Wednesday 18 February 2015

Why has the BBC buried 'The Roads to Freedom'?




Why has the BBC buried The Roads to Freedom?

The series still exists intact - so why can't we watch it?  [Updated 14.7.22 - see below]



Michael Bryant as Mathieu Delarue in The Roads to Freedom. David Turner, who dramatised the series, called the character of Mathieu the Hamlet of our age. This is a rare photo: it is almost as impossible to find photos of the cast in their roles as it is to watch the series. Photo: Channel Light Vessel










“It’s relevant to every generation, but it’s especially applicable to young people.” Michael Bryant, 1970. 


IMPORTANT UPDATE July 14, 2022: Well, it seems they have finally given in! BBC4 is to broadcast the Roads to Freedom on July 27 at 10.05. Why only now, 46 years since it was last shown? It is over seven years since I wrote this blog article (very hurriedly, in a fit of frustration), and it has been attracting comments ever since. And for far longer - decades - people who watched the series in the 1970s have been writing to the BBC asking when it will be available to see again. No reply was ever given, to my knowledge, and the BBC's reluctance remained a mystery. Over the past couple of months, DVDs of the series have been popping up on the internet. I have now seen it, and can confirm that it has stood the test of time remarkably well. It is excellent news that Roads to Freedom is now available for everyone, though I'm still intrigued to know what took them so long, and why nobody was allowed to know why.

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If youre under 50, you may not know that the BBC dramatised Jean-Paul Sartre’s trilogy of novels, The Roads to Freedom, so you won’t realise that you missed the best series the BBC ever made.

You certainly won’t have seen it, because the BBC won’t allow you to.


It is has not been shown on television since 1976, it is not on DVD, not available as a box set, not on YouTube, Netflix, or anywhere else. The mystery is why - and why the BBC won’t tell us why.


I’ll come back to this strange story, but first:



Why is the BBC’s adaptation of The Roads to Freedom important?

Jean-Paul Sartre’s three novels, (published 1945-49 as Les Chemins de La Liberté) focus on a philosophy teacher, Mathieu Delarue, and his group of bohemian friends in Paris just before the Second World War and into the Nazi occupation. Mathieu’s aim is to defend his personal and intellectual freedom, resisting all forms of commitment to people, politics or action. 

The perspective shifts constantly between characters, especially in the second book, creating a mosaic of simultaneous individual experiences of people preoccupied with the details of their own lives, in denial and powerless in the face of oncoming disaster.

Almost unfilmable, you might think. But it worked perfectly, thanks to inspired direction by James Cellan Jones, and David Turners intelligent dramatisation. Then there was Michael Bryant’s superb portrayal of Mathieu (a part he seemed born to play), and unforgettable contributions from Georgia Brown (Lola), Daniel Massey (Daniel), Rosemary Leach (Marcelle), Alison Fiske (Ivich), Anthony Higgins (Boris), and many more.


The first episode of The Roads to Freedom was broadcast on Sunday, October 4, 1970. The series was repeated on TV once, in 1976, and then vanished for 36 years until a one-off screening at the BFI in 2012.  Since 2012, silence has returned. 

Every actor was convincing, every role came alive; there was no such thing as a ‘minor character’ in the series. This reflected the idea in Sartres novels that everyone experiences themselves as centrally important.

In terms of direction, screenplay, and acting, The Roads to Freedom was highly original. The series seemed to capture the feel of life in Paris at the end of the 1930s, and having watched it, you felt you had lived through it. Everyone will have different memories of the series, but when in Paris I can’t avoid thinking of Mathieu, running round the city trying to borrow money for his girlfriend’s abortion, avoiding joining the Communist Party, analysing the depths of his own inauthenticity while watching strippers in dark nightclubs. 

The haunting voice of Georgia Brown singing the theme La Route est Dure”- melancholy, melodramatic, deep and smoky - was the soul of the whole series for many viewers (link at the end of this post).


The BBC seemed to be proud of the series in early October 1970, putting Michael Bryants Mathieu on the cover. Inside, the actor is quoted saying that The Roads to Freedom is relevant to every generation, but its especially applicable to young people. How sad that the young people of 2015 do not have the chance to see it for themselves. 

Sartres novels are largely concerned with what his characters are thinking, and the BBCs The Roads to Freedom is one of very few TV dramas to treat the stream of consciousness seriously and naturally: instead of having the actors speak their thoughts aloud, we hear monologues spoken by the relevant actor in the background, while the character goes about his or her business. 

This contrasts with the highly artificial convention, still followed in almost all films and television dramas, of actors speaking aloud even when they are alone. On the whole, real people dont do this, and it always looks particularly absurd when the character is supposed to be in danger.

Sartre in 1950, looking remarkably similar to Michael Bryant as Mathieu on the cover of the Radio Times (previous pic). Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The ‘lost’ work of dramatic art that wasn’t actually lost

For many years, whenever the question of what happened to The Roads to Freedom cropped up on internet forums, somebody would speculate either that the BBC had wiped the tapes, or that only a few episodes had survived. 

In the absence of any denial, or any information at all, from the BBC (despite enquiries from the public over several decades), this depressing rumour was widely accepted as true - until 2012. Then, in May 2012, the BFI (British Film Institute) screened the whole 13-episode series in London on May 12 and 13.


In one sense this was fantastic news: the tapes had not been wiped at all, far from it - the entire series had survived. The BFI theatre was apparently packed out both days. But while enormous credit is due to the BFI for showing it, it leaves unanswered the question of why it is not available to all of us. Many people did not hear about the screening in time (I was one of them), others would not have been able to go.

Perhaps more importantly, the people who did attend would mainly have been those who remembered the original series from the 1970s. Younger people – the people who have been denied access to this work of art – would not even have known why the screening was an important event. Which seems ironic in view of Michael Bryants opinion (quoted in the Radio Times, October 1970) that Its relevant to every generation, but its especially applicable to young people. David Turner, who adapted the novels for the screen, called the character of Mathieu the Hamlet of our age - Hamlet with a social conscience.

The series is not simply a period piece; it addresses universal themes and had a profound, lifelong effect on the young people who saw it in the 1970s. What a shame that the young people of 2015 are not even aware the series exists, when the moral questions and personal dilemmas it illustrates are just as relevant today - possibly more so. 



(Photo:Wikimedia Commons) 
I would like to be able to show you photos of the rest of the cast in their Roads to Freedom roles, but none are available (why, I wonder?). So heres a picture of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in front of the Balzac statue in Montparnasse, Paris, date unknown, but it looks like the late 1930s.

