History MissingEpisode / Radio

Please put examples of [[MissingEpisode/TheBBC the BBC here]].

* In the 1950's (sources vary, but put it between 1955 and 1958), a likely unlicenced South African radio play adaptation of ''Literature/{{Moonraker}}'' aired on SABC's Springbok Radio, with future ''Series/{{Blockbuster}}'' host Bob Holness playing the role of Literature/JamesBond. As an early ''Bond'' adaptation it is a curiosity among fans, but there likely isn't any surviving recording of the play.

* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' has several, mostly due to the character known as "Officer Harley", a rather buffoonish policeman. Parents thought the character would give a bad impression of the police force, so the character was removed. The trope is subverted as some of the episodes reair with Harley edited out of the episode or replaced with another character, such as Eugene Meltsner, but there are several episodes which really are missing, because of Harley being too important of a character or because of mentioning controversial issues, such as abortion. There's another episode called "Lights Out At Whit's End", which hasn't aired since it first did, not only because of Harley, but also because [[BizarroEpisode it was just too...odd]], according to WordOfGod. [[OldShame Ever heard Whit and Tom Riley rap]]? The episode was available to listen online at the show's website, but seems to have been taken down.

** Repeats of Casey Kasem-hosted ''American Top 40'' shows, from July 1970 through August 1988, are broadcast as part of two different radio programs: "[=AT40=]: The 70s" (featuring 1970-1979 shows) and "[=AT40=]: The 80s" (focusing on the 1980-1988 episodes). Both programs are distributed by the Premiere Radio Network. As both packages include Casey Kasem's name in the title (i.e., "Casey Kasem's 'American Top 40': The 80s"), it is not likely that shows hosted by either the occassional guest host or by latter-day host Shadoe Stevens will be aired anytime soon. (Stevens took over for Kasem after he departed ABC Radio Network in August 1988, and hosted [=AT40=] for the rest of its original run; the apparent exclusion of August 1988-December 1989 shows in the 80s package could easily be resolved by the pre-show announcer simply stating that said program aired after Kasem's departure and Stevens taking over the hosting role.)

* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' has several, mostly due to the character known as "Officer Harley", a rather buffoonish policeman. Parents thought the character would be a bad impression on the police force, so the charcter was removed. The trope is subverted as some of the episodes reair with Harley edited out of the episode or replaced with another character, such as Eugene Meltsner, but there are several episodes which really are missing, because of Harley being too important of a character or controversial issues, such as abortion. There's another episode called "Lights Out At Whit's End", which hasn't aired since it first did, not only because of Harley, but also because [[BizarroEpisode it was just too...odd]], according to WordOfGod. [[OldShame Ever heard Whit and Tom Riley rap]]? The episode was available to listen online at the show's website, but seems to have been taken down.

* The improvised radio sitcom ''The Masterson Inheritance'' has ''The Marooned Mastersons'', an unbroadcast episode recorded back-to-back with the last normal episode, though judging by the performer's comments it was never intended to be aired anyway. They quickly made doubly sure of this by sending the story into very un-Radio 4 [[CrossesTheLineTwice territory]], including [[spoiler:homosexual incest and a plan to use someone's enormous penis as a banana boat to escape the island, only for him to die of massive blood loss after they tried to christen their 'ship' and the champagne glass shattered]]. The episode eventually made its way onto the internet.
* Most of the episodes of ''Radio/TheGoonShow'''s first four series were erased, which means that almost none of fourth Goon Creator/MichaelBentine's episodes survived. (He left after Series 2.) Some of the missing Series 4 stories would be remade for the overseas-broadcast-only "Vintage Goons" series, which has survived.
* Ten early episodes of ''Radio/JustAMinute'' (six from 1968, three from 1969, and one from 1974) have no known surviving recordings. Additionally, most episodes from before 1990 only exist in the Transcription Services editions for international broadcast (Creator/TheBBC junked most of their original tapes, but Creator/TheABC have a nearly complete set of TS tapes), trimmed by around three or four minutes each and sometimes with rounds spliced from other episodes featuring the same panel. And the posthumous revelations that long-time regular panellist Clement Freud sexually abused underage girls make it very unlikely that any of the more than 500 episodes featuring him on the panel will be re-aired or commercially released any time soon.
* Before there was ''Just a Minute'', there was ''One Minute Please'', created by future ''[=JaM=]'' creator Ian Messiter and pitting a team of three female panellists against three male panellists, but still requiring that the panellists speak for a minute on a given subject without pausing, repeating themselves, or getting side-tracked. It debuted in 1951 and ran for three series; just ''one'' episode survives, from 21 September 1952, with Roy Plomley as chairman and a panel featuring Margot Holden, Martina Mayne, and Violetta Farjeon against Gerard Hoffnung, Eric Sykes, and Jack Train, and a jury of Laidman Browne, Hugh Burden, and Humphrey Lestocq to rule on challenges.
* Although there are no outright missing episodes of ''Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain'', ten episodes - seven from 1968, the Christmas 1969 special, and two from 1973 - have no known surviving copies of their original broadcasts on BBC Radio 2; the existing copies of these episodes are the Transcription Services versions broadcast on Creator/TheABC, trimmed by around three or four minutes each.
* The first episode of ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'' was erased and presumed lost forever, until a home recording showed up. [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clue/clips/ The sound quality is not great, but you can make all the jokes out.]]

