Like Gadget I recall well the almost magical experience of developing a black and white photograph myself, when I was at College, and my personal feeling is that if the original is black and white, so it should stay! That is part of its charm, as well as true to its period.
In the early period of widespread and relatively cheap colour film, there was a mix of colour and black and white being taken, the colour prints are often found to have faded, and the black and white really don't look the same when "colourised".
My parents dashed quickly into the 35mm transparency pics, and I recall evenings with projector and screen, of varying interest as they and their friends showed the "holiday pics". My father averred that the transparencies were far better than colour film prints. A few years ago I idly opened one of the many boxes of his slides, and .... well, quite a few were fading, and bits of fluff and hairs and scratches on the others......
I'd love to be able to do the restoration miracles you do here. Many years ago I restored some scratched and damaged B & W film negatives, and a couple of plates with a really fine brush and a small jar of "photopaque" I believe it was, as I had such good eyesight close to, and that was very satisfying. I really ought to try and find out more, but time isn't infinite, and that took me ages to do really well.
I'm no expert, but I'd stand up on the "No" side.
