Category:Lost BBC episodes

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For a variety of reasons, many BBC television and radio episodes are presumed "lost". Early shows were performed live, and mostly were not recorded in any format because such facilities were still to be invented. With later recorded shows, either tapes were re-used (as they were expensive) or filmstock was disposed of as a fire risk. No residual value was perceived in these shows at the time.

In some cases stills photographs, film or audio recordings were made in the studio, or at home by viewers and listeners, or elsewhere. As time went on more homes had recording devices, so more records are likely to exist of later shows.

Since the 1970s (the height of the disposal of TV recordings, although radio recordings were still being lost as late as the mid-1980s) people have been trying to recover the lost material, with limited degrees of success. See Wiping for more information.