Well, the old TV show The Avengers has a lost first season. Patrick Macnee's character Steed was the sidekick, and the main star was a guy who had previously been in "Police Surgeon," I think. Basically, the main guy's fiancee is murdered, then Steed mysteriously turns up in his flat and says "I can help you get to the bottom of this," and off they go. In fact, the show was called "The Avengers" based on the idea that they were going to avenge the fiancee's murder. The show was, I believe, performed live, and the only official tapes were overwritten. Some private copies of some episodes do exist, but who's got the time to track 'em down?

I recently had a nice experience of providing the solution to someone's quest. I am teaching a course on folksong and ballad in a university. One of my students is a university employee, hence not your typical 18 yr old college student. In the 1970s he heard a song on the radio, a version of "The Birth of Robin Hood." It was played twice, on two consecutive weeks of Gene Shay's folk show, but Gene did not announce the singer's name (shame on you, buddy!) This student of mine was captivatd, and put it on his mental wish list ("gotta find out who that was!") but he never got around to it.

So now it's 25 years later. In my course I use both field recordings and revival renditions as audio examples. This past week we discussed the Robin Hood ballads, and I actually played this song that he had been thinking about for a quarter century! After class he asked me who the heck it was (it was Allan Taylor)and if it's out on CD (it is). I'm so happy I was able to help...