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Alton Towers Lost Media

mo237

mo237

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Generally speaking, a piece of "lost media" is quite a vague term; it broadly covers any piece of media - usually video or audio - that is nigh impossible to find anywhere. It could be an episode of a TV show that's never been aired outside of its initial broadcast, or a demo of a song that's wildly different - maybe even an entire film that simply doesn't exist anymore - the list goes on.

A popular example from recent times is "Shrek: I Feel Good" - a legendary test animation for the 2001 film produced in the mid 90s. Until a couple of years ago, all that was known was the very vague plot, length, and one screenshot; in 2022, brief clips were found online, and just a few months ago, one of the animators uploaded the full thing online.

Now I've got all that out of the way - thought it'd be quite a fun idea to open a discussion about any pieces of Alton Towers media that may be lost to the ages, perhaps with the hopes of finding some. Here's a few that I'm aware of that could have a shot at being found one day:
  • Original Hex Preshow (2000) - Original preshow video, ~3mins, wherein a professor discusses the legend (Lost)
  • Monorail 2002 Preshow (2002) - Video staring Dermot O'Leary discussing various facets of the park, played in the queue for the Monorail (Potentially a Postshow video in the same vein) (Partially Found)
  • Have Your Cake And Eat It (1997) - TV Series about a rollercoaster designer embarking on an affair; character loosely based on John Wardley (Partially Found)
  • Hex on Blue Peter (2000) - television magazine with John Wardley, presumably Konnie Huq presenting (Lost)
Of course, there are swathes of media that the park will have in their private archive, and it would be silly to assume we'll ever see much of it; but there is a considerable amount, such as those listed above, that likely exist online, or in someones personal archive, that we may well discover one day. Is there any Alton Towers Lost Media you're curious about? Maybe you have an old copy of something presumed missing and want to share it? Perhaps you're looking to discover something? Discuss away :)

Media Found by Members
 
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Yeah, I've got that saved on my Freeview Recorder box too (and the one about how they struggled through Covid). The manufacturers however (Humax) have some weird encryption on the files though which make it very hard to transfer the files off it. Apparently it's even tricky if you just rip the hard-drive out of it and insert into a PC or whatever. I will find a solution one day haha.
 
I find it bizarre that Inside Alton Towers seems to have vanished from the face of the Earth, seeing as it was only broadcast 5-6 years ago. Even Channel 4’s catch-up service doesn’t seem to have it anymore…

It is strange how this one never made it to YouTube given that much older documentaries like The Magic Factory and Park Life managed to make it to YouTube in full. I even seem to remember one of those jokey YouTube channels managing to upload an edited version of parts of it as a joke video not long after it aired, but for some reason, the entire, unedited documentary has never made it onto YouTube…

As @BarryZola has mentioned it, I’d also place Alton Towers: A Rollercoaster Year into the category of “Lost Media”. It was aired even more recently than Inside Alton Towers, airing only 3 years ago, but again, it doesn’t seem to have made it to YouTube and Channel 4 no longer has it on their catch-up service.

To tell you the truth, I’d completely forgotten that the park did a COVID documentary until @BarryZola mentioned it…
 
Matt N said:
It is strange how this one never made it to YouTube given that much older documentaries like The Magic Factory and Park Life managed to make it to YouTube in full. I even seem to remember one of those jokey YouTube channels managing to upload an edited version of parts of it as a joke video not long after it aired, but for some reason, the entire, unedited documentary has never made it onto YouTube…
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The production company for Inside Alton Towers may order those who upload to YouTube to take it down, whereas for the older stuff the production company may not even exist any longer.
 
A friend of mine has a copy of inside Alton Towers 2018 on their google drive I’ll get the link to it when i get home should be the entire thing.
 
BarryZola said:
Yeah, I've got that saved on my Freeview Recorder box too (and the one about how they struggled through Covid). The manufacturers however (Humax) have some weird encryption on the files though which make it very hard to transfer the files off it. Apparently it's even tricky if you just rip the hard-drive out of it and insert into a PC or whatever. I will find a solution one day haha.
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Buying more toys / hardware would be your solution. You'd need something to strip out the HDCP from the signal, something like a Decimator MD-HX HDMI / SDI Cross Converter would work. You'd need to pair this up with an SDI recorder, an old Atomos Samurai Blade can be found on eBay for not a heck of a lot of money. Play back the episode in real time and record it to an SSD.

This way you'd have your own copy, in a non-DRM friendly format, to do with as you wish.
 
mo237 said:
  • Monorail 2002 Preshow (2002) - Video staring Dermot O'Leary discussing various facets of the park, played in the queue for the Monorail (Potentially a Postshow video in the same vein) (Partially Found)
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That's just awakened a memory I forgot I had!

I really liked the bubble promo 'theme' back then.

Thanks!
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
Buying more toys / hardware would be your solution. You'd need something to strip out the HDCP from the signal, something like a Decimator MD-HX HDMI / SDI Cross Converter would work. You'd need to pair this up with an SDI recorder, an old Atomos Samurai Blade can be found on eBay for not a heck of a lot of money. Play back the episode in real time and record it to an SSD.

This way you'd have your own copy, in a non-DRM friendly format, to do with as you wish.
Click to expand...
Yeah Mr Zola, shake a leg son, whatever the Goose just said!

I have it recorded on one of those Virgin media TiVo box thingymagigs. I wouldn't have a clue how to get it off. I stopped understanding these kinds of things when VHS went the way of the dodo. But I'm sure a clever person somewhere will be able to recover it and whack it on the internet at some point (permission permitting of course). There must be thousands of recordings of it out in the wilderness.
 
Matt N said:
I find it bizarre that Inside Alton Towers seems to have vanished from the face of the Earth, seeing as it was only broadcast 5-6 years ago. Even Channel 4’s catch-up service doesn’t seem to have it anymore…

It is strange how this one never made it to YouTube given that much older documentaries like The Magic Factory and Park Life managed to make it to YouTube in full. I even seem to remember one of those jokey YouTube channels managing to upload an edited version of parts of it as a joke video not long after it aired, but for some reason, the entire, unedited documentary has never made it onto YouTube…

As @BarryZola has mentioned it, I’d also place Alton Towers: A Rollercoaster Year into the category of “Lost Media”. It was aired even more recently than Inside Alton Towers, airing only 3 years ago, but again, it doesn’t seem to have made it to YouTube and Channel 4 no longer has it on their catch-up service.

To tell you the truth, I’d completely forgotten that the park did a COVID documentary until @BarryZola mentioned it…
Click to expand...
I have access to the COVID documentary through uni, just need to find a way to get it to here…
 
If we are discussing lost Media. One that's been bugging me for years is this.

Thunder rock rally. I know there is a video on YouTube but that doesn't seem to be the entire thing. When I went the year it opened, I remember the track "the race by yello" playing every so often. Has any got the the full version of thunder rock? Or am I miss remembering?
 
In 2002 there was a documentary filmed called ‘Park Life’ for channel 5, it was six 30min episodes.

There is a video on YouTube here that is 90mins and combines 3 of those episodes (I believe they are the original eps 3-6).

Anyone able to find the missing episodes 1-3?
 
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