Previously lost footage of Batman star Adam West teaching road safety to children will be screened for the first time in more than 50 years.
The clip from May 1967 of Batman teaching children the Green Cross Code will be shown to an audience of TV professionals and enthusiasts to kick off a hunt for 100 missing television clips.
Kaleidoscope, which specialises in finding missing television footage, recently discovered the segment, which was never screened outside of the UK.
It will be shown at Birmingham City University on April 14, as the company launches its list of the UK’s top 100 missing TV shows, which industry professionals most want to see recovered.
This includes early episodes of Doctor Who featuring Mark Eden as Marco Polo, Top Of The Pops and The Avengers.
The full list will be unveiled at Birmingham City University’s Parkside Building alongside screenings of found clips and episodes from shows such as Out Of The Unknown, Sexton Blake and The Goodies.
Viewers have been asked to come forward with any recordings and video tapes which could contain lost material.
Also in demand are the Hancock’s Half Hour episode Lady Chatterley’s Revenge from 1957 and the Dad’s Army episode The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Walker, first screened in 1969.
Chris Perry, chief executive of Kaleidoscope, said: “We spend a lot of time searching through old canisters or looking through people’s lofts to try and find these shows or clips which are thought to have been completely erased from history.
“What we wanted to do this time was to ask TV fans which shows they wanted us to find and it’s really interesting to see that it’s real British institutions like Doctor Who and Top Of The Pops that came out on top.
“These lost episodes really can end up in the most unusual of places and people might not even know they have them.
“Scenes from Sexton Blake or Callan were only kept because Australian censors cut them out for being too violent for sixties TV.
“We’ve had universities find clips accidentally stored at the end of video tapes and I myself have literally clawed tapes from the rafters of Bob Monkhouse’s roof, to get my hands on some Celebrity Squares and The Golden Shot episodes.”
Kaleidoscope has asked anyone who may have lost footage to get in touch by emailing info@tvbrain.info or visiting www.tvbrain.info to check the list of lost TV shows.
