Philip Morris (archivist)


Philip Morris English is the executive director of Television International Enterprises Archives and is a leading lost media recovery specialist. He is best known for the recovery of some notable lost BBC programming among his many finds include Doctor Who, The Sky at night, Steptoe and Son and The Morecambe and Wise show.

Hostage

Prior to becoming head of Television International Enterprises Archives Ltd, Philip Morris worked on offshore oil and gas rigs for twenty years all over the world including Africa and the America's. Morris, a trained helicopter landing officer and fire team leader, while working on the rig Bulford Dolphin in 2006, as a heavy lift crane supervisor, was taken hostage along with eight others. He was held hostage for four days in the jungle village of Bilabre, Nigeria. The Nigerian government negotiated the hostages release and paid a $200,000 ransom. Instead of returning to his job seven weeks after being released, he sought counseling for posttraumatic stress disorder. and soon after decided to leave the industry to seek pastures new.

Television International Enterprises Archive (TIEA)

Television International Enterprises Archive, a company that assists television stations worldwide in the preservation of there cultural heritage and searches for lost television. One of his biggest recoveries to date has been missing Doctor Who episodes found in Nigeria, from the serials The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear featuring Patrick Troughton. TIEA and Morris were working on Project Genesis, cataloging materials with the Nigerian Television Authority, when the episodes were discovered in a Jos television relay station. The episodes were in good condition considering the environmental conditions and civil unrest, and lost for decades prior to their recovery. When nine episodes were returned to the BBC, it was discovered that episode 3 of The Web of Fear was originally found, but vanished during the six months it took to be turned in. Morris' work requires meticulous planning and research to ensure the correct preservation of local, historical and political content. He has also successfully recovered content from The Basil Brush Show and The Sky at Night to name but a few of many.