Just because it's missing, doesn't mean it's good...

Went along to the Missing Believed Wiped show at the NFT on Saturday. Much of the stuff recovered this year had, in fact, come to light last year, so it was a peculiar line up. There were highlights, mind.

The Complete And Utter History Of Britain episodes 1 and 2 made their way from Terry Jones personal vaults. This was one of the precursor shows to Monty Python, and mixed studio pieces with filmed inserts, making for quite a modern format. At one point they even filled the studio camera frame with the monitor before fading through to the filmed insert proper - a technique rediscovered for contemporary studio programming. On a personal level, having acquired a copy of the filmed inserts on their own, complete with bad audio, we'd been under the impression that the themetune ended with "The complete and utter history of Britain... and it's all true," when in fact what we'd been hearing was "episode two." Ah well.

The second program offered a great episode of Z Cars, Brotherly Love. The audience seemed to really go with it, which was great. Too often at these showings the viewers are laughing at, rather than with, the programme. A couple of years ago they decided to show some recovered effects test footage - shots of smoke that had been intended to overlay images in a sequence of Doctor Who. Not exactly entertainment. But with the Z Cars, the audience was definitely laughing with the programme, which remains refreshingly contemporary despite its age.

There followed an oddball show called Man Without Papers. It was strange seeing a show when you've got no context for it whatsoever. The opening sequence featured an American drifter trying to get through to a Lord on a public telephone. Had the show been The Avengers or The Saint you'd be forgiven for thinking the Lord would be the central figure, but no. Instead the show's protagonist was the drifter - v. sixties Dylan - an edgy character who seemed to be fighting against institutionalised corruption with hippy values. Selling it well, aren't I?

There was also a terrific Out Of The Unknown - The Tunnel Under The World, which saw the veteran British telefantasy show at its most Twilight Zone-esque. The story managed to be (if you forgive the retrograde similes) a halfway house between Groundhog Day and The Truman Show. Interestingly the bad guys in the tale were advertisers - socially relevant (even today) but politically telling given that OOTU was a BBC show.

Sunday saw me breaking in the go board. I had Daniel Bristow round for three quick games, three of which I lost! Dan's been playing against a computer opponent for quite a while now, though, so as a newby I'm not too downcast. It's actually great to play it on something other than a computer screen, and I'm starting to put my reading into context too. I was drawn to the idea of playing go primarily because I wanted a social pursuit, so really I don't need to be overtly competitive, but I still have this urge to play to the best of my abilities. I suppose what I'm hankering after is becoming one of those gruff old men who have twenty-year-old grudges based around meaningless games. At least there's a fair bit of philosophy in go!

I've also finished the linkage on the website for the broken English go instructions. Not sure what else to put up, save for a list of links...