Regional Film & Video Volume 16: Issue 01 10 Case Study BBC Studios And Post Production Breathes New Life Into Trumptonshire Trilogy or anyone above a certain age, the towns of Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley, with their weird and F wonderful collection of characters, hold a special place in our hearts. Telling the everyday tales of the inhabitants of these imaginary (yet somehow very real) places, the domestic goings-on of Windy Miller, Doctor Mopp, Captain Flack, Peter the Postman, Harry Farthing and the like have enthralled children and parents alike since the 1960s. A trilogy of groundbreaking, stop- motion animation children’s BBC TV shows – one of the first ever British TV series to be filmed in colour – they were the brainchild of its multi-talented trilogy had not delivered the quality the writer and producer, Gordon Murray. creator was searching for. As Mollett They first came to our screens way back explained, “this DVD wasn’t re- in 1966, and their characters were mastered from the original footage but expertly voiced with the dulcet tones of from a tape taken from a telecine of a Brian Cant. Bob Bura, John Hardwick conformed duplicate in the 1970s.” He and Pasquale Ferrari brought the pointed out that the footage appeared characters to life visually through warped and fuzzy in places, with low revolutionary full colour animation. resolution and flat colours. “This time But whatever happened to this famous we were anxious to get it right - we were cast – including the unforgettable fire very keen to protect the original creative crew of Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, vision that my father-in-law had for the Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub - trilogy.” immortalised by these 1960s children’s Finding the original masters was cult TV classics in ye olde fantastic news. The surprise then got Trumptonshire? even sweeter. “We were excited to see that the originals had only been duplicated about seven or eight times in Restoring the footage to their 45-year life-span and generally they were in pretty good condition former glories considering,” recalled Mollett. This meant that much of the integrity of the Like with many old classics, they were original programmes would remain presumed consigned to the annals of TV intact, so often a challenge when trying history, never to be seen again. But, in a to breathe new life into old footage. far-sighted and ambitious move, Restoring the footage to former glories Murray with the help of his The quest led the Trumptonshire duo to ‘Trumptonshire’ son-in-law William BBC Studios and Post Production, and Mollett, decided to locate, restore, and their Digital Media Services Division, importantly, future-proof and safeguard which specialises in digitising, restoring the trilogy. and distributing old archive footage - The scale of the task was enormous, both from a media management and storage point of view... “We had no great expectations when we whatever the format, condition and age. started out the process,” says Mollett. And it quickly became clear the team “Even if we did manage to find the would have their work cut out to restore original masters, we weren’t holding all 39 episodes (13 x 15 minute episodes out much hope for what state they’d be of each series) to their former glory – in after nearly 50 years had passed.” especially as the team had made the Undeterred, Mollett, began his quest. decision to re-scan the footage to high And after finding the original copies definition for potential Blu-Ray release stowed away in his father-in-law’s and to give it the best chance of house, he started research to see if it was retaining its picture quality. As some of viable to restore and prepare the original elements were in such poor were dealing with massive, fully- Diamant DustBuster, DVS Clipster and The trilogy…reborn Camberwick Green, Trumpton and condition, the team sourced additional uncompressed DPX files so we could Cinnafilm’s Dark Energy – to give the Chigley for distribution and material from the BBC Archives library view and work on every subtle picture footage the VIP treatment. Being able to scan and save the series’ safekeeping. at Perivale to supplement the master detail,” recalled Clive Hodge, head of While generally the overall state of the electronically in full HD was a key Finding the hidden treasure containing footage. digital media services at BBC Studios footage was pretty good – considering component to future-proofing them, the original 16mm A and B roll master “The scale of the task was enormous, and Post Production. the passing of time – there were and also making sure viewers could see print copies was absolutely crucial to both from a media management and Robbie Lava, digital media services significant quality variations between in pristine HD detail the true artistry the success of the project. Indeed, a storage point of view. We had to very coordinator at BBC Studios and Post different series, episodes and even behind the original physical props and previous 2005 re-mastered DVD of the carefully manage the workflow as we Production, takes up the story. “The first scenes. Part of the challenge was to puppet-making skills. In addition to the job after cleaning was to ingest all the A ensure that there weren’t wild visual re-mastering, the 16mm mag and B roll footage into our SCANITY fluctuations of picture quality and to tracks were also dug out from the film scanner so it was in the digital make sure the overall result had the vaults. This meant the audio also domain. The beauty of the system is that same consistent look and feel. For received the same expert digital it reproduces every single frame of film instance, Lava pointed out that, “some makeover treatment from the BBC exactly like the camera-originated of the replicated stock scenes such as the Studios and Post Production team. material. This means that we can see firemen sliding down the pole and the The 90-year-old Murray was delighted every single detail right down to signature bandstand were in extremely when he first saw the team’s collective individual scratches and even the film bad condition. So we had to search for efforts, and as Mollett pointed out “it perforation – and squeeze every ounce the original stock scene and insert that was heart-warming to see his reaction to of quality from the footage. It also meant across all the other episodes to ensure the restored footage.” He added: “The we could scan in the footage directly the quality was consistent and stability and clarity of image was better without the need for an intermediate optimised throughout.” than ever before, and it was clear the duplicate – and as it scans at 18fps, we Murray also wanted to ensure the guys had squeezed every single ounce could push through the job much faster footage and all its elements were of information from the original camera than on other systems.” retained forever - no longer wanting to material so it could be viewed in the The team, guided by the expert eye of put his faith in the vagaries of film can best possible light.” colourist Andrew Parkinson and storage. So the team backed up and Together the team had pulled off the efficiently managed by media saved everything – scans, HDCam SR impossible, taking Murray’s original management expert Sheona Henderson, tapes, frame-speed corrected files on artistic vision and simple yet powerful then passed the footage through its suite external drives, LTO back-up and even storytelling, and bringing it into the 21st of film processing, clean-up, grain .wav audio files. They left nothing to century with stunning HD clarity - reduction and restoration tools – chance, as the 16mm originals were only safeguarding it for the appreciation of including Nucoda Film Master, likely to degrade further over time. generations to come..