Z Cars

The series suffered from the BBC's lack of an archiving policy until it audited its holdings in 1978. It was standard practice to wipe and reuse costly master videotapes, after a film copy had been struck for sales if necessary. Of the 799 episodes made, 466 (broadcast between 1962 and 1974) are thought to no longer exist. Additionally, some colour videotaped editions only survive as monochrome film prints. The final four seasons, broadcast from September 1974 to September 1978, exist in full.

While taping 'moving vehicle' shots in studio, as technology was nowhere near as advanced as it is currently, it was so much simpler to use a 'stripped' version of the vehicles involved. Many such were missing their entire front ends and windscreens to facilitate both filming and sound recording. Continuous film was played on the screen behind, to give the impression that the vehicle was actually on the move during recording. Immediately after one such shot, actor Brian Blessed (PC 'Fancy' Smith) stepped out of the Z-car, and, having left his cap on the dashboard, reached in through the vacant windscreen space to retrieve it. Blessed himself spoke of this during a talk show some years later, but apparently neither the film crew nor the director noticed.

Also available in a computer colorized version.