Harare (Zimbabwe), Feb. 20 : BBC investigators have accused Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe of hoarding long lost Doctor Who tapes.

They believe that the tapes may never be recovered because Mugabe hates the UK.

Tyrant Mugabe has banned the Beeb from setting foot in his country, and diplomatic relations are also extremely tense. This means researchers are unable to get into the nation's TV vaults.

The BBC destroyed early episodes of the sci-fi series in the late Sixties and Seventies to make room in its film library for new programmes.

But Zimbabwe is understood to have bought the first season of the show when it was still a British colony known as Rhodesia. It starred William Hartnell and ran from 1963 to 1964. The Beeb suspects the historic series, together with later episodes not held anywhere else in the world, may still be locked away.

Over the decades some previously lost episodes have been uncovered by archivists in places as far flung as Hong Kong and New Zealand. Others have been unearthed from early home-made tapes. (ANI)