The wall of silence

Since the BFI screening in 2012 . . . nothing. Silence from the BBC. Not a whisper of a plan to release the series on DVD, or to repeat it on TV. This is not for want of enthusiastic pressure from viewers: there’s a discussion thread on Amazon, for example, that has been running since 2008 and is still the top thread in Amazon’s TV discussions, which must be some sort of record. (Thread now deleted)

The comments on the Amazon thread are passionate and eloquent - enough, you would think, to touch the most stony-hearted bureaucrat. One after another, people describe the huge impression the series made on them when they were teenagers, and person after person describes their frustration when letters and emails to the BBC are unanswered, or when they are repeatedly sent around in hopeless circles. 

“I would be prepared to purchase this at any price,” a poster declares in 2010.

“I watched Roads to Freedom in my teens and have never forgotten it,” says another.


And here is a writer disagreeing that the series appealed only to the élite: 
My family is working class, but still me, mam and dad were glued to it. I was 13 and up to that point had never heard of Mr Sartre. Having watched this I read all his books and loved them.

In 2010, Gareth H Richards offered to put up $10,000 to transfer the series to DVD. On 22 May, 2016, he confirmed that this amazing offer still stands. 

In 2012, James Cellan Jones, the director of Roads to Freedom, joined the Amazon discussion urging people to keep up the pressure on the BBC, which they did. 


Similar comments to the ones I have quoted above can be found on the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) reviews and comments for The Roads to Freedom

In November 2012, Peter Cox started a petition, which now has over 1,000 signatures. It is here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/bbc-s-roads-to-freedom-1970.html

In October 2012, I wrote to seven people who, at that time, seemed influential at the BBC:


(Lord) Chris Patten, Chair of the BBC Trust
George Entwistle, Director General of the BBC
Roly Keating, Director of Archive Content, BBC
Nicolas Brown, Director Drama Productions, BBC
Alan Yentob, Creative Director, BBC
Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark, Newsnight, BBC.

I had one reply, from Chris Patten’s secretary, who (politely) told me that it was nothing to do with the Trust. The others? Not even an acknowledgement.



The incredible Georgia Brown, who played the nightclub singer Lola Montero, though this photo does not show her in the role. Photo: Wikimedia Commons



Other people describe almost identical experiences, either of silence, or of being directed by the BFI to the BBC, who then fail to reply. One person was even told to have a look on Amazon. It’s insulting really.


So, BBC, what on earth is going on?

We are left with two questions. First, why has the series not been made available to viewers, and second, why does the BBC refuse to engage in any discussion about it, or reply to viewers’ enquiries?

We know now that the series exists in its entirety. People have wondered if there might be contractual problems related to the original actors. But many drama series from the 1960s and 1970s are now available as box sets and so on, so why would this only affect The Roads to Freedom?

Until the BBC breaks its deep omerta on the programme, we won’t have any idea. If we don’t know what the problem is, no solutions can be found. 

Which brings me back to the second question. The BBC, which I normally defend, seems to be hiding a significant work of art from the British people. It’s as if the National Gallery decided that we weren’t allowed to look at the Turners, and refused to say why. 

It’s the strange secrecy surrounding the fate of the series that is most baffling. Why was it impossible for people to get a straight answer from the BBC about whether the series still existed? Why was the rumour that the tapes had been wiped allowed to circulate unchallenged for decades?

As somebody wrote on the forums, “You’d think the BBC would be proud of it, wouldn’t you?”

La Route est Dure, to be sure.


© Josephine Gardiner 2015 


Daniel Massey played Daniel Sereno, a man tormented by guilt about his sexuality. 
Photo: Channel Light Vessel


Here is a great YouTube video of Georgia Brown (below) singing the theme 

(Many thanks to 'morganafan' for putting the video on YouTube)




148 comments:

  1. Great post! Roads to Freedom was one of the best TV series ever. And it stands the test of time as the showing a few years ago at the BFI, which I attended, showed.

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  2. I've been following the discussions on Amazon and IMDB. The BBC's failure to even respond is mystifying and inexplicable. An excellent post, outlining the whole saga so far. Let's hope your Emerald Lamp can shine some light on their lack of response. La Route Est Dure indeed but worth it if the BBC finally sees sense.

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  3. Thank you for the comments. I've just bought a rare photo from a dealer in America of Michael Bryant in his role as Mathieu. I'll put it up here as soon as it arrives in the post. As I said in the article, it is extremely difficult to locate any still photos from The Roads to Freedom anywhere on the internet.

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  4. Jeezo-this is my second attempt to comment-thumbs up to your blog on this

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  5. Thank you KiSmnemo for your comment.

    By the way, I recently had a reply from Brian Robinson at the BFI (archive and heritage). He said:

    "I have spoken to our television specialists and we would very much welcome a DVD release for this programme..."

    He then went on to list possible problems, but it shows that the will is there at the BFI. It also shows that the BFI is responding to queries and is willing to talk about Roads to Freedom, in contrast to the total silence from the BBC.

    So the problem is entirely with the BBC.

    I'll update here if I have any news or hear anything remotely relevant...

    Channel Light Vessel/EmeraldLamp

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    1. Blogger seems to have changed me from EmeraldLamp to Channel Light Vessel in posts, but they are both me (!)

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    2. This is my 2nd attempt to reply!-so very brief!!-One of my daughters has started a FB page on the matter since I informed her-It would be great if her age group had the chance to see it (hope it is as good in reality as it is in my memory!)-
      Nomenclature-I don't know why I am Kismnemosyne-that is a company I have's title-EmarldLamp is better than CLV-ta ta

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    3. That is positive re BFI - I was referred back to the BBC by them a few years ago but I know that many others have written to them since, so I think it is good if we keep showing interest

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    4. The most recent person I wrote to was Melvyn Bragg a couple of months back. I thought he might be interested, given his long history with the BBC and the arts generally. But no reply.

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    5. I am not surprised the House of Lords luvvie ignored your enquiry. If you're being subjected to the wall to wall one sided coverage and demonisation of the Ukrainian crisis you can see why a TV drama that challenges potted histories of the last world War might be suppressed by the Establishment.

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    6. 'Demonisation of the Ukranian crisis'. What a strange comment. Are you one of Putin's useful idiots by any chance?

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    7. The war need not have happened. If Ireland or Mexico enfered a military pact with China or the soviet until would the british or USA do nothing of course they would"

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  6. Fascinating story - I've never heard of the series but would now like to see it. Re the BBC resistance - is it a political thing, do you think?

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    1. Thanks for your comment. Is it political? I really have no idea, because the BBC has never responded to any questions about it in decades, so there's no way even to guess what the real problem is. It can't be anything to do with the content of the series, as the action takes place in the late 30s early 40s in France.

