At Last The 1948 Show

JOHN CLEESE and GRAHAM CHAPMAN, along with Tim-Brooke Taylor (the future Goodie, who is also in "How to Irritate People") , Marty Feldman (who probably needs no introduction), and Aimi MacDonald headlined the 13 episodes of this black-and-white classic series, which directly preceded (and inspired) Monty Python.

With every episode a string of wildly silly and hilarious sketches, it deserves to achieve immortal status. However, the master tapes of all but two of the episodes were erased many years ago. Only through the detective work of tape historians have episodes of the series have been recovered. Six complete episodes are now known to survive, along with many incomplete episodes.

So how many of the 1948 Shows still exist? Audio recordings exist of the entire series, although some episodes are incomplete. Five episodes exist as complete 16mm prints. At least some video exists for every episode except the very first. Five compilation episodes turned up in Sweden, which allowed one full episode to be restored by the restoration artists at the BBC's Missing Believed Wiped program (which recovers footage from programs thought to have been lost forever). This episode screened on BBC4 as part of Missing Believed Wiped night.  So, six full episodes exist.

For more informaton, go to  http://orangecow.org/pythonet/1948show/