'Lost' BBC period drama of Anna Karenina found starring Sean Connery

[julian_craster]

A 'long-lost' (?) BBC period drama, starring Sean Connery just before his breakthrough as James Bond, has been rediscovered in the corporation’s vaults. It was widely believed it no longer existed.



DT

17 Aug 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...n-Connery.html

Sean Connery in a scene from Anna Karenina

The British public will get the chance to see Connery in an adaptation of one of the great classics of world literature for the first time in 49 years when Anna Karenina comes out on DVD next month.



The prestigious BBC version of Tolstoy’s heavyweight novel was made in 1961, the year before Connery became an international star in Dr No. And Connery, who is 80 next week, played the dashing Russian count Alexis Vronsky, Anna Karenina’s lover.



It was an ambitious, big-budget drama for its time, made in black and white and lasting about two hours, and it helped establish the BBC’s reputation for quality literary adaptations. It was broadcast once on BBC in November 1961, when Britain had only two television channels, and then the recording was stuck on a shelf to gather dust.



Many hits from the period were lost forever when the BBC reused tapes or simply threw out recordings and it was thought Anna Karenina had suffered a similar fate - a point reiterated in a new biography of Connery out next month, which insists that no recording exists.



But then it was rediscovered - in the BBC’s own archives, where it had lain untouched for almost 50 years. “I just found this in the archive,� said BBC commercial executive Nick Lee. “We thought 'Yeah, all the Sean Connery fans out there would absolutely love it.�



Anna Karenina is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest works of world literature. It was written by Leo Tolstoy, who also wrote War and Peace.



The title role of the ill-fated aristocrat who falls for Vronsky was played by Claire Bloom, one of Britains’s top actresses of the time, a double Bafta-winner, who starred with Chaplin in Limelight and Olivier in Richard III and would later play Lady Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited.



But it is the 31-year-old Connery who was singled out for praise in reviews. He commands the screen as the handsome young officer, with thin moustache and an extensive wardrobe of fancy military uniforms, a man who would make a sane woman sacrifice her family and ultimately herself for love.



The BBC is rather hazy on the details of why this classic adaptation was forgotten for half a century and was thought no longer to exist. But the corporation does have almost a million hours of recordings and millions of photos and documents at 27 stores across the UK, so things can get mislaid.



“I just think perhaps it wasn’t on the radar,� said Lee. “My role here is looking for licensable archive material and trying to get some of these gems out of the archive and one of the best ways we can do that is through a DVD release.� Anna Karenina finally turned up as a video tape in their centre in Brentford.



The BBC has struck a deal with Simply Home Entertainment to bring it out as a commercial DVD release. Richard Jones, the company’s managing director, said they knew Connery had done a version of Anna Karenina for the BBC and first inquired about it three or four years ago.



“We anticipated that it was going to be one of those titles that got wiped in the Seventies. There were a few other things that we mooted at the time and sometimes you don’t get a precise answer back. But then probably about eight or nine months ago the BBC came to us and said 'Look, here it is.’



“At the time television was made for one showing only. When it came to actually filing these and labelling them, you can imagine all the things that might have gone wrong and probably there are examples where they have gone wrong. There may well be a number of programmes that have been deemed to be lost that will be recovered.�



He added that there was a steady demand for early BBC and ITV dramas and other series. “We weren’t sure what the quality was going to be like, but actually it’s very, very good and we are delighted about that.



“Connery looks fantastic. It was only a year before Bond. He’s a very recognisable Sean Connery and was made to play that part, because Vronsky is this strapping, swaggering, virile hero. Claire Bloom had never looked lovelier. She was really the British Audrey Hepburn. There is a real sexual chemistry between the two main characters.�



Graham Rye, editor and publisher of 007 Magazine, said: “I don’t think anybody really knows what the BBC kept and what they didn’t, because they are so disorganised. They wiped so much great stuff. But it is good that it still exists.



“Anybody who is interested in Sean Connery’s career will obviously want to see what he was like in his formative years.�



A commercial DVD release brings money back into the BBC. Connery will receive a payment for the release, but the BBC refused to say how much.



Connery was not a star when it was made and would have been on a standard contract. Once the BBC, the DVD company and the rest of the cast have had their share, the man who made millions as Bond may well be lucky if his cheque runs to three figures.

[will.15]

Fantastic!