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    2. Charles Nowosielski21 July 2015 at 22:19

      Can't fathom why it has disappeared either. Was one of the major reasons I wanted to act. Subject. Performances. Everything about it. Would love to either see the series again at least. May think about dramatising.

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    3. Thanks for commenting - yes, I think it inspired a lot of people, for many different reasons.

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    4. That's why you pay your TV Licence to be ignored and subsidise a state propaganda service which puts on an occasional display of fake open democracy.

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  7. I had a little flurry on FB tonight, and asked for help from Henri, le chat noir. His fanbase is large, I have also messaged the author. But if anyone reading this felt like liking and commenting on my post there, it might help: https://www.facebook.com/henrilechatnoir?fref=pb&hc_location=profile_browser

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    1. I'm not on Facebook but I'll try and have a look at your post and get anyone I know who is on Facebook to comment and spread it around. Are you on Twitter? I'd be happy to tweet anything...

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  8. You might want to like his page, as well! I like hus ennui-filled videos and succinct comments on life. And he has not even seen the telly series!

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  9. Two reasons - One it is marxist. Two - it shows gays as deceitful and possibly dangerous?

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    1. Thanks for commenting...

      Interesting theory, but I don't think it is particularly Marxist: the central character, Mathieu, certainly thinks about joining the Communist party and fighting in the Spanish Civil war like his friend Brunet, but he can't commit to anything, he always finds reasons not to - that's the point. The gay character, Daniel, feels guilty about his sexuality and spends a lot of energy fighting it (this was the 1930s after all). He is also quite malicious, but this is just his personality, it doesn't have anything to do with his being gay.

      To be honest, I can't see anything in the content of Roads to Freedom that would make the BBC want to censor it.

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  10. The BBC also buried the David Mercer play Shooting the Chandelier (Shows Liberals as weak and possibly collaborating with Nazis and conversely Communists in a good light) - great performances by Denholm Elliot and Edward Fox). The BBC also point blank refuse to show the Killing of Sister George - a great film with Coral Brown. It again shows a seedy (but funny) side of homosexuality albeit presents the BBC in a bad light. ha ha

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  11. Inspirational drama, it had a powerful effect on me as a teenager and I have never forgotten it. It spurred me to read more Sartre and to write stuff, wrote a song for Mathieu, so moved was I at his constant questioning, his dilemma of disbelief . I would say the technique of hearing internal monologue as the actors go about their business works very well. The viewer can inhabit the very soul of the person in question. I especially love Bryant's performance but the whole ensemble were outstanding and Sweet Georgia Browne was just the cherry on top.

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    1. Thank you for commenting. I completely agree about the use internal monologue - it always seemed very natural to me, pulling the viewer right into the mind of the character.

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  12. The BBC are blocking the road to freedom

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    1. Does anyone know why the BBC are blocking it?

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  13. I find it odd that a public broadcasting service is unable to provide an answer to the simple question of why the series is not repeated or made available on DVD. It was produced through public subscription - the licence fee and is therefore public property subject to any contractual arrangements. Since the latter has not been an issue with other releases fulfilling its obligations as a public broadcaster then a public statement is not too much to ask. Other public services would find it quite difficult to maintain this level of stonewalling for this length of time - if a letter is sent to the Director General he will probably be obliged to respond under their service guidelines and if not it can be reported to OFCOM. The BBC is also covered by the freedom of information act if some learned reader can draft an appropriate request - Mark's last post is pertinent. I look forward to further information

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  14. It was, without doubt, one of the works that inspired me to read more, care more and... become an actor! It is incomprehensible and unconscionable that the series is not accessable to all.

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  15. The point made above about public money and accountability is a good one - perhaps worth contacting the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sports - they are currently listing the BBC's most recent Annual Report as one of their investigations.
    http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/culture-media-and-sport-committee/
    The question might reasonably be framed in terms of either safeguarding cultural heritage or of maximising return on public investment.

    My recollection of this series, form my student days, is that it was powerful, excellently executed and certainly led me to read Sartre.

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  16. Was just going to buy the trilogy and read it again - just to see what had had such an impact on me when I was 16. Existentialist, I became - existentialist, I remain. I never saw the series & I would love to - I was living in Paris when it came out, then moved to Australia - too late to see it - if it even showed in either place. I'd buy it - For heaven's sake, I bought Fall of the Eagles when it was released (& ordered a copy for the library where I teach) & that is as boring as all get out - but really interesting as a historian. I'll have to settle for the reread - the BBC is weird about other things, as well. However, we can now buy Callan - didn't show the British Secret Service in a good light - but then that was not a BBC product.

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  17. Thank you for the work you are doing to bring this masterpiece back for people to relish/relish again.

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  18. I agree and was quite keen to watch this series again. The BBC do seem a very strange organisation to deal with. Here is an example of a "Culture of Indifference" which is how I would describe my own recent futile attempts to free some art out into the public domain where "art" in my opinion, belongs.. I recently asked them for permission to put some wonderful radio plays which no longer seem to exist anywhere on the net, for sale or for free, upon You-Tube for free under an anonymous name, for the benefit of all. No adverts,no promotions, no revenue to me, just quality plays. It's called Altruism. I did ask them, if possible to send me a free copy of a single play I am keen to listen to by J.B. Priestley. No reply...So went to visit them ...Terribly interested.. They would get back in touch with me within 2 weeks...Never heard from them again...But was told..Catch 22, if I place them on You-Tube they will be blocked and a copy taken, benefiting not a single member of the general public I am trying to reach. I e-mailed a complaint to them and essentially got a wishy washy reply saying that plays such as mine presented them with too many Copyright problems to bother with...Best of luck with Sartre, I'll keep an eye out for it but won't hold my breath.

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    1. I'm sure a lot of people would have liked to hear these radio plays. As I've said before, I support the BBC and have a huge respect for their creative people, but the organisation's attitude to viewers, and viewers' ideas and suggestions, is just bizarre. Thanks for commenting.

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    2. Your post highlights the incipient high handedness and hypocrisy that's endemic to the BBC. Public funding with zero public accountability. " Your BBC"? What a joke.

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    3. Your post highlights the incipient high handedness and hypocrisy that's endemic to the BBC. Public funding with zero public accountability. " Your BBC"? What a joke.

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  19. I confirm (May 22 2016) that I am still prepared to contribute $10,000 for the transfer to DVD, with no expectation of profit. The cost of DVD reproduction is next to zero; however the cost of transfer, from the (by-now) vintage tape to a modern digital format, certainly is not zero. If anyone at the BBC is empowered to discuss this, let me know. Thanks

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    1. Many thanks for renewing this generous offer again Gareth - I will amend the article accordingly. I sent a link to this blog article to the BBC press office some time ago, drawing particular attention to your offer in my email, but needless to say I did not get a reply.
      I'm going to try the culture secretary (John Whittingdale) and the shadow culture secretary (Maria Eagle) and will report back here.

