In the 1950’s
and 60’s, the BBC’s production of its own programming was in full swing.
Archiving and keeping old footage was not, and many records of that era sadly
do not exist. Domestic VCR’s and personal camcorders were a good two decades
away at least and many actors, directors and producers now and then wanted a
record of what they had worked on. Enter John Cura.
John Cura, born Alberto
Giovanni Curà, was born on the 9th of April, 1902. A gifted, self-taught
individual, his passion was electronics, so much so that he specified such a
profession on his wedding certificate. After the second world war, during which
he changed his name to Albert John Cura, he because interested in television,
and on the 11th of September, 1947, he wrote to the BBC to offer his services
of "Tele-Snaps". Cura's execution was simple: a 35mm camera (of his
own design) bolted to a tripod a short distance from his television screen. By
taking still photographs at various intervals, John Cura photographed entire
episodes of various shows, from the opening titles to the closing credits,
creating as much as 80 images which he could sell to prospective clients.
John Cura performed his
services in a back room above a grocer's shop, in Clapham in the south of
London. He offered to use his expertise and experience to professionally
photograph video images off a television screen and sell them to the BBC for a
small fee. Later, he would find not only the BBC, but newspapers, magazines and
overseas journalists would be interested in his images. The BBC were concerned
over copyright issues Cura's work might generate, but by the mid-1950's the
BBC's attitude towards Cura had mellowed, and their own publications of Radio
Times and The Listener began publishing Tele-Snaps.
The arrival of ITV, and
later BBC2, created an even greater workload for Cura, and it is reported that
he eventually had various television receivers set up all over his flat to
capture these images. However technology was expanding, colour was on the
horizon and the BBC were "telerecording" programmes onto 16mm film
for later use if so required. With the ability to archive material, Cura's
services would start to dry up.
As the fee for John’s
work came from a specific serial’s production budget, some production teams opted
to pass on this service and instead focus the money on more important matters
(for example, virtually the entire budget of the William Hartnell story The
Web Planet went on set and costume design). However a majority of Doctor
Who stories from the sixties did get Tele-Snapped, and after the mass
destruction that saw much of that era erased in the 1970’s, these Tele-Snaps are
often the only surviving evidence of that episode.
I should mention at this
point that the term 'Tele-Snap' should only be used in reference to John Cura's
work, as several others offered the same service around the same time. John
offered either contact strips of stills or else people could ask for
high-definition enlargements of certain images they felt were of considerable
importance. Usually for a Doctor Who episode (25 minutes in duration),
approximately 60-70 Tele-Snaps would be captured, each being 24mm x 18mm is
size. Alternately, enlargements could be ordered if so required.
It
should also be pointed out that contrary to rumour, The Dalek Master Plan
7 was never Tele-Snapped. However, 20 off-screen images WERE taken, but
by actor Robert Jewell, as he appears in the episode as a clown called Bing
Crosby. Jewell, who is more well known for being a Dalek operator, probably knew
this serial wasn’t being Tele-Snapped and decided to take some himself. These
images are all that remain of that episode, and, much to the delight of fans,
the last image of the small collection features the infamous final scene where
the Doctor turns to the audience and wishes the viewers a happy Christmas.
For
more information on Tele-Snaps and John Cura, I highly recommend getting a hold
of the fan-produced magazine Nothing at
the End of the Lane (Issue 2), produced by Richard Bignell & Robert
Franks, or the DWM Special #34: The
Missing Episodes - The First Doctor released on March 21, 2013. The First Doctor contains Tele-Snaps
for Marco Polo, The Crusade, The Savages,
The Smugglers and The Tenth Planet, as well as an
in-depth article about John Cura by Richard Bignell. This issue was followed
with Specials #35 and #36 which were devoted to Patrick
Troughton's Tele-Snapped adventures.
