Fair enough; I didn’t consider artifacts like logs and traces. I suppose a stale marker might prompt the original reporter to retest and supply fresh ones (or confirm it’s fixed in the dependency case).
In an ideal world I suppose we’d have automated tests for all bug reports but that’s obviously never going to happen!
Why would the BBC want old film, once they had the footage? They’ve already thrown them away once! It’s only of value to collectors at this point, and the Beeb can’t sell it if they’re claiming it’s lost.
Sounds like these 80 year olds need some friendly data hoarders to help them to digitise their collections. (Or for the BBC to promise to return the film, undamaged, once they’ve digitised them.)