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  20. I remember it with great fondness. The BBC is a public-body and therefore is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. They can't just ignore enquiries from the public. Can I suggest that you write to your MP if a suitable reply is not forthcoming. Gareth's offer is amazing and could be matched by other bodies if an application is made (BFI, Arts Council etc) Sartre's masterpiece needs to be brought to a new generation and this particular adaptation was wonderful. Lets keep the pressure on.

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  21. While the BBC is so concerned with the like of Strictly, GBBO, and Poldark it is likely to be mystified by anyone expressing interest in such a museum piece. They seem to have a similar attitude to Shoulder to Shoulder, the excellent drama about the Suffragettes. There were so many good things made by the Beeb in the 70s including the Plays for Today, but they seem embarrassed by all that wealth ..... apparently determined to reject the great BBC heritage.

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  22. While the BBC is so concerned with the like of Strictly, GBBO, and Poldark it is likely to be mystified by anyone expressing interest in such a museum piece. They seem to have a similar attitude to Shoulder to Shoulder, the excellent drama about the Suffragettes. There were so many good things made by the Beeb in the 70s including the Plays for Today, but they seem embarrassed by all that wealth ..... apparently determined to reject the great BBC heritage.

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  23. I saw this series as a fifteen year old in 1976, I thought it was a new series at the time, not from 1970. I Claudius came out soon after, which I have on dvd box set. Why not this? It was wonderful!

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    1. Because Robert Graves passes all the BBC's tests.

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  24. I too was enthralled by Roads To Freedom as a teenager. It's a strange disgrace that it isn't available to view in any format.

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  25. Today, finding the Georgia Brown theme song running through my head, I went looking for a DVD release, frustration in which led me here. I too recall being greatly impressed in my teens by the 1976 showing.
    I'm surprised I followed it through, as it was a time when I was out most evenings: maybe it had a twice-weekly showing, as the BBC often did with serials at the time, doubling the chance of staying with it? If so, they had some commitment to it then, unlike now.
    Perhaps, seen now, it could look "boxy", with actors speaking at one another on a small range of room sets, but no more so than other productions of the time such as "I Claudius" which mutt mentioned above or "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", both of which have made it to DVD and repeat runs.

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  26. I also saw Roads To Freedom as a teenager (my sister was studying Philosophy in University) and was enthralled. I must say that it is an excellent short series. I'm appalled that it is not available today - even as a boxed set. The BFI viewing was excellent.

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  27. I would pay good money to see it on DVD. It really is a jewel in the BBC's crown and they should be so proud of it.

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  28. Such a shame this one's not on DVD, and such a disgrace the BBC won't explain why.

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  29. I would add that as a working class boy of 15 this changed my life.

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    1. It came at a time when the Establishment was already stereotyping working class people as Alf Garnets and Albert Stepto and Sons and the traditional Labour Party as a national disaster.

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  30. The series is actually better than the original books, and also much better than most of the dross on tv these days, i have to rerun it on the betamax in my head, however. If they'd wiped it , like the best episodes of doctor who with patrick troughton , you could just about forgive them, but if they exist then it's a scandal that they won't be shown, given that we can still hear the navy lark and the men from the ministry.

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  31. I've just read all these threads actually looking for information on the series which I watched when I was 17. Never forgotten it.
    I just wondered if anything ever came of a Freedom of Information request? I assume not as there haven't been as many postings in the last year. A perfect vehicle for BBC 4 I would have thought?

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  32. Amazon has now done away with forums on the site, so the entire discussion on the Roads to Freedom series has gone! You'd dare think it a conspiracy.

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    1. I didn't know that - that's awful, and no warning so nobody had a chance to save the posts. There's still a discussion of sorts on IMDB, so I guess the best thing is to transfer any news to there, (or here of course). Thanks for posting.

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    2. Amazon will use the blanket excuse of causing offence or complaints without going into any details to pull the plug.

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  33. The first 25 posts are archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20151214023112/http://www.amazon.co.uk/forum/television?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxI304LK3PC5VN&cdThread=TxACMQV1W8FZUB

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  34. I remember the series very well, even though I was only 13 at the time. Here's a thought: The book and the adaptation portray France at a very dark time. Shortly after the series was made, Heath's government was in close negotiation with the French government to accede to Britain joinming the European Economic Community, forerunner of the modern EU Superstate.. I wonder if the BBC's reluctance to release 'Roads' is about not offending the French more than we habitually do, by breathing? Well, it's no dafter than many a conspiraloon theory is it ? Pass my tinfoil chapeau.

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  35. I saw it as a teen on WNET N.Y.C. I was taking French in H.S. at the time and sang the opener 'La rue est dure' to my freinds.That gem,by the way, CAN be found: on youtube. The way the BBC is withholding release of 'Roads'is a mystery; until you recall all the other shitty and brutal things the British govt carried out in their Time-on-Top. Then,it's hardly a mystery. Jim

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  36. I thought I'd already commented on this when I signed the petition some time ago. It was a truly brilliant series and it beggars belief that the BBC haven't repeated it or made it available in a box set. However, I do think the route to take is a political one, so to speak, as there is a breath-taking ignorance and hypocrisy in the BBC's ignoring many public enquiries. Interesting and revealing how they can show great works, like 'The Singing Detective', yet exhibit behaviour and beliefs as the same sort that Dennis Potter, and others, so well target. Like a dog with a bone, an M.P., or M.Ps, or anyone else for that matter, need to be brought on board, and unstinting pressure brought to bear, so that the BBC, just have no choice but to respond. It may take time but it's worth it.

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    1. Or might it simply be that the Sartre estate want too much money from the Beeb for the right to repeat the series? Has anyone checked this?

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    2. "Or might it simply be that the Sartre estate want too much money from the Beeb for the right to repeat the series? Has anyone checked this? "
      In which case the BBC would comment, surely?

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    3. Indeed, sir, and knowing the way the BBC works, I'd very much doubt any understandable or reasonable motives on their part. Their ignorance in never responding to any enquiry or request regarding this superb series, says far more about their reprehensible service to their public that it does about someone simply asking a question.

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  37. I watched this marvellous and brilliant adaptation of the trilogy of Sartre's novels when I was 22 years old.I am a gay man and now 71.The TV dramatisation had a definite effect on me - I came out as gay in 1971.I am not offended by the depiction of homosexuality in this TV drama.The homosexuality in it is innocent compared to much of the news on the BBC I think.As for Marxism - it failed.Just like the BBC are failing the TV licence paying public by not showing their TV brilliance - this TV adaptation is brilliant.The BBC needs money - a DVD scoop would help BBC funding.

