Official television and film archives exist to preserve the history and creativity of media. But even these formal institutions do not contain everything that has been produced, due to material being lost or destroyed. However, as Kevin Hilton explains, the efforts of a dedicated band of collectors is now filling in the gaps
By Contributor
Published: January 2, 2025 Updated: January 3, 2025
Official television and film archives exist to preserve the history and creativity of media. But even these formal institutions do not contain everything that has been produced, due to material being lost or destroyed. However, as Kevin Hilton explains, the efforts of a dedicated band of collectors is now filling in the gaps
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Collecting is one of the great hobbies and can have cultural and historical significance in preserving important artefacts. But it can also tip over into being an obsession, sometimes leading to hoarding. Very often the contents of a collection are known only to the collector, which means that when they die and someone unfamiliar with the material has to deal with it, valuable items could be unknowingly disposed of and lost to posterity.
This is now a reality in the world of vintage film and TV programme collecting. Several prominent collectors have died in recent years and there are fears important material could have been just thrown away as their homes were cleared. This realisation led to the founding of an initiative called Film is Fabulous (FiF) with the aim of retrieving such collections, cataloguing them, restoring any damaged material and returning them to the relevant archives.
FiF came about after an open day for the film collecting community at a late collector's home in 2022, where people were confronted by film cans and other material filling the bedrooms and garage of a three-bedroom house. It was rammed, comments Paul Vanezis, who went along on behalf of the BFI. From what I could see there were some interesting items but nothing groundbreaking. However, you can't go through an uncatalogued collection in a day and the house needed to be cleared, so there was a danger everything would end up in landfill,
Vanezis is a freelance producer/director who has worked on a number of significant restoration projects, including the entire Monty Python's Flying Circus series, Morecambe & Wise and Doctor Who. He is also a collector but more focused on finding lost programmes or elements to restore existing material. While at the open day, Vanezis met John Franklin, whose interest is in feature films. John is purely into film and didn't know about archive TV, Vanezis explains. So I brought him up to speed on that side.
Realising that rare features and vintage TV shows could be at risk as more collections became vulnerable to disposal, Vanezis and Franklin began working with other enthusiasts and film historians at the Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI) of De Montfort University (DMU) to secure and identify movies and old TV programmes held on film stock.
FiF was formalised as a project with DMU in the summer of 2023 and collections started arriving at the university towards the end of last year. Case studies began earlier in 2024 to catalogue and secure specific items. Vanezis emphasises that neither FiF nor DMU is able to act as an archive; the aim is to recover and log material, after which it can be transferred onto digital media, which may also involve cleaning or more extensive restoration work. The physical film is then either returned to the original broadcaster, if it still exists, other archives or sold at auction.
Work to restore an episode of Saber of London at R3store Studios The first case study was of a collection that had been built up over 30 years (Vanezis preferred not to name individual deceased collectors because, in some cases, the estates are still in probate). This did throw up some missing items of old UK TV, including programmes produced by former broadcasters ATV (ITC Entertainment), Associated-Rediffusion, Southern and Thames, as well as the BBC. Material that already existed was sent for auction. I did know this collector personally, says Vanezis. He was a bit of a magpie and, like other collectors, never turned down anything he was offered. We never spoke about any missing programmes he had and although I knew he had an extensive collection I didn't know how extensive it was.
Vanezis observes that most collectors like to think they know what they've got and this knowledge has seen some missing episodes, for example of Doctor Who, returned over the last 20 years. In many cases the film cans are labelled but often only with the name of a programme, not any details that might reveal buried treasure, which has meant going through almost every individual can and film.
Because the intention of the project is not to retain material long-term it does not require an involved media asset management system. Instead, Vanezis explains, the films being brought are catalogued according to criteria laid down by FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) and the BFI. The acquired information is simply inputted to a spreadsheet, he says. The kind of information we gather includes title and subtitle, gauge and length/duration, stock date if available, condition and the owner.
The items are also numbered so material can be tracked. For the purposes of the pilot study this is [on] a simple label but in the future, items will be barcoded, Vanezis says. The bulk of the material will go to auction, so information regarding condition is important for the auction houses but also for any of the copyright holders that may take the original material.
Several collections have already been received at DMU and were part of the pilot case s
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
17/10/2025
Q&A with Boston Conservatory Choral Conductor Stephen Spinelli How his research into the lost manuscripts of composer Florence Price led to a Grammy-winning c...
16/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: FUJIFILM Execs on GFX ETERNA 55 Camera, Importance of Shallow-Dept...
16/10/2025
Squash's Most Ambitious Broadcast Production To Be Deployed at Comcast Busin...
16/10/2025
Main Street Sports Group Inks Deal With Omaha Productions, Launches Original-Con...
16/10/2025
A Historic Precursor? FIFA, HBS, DAZN Offer an Inside Look at Production of FIFA...
16/10/2025
Prime Video Offers Sneak Peak at New NBA on Prime StudioThe massive 13,000-sq-ft, two-story studio features a LED regulation half court and hoopBy Jason Dachman...
