BBC Archives
The BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history, including copies of television and radio broadcasts, internal documents, photographs, online content, sheet music, commercially available music, BBC products (including toys, games, merchandise, books, publications, and programme releases on VHS, Beta, Laserdisc, DVD, vinyl, audio cassette, audio book CD, and Blu-ray), press cuttings, artefacts and historic equipment.
[2] The BBC is engaging in an ongoing project to digitise and preserve their entire archived programme material, migrating (transferring) recordings made on older analogue formats such as film, audio tape, videotape, vinyl, wax cylinders etc.
on to today's latest electronic formats as digital files, which are compatible with modern computer hardware and software equipment and systems.
Their aim is to eventually create a complete digital archive where they no longer have to use now obsolete media formats and their respective equipment.
Additionally, some film and audio formats are slowly disintegrating, and digitisation also serves as a digital preservation programme.
The BBC Archive website was relaunched online in 2008 and has provided newly released historical material regularly since then.
Television programmes were also stored by the Open University in Milton Keynes, and by BBC nations and regional libraries around the country.
In addition to the vaults, new editing, preservation and workrooms have been added so that the material can easily be transferred between formats as well as viewed, restored and digitised for future posterity.
The archive itself holds extensive material from approximately the mid-1970s onwards, when important recordings at the broadcaster were retained for the future.
[22][23] Its collections shed light into the behind the scenes workings of the corporation and also elaborate on the difficulties of getting a television or radio programme to or off the air as the case may be.
[22] The BBC Photographic Library is responsible for approximately 7 million images,[25] dating back to 1922,[26] created for publicity purposes and subsequently kept for future use.
[30] The most requested images from the Archive include Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice, Michael Parkinson interviewing Muhammad Ali, Martin Bashir interviewing Diana, Princess of Wales and a picture of Delia Derbyshire at work in the Radiophonic workshop at the BBC.
[32] Original material of many programmes was lost due to the practice of discarding recordings because of the need to reduce costs, copyright issues and for technical reasons.
[33][34] The resolution of this appeal was that over one hundred productions were recovered[35] including The Men from the Ministry, Something To Shout About, Man and Superman, The Doctor's Dilemma, I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, Hancock's Half Hour, I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, and The Ronnie Corbett Thing in addition to recording sessions with Elton John, Ringo Starr and Paul Simon.
The website ceased to be updated in June 2005, and the concept was instead adopted by BBC Radio 4 as a collection of film interviews from various programmes.
[41] In addition to all the broadcast technology, art is also kept, namely the portraits of all the BBC Director Generals,[42] as well as props including an original TARDIS from Doctor Who[43] and the children's television puppet Gordon the Gopher.
