A film fan rescued a rare video of Prince Charles and Diana’s 1981 wedding in a haul of 20,000 VHS tapes he saved from landfill.
Andy Johnson runs Britain’s last video shop in Liverpool and made a 600 mile round trip to Dundee to save the tapes before they went to the tip.
Among the mountain of tapes was one of the rare VHS cassettes of the Royal Wedding - complete with commemorative case - which fans used to rent from their local video shop.
Andy, whose shop VideOdyssey has a cult following, also discovered a rare video shop-only version of Ghostbusters, and a unique Superman cartoon.
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He says: “I have never seen anything like the Charles and Diana video before - it is a BBC production and even has a case very similar to the images on the collectors’ tea towels and plates that people bought at the time.
“It is amazing to think that almost 30 million people watched the wedding live on telly but then people would then go and rent it again from their video shop.”
Andy, 42, says scores of youngsters in their 20s are now renting out VCRs and tapes, wanting to experience the nostalgia first hand - the shop now boasts its very own time warp to the 80s and 90s already featuring an incredible 15,000 tapes.
His latest 20,000-strong haul of VHS tapes was hoovered up over decades from car boot sales by collector George McInnes who has passed them onto Andy to be reunited with new viewers.
Andy, who used to work in a video shop as a teenager, says VHS tapes are beginning to enjoy a similar resurgence as vinyl, with film fans craving the same physical connection to their collection, as well as enjoying the artwork on the cover and the nostalgic feel of playing an analogue copy.
He now finds himself travelling across the country on his days off to gather people’s collections of old gems and save films, which never came out on a digital format - from oblivion.
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He says: “The Ghostbusters film I rescued is really rare.
"If you were a collector of Ghostbusters memorabilia you would be hard-pressed to get someone to part with one of those, it is so unique.
“I’ve also found loads of old horror films and a Superman cartoon.
"A lot of amazing movies like these were never brought out digitally and they’re in danger of being lost forever.
"It is going to take me a few days to go through all the tapes but I am sure I will find a few more gems in there.”