16/10/2025
SVG Remote Production Forum Draws Record Crowd for Visit to PGA TOUR Studios, De...
16/10/2025
BitFire's Ben Grafchik on How Growing Cloud Workflows Are Impacting the Live...
16/10/2025
AI technology is advancing quickly, bringing both new creative possibilities and...
16/10/2025
In 2017, Imani Ellis launched CultureCon, a conference that's become a must-attend event for more than 10,000 diverse creatives and Black professionals to c...
16/10/2025
It might still be a little early to break out the tinsel and mistletoe, but Spotify's already queuing up some holiday magic. This year's Spotify Singles...
16/10/2025
Earlier this year, our in-house publishing imprint, Spotify Audiobooks, put out ...
16/10/2025
VAMPIRE has been integrated onto GM Defenses Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), providing a mobile solution to effectively and affordably counter small drone threat...
16/10/2025
The AgilePod mounted on the host aircraft....
16/10/2025
60% say infotainment systems are a critical purchasing or leasing consideration,...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign, which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and ...
16/10/2025
Roku has added several new features to its user interface and operating system meant to make it easier to discover and personalize content, the company said....
16/10/2025
NEW YORK CNN has announced that its All Access subscription tier will launch in the U.S. on Oct. 28, providing audiences with a centralized destination for CNN&...
16/10/2025
Student Spotlight: Alan Villanueva The graduate student and saxophonist, who performed on Natalia Lafourcades Latin Grammy-nominated Live at Carnegie Hall alb...
16/10/2025
The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced the third cohort of members. The new members include Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the Vegas Golden Kni...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and c...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK Australia's Nine Network and the NHL today announced a media partnership that will bring the world's premier professional ice hockey league to ...
16/10/2025
Parks Associates has released new data showing that nearly half (45%) of U.S. internet homes watch free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services and 89% of U.S...
16/10/2025
TROY, Mich. -New data from J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Study shows that residential wireless internet providers are growing...
16/10/2025
TV's most charming detective drama * Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investi...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Thailand's Legendary Outlaw Returns: Tee Yai: Born to be ...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Christmas Is Just Around The Corner: Home For Christmas Season...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Trist n Ulloa Stars in El crimen de Pazos, the New Netflix Ser...
16/10/2025
ABS Completes Redomiciliation to Dubai Development Authority as Part of Strategi...
16/10/2025
This Saturday October 18 Katja Mia will burst onto the radio airwaves for the first time as she joins 2FM. Katja will be standing in for Bl thnaid Treacy on Sat...
16/10/2025
This October, RT is delighted to support Wexford Festival Opera, Babor International Arts Festival for Children, Open House Dublin and 36 other arts and cultu...
16/10/2025
GeForce NOW is more than just a platform to stream fresh games every week - it offers celebrations for the gamers who make it epic, with member rewards to sweet...
15/10/2025
Across the world, early-career reporters are interrogating systems that shape daily life, from mortuaries and classrooms to the corridors of legal education and...
15/10/2025
St. Louis Blues Pay Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne in New Pregame Open VideoThe NHL franchise worked with production firms 2WEI and 4th Floor CreativeBy Mark J Burns,...
15/10/2025
Cobalt Digital, G3DVu, Proxima Vision, and Telos Alliance Renew Premier Sponsors...
15/10/2025
By Paige Bethmann
Before my grandmother passed away in 2019, I went to visit her in the hospital where she'd been for a few weeks. When I arrived, the nurs...
15/10/2025
Two years ago, Spotify set out to grow the entire publishing industry by making ...
15/10/2025
People turn to DJ for a listening experience that feels personal, dynamic, and j...
15/10/2025
Las personas recurren a DJ para vivir una experiencia de escucha personal, din m...
15/10/2025
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and luminary actor Jeremy Allen White came togethe...
15/10/2025
At Spotify, we're all about supporting rising talent and helping them connec...
15/10/2025
New SBS Documentary Series THE CANCER KILLERS Premieres 4 November on SBS & SBS ...
15/10/2025
SBS celebrates the Festivals of Lights with bold, illuminating stories across th...
15/10/2025
One of humanity's most profound questions continues: Is there any place in our galaxy suitable for life beyond Earth? NASA intends to find out, with the hel...
15/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
15/10/2025
Scality, a global leader in cyber-resilient storage software for the AI era, today announced the advancement of its comprehensive AI ecosystem certification pro...
15/10/2025
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled key highlights of the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, scheduled for Feb. 15 19 at the Westin Rancho Mirage Go...
15/10/2025
At NAB Show New York 2025 (Stand 244), Interra Systems will showcase the future of media QC, monitoring, and captioning, highlighting its award-winning, AI- and...
Official television and film archives exist to preserve the history and creativity of media. But even these formal institutions do not contain everything that has been produced, due to material being lost or destroyed. However, as Kevin Hilton explains, the efforts of a dedicated band of collectors is now filling in the gaps
