...I seem to remember a TV special about the album and the story behind it with a lot of band footage shot in the Roundhouse. Although this was written / recorded after Sandy left, I think it was filmed during her second tenure in the band, and she was in it. This must have been 1975 or so.
Or am I misremembering - someone else must have witnessed this. Surely the footage should still be in the can somewhere - a perfect candidate for D H's documentary channel!

...I have a non official DVD of the B Lee film (from a man in Ukraine) - though haven't watched it yet. It was a 1973/4 LP, wasn't it? Certainly the Pegg/Swarbrick post-Sandy/Richard line-up. Was Nicol still even a member....? Either way, one of the 15-minute line-ups of the band mimed to a couple of BL tracks on OGWT at the time - Pegg/Swarb and 'some other guys'.

It's a major hole in rock history, I think, that there's no footage of the 1968-69 Fairport with Sandy, Richard & Ashley - three classic albums, significant underground success, a TOTP appearance (wiped, of course)... The irony is they were on their way to Denmark to do a TV show when Sandy quit. There's footage of line up #1 from French TV; line up 3 (Richard T/Swarb etc) from France, London Rock film, Maidstone festival film; line up 4 (Glastonbury Fayre film, Granada TV outside broadcast from a show with Steeleye in some seaside town); etc etc...

But nothing at all of the one line up (#2) that really had an impact.

There was apparently a New Zealand TV concert in 1974/5 when Sandy rejoined, but its missing in action.

However... a quick trawl of ITN Source's searchable archive reveals that the above clip (one of two songs performed) comes from this little-known show:

LONDON WEEKEND SHOW (POP FESTIVALS)Please read the Disclaimer

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Production ID: 9C/03853
Programme ID: L0630
Gm library type: LWT Production
Programme title: LONDON WEEKEND SHOW
Production title: POP FESTIVALS
Synopsis: The pro's and cons of music festivals

KENNEY JONES (Small Faces/ The Who)
DENNIS STEVENSON (Chairman of the Government advisory Committee on Pop Festivals)
JAMES WENTWORTH-DAY
ANDREW BAILEY
BEAULIEU FESTIVAL
FRED BANNISTER (Knebworth Organiser)
MIKE ALFANDARI (Festival Organiser)
HARRY PENDLETON (Reading Festival Organiser)
IAN KNIGHT (Festival Stage Manager)
HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS on the Windsor Festival

FAIRPORT CONVENTION start the show with an unknown number and close it with White Dress
Series title: LONDON WEEKEND SHOW SER 1 (1975/76) N/EQ
Series ID: Y048
Credits text:
Paris company: LONDON WEEKEND TELEVISION
Genre: FACTUAL
ITC class ID:
Running time - minutes:
Running time - seconds:
First TX date: 1975-08-09
Production area: FACTUAL PROGRAMMES
Production type: PROGRAMME
Version type: UK VERSION
Local series ID:
Local episode ID:
Picture style: Colour
Sound style: Mono
Slot time: 30
Commissioner: ITV NETWORK LIMITED
Exploit Issues:
Production companies: LONDON WEEKEND TELEVISION

Relatively well-off Word bloggers might care to know that footage for private use/not broadcast/etc can be bought from ITN Source - from past experience a copy of this show will cost around £80-£90...

In late 1974, Fairport re-recorded the tracks from the album plus incidental music for a BBC2 documentary about John Lee narrated by Melvyn Bragg. Sandy Denny sang the lead in a new version of Breakfast In Mayfair.

The programme was broadcast in the BBC2 2nd House series as The Man They Couldn't Hang - John Lee on 1st February 1975 and was due to be re-broadcast in 2nd House 2nd Run on 21 June 1975.

However due to coverage of the Cricket World Cup Final over-running it was cancelled.

Sandy's version of Breakfast In Mayfair is now available as a bonus track on the current version of the Babbacome Lee CD.

Simon Nicol left Fairport at the end of 1971 and didn't re-join until late 1976, so he missed Sandy's second stint with the band. Although Nicol played on the original Babbacome Lee album, he was absent during the BBC TV recordings.

...we could rely on you, Moje!

As far as I'm aware the BBC do still have the Man They Couldn't Hang doc but it's an edited version that does not include Breakfast in Mayfair, which only exists in audio form. The full length version is presumed to have been wiped. I'd love to be proved wrong on that though.

As for early Fairport some of their Amsterdam show in September'68 (What We Did On Our Holidays line-up) was filmed. The audio is in fairly common circulation but the video has, to the best of my knowledge, never been located.

has a black and white film of Fairport with Sandy performing at Birmingham University Guild of Students in her second stint.

I think it's the whole performance. I saw a sizeable chunk of it. It was made by someone who was in Stage Staff shot from the balcony at the back of the main hall.

The sound quality as I recall was reasonable. Of course it was shot on a single camera, but I'm sure despite this limitation a fair few people would like to see it.

I think this was filmed by a film society at Birmingham University, which later became known as Guild TV. I'm sure they filmed the gig with permission and Dave Pegg certainly has a copy, although not the master. Clips have been used on a couple of official videos - Fairport's 'It All Comes Round Again' and 'Sandy Denny Under Review' - the second of these credits Pegg as the copyright holder although he has confirmed that's incorrect. Nobody seems to knows where the original is or if it still exists, although Guild TV does still hold an archive of material which may include this.