To view the existing
Tele-Snaps from the missing stories, they can be viewed online at the BBC
website, from the links below:
THE
COMPLETE TELE-SNAP COLLECTION
Below is a chart that explains which episodes were Tele-Snapped
and which images still survive. Information has been gathered from various
sources and contributions by various people in the know (special thanks to
Derek, Ash & Richard). Any episode not on the list can be assumed not to
have any Tele-Snaps existing. However, it should be pointed out that this chart
has been created using information and Tele-Snaps that we know to exist. Should
any future documentation or Tele-Snaps currently listed as missing come to
light, this chart will be revised and updated accordingly.
|
Tele-Snaps
exist and the exact number is known. The episode in question already exists
in the BBC’s Film and Videotape Library
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|
Tele-Snaps
exist and the exact number is known. The episode in question is currently
missing from the BBC’s Film and Videotape Library
|
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|
Documentation exists to prove these episodes were Tele-Snapped
but the snaps themselves are currently missing
|
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|
These episodes were directed by Richard Martin and it is
believed he has these in a private collection, though it isn’t known which
episodes or how many Tele-Snaps per episode exist. In March
2013, DWM released DWM Special #34:
The Missing Episodes - The First Doctor, and Richard Martin provided a
selection of Tele-Snaps to Richard Bignell for his article, from the
following episodes: The Daleks 6 & 7, The Dalek Invasion of Earth 3, and The Web Planet 2 & 6
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|
No Tele-Snaps are known
to exist for these episodes and no information currently exists as to if they
were snapped or not
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TITLE
|
EPISODE TELE-SNAP STATUS
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|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
|
|
100,000 BC
|
MISSING
|
||||||
|
The Daleks
|
76
|
76
|
RM
|
75
|
RM
|
RM
|
|
|
Inside The Spaceship
|
RM
|
MISSING
|
|||||
|
Marco Polo
|
72
|
78
|
75
|
MISSING
|
70
|
69
|
80
|
|
The Keys of Marinus
|
MISSING
|
MISSING
|
|||||
|
The Sensorites
|
MISSING
|
MISSING
|
|||||
|
Planet of Giants
|
MISSING
|
MISSING
|
MISSING
|
||||
|
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
|
|
The Rescue
|
78
|
72
|
|||||
|
The Romans
|
76
|
76
|
76
|
77
|
|||
|
The Web Planet
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
|
|
The Crusade
|
73
|
72
|
72
|
67
|
|||
|
The Chase
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
RM
|
|
|
The Time Meddler
|
66
|
69
|
72
|
56
|
|||
|
The Gunfighters
|
68
|
71
|
72
|
73
|
|||
|
The Savages
|
70
|
65
|
70
|
73
|
|||
|
The War Machines
|
69
|
67
|
67
|
75
|
|||
|
The Smugglers
|
71
|
67
|
71
|
71
|
|||
|
The Tenth Planet
|
72
|
66
|
67
|
76
|
|||
|
The Power of the Daleks
|
70
|
69
|
67
|
68
|
66
|
75
|
|
|
The Highlanders
|
64
|
71
|
71
|
69
|
|||
|
The Underwater Menace
|
66
|
73
|
72
|
68
|
|||
|
The Moonbase
|
71
|
71
|
78
|
71
|
|||
|
The Macra Terror
|
62
|
64
|
64
|
57
|
|||
|
The Faceless Ones
|
64
|
68
|
62
|
64
|
63
|
61
|
|
|
The Evil of the Daleks
|
63
|
64
|
61
|
63
|
67
|
65
|
64
|
|
The Tomb of the Cybermen
|
62
|
63
|
67
|
64
|
|||
|
The Abominable Snowmen
|
62
|
66
|
60
|
63
|
63
|
59
|
|
|
The Ice Warriors
|
62
|
64
|
66
|
71
|
63
|
60
|
|
|
The Enemy of the World
|
64
|
64
|
64
|
61
|
63
|
||
|
The Web of Fear
|
64
|
63
|
59
|
62
|
60
|
62
|
|
|
Fury from the Deep
|
59
|
63
|
60
|
63
|
60
|
62
|
|
|
The Wheel in Space
|
60
|
63
|
62
|
62
|
62
|
66
|
|
|
The Dominators
|
60
|
60
|
60
|
63
|
|||
|
The Mind Robber
|
62
|
63
|
63
|
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Notes
-
The only missing episode known to have Tele-Snaps taken but are not currently
known to exist is Marco Polo 4.
