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Alton Towers Lost Media

There are two pieces of lost media that I have been trying to find:-

1) There was an old semi-factual* children's show in the mid-1990s on CITV (I can't remember the name, unfortunately) about two spoiled teenagers / young-adults (a brother and a sister, I think), and I seem to remember that one of the episodes at least partially took place at Alton Towers; the reason why I wanted to re-watch it is that I seem to recall that one of the siblings went on the ride itself (Nemesis), whilst the other one sat in the control room with the operator and "made the ride go faster" whilst it was in progress (with subsequent footage of the rider's face).

For years, this single segment made me (falsely) believe that rollercoasters were powered and that their speed could be adjusted, and I'm surprised / disappointed that a semi-educational children's show was allowed to mislead its viewers in this way.

(*As I recall, the siblings were in character, but the guests who they interacted with were not)

The only other segment from the show that I remember was when they discovered that the richest man in the world was the Sultan of Brunei (this was before Bill Gates overtook him after the launch of Windows 95).

2) Everybody on the TowersStreet forum seems to disagree with me about this, but I seem to recall that Nemesis had a 1.2m height restriction when it first launched in 1994 (but everybody else says that it was always 1.4m); I have been trying to find definitive evidence of the height restriction in 1994, but I have been struggling as it doesn't appear to be written on any of the park maps that I can find, and the TV advert just says that height restrictions apply, without mentioning the specific figure.

The closest that I came was some 1994 camcorder footage on YouTube of the board by the entrance, but - unfortunately - it does not display the height requirement :( (I'm not sure if it just out of shot, or whether the board never contained this information) - see link at foot of post the 2:27 mark.

I'm not 100% sure how reliable a TV advert would be anyway, as I also recall that the early 1994 TV adverts for Shockwave at Drayton Manor said "1.2m", whilst adverts later in the year said "1.4m"; I'm not sure if this was because the height restriction was indeed 1.2m at the launch, or whether the early adverts were simply incorrect (in contrast to Nemesis, I only ever remember Shockwave being listed as 1.4m within the park itself - although I didn't visit until July / August 1994).

I visited both Drayton Manor and Alton Towers in 1994, and - as I recall - I was just about tall enough to ride Nemesis (staff checked my height several times whilst I queued), but not quite tall enough to ride Shockwave a few weeks later, which is why I remember Nemesis having a lower height requirement at the time.


From: https://youtu.be/Dk8GiVBs3S8?t=147
 
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https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/history/behind-the-scenes/alton-towers-archives/


So i had a look on the Towers Time page at the archives and found something interesting. Some concept art for what looks to be a second Submission advert. It had the same sort of theme but had two Newton's Cradles ,pretty sure that is what they are called. Had the similar ending to it ,presumably, with the Alton Towers logo at the time but with the ball on it swinging. I haven't seen any parts of it on AT (Alton Towers) adverts compilations so I think it is lost and or was never shown. The link is at the top and the picture is the 20th picture on there. If this ever gets found then please tell me! I am very interested at pieces of lost media and Alton Towers and finding this would be wonders to me!
 
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I wanted to drop a note somewhere that as part of our project Alton Towers Archive we've started inviting fans to send in their old photos and videotapes you may have, which we can digitise to professional standards for free in return for using for research and sharing some on our channels.

Any film photography we can scan and restore. Also any VHS tapes, which we have the pro equipment for high quality results. Most tech for converting tapes bought online gets only poor results that doesn't capture the full quality on the tape, so the more we can salvage the better as VHS tapes degrade over time.

We've been doing this for many years for studio archives and also with Alton Towers on occasion, so all would be in good hands and safely returned! Of course the digital versions remain yours to use.

This week from fan collections we've started restoring lots fantastic rare 1980s photos from Around The World, Doom & Sons, Festival Park etc. Also a great tape of Oblivion's construction.

If anyone may have pre-digital stuff hidden away and are interested, drop a message to Euro Theme Park Archive or Alton Towers Archive on any of our social channels!

Cant seem to post many photos here but heres one example of a recent photo restoration from a damaged old 110 negative. Lots more pictures on our pages.

573103616_122148173048661586_9121682492070439803_n.jpg
 
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