Footage of The Sweet performing their 1971 single Alexander Graham Bell on Grenada TV's Lift Off With Ayshea has been restored after being lost for 50 years. The original film was believed to have been erased – a common practice in UK television in days of yore – but has now been recovered by archive organisation Kaleidoscope, who specialise in locating and restoring missing footage.
Lift Off With Ayshea, hosted by Ayshea Brough, first aired in 1969, and was seen by ITV as a rival to the BBC's long-running Top Of The Pops. Only three episodes of the 122 broadcast between the show's launch and its closure in 1974 are known to have survived, and The Sweet's two minutes of early fame – broadcast on October 27, 1971 – is the latest footage to emerge from a missing file that still includes footage from David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Slade and many more.