- The number of Tele-Snaps for The Time Meddler 4 is incomplete;
several Tele-Snaps are missing from the collection, including the missing
footage of the Vikings getting stabbed.
-
John Wiles was the producer of Doctor Who from The Myth Makers to The Ark,
and no Tele-Snaps are known to exist from this period. It is generally believed
he opted not to use John Cura’s services during his tenure as producer, and
thus it is unlikely any will ever be found from these stories.
THE TIME
MEDDLER
Click
on the links below to see the collections of the season two classic.
Episode 1 “The Watcher” Episode 2 “The Meddling Monk” Episode 3 “A Battle of Wits” Episode 4 “Checkmate”
THE
DISCOVERIES
1984 - Jeremy Bentham's
research leading up to his publication about the early years of the series lead
him to esteemed BBC director Christopher Barry, who directed such classics as The
Daleks and The Power of the Daleks. Whilst interviewing him,
Jeremy was presented with a file containing Tele-Snaps from several of his
episodes. Jeremy was subsequently granted permission to publish Tele-Snaps for The
Power of the Daleks 1. Christopher Barry would later offer his
collection to the BFI sometime in the nineties. His collection consisted of The
Daleks 1 2 5, The Rescue 1 2, The Romans 1 2 3 4, The
Savages 1 2 3 4 & The Power of the Daleks 1 2 3 4 5 6.
1986 - Patrick Mulkern
interviewed director Hugh David for an article for the upcoming Doctor Who
Magazine Summer Special. Mr David revealed he still retained the Tele-Snaps for
The Highlanders, and so 40 images were published in the special in June
of that year.
1987 - Richard Landen
created the first ever Tele-Snap reconstruction for a Doctor Who episode; using
Christopher Barry's collection and Richard's own audio recording of The
Power of the Daleks 2. The result was shown at Birmingham's Telly-Con in
April.
1989 - Researcher Andrew
Pixley was examining the cabinets at Marvel attempting to catalogue their photograph
collection when he stumbled upon over a dozen Tele-Snaps from The Macra
Terror.
1990 - Gerry Davis,
writer and script editor for Doctor Who in 1966-67, casually mentioned to his
agent, Anthony Clark, that he had received a letter from actor Michael Wolf,
who played the character of Nils Jensen in The Moonbase. Along with the
letter was a series of photocopies of Tele-Snaps from that story. Gerry didn't
think much of it but Anthony realised the important of the Tele-Snaps, as he
was a frequent contributor to fan magazine DWB. Contact was made and the
Tele-Snaps were eventually published in January 1991.
1991 - Director John
Davies had been interviewed by DWB when he revealed he had a few Tele-Snaps
from The Macra Terror. He held 36 images, mostly from Episode 2. Many of
these images were previously discovered by Andrew Pixley in 1989.
1993 - Marcus Hearn was an employee of Marvel
Comics & a Doctor Who fan, and in 1993 began researching the production
history of show. He visited the Written Archives Centre in Reading, near
London, and started sorting through the paperwork. He was granted access to
documents and files but progress was slow and in the end he asked if he could
see the list of every single file the WAC contained. Upon checking the
register, Marcus spotted the final listing at the bottom of the page read
Tele-Snaps : Series Z-UU. Marcus was surprised and a little excited; at the
time Tele-Snaps weren't supposed to exist. He asked the assistant to see if he
could see these files, and they soon returned with folders resembling
scrapbooks, that contained the valuable images. Marcus checked and would later
find that with four exceptions (The Enemy of the World 4, The
Dominators 5 & The Mind Robber 4 5), all episodes from Story Z
to Story UU were present. Marcus immediately contacted Doctor Who Monthly
magazine editor Gary Russell, who both agreed the images should be published as
soon as possible for all of Dr Who fandom to see. At the same time, Stephen
James Walker, a notable Doctor Who author, was researching at the Written
Archive Centre. He had also found the Tele-Snap Scrapbooks, yet didn't have the
resources and contacts that Marcus Hearn did. Despite Marcus' belief that
"Scrapbook One" existed, which supposedly contained all the episodes
pre-The Gunfighters, all documentation found to date says otherwise. It
is accepted that John Cura only Tele-Snapped stories that he was requested (and
paid) to snap, and not just every single story that was produced in the 1960's.
