Books
Kaleidoscope Publishing exists to promote the appreciation of British television in general and particularly ‘classic’ television programmes that many of us remember from years gone by.
“...a very enterprising group of people in the midlands called Kaleidoscope who specialise in looking at old programmes, gettings copies that everyone thinks have long disappeared and they find them and restore them, and they do credits lists for people like me.” Alan Plater, CBE.
To this end we have published a number of guides to British television archive holdings. These guides include exhaustive information on the number of archived programmes and the format(s) that they are held in. We have created this website as a means by which visitors can get a flavour of just why our guides have been described as “invaluable resources for anyone wishing to research, or even with a general interest in, British television”.
Postage added at checkout
Pipkins
All the episodes recorded off air by Nigel Plaskitt and other stars.
Extras:
New menus
Material recorded at Kaleidoscope events
New menus and links recorded by Hartley Hare
New insight from Hartley Hare into his career
ITV held episodes
MBW Online footage
18-disc set.
In stock.
£80.00
Public Eye - The Missing Episodes (Audio)
Some episodes of Public Eye and Mystery and Imagination are sadly missing.
But a few were recorded off air on audio only from the TV.
Tapes donated to Kaleidoscope many years ago from a collector in Oldbury, have now been cleaned up and presented on DVD for the first time.
Extras:
An introduction to Public Eye by Richard McGinlay
32 page colour booklet about Public Eye
Surviving clips from Public and Eye and Mystery and Imagination - Casting the Runes.
Scripts for the missing Public Eye episodes so you can read along with the audios.
Single DVD with booklet. Reversible cover. Public Eye one side, Mystery and Imagination the other.
£16.00
Ronnie Wolfe A Life in Memoirs
The memoirs of Ronnie Wolfe, comedy writer of On the Buses and The Rag Trade amongst others.
Includes full copy of the 1989 comeback script for On the Buses that was planned but never made.
£17.99
Sherlock Holmes on Radio and Television
A highly detailed book about the UK TV appearances of Sherlock Holmes.
Includes a DVD of
Sherlock Holmes – The Peter Cushing Interview
Illustrated with clips from missing episodes of the famous BBC 1968 series
Broadcast in Avroskoop, a series made by AVRO , this edition transmitted on 20th March 1971 saw Peter Cushing talk extensively about his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes for the BBC in 1968.
Extras:
Found in Belgium, various missing clips from the famous BBC 1968 series, restored to full colour.
Colour
55 minutes
£24.99
Sound and Vision
The definitive history pre-war television.
All transmissions pre war.
Seven volume set. Hardback.
£200.00
Sound and Vision - Individual Volume purchase
Definitive guide to pre-war television, grouped in years. Seven volumes to choose from.
Please state which volume you want at checkout.
Volumes 1-5 are actual information.
Volumes 6-7 are Appendices A and B.
£35.00
Steptoe and Son - US 1965 pilot - DVD
Lost US TV pilot on DVD.
Only 4 copies left before stock runs out for ever.
£10.00
Tennis that Counts (2 DVD set)
Learn to play your best game of tennis in this six-part Channel 4 series, presented by Adrian Stonebridge. Every player, from absolute beginner to serious enthusiast, can benefit from Adrian's unique system of tennis instruction, which aims to make tennis FUN!
All region PAL. 4.5 hours runtime.
Extras:
See and Play Tennis With Adrian Stonebridge (one-hour commercially produced video, originally released in 1985)
Don't Forget the Numbers - unscreened pilot for Tennis That Counts, made for Channel 4 commissioner Adrian Metcalfe in 1982
Roustabout - Adrian interviewed by Mick Robertson, on The Children's Channel (1990s)
Sports Special - Adrian interviewed on a Croydon cable channel (1990s)
Accompanying 16-page booklet, colour illustrated with many behind the scenes photos. . With contributions from Adrian Stonebridge, producer Christopher Toyne, and Lesley Scoble (who created the on-screen cartoons and graphics for the series)
IN STOCK NOW
£23.00
The Ads Show
DVD of TV series about the history of advertising, with a humourous twist.
1 copy left before all stock is gone.
£400.00
The Best of Times
Brian Tesler’s professional career encompassed TV’s entire post-war evolution from a single-channel BBC to the explosion of satellite and cable channels in the 1990s. Programmes were always at the heart of his career and this is a brief summary of their importance to it.
£27.99
The Comedy Makers / Greatest TV Sitcoms
An exclusive DVD/Book set for TV Brain.
A 1970 Dutch Tv documentary that followed the making of BBC and LWT sitcoms.
Come behind the scenes on Steptoe and Son, Please Sir and Hark at Barker to name but three.
Combined with a new book examining the greatest sitcoms. This is a superb reference tome, a huge book with photos.
£26.99
The Complete Sacred Geometrical Works of Joan Moore
The drawings of Joan Moore, all in one volume. Includes new material.
£49.99
The Hurricane's Tail
In an engaging, fast-paced and deftly plotted thriller, ranging from London and Paris to the Caribbean, a unique newcomer to British crime fiction, Harper Buchanan, encounters danger as well as many surprises, especially as he is a West Indian who has never set foot in the West Indies!
£12.99