Why are 38 seconds missing from The Good Life episode 'The Windbreak War'?

[Pinkfluffybunny1007]

I'm confused because if there was tape damage obviously to show the clip on here there must be a copy of it somewhere so why don't they just use that?!?!?!?!?!

[Djarra]

The worst cuts are to 'Only Fools...' where scenes with smoking in are chopped and cut about so they no longer make sense. Golden Era 'Last of the Summer Wine' can only be shown after the watershed on 'Yesterday' (a drama channel) due to smoking and suggestive language. First run 'Ab Fab' is also banned due to smoking (the comeback series is fine) and I'm sure there are others.

[StanPomeray]

The episode has been shown on UK Gold dozens of times over the past 10 years or so, and the missing footage has been included........

[wildphoenix1984]

I think it's a time slot thing. I noticed long ago that whenever any of the original 4 terrestrial channels played anything I owned on official tape/dvd, they aways cut from it. I guess theres so much tripe they have to play these days that time slots aren't what they used to be.

Still a shame for those of us who haven't managed to get the dvds yet though! Ta for posting :) And your mention of Who made me smile - as a Whovian since I was a child, I still love to see anybody mention old tv :)

[columbusmozart]

I agree, that it was probably simply edited for time on repeats. I have the series on DVD now, and the scene is restored. The only edit I note is in the penultimate episode where the "Big Spender" song fragment is crossfaded out because of music licensing rights.

[psrpippy]

I have the dvd box set and the missing 38 seconds are included in it

[wa8ycd]

I just watched that episode on DVD from Netflix. The 38 second segment you are indicating is in place in that version.

[Dristarg]

Similarly, when the final episode of series 2 ('Going to pot') is sometimes broadcast, it starts from a minute in. Barbara saying "Fiddler, come in off the roof" & Tom replying "Alright already" gets cut; maybe it's considered politically incorrect.

[doubledeckers]

@Dristarg - interesting comment. I have off-air copies of that from 1989 and 1999 will take a look.

[columbusmozart]

Probably just for timing purposes. My DVD collection has the scene in it.

[TheSaintsray]

This episode was cut for 'timing purposes'. I checked with the BBC.

[doubledeckers]

@TheSaintsray - I know. It doesn't make sense though. For 35 years they have pimped the scene between Margo and Mr Bailey as one of the greatest moments in BBC comedy but cut half of it for timing purposes.

[vjpearce]

This episode was on the other day on UK gold, but they didn't cut that part.

[TheSaintsray]

The show exists in full at the BBC; the edit was made for timing purposes! I have checked with the BBC to ascertain this is the case.

[francis1971]

Good to see you mention Doctor Who in your text.

[AndrewJimScott]

Very interesting.

[MysteryViewer]

I'm a Yank who fell in love with this show while living in England in the early '80s. I own both the Acorn VHS set and the newer BBC Warner DVD set and both contain the compete scene. Good thing; it's much funnier with nothing missing!

[ryko26]

who cares?

[RobertHartlepool]

I have watched this episode several times on UK gold, and I remember the 'cut' part being present, the problem was obviously only temporary

[doubledeckers]

I agree with you: it pays to keep off-air recordings. I had original recordings of The Young Ones from the first showing. I recorded the series again later (with a better TV aerial) and erased the originals. Later I found out the BBC had removed all the subliminal flash frames after the first transmission.

[Fawltykog]

The BBC also seemed to go through a period of cutting a few seconds from the end of the infamous "Gravy Scene" in the Good Life Episode "The Last Posh Frock" when Barbara walks out the room and Tom puts his foot in it again causing Barbara to give a off screen scream, oddly enough UK Gold or whatever it's called these days had no problem keeping that in their repeats so god knows what the Beeb were/are up too.

[doubledeckers]

I don't know about the DVD. It would be interesting to find out.

I compared the two recordings and it seems that only those 38 seconds had been cut. I find that very suspicious. It seems unlikely that less than 45 seconds would be cut (and from the most famous scene of the whole series) to make the episode more suitable for a modern time-slot?

[thatsthequestion]

I'm afraid it is indeed a cut to fit a 30 minute slot.

The 38 seconds are present and correct on the R2 Acorn DVD release. This version runs to 31'59".

The R2 DVD's themselves have various cuts (I think I'm right in saying the affected episodes are Our Speaker Today, Silly, But it's Fun... and Sweet & Sour Charity) so in those cases it pays to keep BBC off-airs, even recent ones.

These R2 DVD"s are now thankfully out of print. The R1's are reported to be uncut.

[thatsthequestion]

...and continuing my reply, I'll add it's not unknown for the BBC to cut out little bits because of tape damage. A couple of seconds are missing from all circulating copies of that Fawlty Towers episode with the dead guest, presumably because of tape damage to the 1" dub from which all present copies were taken from. All should be present and correct on the 2", if and when they'll ever dust it down...

[doubledeckers]

I remember an episode of The Liver Birds shown one afternoon. It could possibly have been for the 50th anniversary of television or maybe slightly later. There were a series of problems as they showed it and I reached the conclusion they were showing it from 2 inch and the heads were clogging or possibly worse!

As I mentioned in the captions, time is running out to return to the 2 inch tapes as machines that can play them are becoming few and far between.

[AidanLunn]

The same goes for several other programmes. An episode of Mind Your Language (shoot me for watching this godawful programme!) has about 30 seconds cut off the front , just after the opening titles.

Apparently, the Ampex videotape recorders were an absolute nightmare to operate even in those days! The tape wouldn't have "snapped", more likely it would have got chewed

[ade425mxy]

@thatsthequestion

2' Quads are now long gone. all on d3. But it should be on the Digital masters

[ricardo266]

Very interesting video. I hadn't realised this ep had been "edited" down since the 80s. I think I must have the full version on VHS, as I recorded all the eps in the 80s and still have all the tapes from that era. Does the current DVD box set release also have this scene cut?

A similar thing happened to a Monty Python ep in the 70s. A political scene was cut due to an impending general election - and never seen again!! It's just sloppy and careless of the BBC and difficult to excuse.