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  38. Why are the BBC silent? Why are they usually silent about certain matters? They screwed up! They have lost it, sold it, lost the rights, or something stupid like that. It will be embarrassing not political.

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  39. This is 2020; I cannot think of a single issue contained in this masterful production that would be offensive or have any detrimental effect on any reasonably educated adult watching it. Please, please let us buy it at least!

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    1. I was in it and have only discovered that it is unavailable when I decided I would get a copy for myself of my first ever TV role. I cannot believe that there is any reason why such a phenomenal piece of television from 'the golden age' of TV should not be available to a modern audience.

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    2. Now being shown on BBC 4. Can't wait to see the rest of the episodes Colin.

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  40. The director's son Rory Cellan-Jones works for the BBC as a technology journalist and I tweeted him to see if he could shed any light on the mystery. It might be worthwhile if others also try to reach out to him on the issue of his father's masterpiece now lost to the public.

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    1. He may well have other priorities at the moment, but I've added my voice to yours in a direct message.

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    2. Replying to my own post at 02:19... Rory C-J has responded to say he doesn't think the BBC would be likely to re-screen such old material just at the moment, but if we tweet about it & tag him, he's happy to re-tweet those requests. It can't do any harm...

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    3. I too have written to the BBC who simply don't reply.

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  41. This would be such a good time to show the series again - we need something to immerse ourselves in. I see that Britbox has launched and can't believe that many would be interested in subscribing to it, given the predictable material on it - material easy to find and watch elsewhere on the whole!
    And thanks to the person who contacted Rory C-J.
    Sarah

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  42. It is good to see that interest in the availability of this quality production is still active after all these years. At the very least the BBC owes us all an explanation why the series is not available in DVD format. The level of dross that they now spend on licence fee money to amuse an audience who have departed to Netflix/Amazon/Sky is a telling indicator that their claim to educate the nation has been truly lost - shame on them

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  43. I am in America and dying to see this I saw only parts in 1969 or so

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  44. I saw the obituary of Alison Fiske in The Times today and this reminded me of The Roads To Freedom. This very impressive piece of drama reminds me of when I first got married when my new wife and I watched it together. It was brilliantly acted and left a deep impression on me. Michael Bryant, Daniel Massey, Georgia Brown, Alison Fiske....they were all wonderful. Come on BBC, what are you doing?

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  45. We need to find a way to have a dialogue with the bbc, this series needs to be available for everyone

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    1. How is it possible to have a dialogue with the BBC when they don't respond.

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    2. I think the issue with getting a DVD of Roads available is that a DVD releasing company has to take an interest in releasing it first, as the BBC themselves don't actually do much of their own dvd releases nowadays. Then that company will have to pay negotiate with the estate of the author for permission to release it, as the original rights purchased my the BBC in the 1970's to make this serial won't cover a 21st century DVD release. Assuming that the estate are willing to agree, or are even able (they may have sold production rights to another party since the 70's that legally prevent older adaptations being made available) the DVD label will have to stump up funds to pay the estate, even before all the other payments to actors, the BBC and DVD production costs. All in, a very expensive exercise to put out a product that won't sell in great numbers. Anyone want to see this is better off hunting down a bootleg.

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  46. I was overwhelmed by this series, aged 19, in the autumn of 1970. In those days, of course, TV programmes all vanished without trace after being shown and I made immense efforts to see every episode on the one colour TV then available to undergraduates at the University of York. This sometimes involved confrontations with people who wanted to watch sport on the other channel. I was so determined that I always won. I've since read the trilogy twice. When I discovered in 2012 that the recording still existed, I assumed it would become available again and have been infuriated over the years by the mysterious refusal to release it. It is one of the occasions when the BBC's general high-handedness, and its virtual immunity from Freedom of Information, is especially galling. Maybe social media *can* get something done now.

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  47. If anyone is reading the comments here, I would like to add that university/some college students in the UK can watch 'Shoulder to Shoulder' on BoB (Learning on Screen). It's such a shame that it is limited in this way, and puts a huge barrier between incredibly relevant educational media and the public, but if you are a student/know one, you may be able to watch this way. Since this is a show with a similar history to 'Roads to Freedom', I checked to see if it appears on there, but to no luck. Hopefully the BBC will see sense at some point and make these available to all.

    If anyone has any specific memories of the show, I would love to hear them here?

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  48. I found this today because Peter Hitchens has mentioned in his column. It's all very strange.

    https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2021/01/peter-hitchens-guess-where-professor-lockdown-got-his-ideas-chinas-police-state.html

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  49. I've just been re-reading my schoolboy diaries from 1972 and can advise that Roads to Freedom was also repeated in that year, running from Sunday 25th June 1972 through to Sunday 17th September 1972.
    I thought it was terrific and it prompted me to buy the Penguin Modern Classics trilogy of paperbacks - 'The Age of Reason' had Picasso's 'Guernica' on the cover with his less famous 'Peace' and 'War' paintings as covers illustrations on the other two volumes.
    I still have them although it's a long time since I last re-read them but I think I remember Mathieu being described as tall and ruggedly good looking - quite unlike the author. So, well done BBC casting for choosing the excellent but diminuitive Michael Bryant to play the lead role rather than echoing Satre's fantasy vision of himself.
    I'm pretty sure that the TV version ended with Mathieu's apparent death while in a clocktower shooting at German troops whereas the books continue for another fairly dull 100+ pages about Brunet the Communist. As a schooboy watching the TV show I remember joking that maybe Mathieu, like Sherlock Holmes, hadn't really died but would have survived to make a magical reappearance at some stage in the future. Well, imagine my surprise in 2009 on obtaining a copy of 'The Last Chance' Satre's incomplete 4th volume in which Mathieu really is shown to have survived.
    Happy memories and it really would be good to see the TV version again.

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  50. I watched the whole series religiously when I was in my mid-teens. Fifty years later, I would love to watch it again.

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  51. It introduced me to Sartre; I was profoundly affected by the series and would love to see it again; after watching the rerun of Elizabeth R, I searched again for Roads to Freedom, but alas no.

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  52. I was very active on the Amazon thread, sadly now deleted, in trying to get the series reshown or made available on dvd. I did manage to get to the weekend showing by the BFI in May 2012 which was brilliant and all praise to the BFI for organising this. I find the stance the BBC is taking on this totally inexplicable. I’m not normally a believer in conspiracy theories but something very fishy is going on at the BBC or else why would they be so reluctant to engage with with people who approach them about the matter. They have recently reshown ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ so why not ‘Roads to Freedom’? All very odd.

