBC Archives to enable these programmes to be returned to the BBC. BBC Archives has ensured that the original 16mm telerecordings are restored – meaning viewers will be able to watch them in the best possible condition on BBC iPlayer.
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Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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