Adam Adamant Lives! - Lost Episodes

Lost Episodes

There were originally 29 black and white episodes composing two series, plus one unbroadcast pilot titled Adam Adamant Lives (without exclamation mark). The 1902 sequence is now all that is known to survive of this unseen debut episode of the series, and only exists because it was later reused in "A Vintage Year for Scoundrels". No script of Adam Adamant Lives is known to exist, and the only documentation that remains is the description given in the Drama Early Warning Synopsis issued on Thursday 10 March 1966; this is included in the booklet Adam Adamant Lives!: Viewing Notes accompanying the DVD boxed set Adam Adamant Lives!: The Complete Collection released by 2entertain Ltd. in July 2006.

The first series, with the exception of "Ticket to Terror", was made as a mixture of 35mm film for the location sequences, and multi-camera in the studio using 625-line electronic cameras. Instead of being edited on video tape, as was the usual BBC procedure, the series was edited entirely on film, with the output of the studio cameras being telerecorded, for ease of editing. The pre-shot external location footage for each episode was inserted into the programme via telecine during the studio recording sessions.

"Ticket to Terror" from the first series, and all of the second series, were made with the usual BBC mix of tape and film, with the second series being edited on 405-line tape. Wiping by the BBC in the 1970s has resulted in no master videotapes having survived. Film recordings haven't all survived either as, in one case, one episode on 35mm film is known to have been destroyed.

The result of all this is that only 16 episodes remained in the archives when the BBC realised the value of such material, including the first and last episodes in broadcast order. These were mainly in the form of the original broadcast 35mm film recordings, with a handful of episodes as 16mm film recordings or reduction prints. In the case of some episodes the 35mm location footage also exists, and has been used to remaster the surviving episodes. The last episode of Series One, "D For Destruction", thought to be among those lost forever, was however recovered in 2003 – it was found at the BBC Archives in a mislabelled film can. It has since been screened every year at the Missing Believed Wiped event.

A public appeal campaign, the BBC Archive Treasure Hunt, continues to search for missing episodes.