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  53. I think we need to pressure the BFI on this. They have the BFI Player app available through Apple TV etc. BFI could show it there - assuming rights clearances are ok of course.

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  54. Could you post scans of the inside story covering the intro to the series not just the cover?

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  55. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zqjc5BK-s8fGZfs-szhgLLhXED4YojmT/view?usp=sharing

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  56. The above link is s scan of the original Radio Times feature.

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  57. I have come to this thread because I am someone who wishes to see Shoulder to Shoulder. I knew nothing about this series but having read the article on it, it's absolutely something I want to see.

    What frustrates me, reading the article, is why, with all the streaming sites available, especially britbox, there is no dedicated channel for truly classic TV, such as this. I have heard an argument that 'the current grammer of Television has moved on and audiences probably wont invest' which is simplified, superficial nonsense.

    I really hope, one day, both these series re-emerge from the vaults.

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  58. shoulder to shoulder is knocking about in digital form on some sites, transferred from the VHS release, but there's no sign of roads to freedom

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  59. The Australian Broadcasting Corp wanted to show the BBC series here, but was blocked by the Film Censorship Board which at that time had to vet all imported TV programs. As the ABC rep attached to the Board, I attended the screening of Ep.1 for three censors, who refused to discuss it with me afterwards. It seems the depiction of pre-war Parisian decadence was too much for them. I was told later that one censor's comment began, "This is the most disgusting program I have ever seen" (so much for their supposed objectivity).

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  60. Please don't assume that there isn't enormous interest in this. The BBC have been keen to release this for years (as have the BFI) but there are rights problems. The BBC would be reluctant to go public with the details as it could effect ongoing or future negotiations.

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  61. I remember watching this along with the whole family as a 16 year old - the "right" time? - and it deeply impressed all of us my parents included with a real appreciation of of the standard of acting across the board. It's an absolute disgrace when the BBC boasts of its archive and its willingness to churn out by-gone material of a banal and unintelligent nature. As a licence fee payer I think I am others are owed at least a full and satisfactory response to the enquiries that have been reasonably made. If it is a case of good taste or not wishing to offend certain groups in society - and I can see Daniel Massey 's gay role might raise issues 1 then the BBC should explain and defend that position. It simply isn't good enough. To everybody:*like Anthony Perkins in The Trial: DON'T GIVE UP!

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  62. Would love to see it again.

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  63. I contacted Talking Pictures TV who responded they would place it on their "wanted list". As a BBC property its unlikely to be available. My theory it falls into the category of programme that has offended somebody high up in the Establishment or a decision has been taken at that level to suppress it for any number of reasons. If you have lived in this country for more than sixty years you know how it works in terms of Big Brother. The Internet hasn't changed that either. Another drama that falls into that category is the Channel Four Films Fred D'Aguir adaptation The Longest Memory which placed a slightly nuanced plot on a tragic story of inter-racial love set on an C18 British Caribbean slave plantation. I would like to suggest THAT as a suitable case for investiging and discussion.

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  64. For goodness sake. The BBC no longer hold the rights to it. There's no conspiracy.

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    1. Then who does hold the rights?

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  65. I actually managed to acquire a complete copy of this fine series (unofficially!) on DVD a few years ago. I have to say its every bit as good as its reputation suggests. I must have watched it five or six times now and I come away with a different take on it every time I see it. Proper old school theatrical television, the like of which they simply don't make anymore.

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    1. I would love to see this again too if some kind person would indicate how I could obtain a copy! I asked TPTV about it and they have placed it on their "Wanted List". But being BBC it probably won't be available. Neither is there any point contacting the BBC directly about it as you only get a robotic Pro forma response to anything you write to them about. I sometimes wonder why I still pay the Licence Fee.

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    2. Personal message me: callumdocherty777@gmail.com

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  66. I imagine all that is possibly true. On the other hand, a company such as TPTV has been able to find and rescue for the viewing public, even if is only a niche interested, minority section, many vintage movies and television shows, or what remains of them, so I'm not sure that the rights issue is such an obstacle. I doubt whether the BBC would have bothered to invest (first of all they had to pay for a film adaptation of the novel) in the filming of a series of many episodes (I am sure it was something like 12 or more episodes) if they didn't retain some interest in it for x number of years. As I understand it the payment of any royalties is pretty streamlined and only complicated if there is a legal problem or dispute. I really do feel in this case it is internal censorship which media companies are very good at - either burying material which could be embarrassing or could be controversial. For the xample, Channel Four Films has probably destroyed every print of The Longest Memory due to the backlash it received on first broadcast from minority pressure groups. Similarly, Muggeridge made some interesting documentaries in his later years none of which have ever been available on iPlayer. The same Big Brother operates in France where it is still unacceptable to acknowledge the role of anti-semitic collaboration with the Nazis in its mainstream culture so that Claude LeLouche's Les Miserables with the great Paul Belmondo synthesising Hugo's classic story within the time frame of the German occupation of France, the Holocaust and Liberation has been all but buried and ignored.

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  67. There's an excellent piece about this series by Peter HItchens in the Spectator this week. From what I can gather reading there must be one or maybe several samizdat DVD copies in circulation. If only there were some way these could be uploaded and distributed electronically in some way ... Not that I would know anything about such matters!

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  68. I read the Hitchens' article, which is a really impassioned expression of all the viewpoints and enthusiasm evident in this forum for the creative and production values in the series. As it happens I do feel most left wing or genuinely protesting sort of culture from this era has been fine tuned and suppressed out of the system today because it jars with the pea soup of centrist to right wing banality we live in. Another good example of treasures lost is The Spongers which raised issues of Social Services neglect and grinding inner city deprivation which lo and behold have multiplied around us. Look at the defilement and censorship of voices like the playwright Edward Bond and Director Ken Loach. Look at the way fringe theatre and in particular The Roundhouse was attacked and undermined by the Thatcher government. I see the suppression of Roads as part and parcel of that subtle cultural and social terraforming by (to put it simply) "the ruling classes".

