THREE EPISODES OF CONTROVERSIAL DAVID CROFT COMEDY DISCOVERED
Ray Langstone has discovered three missing episodes of the controversial and rarely (in some cases, never!) seen David Croft penned sitcom THE VIRGIN FELLAS.
A BBC co-production, this 1975 show starred Hugh Lloyd and Ronald Fraser but failed to capture the attention of British viewers, to the extent that it was pulled halfway way through its run in this country, and was voted 'Worst Show of the Year' in one critics' poll.
Filmed and screened in the UK in colour as The Virgin Fellas in colour, it was also broadcast in Australia as Birds In The Bush in black & white, as colour TV wasn’t launched in Australia until 1975.
The recovered episodes of Birds in the Bush (it uses the Aussie titles) are 1, 8 and 13. The last two of these episodes were two of the ones never shown in the UK.
Ray says that the episodes were hiding in plain sight - a trader in Australia had all three, and Ray was able to do a deal with him! They are monochrome film-to-VHS-to-digital transfers, so not bluray standard obviously - but even a bad David Corft sitcom is a welcome return!