* The radio version of ''Radio/HancocksHalfHour'' ran for 102 episodes across six series between 1954 and 1959. Of these, 21 are missing (including a remake of "Cinderella Hancock", the original version of which survives), including three episodes of the second series when Harry Secombe stood in for an unwell Tony Hancock. Secombe's [[Radio/TheGoonShow fellow Goons]] Creator/PeterSellers and Creator/SpikeMilligan also made guest appearances in separate episodes in the first series; both of the episodes in question are now lost. A further two episodes only exist as low-quality off-air recordings, one incomplete. Fortunately, the scripts of all of the lost episodes were discovered by actor Neil Pearson in his capacity as a collector of old books, and 2014, five episodes (specially selected by the original writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson) were re-recorded with a new cast led by Kevin [=McNally=] as "Tony Hancock"; the new recordings' popularity led to the re-recording of five more episodes in 2015, and another five in 2016 (including the episodes featuring Harry Secombe, who was voiced by his son Andy). See MissingEpisode/LiveActionTV for the TV episodes lost.
* BBC Radio's ''Educating Archie'' was primarily a showcase for ventriloquist Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews, but it also launched or boosted the careers of a number of comedians and performers including Tony Hancock, Creator/BennyHill, Dick Emery, Creator/BernardBresslaw, Creator/HarrySecombe, Creator/BruceForsyth, Creator/JulieAndrews, Beryl Reid, Creator/HattieJacques, Creator/SidJames, Warren Mitchell, and Max Bygraves, while the writing staff included such talents as Creator/EricSykes and Marty Feldman. It ran for eight series from 1950 to 1960 for around 200 episodes; only ten are known to survive, as well as a special made for Australian radio in 1957.
* ''Beyond Our Ken'' was the first of two BBC Radio sketch series to star Kenneth Horne, with a supporting cast comprising Creator/KennethWilliams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, and Bill Pertwee. It ran for seven series between 1958 and 1964 for a total of 123 episodes, of which 18 are missing. Its SpiritualSuccessor ''Radio/RoundTheHorne'' (starring the same five core cast members) survives intact.

* There was a 13-episode BBC Radio adaptation of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' in 1955-56 which no longer survives. A 1960s adaptation of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' only survived as an off-air recording (fortunately of good quality), without individual episode credits.
* As late as 1984 Creator/TheBBC wiped the pilot episode for a planned ''Series/DadsArmy'' radio sequel, ''It Sticks Out Half a Mile'', because Arthur Lowe sounded drunk. He was in fact terminally ill. The series was recast with other ''Series/DadsArmy'' actors and 13 episodes were made. Astonishingly, most of the series was also wiped - the last known major BBC purge. The pilot and all the lost episodes have been recovered from domestic recordings of varying quality.
* Several episodes of BBC's political satire ''Radio/TheMenFromTheMinistry'' are either partially lost, completely lost or only exist in low-quality recordings. The Finnish version at least has all episodes intact... [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes but less than half of them have been officially released by YLE]].
* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' has several, mostly due to the character known as "Officer Harley", a rather buffoonish policeman. Parents thought the character would be a bad impression on the police force, so the charcter was removed. The trope is subverted as some of the episodes reair with Harley edited out of the episode or replaced with another character, such as Eugene Meltsner, but there are several episodes which really are missing, because of Harley being too important of a character or controversial issues, such as abortion. There's another episode called "Lights Out At Whit's End", which hasn't aired since it first did, not only because of Harley, but also because [[BizarroEpisode it was just too...odd]], according to WordOfGod. [[OldShame Ever heard Whit and Tom Riley rap]]? The episode was available to listen online at the show's website, but seems to have been taken down.
* ''Dick Barton -- Special Agent'' was a popular adventure series which ran on BBC Radio from 1946 to 1951.[[note]] It is widely perceived as having been axed by BBC executives due to its sensationalism in favour of the more sedate rural soap opera ''The Archers'', [[LongRunners which has been on the air ever since.]][[/note]] Of the 711 episodes, only ''three'' were preserved by the BBC, as well as a handful of clips. However, in February 2011, 338 episodes were recovered from the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia; though they are re-recordings with a cast of Australian actors rather than copies of the British originals, they use the same scripts and music cues.

* Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce recorded 220 episodes of ''Radio/TheNewAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes''. About only 52 are known to be in circulation.
* As they aired live, no episodes from the initial 1942-46 run of ''Radio/DesertIslandDiscs'' have survived, while most episodes from the 1950s and 1960s were wiped, apart from a few that were recorded at the request of the "castaway" or exist in off-air recordings, sometimes in very poor quality (in some cases, only fragments survive of said episodes, including those featuring Creator/AlfredHitchcock in 1959 and Creator/WilliamHartnell in 1965).

* Because ''Radio/DesertIslandDiscs'' aired live in its earliest years, most episodes from the 1940s and 1950s are lost, apart from a few that were recorded at the request of the "castaway" (in some cases, only fragments survive of said episodes, including those featuring Creator/AlfredHitchcock and Creator/WilliamHartnell).

* Many episodes of the original 1998 XFM series of ''Radio/TheRickyGervaisShow'' (often known as Series 0), which took place between January and August 1998 are lost. The reason is that they were not very well known at that time, and the show only ran for a few months, and aired on the unusual time of 4PM-6PM on Sundays. There are two known complete episodes and several tapes worth of compiled material from other shows. What is notable about these shows is that the duo had not met Karl Pilkington yet. Their second XFM Series (often known as Series 1 because it's the first to feature Karl) began in September 2001, only recordings of shows from 10th November onwards circulate. Thus about 9 shows are missing. This series is the first time they ever broadcast with Karl Pilkington as a cohost of the show. It is more likely than not that somebody did tape the previous two months as the duo were well known from ''The Office'' at the time, but that for whatever reason they are not available online yet (or maybe are in collectors' circles).

* Before there was ''Just a Minute'', there was ''One Minute Please'', created by future ''[=JaM=]'' creator Ian Messiter and pitting a team of three female panellists against three male panellists. It debuted in 1951 and ran for three series; just ''one'' episode survives, from 21 September 1952, with Roy Plomley as chairman and a panel featuring Margot Holden, Martina Mayne, and Violetta Farjeon against Gerard Hoffnung, Eric Sykes, and Jack Train.

* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' has several, mostly due to the character known as "Officer Harley", a rather buffoonish policeman. Parents thought the character would be a bad impression on the police force, so the charcter was removed. The trope is subverted as some of the episodes reair with Harley edited out of the episode or replaced with another character, such as Eugene Meltsner, but there are several episodes which really are missing, because of Harley being too important of a character or controversial issues, such as abortion.
** There's another episode called "Lights Out At Whit's End", which hasn't aired since it first did, not only because of Harley, but also because [[BizarroEpisode it was just too...odd]], according to WordOfGod. [[OldShame Ever heard Whit and Tom Riley rap]]? The episode was available to listen online at the show's website, but seems to have been taken down.

* Many episodes of the original 1998 XFM series of ''Radio/TheRickyGervaisShow'' (often known as Series 0), which took place between January and August 1998 are lost. The reason is that they were not very well known at that time, and the show only ran for a few months, and aired on the unusual time of 4PM-6PM on Sundays. There are two known complete episodes and several tapes worth of compiled material from other shows. What is notable about these shows is that the duo had not met Karl Pilkington yet.
** Their second XFM Series (often known as Series 1 because it's the first to feature Karl) began in September 2001, only recordings of shows from 10th November onwards circulate. Thus about 9 shows are missing. This series is the first time they ever broadcast with Karl Pilkington as a cohost of the show. It is more likely than not that somebody did tape the previous two months as the duo were well known from The Office at the time, but that for whatever reason they are not available online yet (or maybe are in collectors' circles).