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  69. The banning of Roads to Freedom shows what is wrong with the BBC today
    They think the population is too thick to understand Jean Paul Sartre George Bernard Shaw extera

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  70. callumdocherty@gmail.com22 May 2022 at 13:41

    Hello fellow fans of The Roads To Freedom. I've actually asked some people who are in the know regards the situation with the TV series not coming out and got an answer! It seems the BBC only purchased the rights to Sartre's novel for a limited period - enough time to produce and screen the series and sell it abroad for a few years. After this, the rights to the novel reverted to Sartre (or his estate). This was, and is, a perfectly common practice when TV or film companies produce adaptations of works still in copyright. Since then, the Sartre estate has sold the rights to another company (I don't know who) and part of that deal prevents other screen adaptations from being available (which is also not an uncommon stipulation when adaptation rights are sold twice or more over). There are other examples of similar situations to this effecting BBC programmes. Rupert Davies Maigret series from the 60's was similarly trapped until just this year due to legal deals made by Georges Simenon's estate (its literally just come out on DVD after sixty years!), and the BBC's 1954 version of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four was also prevented from coming to DVD by his estate until the copyright lapsed on all Orwell's work last year. So the answer to why we don't have The Roads To Freedom is... boring legal ownership and a deal Sartre's own estate made after the BBC made their version. No left or right wing conspiracy. No BBC cover-up. Not really even the BBC's fault at all. It's the Sartre estate and a third party deal to blame. All dull legal guff and business nonsense. (I am fortunate enough to have a copy though. Message me for details.)

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    1. Hello Callum - this is Josephine Gardiner here who wrote the original article (for some reason my own blog will not let me post under my own name!). Many thanks for this, it´s very interesting and makes sense. I have sent you an email, I´d like to update the article if possible to include your information.

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    2. Last one was Josephine, this time it's scotleag as I wanted to add some observations of my own. Callum's post makes sense to me. I read the Hitchens article in the Spectator and I don't buy into his conspiracy theory that Daniel Massey's portrayal of Daniel is somehow too offensive for a modern audience (though I do think broadcasters in general are often afraid of causing offence with their back catalogues). But if Hitchens was correct then there'd be no 'Allo 'Allo repeats or Fawlty Towers on DVD. 'Minder' wouldn't be shown anywhere either yet these and other programmes are all freely available.

      It also explains why the Peter Cushing 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is now available on iPlayer and Talking Pictures is screening 'Maigret.'

      Personally I'm of the view that there shouldn't be any censoring or bowdlerising of TV. That's the way programmes were made and that's the way they should be shown. People aren't stupid. They know the prevailing attitudes of the 1960s were different from those of today. I've winced at some of the things said and done on 'old' programmes but so what? Warning signs are given before the start of 'controversial' shows. Viewers are thus aware they may find some of the content offensive. They can then decide for themselves whether to continue watching or not. It's not being sprung on them.

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    3. Thank you, Callum. Sadly, this does make sense. I wonder why the BBC can't do enquirers the courtesy of telling them this is the situation. Presumably when the BFI screened it, these restrictions still hadn't kicked in.

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    4. You're welcome, Josephine/Scotleag. I got the information on the Roads rights situation from a chap I'm friendly with who actually worked in DVD rights at the beeb around 2007-2016, and actually dealt with a couple of enquiries from labels who wanted to put it out, but found they could not strike a deal with the Sartre estate, so he knows his onions. I'm afraid I found Mr Hitchens article to be passionate, but somewhat under researched! By all accounts the master tapes still safely reside at the BBC, in the regular archive alongside hundreds of thousands of hours of other vintage TV shows that aren't on DVD either, just as the BBC safely kept the 1960's Maigret and 1954 Nineteen Eighty-Four until it finally DID become possible to release them. Keep the faith good people! And in the meantime I will watch my rather nice bootleg copy...

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    5. I'm afraid I can't find an email from you in my inbox, Josephine. Do please try again. My best wishes. Lovely article btw! Thanks for writing it and highlighting this great series.

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    6. Hi Callum, could you find out whether the series has been digitised which it probably hasn't if the copyright has lapsed? Are you effectively saying that the Satre estate is the real bugbear in all this and that Jean Paul's heirs are, to be frank, doing a bit of a Stephen Joyce* over their assets?

      * notoriously unhelpful and obstructive as well as random about James Joyce's heritage.

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    7. On 22 July the BBC informed me: “ The information you have requested is information about a BBC programme and is also associated with BBC programming. Therefore it is derogated and we are not obliged to disclose it. Nevertheless, we are happy to provide you with the following information on a voluntary basis:
      (1) The BBC owns the copyright in the Series.
      (2) The BBC does not have DVD rights in the Series.”

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  71. Callum, the rights issue is correct but doesn't explain why either
    a) bootleg or "vintage" copies aren't circulating or available
    b) an interest in buying the rights to produce a limited edition DVD hasn't been exercised or granted. IfThe precedent is the one off screening at the BFI.

    There is the case of the original film masters of Warner Bros My Fair Lady which, when the 15 year rights expired and Warner was acquired by CBS, deteriorated in a damp cupboard at a radio station in NY until they were rescued in the digital age and restored to produce a state of the art BLU RAY. That has been the case with many thousands of movies and TV series without copyright being an insurmountable obstacle.
    Take for example the Thomas Mann novels where the older vintage film version didn't prevent a later television versions which all circulate quite happily and readily available on DVD.

    We live in an age where the archiving of original cultural achievements in film and music are being archived in digital form for posterity and I would be very surprised and somewhat alarmed if a similar process hasn't been applied in the case of Roads at which time the question of commercial value takes place. You can't tell me a commercial interest in releasing Roads wasn't expressed at that time.

    I would ask Callum to find out whether Roads has been digitally archived and if so was any commercial evaluation undertaken?

    My guess is that it is neither archived or looked at because it is languishing in Room 101 in the bottom drawer of a rusty filing cabinet labelled BANNNED.

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    1. Hi David
      (a) bootleg copies are available. I have a copy.
      (b) I believe the BFI / National Film Theatre, not being a commercial cinema as such, but a film preservation organisation, possesses some copyright workarounds that would permit them to do a limited screening of a film or tv production that has rights issues preventing it being exploited elsewhere. It is also possible that they were able to negotiate a licence for a single screening to a limited capacity audience from the BBC and Sartre estate, which is a very different thing from negotiating a home video licence from a DVD label looking to make a profit.
      It hasn't been banned by anyone. It's just stuck in a tricky legacy rights situation. Sometimes money and will and can force a change in that situation to get an old tv show out on DVD. Sometimes you just have to play the long waiting game, like fans of the 1954 Nineteen Eighty-Four, and wait until Orwell was dead for 70 years and his estate's copyright ended. I'm a big fan of that production - and, believe me, it was a loooooooonnnngg wait! But now we have a lovely Blu-Ray disc.

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  72. I still don't completely buy the rights argument as it seems to
    a) under estimate the ability of the BBC to pick and choose and pursue rights issues in cases where it is deemed of cultural importance
    b) to ignore the wide availability of tens of thousands of vintage and classic films and TV shows which involved similar rights issues
    c) displace the "blame" entirely on the heads of the heirs of the Satre estate which we must presume to be his family and their legal advisors (or trustees?)

    Also you state bootleg copies on DVD are available and you emphasise you are enjoying your copy! If that were the case, none of us here would be complaining and this thread probably might not exist.

