Podcast two: Banned Books and Lost Tapes

podcast two

Banned Books and Lost Tapes

Image: National Archives of Australia

From the 1930s to the 1970s, American true crime was often confiscated by the censors when it arrived in Australia.

Photo: Library of Congress

Science Fiction author HG Wells visited Australia in 1939 but was criticised by Australian Prime Minister Joe Lyons for warning about the dangers of Nazism. 

Image: National Archives of Australia

JD Salinger's classic coming-of-age tale The Catcher in the Rye was banned in Australia - at least until someone realised it was in the Australian Parliamentary Library!

                                                           Footage: NASA

Digitally re-mastered copies of the famous Apollo 11 moonwalk were made possible thanks to footage from the CSIRO Parkes Radio Observatory and the Honeysuckle Creek tracking station.

Photo: From the Archive

Nooooo! Priceless early episodes of TV classics such as the BBC's Doctor Who were wiped so the tapes could be re-used. Fortunately some of the footage has been found in places as remote as... Australia.

Photo: BBC

The Australian Connection's Miranda Borman as an adorable six-year-old in the "Dragonfire" episode of Doctor Who in 1987. Fortunately not a lost episode. And yes, she is the real Miranda Borman.

Newspaper articles

Mr Lyons Rebukes Mr Wells – Deplores Insults to Dictators

The Adelaide Advertiser 7 January 1939

Mr Curtin in the News – Taste in Reading Discussed

The West Australian 12 October 1942

Array of banned books shows Australia on a more innocent page

The Sydney Morning Herald 26 January 2013

Morecambe and Wise's lost first series re-discovered

The Telegraph 9 November 2012

TV's buried treasure: Classics saved
The Independent 11 December 2008

BBC erased classic Cook and Moore archives in favour of local news
The Independent 21 August 1997

Links

National Archives of Australia blog - Banned

Banned Books in Australia: A Selection
The University of Melbourne

Banned - The Catcher in the Rye
National Archives of Australia

One small step in the search for moonwalk tapes
CSIRO media release

Apollo 11 moon landing: celebrating 40 years
CSIRO media release

Doctor Who's underwater menace: exterminated?
National Archives of Australia

Missing you! My experience with the missing episodes of Doctor Who
From the Archive: A British Television Blog

6 degrees of Australian Connection

Russia's October 1917 Revolution - degree rating = 1

Photo: Library of Congress

Image: National Library of Australia

Russian Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in 1917. He fled Russia and later married Australian journalist Lydia "Nell" Tritton. In 1945 his wife became very ill and they moved to Brisbane, Australia so she could spend time with her family before she died. Kerensky then moved to New York where he became well known as a Russian historian and commentator until his death in 1970. Kerensky's son Oleg from his first marriage was an engineer who worked on the design of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Kerensky's Wife

The Argus 24 August 1939

Oleg Kerensky, Noted Bridge Designer

Sarasota Herald-Tribune 27 June 1984