The November 2010 BFI Southbank guide has broken the news that hundreds of hours of missing early British television have been unearthed at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Maggie Smith in the 1967 BBC production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' (BFI stills)

Selections from some of these titles will be screened at the ‘Missing Believed Wiped event at BFI Southbank on 7 November.

From this tantalising discovery come several examples of television Shakespeare from the 1950s and 1960s, details of which can be found in the BUFVC’s International Database of Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio. Regular users of the database will know that the presence of these titles at the Library of Congress was, in some cases, noted some time ago. However, this remains a large and fascinating discovery. The Shakespeare titles listed so far include:

Twelfth Night (18/03/1959, ITV)
Hamlet (5 parts for schools, 1961, ITV)
The Winter’s Tale (20/04/1962, BBC)
Much Ado About Nothing (05/02/1967, BBC)
Romeo and Juliet (03/12/1967, BBC Play of the Month)