A Bit of Old Telly?

ITV began their new series Raiders of the Lost Archive last night. The concept was good, of showing old and rediscovered clips to the performers who were in them. Unfortunately the programme didn’t live up to its promise. Most of the clips were not shown in their entirety, and then what was shown was talked over by either the performer in question or by Patrick McGuinness, the presenter. (I was also not impressed by the way McGuinness kept implying that he’d done the research and found these films, but that’s just the presenting style the programme seemed to be taking.)

I will keep watching, if only to see Bill Oddie reunited with clips from The Goodies in Engelbert with the Young Generation, some of which I saw at the Missing Believed Wiped screening in December.

I suppose I should be pleased that ITV are doing something positive towards items being returned to the archive, but it feels like they could have done so much more with the concept they had.