Monty Python on Blu-ray
#1
Full details here: https://networkonair.com/all-products/30...ay-edition

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#2
The remastering of Gilliam's animations is astounding !
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#3
Agreed!

The whole presentation looks amazing.

I can’t believe the quality of the digital remastering of the live action analog video.

Thanks for posting.
M
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#4
This is brilliant news, and I'll definitely be buying one. The official Monty Python YouTube channel added a fascinating video a few months back. They had the original 2" videotape from the Deja Vu episode through an Ampex Quad Machine, the tape hasn't been played since 1979!

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#5
Fascinating!
Are these the tapes Terry Jones rescued from being junked or did he make copies from these?

Maybe I’m wrong but I thought the BBC wiped the masters.
Cheers
M
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#6
(08-02-2019, 12:05 PM)MercuryZap Wrote: Fascinating!
Are these the tapes Terry Jones rescued from being junked or did he make copies from these?

Maybe I’m wrong but I thought the BBC wiped the masters.
Cheers
M

It's a bit unclear what happened, some say Jones made copies on the off chance the BBC wiped them but the BBC kept the masters anyway. The 2" tape in that video hasn't been played since 1979, for unknown reasons, the BBC made a lower quality copy which they used for broadcasts since then.

The BBC were notorious for wiping old TV shows, there's still around 100 Doctor Who episodes still missing. But be thankful Monty Python weren't on ITV, as the individual ITV regions were notorious for wiping shows. They had offers from Thames Television and London Weekend Television before they went to the BBC, a lot of the early shows from both of these companies, (which started in 1968), are missing believed wiped. The Thames offer didn't happen, as Thames didn't have a studio available for 2 years, while London Weekend's deal was soured when they learned David Frost wanted to be executive producer, and they were sick of living in Frost's shadow since The Frost Report, to the point where they put Frost's phone number on screen in Episode 2 of Monty Python! Big Grin
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#7
Hi
Thanks very much for the detailed reply, Donald.
It’s a pity how much has been lost but always exciting when something cool turns up.
Cheers!
M
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#8
The reason Terry's animations look so good now is because Terry has kept the original 16mm negatives, as could be seen on his daughter's blog some time back. In theory, all the outside shots of the show could look as good as this, as they were made on 16mm or 35mm, unlike all the indoors studio footage shot on video. The question is whether those original camera negatives were kept. If they were, the quality you could get from them today would be much higher than from digitizing the old BBC tapes that only hold abysmal telecines by today's standards.
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#9
Video of Gilliam's reaction to the restoration:
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#10
Wow, indeed!!! Thanks for sharing.
M
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