Bob Monkhouse - Film and Television Archive

Film and Television Archive

An expert on the history of silent cinema and a film collector, Monkhouse presented Mad Movies in 1966, in which he presented clips from comic silent films, some of which he had helped to recover and restore. His private film collection was the cause of a court case at the Old Bailey in 1979 after he was charged with attempting to defraud film distributors, but he was acquitted. Many of the films in his collection were seized and destroyed (including what would have been the only surviving copies of many films) before the acquittal.

In 2008, the British Film Institute was contacted by Monkhouse's daughter, Abigail, who asked if they would like to view the collection and provide some advice as to the best way of preserving it. Amongst the discoveries were many radio and TV shows thought long vanished. Dick Fiddy, the archivist said "It's a huge, unwieldy collection which deals with a number of areas. It's not just film and TV. Initially we found half a dozen TV shows that we knew to be missing."

Amongst those shows rediscovered were many that feature Monkhouse himself, including The Flip Side, a 1966 play starring Monkhouse as a television DJ with his own late night show, and the 1958 series of his comedy My Pal Bob including an episode in which he is suspected of an extramarital affair. The archive consists of 36,000 videotapes, going back to when Monkhouse first bought a home video recorder in 1966. His film archive began in the late 1950s.

The entire Monkhouse film and television archive is now held by Kaleidoscope, including all material previously held by the NFTVA. It was catalogued and restored to digital formats for a major event at BAFTA on 24 October 2009. Chris Perry, part of Kaleidoscope and Kaleidoscope Publishing, said, "We are painstakingly transferring the important contents of the video tapes and restoring radio shows. There are many incredible finds, and the event in October will be an exciting time for all concerned."

In his final years, Monkhouse hosted a show on BBC Radio 2 called The Monkhouse Archive, in which he provided humorous links to clips of comedy acts spanning the previous 50 years. As both an enthusiast of classic comedy, and a keen supporter of young acts, he was ideally placed to select clips.