[Gerald Lovell]

name='julian_craster' timestamp='1282122194' post='465615']

A 'long-lost' (?) BBC period drama, starring Sean Connery just before his breakthrough as James Bond, has been rediscovered in the corporation’s vaults. It was widely believed it no longer existed.



It was an ambitious, big-budget drama for its time, made in black and white and lasting about two hours, and it helped establish the BBC’s reputation for quality literary adaptations. It was broadcast once on BBC in November 1961, when Britain had only two television channels, and then the recording was stuck on a shelf to gather dust.



Many hits from the period were lost forever when the BBC reused tapes or simply threw out recordings and it was thought Anna Karenina had suffered a similar fate - a point reiterated in a new biography of Connery out next month, which insists that no recording exists.



But then it was rediscovered - in the BBC’s own archives, where it had lain untouched for almost 50 years. “I just found this in the archive,� said BBC commercial executive Nick Lee. “We thought 'Yeah, all the Sean Connery fans out there would absolutely love it.�



The BBC is rather hazy on the details of why this classic adaptation was forgotten for half a century and was thought no longer to exist. But the corporation does have almost a million hours of recordings and millions of photos and documents at 27 stores across the UK, so things can get mislaid.



“I just think perhaps it wasn’t on the radar,� said Lee. “My role here is looking for licensable archive material and trying to get some of these gems out of the archive and one of the best ways we can do that is through a DVD release.� Anna Karenina finally turned up as a video tape in their centre in Brentford.



“At the time television was made for one showing only. When it came to actually filing these and labelling them, you can imagine all the things that might have gone wrong and probably there are examples where they have gone wrong. There may well be a number of programmes that have been deemed to be lost that will be recovered.�



Graham Rye, editor and publisher of 007 Magazine, said: “I don’t think anybody really knows what the BBC kept and what they didn’t, because they are so disorganised. They wiped so much great stuff. But it is good that it still exists.

This is indeed excellent news, but it is certainly most curious why its existence hadn't been determined before now. The BBC has claimed many times that it has carried out extensive cataloguing of its archive and so do know what they still have and what was destroyed in the culls of the past. I don't know if this "discovery" holds out any hope for other programmes currently identified as "lost" (i.e. wiped) may yet be unearthed in the BBC's own vaults.

[Moor Larkin]

name='Gerald Lovell' timestamp='1282125394' post='465631']This is indeed excellent news, but it is certainly most curious why its existence hadn't been determined before now. The BBC has claimed many times that it has carried out extensive cataloguing of its archive and so do know what they still have and what was destroyed in the culls of the past. I don't know if this "discovery" holds out any hope for other programmes currently identified as "lost" (i.e. wiped) may yet be unearthed in the BBC's own vaults.

Fingers and toes crossed for this one..........

The Prisoner

[CaptainWaggett]

Would this be the same Anna Karenina that the BBC released on Region 1 last year?

[Harbottle]

name='CaptainWaggett' timestamp='1282128411' post='465656']

Would this be the same Anna Karenina that the BBC released on Region 1 last year?

LOL! Not only do they not know what they have, they can't recall releasing it on DVD either

[GoggleboxUK]

name='CaptainWaggett' timestamp='1282128411' post='465656']

Would this be the same Anna Karenina that the BBC released on Region 1 last year?

name='Harbottle' timestamp='1282129133' post='465661']

LOL! Not only do they not know what they have, they can't recall releasing it on DVD either

Perhaps it's time the Beeb let an independent body into their archives to catalogue what is actually there.



Who knows, Lord Lucan and Shergar may also be safe and well.

[didi-5]

It's definitely the same one which is on Region 1. Silly BBC.

[Moor Larkin]

name='didi-5' timestamp='1282131832' post='465685'] Silly BBC.

Looks more like lazy journalism at the Telegraph actually.........



Have they been browsing an 007 website and misunderstood the datelines?



Steve crook will be pleased..........

[julian_craster]

Surely the BBC are just cynically using the term 'lost' as a marketing device, regardless of the facts ...



I don't think this production has ever been 'lost', as short clips have appeared on archive documentaries over the years !

[Windthrop]

name='julian_craster' timestamp='1282141762' post='465742']

Surely the BBC are just cynically using the term 'lost' as a marketing device, regardless of the facts ...



I don't think this production has ever been 'lost', as short clips have appeared on archive documentaries over the years !

Agreed - a clip was shown on the 50 years celebration of BBC TV in 1986. It was never lost - I wolud like to see the 9150s version of The Crucible with Connery.