|
 Almost
two years to the day after the first BRT transmission of Kapitein
Zeppos in Belgium, the British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast
their own version.
As with many other foreign language serials of the time, this
involved their recording a fresh audio track in English, under the
auspices of Peggy Miller, while keeping the original visuals. In
some cases, the process involved keeping the original soundtrack,
but adding an explanatory English narration, something that became a
trademark of the BBC's long-running Tales From Europe strand.
Whether Captain Zeppos - as the BBC version was called - featured a
completely newly recorded soundtrack or not is open to debate.
The BBC only purchased and redubbed
the first serial - Belderbos - which was transmitted on BBC1
over sixteen weeks on Monday evenings between 17th October 1966 and
6th February 1967. Each week's programme was trailed by a short
description in the BBC listings magazine, Radio Times, and all these
are presented here courtesy of Ian Beard, who has been kind enough
to scan the pages for us.
The article to the right accompanied
the listing of the first episode - The Black Water - in the
Radio Times dated 15-21 October 1966.
The BBC appear to have dubbed and broadcast all sixteen episodes, including Episode 9 which is omitted from Belgian repeat
runs and home video releases. There is, however, the possibility that several episodes were edited down out of necessity
to fit the 24 minute BBC1 timeslot for the programme (not least because
many of the Belgian prints run to nearer 29 minutes).
All sixteen BBC episodes have been preserved and exist today on film in the BBC Archives.
|
