United! (lost British soap opera; 1965-1967)

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United!.jpg

A rare still from one of the show's episodes.

Status: Lost

United! was a British soap opera produced by the BBC between 1965 and 1967. It followed the life and times of Brentwich United, a fictional second division football team (soccer in America). The series made use of a nearby football field on the grounds of Stoke City in order to achieve as much authenticity for the series as possible. This backfired somewhat when a real-life football team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers, filed complaints that the series was based on their team.

This was the least of United's problems, however, as it was considered too soft for the male demographic despite the football angle, and too male-oriented for the female demographic because of the football angle. As such, United! was cancelled after two seasons. Despite only running for two years, United! managed to produce 147 episodes in the two years it was on the air, a pitiful amount compared to most soap operas, but still a sizable number of episodes. However, The BBC decided to wipe the master tapes for all episodes of the series, presumably around the same time they started wiping Doctor Who episodes, or perhaps a bit earlier.[1][2]

Status

Today, despite a constant effort to find other lost media The BBC has wiped over the years, no episodes of United! have been discovered and the entire 147-episode series is missing. This could perhaps to be attributed to the fact that The BBC seems to have not distributed any of the series to any other country like it did with other shows that have been found over the years, though if this were the case, it is unlikely the public will ever see any of United! again.

See Also

Association Football/Soccer Media

Other Soap Operas

References

External Links