That’s really fascinating - thank you! My first copy of Star Wars was taped off the TV (with the ads carefully spliced out) circa 1982, so I guess that makes me a pirate. Of course the minute the films became officially available (as far as I was aware anyway) in 1992 I snatched 'em up and George got his cut.

This makes me think of the anger I felt whilst watching the Star Wars 40th anniversary celebrations on Youtube. There was George banging on about ‘mythological motifs’ to great applause while no-one dared call him out on the fact that the very film they were celebrating no longer exists.

Meanwhile in the upper right corner of my Youtube feed was a SW 40th anniversary interview with Gary Kurtz that had a paltry few hits and certainly none of the fanfare of the ‘official’ celebrations. But it had ten times the heart. Had it been up to Gary, we’d all be enjoying bluray (and I daresay 4K) versions of the '77 film right now. It’s like poetry I guess…