Beatles TV gem resurfaces

Rare recording hears the Beatles reviewing an Elvis single

LONDON, England -- An appeal by Britain's BBC has turned up more than 100 lost TV and radio programmes, including an audio recording of the The Beatles on a TV chart show.

The rediscovered sound recording of The Beatles appearing on "Juke Box Jury" in 1963 hears the Fab Four predicting whether new singles by artists of the time -- including Elvis Presley -- would be hits.

Other recovered gems included a 1962 Benny Hill Show and an episode of "Not Only... But Also," the cult comedy series featuring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, who went on to be a Hollywood star in "10" and "Arthur."

"We've had a great response to the 'Treasure Hunt' appeal and some fantastic material has turned up," the BBC's head of information, Paul Fiander, said on Thursday.

"We always knew it was out there and this has brought back a gratifying number of programmes to the BBC," Fiander told the BBC's Web site.

The BBC launched the "Treasure Hunt" appeal in May after a missing episode of cult sitcom "The Likely Lads" was found and they decided to try to find other "TV Gems" that were either wiped from the archives or never officially recorded.

Incredibly in the early days of BBC TV often no recordings were kept or tapes were simply recorded over.

Two missing episodes of the comedy series "Dad's Army" turned up in a heap of 19 rusting film cans, delivered by an 80-year-old who heard the appeal.

The original collector had pulled them from a skip at Elstree Studios and given them to his friend for safe keeping when there was no space in his house.

Other recovered radio programmes include the first episode of the panel game, "I'm sorry, I haven't a clue," from 1972, and a 1931 adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," the earliest complete BBC drama in existence.

The BBC archives now boast more than 20 radio dramas from the 1960s, as well as 40 recorded editions of the "Music While You Work" programme, which broadcast live music from 1940 to 1966 but had never been officially recorded.