Oh, no - that's terrible
Does anyone know how they got wiped?
We don't know for sure if they were wiped. TVS, the company that produced the British version has passed through several owners, and somehow, the paperwork for their tapes and archive has gone missing. Right now, the TVS archive is owned by Disney and ABC, but they can't do anything with the tapes they have, because of the paperwork. 12 episodes were been released on DVD in 2004, 17 have been found at the BFI's archive, and 12 were also released on VHS back in the 80's. 42 episodes are off-air recordings from VHS in private hands, but the quality varies from episodes, as most have no opening titles plus credits, and some have a few seconds missing from the start and end. 13 episodes are missing as of now. The old tapes still do exist, we just don't know where they are.