Long lost Doctor Who episodes found in Nigeria

Nine missing episodes of the cult BBC science fiction drama Doctor Who have been found in a storeroom in Nigeria. It's almost 50 years since the tapes were last seen - they have been gathering dust at a TV station. Among the recovered 1960s footage is most of the classic story The Web of Fear, a black and white adventure in which the Time Lord, then played by Patrick Troughton, battles a robot yeti in London's underground train system. The tapes were found gathering dust in a television station in Jos, a central Nigerian city plagued by chronic sectarian violence. The trove, which is being described by the BBC as the "largest haul of missing episodes recovered in the last three decades", also includes six-part story The Enemy of the World. "It's thrilling," said Mark Gatiss, author of recent Doctor Who episodes. "Every single avenue seemed to have been exhausted, every now and then something turns up - but to have two virtually complete stories out of the blue is absolutely incredible." The BBC destroyed many of the drama's original tapes in the 1960s and 1970s but some were copied for sale to foreign broadcasters. Despite the find, 97 episodes remain lost.