Good on Challenge for repeating Knightmare. And they've given me a new favourite show in Takeshi's Castle. Craig Charles does a good job in the commentary box, but I've heard they've edited it down meaning you don't get to know the weird characters (who are apparently pretty funny) or contestants - even when someone finally won once, you didn't see what happened.
Probably for the same reason that so much old TV has been lost - to save money/space.
In the case of The Golden Shot it must have seemed especially unlikely that it would ever be needed for a repeat compared with other shows
A lot of old TV has been lost because videotapes were initially so expensive that they were wiped and re-used. However, most of the Golden Shot was telerecorded onto film to be sold around the world, which it was. I can believe that a fair bit of it doesn't survive, I can believe that not many episodes still exist in colour, but I can't believe that only 5 episodes of it remain, it just seems a bit unlikely.
BB
BBC912
Wether TV companies have wiped old episodes of old shows there is always more than a chance that somebody has got every episode on tape. Everybody collects something and I have collected loads of TV shows and radio shows over the years.
GL
Glorfindel
I can't believe that only 5 episodes of it remain, it just seems a bit unlikely
Not unlikely at all - in fact, it's (sadly) only too believable, especially if you have a bit of knowledge of TV archiving policy of the 60s and 70s.
The Golden Shot's overseas markets were always going to be limited, mostly to countries with large English expat populations. Once those markets switched to colour, their desire for black-and-white film recordings of live British game shows dropped off dramatically, and so the perceived commercial value of the TGS archive dropped with it.
It's quite believable that almost all of the archive was junked as being commercially worthless in the brave new colour world. B&W British drama still had a value, but game shows were cheap and simple to make and so the overseas broadcasters preferred to make their own rather than buy them in.
Everybody collects something and I have collected loads of TV shows and radio shows over the years
But unless you're approaching retirement age and were rich during the 1960s (and could consequently afford a domestic video recorder - they were around from about 1963 onwards), you almost certainly haven't recorded any missing programmes.
Even those people who *could* afford home video recorders during the 60s habitually re-used their tapes, because fresh stock was so expensive... and unless they have been kept in climatically stable conditions (and *not* in damp sheds etc) the majority of any surviving 60s recordings will be virtually unplayable now.