Play Away S10E12 (1981) - FULL EPISODE

From Saturday, 24th January, 1981, it's the final Play Away to be uploaded to my channel (barring any surprises) - and I've deliberately saved a missing episode until last. And by "missing", I of course mean that the Beeb went and wiped the master tapes. The reckless, incompetent, negligent, inept, myopic, clueless, ham-fisted, cack-handed barbarians. Still, it's good to know that everyone's seen the light and the habit of junking perfectly good material is now a thing of the past. Check out this page featuring an interview with "BBC Television Archive expert" Adam Lee:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tv_archi...

As he reassures us, there was a change of attitude back in the mid-70s and that all drama and entertainment is now kept, and the vaults are safe under his watch. With this guy in charge, nothing can go wrong. Good to know.

Except, wait a minute... According to this:

http://missingepisodes.proboards.com/...

Adam Lee is actually the very person who, as late as circa 1993, unilaterally ordered the destruction of many of our favourite childhood shows in a cost-cutting exercise, and didn't even consult any actual experts from the relevant departments on the decision. The post dated Aug 25, 2011 at 3:40pm is particularly shocking if true (which admittedly I can't vouch for). While of course I have nothing personal against Mr Lee and wouldn't wish him any harm or anything, how in the world can someone in such a position of responsibility be so bad at his job? How come he went on to become BBC Archive Selector, despite his catastrophic track record of wilful disregard? If I had my way, he'd never be allowed anywhere nearer children's television these days than Rolf Harris. But, then again, perhaps Mr Lee wasn't considered to be bad at his job at all, as his wanton act of cultural vandalism made his employers a few quid, and money talks a lot louder than any sort of artistic integrity and, you know, actual principles these days. Needless to say, I have extremely strong personal opinions on the subject. (I also gather Mr Lee has since moved on to pastures new within the BBC, though the website with his interview remains.)

All that aside, back to the episode in hand, and I believe that this one is unique in the history of Play Away in that it features the tall bearded guy out of Vision On, Ben Benison - certainly the Genome site doesn't list him as appearing in any other episodes of the show. Here, he adds an extra dimension to proceedings beyond the usual singing, dancing, and joking by throwing in a few of his trademark excellent mimes. In fact, this edition is also unusual in that Ben is one of only two people to get a writing credit - and if that credit is down to his own part-improvised routines (as I suspect, but don't know for certain), then that basically makes this The Lee Pressman Show.

Joining Ben Benison are the always-excellent Anita Dobson and Delia Morgan, while Brian Cant appears, but only courtesy of a few pre-recorded inserts. There seem to be more songs and musical interludes than usual, and the band of Jonathan Cohen, Dave Roach, Dill Katz and John Hayman also get individual on-screen credits. (I believe that Saxophonist Dave made the lower reaches of the charts a few times with his solo singles and albums back in the 80s.) There's a very silly stone age shop sketch which gave me a good laugh, and look out for Brian's even sillier farmyard antics. The rabbit section towards the end is good fun, and them bursting into Bright Eyes dressed like that is extremely reminiscent of Matthew Butler on Tiswas. In fact, as Matthew made his television debut on 26th January 1980, by a staggering coincidence this aired precisely one year to the Saturday on from that momentous performance. YOU DON'T GET THAT SORT OF FACT ANYWHERE ELSE. Look out also for full continuity presentation at both the beginning and end. I wish I could bring you that documentary about canals which followed, but I'm worried that the excitement may be too much for the internet to handle...

Many thanks to Lee for not wiping this episode.

(This is a transfer from an old videotape, so please don't expect full HD quality. To the best of my knowledge, this material is not available commercially anywhere in the world, and has been uploaded for its historic interest. That said, if you are a copyright holder and object, please don't hesitate to contact me.)