Lost Bowie Footage Found
Retired cameraman finds footage thought to have been destroyed
The BBC reports that the Top Of The Pops footage of Bowie performing Jean Genie in 1973 had been retained by former cameraman, John Henshall, 69, from Stanford-in-the-Vale, Oxfordshire, who had kept it for his own personal showreel.
He said: "I just couldn't believe that I was the only one with it. I just thought you wouldn't be mad enough to wipe a tape like that."
It was unveiled on Sunday at an event held by the British Film Institute.
Mr Henshall said: "I didn't realise that it had been wiped by the BBC.
"They'd been looking for it for years, hoping that somebody had maybe pointed an 8mm home movie camera at the screen, because there was no VHS in those days.
"I didn't realise that anybody wanted it. I'd just had it because it was my Fisheye.
"I had loads of ideas for optical effects back then."
The performance was broadcast for the first and only time on 3 January 1973. However, it will be included in a BBC4 documentary called Tales Of Television Centre in the new year.