Some of the missing 97 episodes of Doctor Who could be returned to the BBC in the future, an expert has claimed.
BBC Doctor Who archivist Paul Vanezis, who in the 1980s unearthed four lost instalments in Cyprus, has admitted he knows where more of the black and white episodes are located.
The William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras of the show were decimated when the BBC purged its archives of recordings in the 1970s with the advent of colour television - believing no one would want to watch black and white programmes again.
Now Vanezis, who restores old episodes for the BBC, said: "There is no question there are missing Doctor Whos with private collectors. I know some of them, and at some point they may be interested in handing over their films.
"But they’re not the kind of people that you should be pressuring.
“There’s been a lot of criticism of film collectors by people who should really know better. Without them, these things would have been lost or destroyed years and years ago.”
Speaking in a podcast for Whovians on Radio Free Skaro, he clarified: “I don’t want to make it sound like there are lots of missing tins of Doctor Who out there that I know about. You know, we’re talking about one or two episodes.”
Fans believe the episodes could be episode four of The Daleks' Masterplan, screened in 1965, and episode four of The Tenth Planet, Hartnell's final adventure from the following year.
Both were borrowed by Blue Peter, but never returned to the archives afterwards.
A haul of nine lost Troughton episodes were returned to the BBC in 2013 when they were located in Nigeria.
Meanwhile the BBC were recently forced to deny a trailer for the upcoming series of the show is on its way after a fake article appeared online.
Starring new Doctor Jodie Whittaker, the ten-episode series will run from Sunday 23 September and Friday 21 December.