    So, Callum, calling your bluff.... I don't believe you! You may even be a BBC ex employee doing your best to shield the Corporation from criticism. Believe me your esprit de corps is admirable!

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  73. Episode 1 on Youtube now...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIY6AVPxSVI

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    1. Please don't draw attention to that. The channel will be hit by c&d orders.

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    2. Full series available here:
      https://youtu.be/yLA-EkqeqAk

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  74. Has anyone actually done business with Callum?
    I saw a DVD of a copy on eBay, but I'm wondering about the source of the copy.

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  75. The full series has now turned up on most of the private file sharing sites.

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  76. Have you heard ? The series will be screened on BBC4 27th July 22:00 !!

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  77. At last. Would it be cynical to suggest pirate DVDs and YouTube uploads have convinced the BBC to relent?

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    1. i don't think it's cynical at all. after all these years, it's too coincidental. another triumph for the sharing community

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    2. This is brilliant news - going to be on iPlayer, too.

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  78. BBC4 July 27. Finally! This is great news - I´ve just added a short update at the top of the article.

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  79. I have posted on this thread before and can see I have been replied too and not responded - apologies. Anyway, I have just read a BBC press release that finally - the BBC are going to repeat this. Bravo to everyone who has made this happen. I can't wait to see it and will be telling everyone to tune in. If I have one disappointment from the press release, is that I hoped Shoulder to Shoulder would also be shown - surely, surely this merits a screening?

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  80. Reply to JG's update and marvelous good news of broadcast on 27th July. As for the mystery - what mystery? Just a good old combination of lethargy and a general attitude that prioritises the trivial and new rather than anything with solid merit and value. I must confess I favoured a deep state conspiracy theory behind its "suppression" and it maybe this explains its long period submerged in the cooler. But recently the authorities realise does anything really matter in terms of the public anymore as it seems we have a group of co-liars vying with each other for leadership of the country with the lying arrogance of a pack of brass monkeys.

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  81. I made a freedom of information act request on 19 May 2022 which ultimately resulted in the information being disclosed that the BBC continues to hold the copyright but does now own the DVD rights. This seems to have been, happily, overtaken by events.

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    1. Sorry I meant to type “not now own”.

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    2. @Anonymous. Thank you for taking the trouble to do that.

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    3. Hi, as a matter of interest, was the Freedom of Information process long and drawn out or did the BBC cough up pretty easily? Cheers David

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  82. I noticed that someone had posted the series on YouTube a month ago and it was soon deleted for copyright reasons presumably. BBC seems to forget some of its good series - whatever happened to one called FROST IN MAY where Daniel Day Lewis makes one of his earliest and rare tv appearances? It was shown in about 1981. Never repeated or released on dvd.

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    1. A good point re Frost in May - I remember liking it, and it sent me off to read Antonia White's books. And no, I don't think they've ever repeated it...

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  83. Since we are nominating "long lost" treasures that seem to be locked in deep freeze somewhere can I suggest a vintage Play For Today (???) " The Spongers" with Bernard Hill as his usual committed role as a social worker fighting the system in a Northern poverty trap. My second nom is the Film Four adaptation of Fred D'Aguiar's novel The Longest Memory for which I wrote this review on IMDB:
    "Much more than an inter-racial Romeo and Juliet story set on a Caribbean slave plantation - questions the whole nature of historical and community memory. An uncomfortable questioning. But the visuals are strong with a superb cast of actors some well seasoned (a magnificent Daniel Massey in one of his rare later appearances as the rigid cruel plantation owner) some making their first marks, Paloma Baeza and Kolade Agboke as the "star crossed" lovers, and an early performance from Peter Mullan as the de-humanised slave driver. Each character is three dimensional and convincing - the most tragic, and possibly the most contentious by the end of the unfolding tragedy, is taken by Joe Seneca who confesses to his own part in his son's downfall within the plantation regime. I think this latter side to what is basically a moving art film with outstanding production values, from the "golden age" of Channel Four around the time of Jeremy Isaacs' leadership, beautiful filming and a highly evocative soundtrack from Barrington Pheloung, aroused considerable criticism which has resulted in the film being consigned to the deep archive in FilmFour's cellars after just two showings on TV. I feel this is a great shame since it is a well paced film that also has the power to ask questions about a historical subject whose results are still very much living with us today. We can't have enough of this kind of beautiful thoughtful television drama."

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    1. The Spongers has been around on most of the file sharing sites for quite some time, but interestingly dozens of unseen Plays For Today have been turning up on those sites in the last few months. Someone has a huge archive and is finally getting them out there. Would love to see Frost in May though, never seen any trace of that...

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  84. At last we can see the Roads but has it been edited or altered I wonder?

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    1. Yes it has. Total runtime of first four episodes 200 minutes. Screen time for first four episodes last Wednesday 180 minutes. And that's including any 'ads' for other BBC `programmes between episodes. So at least 10% cut, probably more. Each episode is 50 minutes. Each one screened last week was 45 minutes.

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  85. No wonder I felt something was missing from these new episodes. Big brother has removed whatever our modern liberal society might be offended by perhaps?

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    1. If he has then Big Brother is far more fiendishly clever than imagined, as each and every episode is five minutes shorter than the original screen time. I doubt if even BB can manage to find exactly five minutes to cut from every episode. But as male prostitution, abortion and animal cruelty, to name but some, all appear to have escaped the axe the notion that cuts have been made to avoid offending tender eyes and ears would appear to be rather fanciful.

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    2. On iPlayer, the lengths are shown as 43, 42, 45 & 43 minutes. I watched them there over the last few nights & noticed the end credits were curtailed - each episode segued abruptly into the next. Not sure that's enough to account for the missing 10 minutes, though.
      (Lynne)

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  86. One suggestion Jo (article author) came up with is maybe modern compression techniques might account for the difference but neither of us is techy enough to know whether that's a possibility or not. . I remember thinking there was one scene missing and also recalling that I must remember which scene and which episode. Naturally I've forgotten both. Though it didn't strike me as anything unacceptable for 21st century sensitivities and as I said earlier, themes, scenes and language which might offend anyone appear to be intact.

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  87. The series is now on the iPlayer. BBC4. I've only just seen it, not yet watched. It seems available for 19 more days only. -- 7th August 2022.

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  88. Having read and been intrigued by Peter Hitchin's recent piece in the Spectator I wrote to the BBC to enquire about their plans for a re-showing and received an extremely polite reply about no plans for a re-showing. So I wrote again saying I thought a modern audience might just be mature enough to view this series without needing protection from it, Lo and behold it is now being re-shown. Was I the last straw that broke the camel's back of the BBC's obduracy ?

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  89. Of course you were!

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