I suppose expiration of the music in the Open All Hours ep does make more sense. Still, it is sad they do this, and I’m sure they could retain it if they paid it, but they want to.
Speaking of Heartbeat again, but when the latter series was shown on repeat viewings on itv3, I believe they changed some of the music there as well, not necessarily Beatles music as such but just a random 60s song. So even on repeat showings on an ITV channel you still can’t watch it as it was originally shown. Why have the rights for music when first broadcast, yet change the music on repeated showings on what is essentially the same channel?. Unless, as suggested above, it is because the licence has expired?. If music rights was such an issue, particularly with a show like Heartbeat, I’m surprised there was any original music left intact. I would love to convert the episodes I have convert them to digital for archive, but if put on the internet they’ll just be removed. I’ve seen dozens of shows uploaded to youtube, yet neither the copyright holder nor YouTube seem to have an issue. It seems to me that it’s only certain shows which people regarded as popular (ie Fools and Horses) - and influential? they are so keen on altering. I’ve seen plenty of Heartbeat eps on YT, lots of Open All Hours, Summer Wine, Red Dwarf, etc which they don’t seem bothered about, yet try uploading an ep of OFAH in full and it’s promptly removed.
Oh, back to Heartbeat again, but anyone who’s (or was) a fan of that show I also have several interviews on tape of the cast recorded around the mid-late 90s. Interviews with Derek Fowlds, Trish Penrose, Nick Berry, Bill Maynard, etc on GMTV. Also have an interview with Bill Maynard on the Paul Ross (brother of Jonathan Ross) show around 1994/5-ish. Would happily convert them and upload them, but I suppose YouTube would throw an hissy fit over copyright.
Regarding OFAH, but is there any chance uncut episodes can be found via ebay from people selling pre used blank VHS tapes?. There are lots of stuff like that on there, and I’m sure there are some real rare gems to be found from the joblots that are listed. If they are that desperate to censor those episodes they will have all the copies confiscated, then you’ll get people claiming there’s a Mandela effect type thing going on as they will swear that they remembered a certain scene being such a way only to find no mention of it anywhere, as if it’s been deliberately erased from history lol. I would love to get my hands on a good quality recording of the Miami Twice episode from 1991. I remember seeing that one on Gold a few years, and getting excited that it seemed uncut, suddenly I was saddened to see they cut bits out when Del and Rodney are running through the Everglades.