Television, behind the scenes - Thames Television - Magpie

The camera's from 1970's children's TV Show 'Finding out' gave viewers the opportunity to discover how Thames Televisions 'Magpie' is produced and put on air. In this short extract we get to see a glimpse of what actually goes on behind the scenes while the show is being broadcast. First shown on the ITV network 20/06/1977

[@Cortinaman63]

As soon as Actress Jenny Hanely joined Magpie as a Presenter, the show gained a lot more of former Blue Peter Viewers, as all the boys I knew back then thought she was the prettiest Presenter on Television, and having been lucky enough to work on an Episode of Magpie with her myself, I can confirm she was also one of the nicest people in the industry, and still is, and Mick & Doug were also nice to work with. on the shoot. Working on any Thames Television Production was always fun as the Crews were great, I miss those days, a great Company, with great Productions, happy times.

[@julianaylor4351]

A tiny less cluttered studio than Blue Peter had. A whole different world. I remember there was a free cardboard kit of the Magpie studio with Look- In once, but I never brought it, because I wanted another comic or magazine that week. That was such a different time. ❤️

[@johnking5174]

Difference between Blue Peter and Magpie studios was that Blue Peter had access to a huge range of studios to pick from at BBC Television Centre, from the smallest main studio of around 3,500 Sq Ft to the vast TC1 studio at nearly 11,000 Sq Ft to use. Magpie had not the same choice, either Studio 1 or 2 at Teddington or a small studio at Euston Road.

[@greetingseartlhings]

God, I miss Thames Television and LWT. All those London copper series and comedies, and the old East End.

[@Villiago]

Jumpers for goalposts!

[@hormelinc]

Having learned to be a "Vision Mixer" ("Technical Director" in the US) on a very old Grass Switcher that was as big as the one in this video, it was not as hard as I thought. It was a "1 M/E" , which meant you could do one mix or effects at the same time. Nowadays, most switchers are 3 or 4 M/E's for all those on-screen layers you see on a lot of sports programs. And switchers have amazingly shrunk from dining table size (the GVG I trained on + racks of electronics) to the size of a hardcover book (Blackmagic Atem Mini).

[@maribuckley6066]

My favourite cameras, the EMI 2001 ❤

[@wmbrown6]

As iconic as such US cameras as Norelco PC-70's, General Electric PE-250 / PE-350, RCA TK-44A/B - plus UK export Marconi Mark VII (which three of the CBS O&O's, plus Studio 50 a.k.a. The Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York, used).

[@blutey]

Back in the early 1970s we had a friend who could blow enormous soap bubbles using wire coat hangers and do various tricks with them eg bubble in a bubble etc. Somehow Magpie got wind of it and decided to do a piece on him so we all went down there in the car for them to film it. Remember watching the show through the studio window at Teddington and getting told off for being too noisy as we played around as kids. Happy days.

[@BBT609]

Wow, the technology for the studio camera mixers are something else. With television broadcasting, it has come a long way!

[@sambda]

Endboard - these were always left on longer than required so presentation could fade/cut when they wanted without worrying about coming off of VT before it went black.

[@kingporter67]

Thames Television had great British shows!!

[@mikehudson8884]

I liked both Blue Peter AND Magpie equally so glad the broadcast the two shows on different nights...

[@Alfredromeothatsme]

Mick now 72 in 2018, wow.

[@stevenmorley1639]

Working for Thames in them days , great money , especially on shift .

[@kamandi1362]

My godfather was the lighting man on this and other Thames Teddington shows. He ended up with three houses. He said if they went 5 minutes over at 10pm everyone was paid till 6am.

[@swanvictor887]

I was a cameraman (ENG) working in London in the 80s: the city was full of money, to an almost unbelievable degree. A strong Union and the good old Double-Bubble helped too lol plus the fact the Broadcast sector was a money-printing machine.

[@stevenmorley1639]

@swanvictor887 For sure. I worked for the BBC in a Admin capacity on shift and done very well for my grade . A good work mate of mine was a Show worker Supervisor and one night in the BBC bar ( after a few beers ) he told me his salary, I nearly fell off my chair ! . Golden days of TV .

[@swanvictor887]

....and the BBC were notoriously stingy lol. The commercial boys got paid a lot more!@@stevenmorley1639

[@1990chrism]

Sounds like that slider needs some WD40

[@paulburton9386]

Studio 3, Thames Television Studios, Teddington. I remember being given a tour of this studio in 2000. It was also the home of Rainbow. It was far smaller than Studio 1, which dominated to site.

[@johnking5174]

Studio 1 was nearly 9,000 Sq Ft and was used for sitcoms, talk shows, drama and game shows. They used Studio 2 I was told, which was 5,000 Sq Ft at times.

[@paulburton9386]

@@johnking5174 Maybe they used Studio 2 as well, but Studio 3 was certainly used for this series.

[@johnking5174]

@@paulburton9386 Shame now all of those studios are gone. At least Television Centre retained three out of the eight TV studios they had.

[@paulburton9386]

@@johnking5174 Yes, but that's why film studios can't be stages quickly enough! Elstree Studios, the new Sky Studios Elstree, Pinewood Studios, Shepperton Studios and several others are all expanding! TV is moving back into film studios where it started!

