AS this rare film appears to have made the news today I thought I would put up a review of this print.

But Big Banana Feet is a raw, edgy fly-on-the-wall documentary which follows the comedian, on the cusp of fame, around a volatile landscape of Northern Ireland, the last leg of his UK tour in 1975 at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Just a week before his appearance, three musicians from a popular cabaret band were shot and killed by a paramilitary group while touring Ireland.

This print appeared on a recent sales list and was not a film I was looking for. I knew it to be quite rare so I raided my film fund and bought it. It was supplied on 3 x 1600ft reels with each spool having approx 1200ft of film, the whole film only runs for 77 minutes but it is a really good insight prior to his fame.

The print has no VS and is on low fade stock, as you see from the images there is no fade at all and aside a few minor black lines and a fleeting glimpse of an emulsion line which is very short lived, the print is in good condition with very good sound. Along with another title in our collection, (All this and WW2) I appear to have stumbled on a rare item. Clearly there will soon be a DVD/Blu-ray, but this is the real thing as far as I'm concerned and judging by the colours from the excerpt on this BBC website, the film appears to win over however, the restoration will no doubt look very good. It will easily fit onto two 1600 reels but I will leave this as it is which is how it was originally mounted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...-west-68297196

Interesting to see that the film archivist Douglas Weir who works for the BFI found the copy of the film on eBay which he bought for £50,
And this print has now gone through a complete restoration to make it as good as Tom’s.I suspect it’s cost and arm and a leg to get it to a reasonable standard far more than the original £50.
Good on you Tom one to hang onto, perhaps you could hire out your copy .
Maybe the BFI would like to print check against yours.👍👍😂😂

That would be something Gwyn but these things never happen to me
It would be interesting to see what process the film went through to restore it, all clever stuff.