Tele-Snaps founds were The Gunfighters 1 2 3 4, The Savages 1 2 3 4,
The War Machines 1 2 3 4, The Smugglers 1 2 3 4, The Tenth
Planet 1 2 3 4, The Power of the Daleks 1 2 3 4 5 6, The
Highlanders 1 2 3 4, The Underwater Menace 1 2 3 4, The Moonbase
1 2 3 4, The Macra Terror 1 2 3 4, The Faceless Ones 1 2 3 4 5 6,
The Evil of the Daleks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, The Tomb of the Cybermen 1
2 3 4, The Abominable Snowmen 1 2 3 4 5 6, The Ice Warriors 1
2 3 4 5 6, The Enemy of the World 1 2 3 5 6, The Web of Fear 1 2
3 4 5 6, Fury from the Deep 1 2 3 4 5 6, The Wheel in
Space 1 2 3 4 5 6, The Dominators 1 2 3 4 & The Mind Robber
1 2 3.
1999 - DWM reporter Peter
Griffiths spoke to George Gallaccio, one of the production managers during the
Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras. George was part of a team that was cleaning out
the production office when a handful of Tele-Snaps were taken from a cupboard.
Just seconds away from being tossed in the bin, George grabbed them. The
collection also included various Tele-Snap enlargements from The Smugglers,
The Tenth Planet, The Highlanders & The Underwater Menace.
While the Tele-Snaps for the latter four stories were either already existing
or the episodes themselves had already been recovered, the Tele-Snaps for The
Crusade were a prize find, as the story was missing two of its episodes.
The collection consisted of The Crusade 1 2 3 4, The Time
Meddler 1 2 3 4, The Tenth Planet 1 2 3 4, The Moonbase 1 2 3
& The Evil of the Daleks 3 4 5 7.
2003 - In June, Derek
Handley of Loose Cannon Productions, the group that make Tele-Snap (and
non-Tele-Snap) reconstructions of missing stories, had the chance to meet the
original director of Marco Polo, Waris Hussein. During the conversation
Derek enquired about the Tele-Snaps for the lost story, to which he got the
surprise reply of "I might have them". Along with from Mission to
the Unknown and The Massacre, Marco Polo has the least
surviving evidence of off-screen visuals known to exist, save for seven
photographs from the final two episodes grabbed by an Australian fan during the
screening in Australia (later published in DWB 57). In October Hussein
confirmed he had the Tele-Snaps, although his collection didn't include any for
Episode Four as that episode was directed by John Crockett. Unfortunately for
Derek, Waris Hussein was a very busy man and it wouldn't be until February 2004
that Derek would be able to finally obtain the snaps. Doctor Who Magazine
agreed to pay the rights for use, thus allowing the snaps to be seen by the
public for the first time in almost 40 years. Waris held Marco Polo 1
2 3 5 6 7.
EPITAPH
The final episode Tele-Snapped for Doctor Who was Episode 3 of the
Patrick Troughton adventure The Mind Robber, which aired on the 28th of
September, 1968. Cura ended his Tele-Snapping career the same year, after an
impressive 21 years. John Cura passed away on the 21st of April, 1969 (a few
days before the broadcast of The War Games 2), at the age of 67, after
being diagnosed with cancer of the colon. After his death, his wife Emily
attempted to see if the BBC wanted his collection, which stood at approximately
several hundred thousand images. They didn't, and as a result the entire
collection, like the Doctor Who episodes themselves, were destroyed (a handful
of his collection did survive, mainly from the Royal family and the Beverley
Sisters). Doctor Who fans owe a debt of gratitude to him and the service that
he provided for this and other series. Without John Cura, many Doctor Who
memories would be lost forever.
