We’re delighted to announce that two complete episodes of the 1955 television series You’ve Never Seen This, as well as material from a third, have been discovered!
You’ve Never Seen This was Gerry Anderson’s directorial debut, which came about in 1955 after theatrical agent Pete Collins approached his employers at Polytechnic Films (where Gerry was then serving as an editor) with an idea for a television series spotlighting Europe’s strangest sights and weirdest people. Anderson and his crew spent several troubled months preparing and then shooting the series on the continent, and although You’ve Never Seen This would ultimately prove to be a short-lived production it brought Anderson into contact with several people he would soon be working with again, including cameraman Arthur Provis. Soon after Polytechnic got into financial difficulties over You’ve Never Seen This, Gerry would depart the company (with Arthur and others) to form a new production company, Pentagon Films. It was the work of Pentagon Films that would catch the attention of Twizzle author Roberta Leigh, shortly before Gerry and Arthur departed to form yet another new company, A.P. Films – and the rest is history!
Anderson would later comment on the irony of the title You’ve Never Seen This because “the series was never seen!” That statement is however only partially accurate, as records indicate that a handful of episodes were broadcast (and more may have been slipped into the schedules unannounced). Until now however, only one episode of the series was known to have survived (and is available on the Lost Worlds of Gerry Anderson DVD) so the surprise discovery of almost three complete instalments is welcome news indeed!
Discovered by Network Distributing MD Tim Beddows, the find consists of two reels of episode three, and the complete episodes five and six, all of which were previously thought to be lost. The original 35mm negatives of these episodes are currently undergoing scanning and restoration by the Network restoration team, and we’re hoping to bring you news on how you might be able to get to see them in due course.
Unlike many popular British television productions of the same era, the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson shows of the 1960s and 1970s all survive intact and uncut, with the only substantial gap in the archives being fifty-one of the fifty-two episodes of 1957’s The Adventures of Twizzle. If you’re familiar with the episode that is already available then you’ll probably already know whether You’ve Never Seen This is your cup of tea, but any archive recovery is great news – and we’re particularly delighted at the chance to see more of Gerry Anderson’s earliest directing work!
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