Just a bit more on the Beeb "duty of care" [no multiple emojis this time].
I don't really have any issue with most of the people responsible for the policy re archiving at the time. It's more the lack of imagination at the higher level that was setting the tone. I suspect a lot of that came from the overall English attitude [still prevailing] re the importance of Arts over Science and that influences what is considered important. R4 is featuring CP Snow Chemist and Novelist [again] on Free Thinking 5/12/18, subject-Is There a Great Divide between the Arts and Science?
I've just read a "pop history" book where it was said there was no expectation re the bulk of material being worth preserving back then. That's true in a way but that attitude was very biased and only the view of those people who were in charge! Like Reith, effectively just walking into the DG position in the first place, or David Attenborough who, literally, had control of things when offered his BBC2 job.
Ordinary people understood the value of what they enjoyed in the sixties, for example and wanted to see things again-not just glimpsed once and often gone forever. Amazingly Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore offered to pay for the recordings of their own shows with many important guests [now lost] and were refused
I remember arguing with a 40 year old chap who said "this modern pop music won't last" [influenced by his experience of lighter stuff in the 50's]. We both watched Jazz 625 but he just didn't get that revolutionary things were happening in pop culture. It's survived half a century and more now and is still ongoing, in contrast to the contemporary corporate music industry.
The Radio Times for next week also has a feature on another R4 program [p115] The Missing Hancocks "Sadly, many were not archived" it says. [Only 9 out of 20]. 'The Winter Holiday' has been recreated using the original scripts. This doesn't always work so well, even Paul Merton's attempt at Hancock [on TV] was a bit flat when it should have been a "shoe in" for his own lugubrious style but with a lost episode, in particular, at least it's something!
Dave W