An entire series of influential radio comedy Take It From Here has been unearthed in the BBC archives.

The 1955 run was thought to have been lost forever, thanks to the corporation's previous policy of destroying tapes to save storage space.

But the tapes, thought to have been cleared out of a Bush House storeroom in the Fifties, have now been found in a BBC warehouse in West London.

Archivist Simon Rooks and radio producer Simon Elmes stumbled across the find while researching material for a documentary about The Archers.

Take It From Here, written by Frank Muir and Dennis Norden has been described as one of the most influential post-war radio programmes after The Goons.

The show, whose stars included Jimmy Edwards and June Whitfield, ran for 12 years from 1948, and even spawned a West End show. It was most famous for its sitcom-within-a-show, The Glums.