Letter: Gas and gaiters gone for good

Sir: The photograph and reference to All Gas and Gaiters ("All gas and gaiters as Runcie has them feuding in the aisles", 9 September) was an interesting witness to its longevity in the public memory, all the more remarkable because, unlike other popular television series of that time (Pauline Devaney and I wrote the first series in 1966), it has not been repeated for more than 20 years.

Curious as to why this should be, I wrote to John Birt and received a letter from one of his assistants, saying: "I have made inquiries about the existence of the All Gas and Gaiters tapes and I am afraid I have to tell you that of the 33 programmes originally transmitted, only eight remain in the BBC's Broadcast Archives at Brentford - two from 1970 and six from 1971.

"I understand that before 1975, it was up to individual departments to decide which of their output material should be retained in the library - and which should not. Sadly, it appears that the majority of All Gas and Gaiters tapes fell into the latter category."

It would be hard to imagine a responsible television company today wiping the tapes of a series which had reached fifth place in the ratings, equal with Steptoe and Son (1968), and played to an audience of 10.5 million - and doing so, moreover, without informing the authors or giving them the chance to buy the tapes. People who look back on the Sixties and Seventies as a time when the BBC was an efficient institution should take off their rose-tinted spectacles.

EDWIN APPS

Liez par Maillezais, France