Television, behind the scenes - Thames Television - Magpie

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. ❤️

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.

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

My favourite cameras, the EMI 2001 ❤

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).

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.

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

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

Mick now 72 in 2018, wow.

Thames Television had great British shows!!

Wow, lot of work & co-ordination required.

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.

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

My childhood

That was very interesting

Sounds like that slider needs some WD40

Oh my goodness, Magpie had fabulous girl stars.

A bit of Barrel Distortion on that Mick Robertson slate.

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.

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.