[@johnking5174]

@@paulburton9386 Interesting this, as the reasoning for knocking down or selling off purpose built TV studios was that it was costly to maintain. However the problems with the film stages now being used for TV is that TV is meant for TV studios and not the vast sound stages. Also, the cost argument went down the drain fast, as the prices of sound stages are just as vast as TV studio sites. Dock10 in Manchester is probably the only purpose built proper TV centre in Britain, with a large selection of studios, I think they have around 4 superb audience based studios, including the vast HQ1 which is the UK largest TV studio.

[@DessieTots]

A bit of Barrel Distortion on that Mick Robertson slate.

[@Tampo-tiger]

Oh my goodness, Magpie had fabulous girl stars.

[@trevorrandom]

That was very interesting

[@Salmagundiii]

Does anyone know where the equivalent Blue Peter clip is? It was generally more hyped up, and had a recording of the shots being called for an actual taping of an episode. I saw it > 10 years ago on KZbin but could never find it again.

[@christopermarkblunden9786]

My childhood

[@vincemadden3809]

The woman presenting looks like Leslie Blair, I remember her presenting Cartoon Cavelcade in Scotland in the 60's and 'How to recycle | What can I recycle | 1970s Kids TV | Finding out |1978' - Video.

[@jourwalis-8875]

What camera did they use in the control room scene? Couldn´t have been one of these big, cumbersome studio cameras!?

[@margaretcronin4073]

The vision mixers job sounds really difficult, it must have taken him years to learn that shit.

[@squishmallowfan025]

it took me some getting used to in local TV news...after that it's knowing how to listen to cues and muscle memory. Decent TDs learn how to be frame-accurate though so that the show doesn't look sloppy. The principles are the same but switchers are insane now!

[@benjaminclasper9355]

I’m guessing that the Frankenstein halloween theme film in the footage and the film with Mick Robertson’s makeup transformation into Frankenstein’s monster I’m guessing that could have been filmed in around October 1976 perhaps I’m thinking to be a Halloween themed episode of Magpie but I’m wondering whether they could have shown a Halloween themed show in October 1976 and then Thames kept the film in storage perhaps and then used it again for part of this kind of featurette of Magpie and that would explain for the year 1976 displayed on the Thames Colour Production ident or maybe the Mick Robertson Frankenstein’s monster makeup transformation film was not shown in October and in 1976 in general and it was only filmed then and like with other Thames tv shows and programmes I’ve seen it’s similar how they’d be filmed a year prior to the transmission date and was then transmitted a year later and I imagine editing and everything with processing the film and the episode of the show itself would have been done during the time between when it was filmed and then transmitted.

[@stuartharris2165]

Finding Out was a schools programme, not a childrens programme.

[@NigelLawrence-z1j]

Oh. Thames made great shows

[@DavidEsp1]

OMG Jenny ❤❤❤

[@jourwalis-8875]

The old "Monster Mash"!

[@sambda]

How were the more complicated wipes (e.g. the multi-diamonds one) done in the pre-digital age? How could you generate that pattern with analogue?

[@geoffayres3246]

Two saw-tooth waveforms, one locked to line frequency the other to field (frame) frequency added together. The fader produced a DC sweep across from top to bottom of this waveform and a comparator gave the resultant switching waveform. Similarly two parabolas would give a circular wipe.

[@bangerbangerbro]

@@geoffayres3246 Wow, that is cool!

[@paulhutchence8886]

Why is it that you can invariably recognise a Thames TV studio recording filmed with identical EMI 2001 cameras to the BBC and LWT? Did they deliberately desaturate the colours or something?

[@stevegordon5689]

Why is Frankenstein's monster sleeping in a coffin!

[@christopherwilliams2093]

I think the floor manager was good-looking!!!!

[@christopherdrennan5819]

Is there a behind the scenes footage of Rainbow?

[@davidlear4478]

That would be great to see

[@jourwalis-8875]

Don´t you have any text generator?

[@MrEurochannel]

Douglas Rae - was he landed gentry? What a plummy accent!

[@mistofoles]

So was Magpie actually broadcast live then?

[@geoffayres3246]

Yes almost always, unless they were on a location shoot.

[@jourwalis-8875]

Very elementary, indeed!

[@UHF43]

Love the whining T-bar fader

[@connorjssimpson]

difrnt to blue peter

[@jourwalis-8875]

Who was "Magpie"?

[@Beanie1984]

and thunderbirds are go!

[@tylerthompson1842]

That is the worst painting of a window even if it was just done for an example lol

[@securityrobot]

A very cheap looking Coffin by Thames TV standards, as for Skiing on Grass - that’s a bit dangerous and risky, much better to be alert and focused.

[@MePeterNicholls]

Why were none of the Tories ever centred properly

[@jourwalis-8875]

It´s all analogue...

[@swedishdissident3406]

ITVs attempt at competing with bluepeter.

[@97channel]

Presenter Tommy Boyd later revealed that the name was secretly a reference to the thieving magpie, and how the show thieved from Blue Peter.

[@ianhand5006]

Swedish Dissident I actually preferred Magpie as it had a faster pace and it was less "stuffy".

[@kamandi1362]

@@ianhand5006 I preferred Magpie too but I watched both. A later myth said that you were either a BP or Magpie kid, which wasn’t true. Another myth was that BP was posh and Magpie more working class, but I think Peter Purves and John Noakes were more working class than any Magpie presenter.

[@jacksugden8190]

Magpie was always a scruffy programme with hippy presenters, Blue Peter was slightly better.

[@sarahlouise7163]

😆