Ray Mears ''Tracks'' info wanted

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Forest fella

Full Member
Jul 2, 2008
2,890
211
Gloucestershire
Hi,I have just been watching my Video tape of Ray Mears ''Tracks'' series and the tape is in bad shape due to being slightly over watched,I wanted to know if this series is on dvd or Available for download somewhere.
Thanks
 

Minotaur

Native
Apr 27, 2005
1,600
232
Birmingham
Yeah there are about ten or so available torrent wise.

Wonder how you get the BBC to unload stuff, because early Ray Mears could be worth a campain.
 

taws6

Nomad
Jul 27, 2007
293
2
Anglia
I did contact the BBC awhile ago, but they said it wasn't available.

I'm sure somewhere we all have an episode or two laying about between us, shame we cant all throw them together on a disc.
 

lostplanet

Full Member
Aug 18, 2005
2,124
243
53
Kent
I have a 'Tracks' book here, you can search it out by ISBN number if you want to get hold of it.

BBC 1996 ISBN 1860003257 printed by Balding and Mansell
 

Jodie

Native
Aug 25, 2006
1,561
11
54
London
www.google.co.uk
I wonder why the incidental music is a particular problem... after all the BBC use such
music in many programmes and as far as I understand there's a mechanism in place
whereby a payment is made for each piece used. I might be wrong of course!

Having seen Ray's programmes 'live' on the TV and on DVD it's clear that different music
can be played so I wonder why that's not an option - though perhaps it's a bit of a palaver
if there isn't much enthusiasm for releasing older material. There's a lovely bit used in the
Sweden TV episode (I think it's Ulrich Schnauss) but it's not on the DVD.

It did occur to me that using a Pledgebank type of campaign might work as a place where
people can sign up to persuade the BBC - it seems to have been a contributory factor in
getting a Mitchell and Webb series released (http://www.pledgebank.com/Mitchell-W).

But it would be a bit hopeless I think if loads of people wrote to the BBC because then
they'd have to write back and say yes or no - if 100 people wrote and they replied it would
cost them 100 x 20p (I'm assuming they've got some bulk deal with a franking machine!)
or £2,000... Plan B I suspect!

They do seem to be on YouTube - surprisingly an awful lot of Ray's stuff has been put up
there by the BBC itself (snippets of, rather than the full thing though).
 

Jodie

Native
Aug 25, 2006
1,561
11
54
London
www.google.co.uk
Goodness you're right - my maths was much better in the old days ;-)

I am trying to work out what I meant there haha!! I remember working it out before based
on some back-of-an-envelope calculations. Clearly my envelopes are failing me.

Though I'd rather the BBC didn't spend even twenty pounds writing to people that it could
put to the better use of releasing DVDs I'd like to buy.

That Ulrich Schnauss track is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-For-You/dp/B0018CF9AA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1221432231&sr=8-3
 

Jodie

Native
Aug 25, 2006
1,561
11
54
London
www.google.co.uk
Haha no, I seem to remember I actually calculated something more like £3,000 so I'm
not sure where I plucked (well, mis-plucked £2,000) from. It was a while ago and was
based on a teeny percentage of the sizeable (millions) chunk of viewers they got for
Wild Food. Mind you, that's only if you can actually get in touch with these people of
course!
 

Jodie

Native
Aug 25, 2006
1,561
11
54
London
www.google.co.uk
Well I can't for the life of me work out how I worked out, so to speak, the cunning
calculations that led me to realise that the BBC would be out of pocket if we all
wrote to them so I will withdraw my ignorant maths for now.

However 'Walkabout' got comfortably over 2 million viewers and 3.5 if you count
the repeats in week ending 15/6/08 so there's (presumably) a potential market...

I look forward to whatever he's got coming up next :)
 

Bob

Forager
Sep 11, 2003
199
2
Dorset
'Out of interest, does anyone on here have the Tracks book that came out with the series?'

As far as I am aware there was never a single book which covered all 4 years of 'Tracks' - 'Country Tracks' (1994 - 7).

In '94 a series of 10 leaflets were released detailing each episode. From '95 - '97 the BBC produced a booklet each year. These are variable in the amount of info relating to RM's features.

Lostplanet has the 1996 one.

Hope that helps.

Bob:)
 

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