but was persuaded to let it continue, even arguing in its defence to criticism from the IBA. It was believed that the new management at Central frowned upon the anarchy of Tiswas (and the common popularity of another production, the soap-operaCrossroads) and in a desire to make the station more upmarket than its previous incarnation took the evidence of declining audiences for the new format as justification to axe Tiswas after series 8.

Almost every edition of Tiswas was transmitted live and only recorded in case of any future IBA investigation (as was standard practice at the time). Accordingly, they suffered the same fate as a number of 1970s children's series in that they were thought to have no further commercial use (the idea of home video entertainment wasstill in its infancy), and therefore many master tapes were wiped for re-use. As a result, very few programmes officially exist in their entirety. Those that were kept were often stored in poor conditions, which led to severe picture deterioration, so they are no longer of broadcast quality.

However, some did survive; many viewers made their own recordings and in many cases these are the only existing copies of the programmes. Members of the production team and performers on the show would also record their appearances, leading to many episodes existing in private hands. In 2006, ITV began a search for many missing ITV programmes, including Tiswas, for their Raiders Of The Lost Archive series broadcast in 2007.

Their website reveals that only 22 episodes are known to officially exist