News at last to tease a turnip

For now their identity remains a mystery, but it seems the company that bought out Initial TV should own the rights to Grim Tales. Discussions are now underway to persuade them to monetise this asset, as they obviously do not currently appreciate its true value which is greater than money.

Sounds like after that the real business of fund raising will have to start.

A tease in time.

Seems Bob has been deep in his basement archives for some time. Apparently it is dark down there, which might explain why it is taking so long. I wonder if it would help if he turned on the lights?

The good news for me is that Tracey found an old video when cleaning up top move house. Even more delightfully she emailed it to me across half the planet.

Too tricky?

So now it seems Bob Baldwin has the hard work for a while. While confessing a stake in the rights, Bob is trying to work out from his records who else needs to be approached for agreement.

Three TV broadcasters, a defunct distribution company and a raft of animators (do they have a collective noun for animators?) need to be considered.

It also turns out the series was hardly ever shown in Britain! Daft!

The first temptation of the Turnip

Well, still no confirmation of who owns the rights for Grim Tales. While I am now finally in contact with Bob Baldwin he is yet to confirm if he has a stake in the distribution rights. As a consolation he at least assures me that the question is now under discussion.

He flatters me that he enjoys the Turnip Quest Blog, and it seems I have flattered him by aspiring to, and pursuing the task at hand. But, the foreboding that ensued from earlier warnings clouds what I know should be a joyous arrival along my journey. Bob's responses have been prompt and cordial, quite open and encouraging and yet again references to the unlikely hood of any success to my quest.

What dark purpose or shameful past does my quest lead me towards? There are now vague suggestions of some lesser consolation. Would my own personal copy on VHS tape be satisfaction enough? Would the Turnip be considered a lesser vegetable to be so easily turned from noble purpose?

Is The Turnip a hot potato?

I've moved on down the line a little since my last entry. Although it may still just be going around in circles.

When Marisa had suggested contacting Whizz Kid, she mentioned that Tracey Lloyd was the one who "knew everything" and so it was to Tracey I had turned. At the time she was on holidays but has obviously returned to work refreshed and full of vigour and enthusiasm for her role at Whizz Kid . Or, perhaps to a near empty in box.

It was as if her first task back at work was to bring my quest to the attention of Malcolm Gerrie. He seems pretty vague on what I consider to be the zenith of his career, but at least he could supply another couple of names to hunt for.

Bob Baldwin appears at the commencement of the credits under the entry "Devised by" so seemed the one to target. But of course dear reader, even life on the internet wasn't meant to be simple. There is more than one Bob Baldwin, or he has had a very busy and varied career and I couldn't readily find a contact for the one associated with television work. At least I found two company references, Storitel and Doris, Inc. May I at this point comment on the remarkably large number of businesses in the UK with Doris in their names, so many florists!

I begin to feel as if my journey is taking me towards some dark secret, a past best left forgotten or perhaps just an old, unwanted vegetable in someone's barn. I had tracked down a reference to a Storitel production in a previous years Film UK Guide and fortunately one of the production credits listed an email contact at the company. Their response was timely and most welcome, yet guarded.

Curmudgeon was very helpful, passing on my request to Bob as well as providing one of Bob's direct email contacts. This mysterious whistle blower, whilst facilitating my great quest has sensed danger to himself and fears (I suspect not very greatly) unwanted reprisals should his involvement become public. How piquant, and so unlike most things associated with Turnip.

Who could I contact?

Of course the other information that was dished up on Grim Tales was who had made it.

Once I googled up "InitialTV" + "Malcolm Gerrie" I hit on a link which had someone's contact. Marisa Guagenti had an entry for her work with InitialTV on the Production Managers Association website.

Marisa actually responded to my email within a day! Wanted to know if I was someone she actually knew, and why I wanted Malcolm Gerrie's contact details.

When I had explained I was just an ordinary consumer out to buy a product that didn't exist yet she was happy to let me know of Malcolm's new production company, Whizz Kid Entertainment and even pass on the name of the person I should be trying to speak with.

And now it's a waiting game. Whizz Kid Entertainment internal email sent me to the right mailbox, from which I received a charmingly worded out of office reply. The next link in the chain is currently on holidays and will return to work on Tuesday 28th August. In the meantime they hope the sun is shining where I am. Which it does in the daytime, but may not always be such a great thing. Some of us could actually use quite a bit of rain.

Finally, Marisa sent me a warning. She claims this is going to be a hard quest, and really what better sort could there be. Apparently, it isn't making the shows that is complicated it is getting them distributed in a copyright protected format with agreed royalty streams and approvals.

The quest begins

Having searched several times over the past 10 years to try and buy Grim Tales presented by Rik Mayall I have become worried that this series will disappear from history.

This would be a tragic failure of existing copyright law which is espoused as the best way to serve both the producers and consumers of media.

So it was off to Google. Searching for "grim tales" + mayal brought back results like,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grim-Tales-Rapunzel-Rik-Mayall/dp/B00008T748, where there is one second hand tape of four episodes advertised.

and

http://www.amazon.com/Grim-Tales-Rik-Mayall/dp/B00008T350, which tells you
Availability: Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

But it also found me this Rik Mayal fan site -

http://www.orangeneko.invisionzone.com/index.php?s=b21c9be6c8bea02a6492568c50bff888&showtopic=2211&pid=46649&st=0&#entry46649

where I saw I was not alone in wanting the series. It even had this episode listing.

Episode List

The valiant little tailor
Bremen Town musicians
Hansel & Gretel
King Thrushbeard
Rapunzel
Rumplestiltskin
Sweet porridge
The boots of buffalo leather
The fisherman and his wife
The frog prince
The gnome
The griffin
The hare and the hedgehog
The little peasant
The spirit in the bottle
The three doctors
The three feathers
The three little men in the wood
The turnip
The twelve huntsmen
The witch among thorns
The wolf and the seven little kids

From all this it was pretty clear that a DVD version just wasn't avaiable.

What is the Turnip Quest?

I want to buy a DVD of a series called Grim Tales. It was narrated by Rik Mayall and had some absolutely fantastic animated sequences done for each story. I'll put all the production details in a later post.

The thing is, it seems it is not available. It was once released on VHS tape but seems to be no longer available.

The Turnip Quest is a log of my attempt to locate the people with the rights and the wherewithal to produce and market a DVD version.