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Lost BBC music footage found behind cupboard in Nigeria

BBC ScaffoldBBC
Mike McGear was the lead singer, backed by entertainer John Gorman and Roger McCough

Lost footage of a band performing their No.1 hit on a BBC show in 1969 has been found behind a cupboard in Nigeria.

The Scaffold, featuring Sir Paul McCartney's younger brother Mike, sang 'Lily the Pink' on The Talk of the Town.

The footage was unearthed in the Nigerian capital Abuja by TV archivist Philip Morris, from Wigan, Greater Manchester.

It had been shown on TV in New Zealand, Gibraltar, Algeria and then Nigeria.

The original recording was destroyed because of a lack of space at the BBC but the copy was found 4,000 miles away, 50 years later.

Philip Morris
Philip Morris scours the world looking for classic TV shows thought to have disappeared

"Fortunately for us it had fallen down the back of a cupboard for me to find it all those years later," Mr Morris said.

"I am very very happy about it."

Mr Morris, an archive preservation expert who specialises in recovering missing tapes, has previously found missing Dr Who episodes in the west African country, as well as lost Morecambe and Wise episodes in a derelict cinema in Sierra Leone.

Mike McGear McCartney
Mike McGear McCartney was the lead singer of the band

Mike McGear McCartney, 75, said: "All the top acts - Sammy Davis Jnr, Bob Hope, Sinatra all played the Talk of the Town.

"So to be asked to play, that was a great honour."