One of ITV’s best-known and most popular networked series for children, Magpie (Thames), has now been running for more than nine years. The programme’s informative magazine format allows for the coverage of a wide range of diverse topics, the boundaries of which are stretched even further by extensive use of outside broadcasts. But the most notable feature about Magpie is that unlike most television programmes – which, being steeped in the sophisticated technicalities of modern television, are often pre-recorded – it is still transmitted live from its studios in Teddington.

Tim Jones, Mogpie’s producer, reflects that: ‘Back in the good old days of black and white when to edit you needed a pair of scissors and a secret fluid, which I never knew the name of, the one thing all studio or outside broadcast based programmes had in common was that they were live and the viewers saw everything, including all the fluffs.’ Today, however, no TV station exists without its sophisticated video-tape operation and few programmes are, in fact, planned to be live.

Not so with Magpie. Twice a week, every week, for nine months of the year, the red light outside Studio 3 at Teddington means ‘On Air’. Of course, the whole programme isn’t live – recorded studio and outside broadcast inserts and film are used, but the presentation is live and, quite often, the whole programme has no recorded material at all.

Magpie consumes 42 hours of original material each year so, since it started on the ITV network in 1968, it has gobbled up over 350 hours of original thought. Being a programme for children there is no way of getting away with ‘making do’. Children are the most discerning of viewers, and maintaining the high standard of the series demands the involvement of many dedicated and specialised production team members.

Magpie is first and foremost an entertainment and the programmes always aim to be as lively as possible. However, most items are designed to provoke more than just a passive response and where possible children are stimulated into doing things for themselves. For example, cookery has become a very popular subject and the programme has recently taken an interest in the local fare prepared in different parts of the country.

There is also scope for dealing with current topics of interest in the news and Magpie has been able to relate to children the significance of such national crises as the 1976 drought or the deteriorating economic situation.

The presenters, Jenny Hanley, Mick Robertson and Tommy Boyd, get very involved in the studio activities and they also regularly travel with film crews to locations of special interest to the programme’s networked audience. Apart from the summer trip each year, which provides film inserts for a number of editions of the programme, the team also manage to fit in other occasional visits abroad and have already explored such countries as Egypt, USA and Kenya. These films show young viewers cultures and ways of life different to their own and give them a chance to see places they may themselves be fortunate enough to visit one day.

Competitions always create a favourable response from Magpie viewers, but here again they are designed to stimulate the child and to increase his interest, knowledge and general awareness. A road safety poster painting competition, organised in collaboration with the Department of Environment, not only encouraged thousands of children to be creative with a paint brush but also made them think about the whole question of road safety. Magpie then took things one stage further and, instead of offering a prize of material value, invited the winners to see their entries pass through all the processes of printing. Naturally, the camera team were there to record the event and a further film was made to show the printed posters being hung on hoarding sites all over Britain.

Of course, linking all these items together with the live presentation from the studio does present problems. But, as producer Tim Jones points out, ‘when that “On Air” light goes on the pulse moves a little faster and one is that much sharper’.

The post Live from studio 3 appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Designers get together

One of those joint conferences between ourselves and the BBC in which rivalry is forgotten for a while has recently taken place at Teddington. Members of the Guild of Heads of Television Design accepted the invitation of Patrick Downing to a meeting at Teddington on 7 October to discuss points of interest and mutual problems within the industry and to exchange ideas.

(Patrick is founding chairman of the Guild which came into being at the beginning of this year).

Those present were: Michael Yates, Head of Design, London Weekend; Peter Alexander, Head of Design, Scottish Television; Richard Levin, Head of Design Services, BBC; John Dilly, Head of Design, Southern; Eric Briers, Head of Design, Tyne Tees; Geoffrey Martin, Head of Design, Yorkshire; Richard Greenough, Head of Visual Services, ATV; Peter Roden, Head of Scenic Design, ATV; Alpho O’Reilly, Head of Design, Radio Telefis Eireann; Malcolm Beatson, Head of Design, ITN; Peter Ash, Head of Design, Granada; Clifford Hatts, Head of Scenic Design, BBC.

An added reason for the meeting was that it was the last opportunity all the members had for a meeting with Richard Levin, before his retirement. After the meeting Patrick on behalf of Thames, entertained members of the Guild to dinner on the MV Iris.

No floods

The time of extreme flood danger from the Thames early this month has now come and gone without the river bursting its banks – though some newspaper reports just before the danger time talked of “the gravest threat of floods in one hundred years”. Sighs of relief everywhere – including Thames studios at Teddington where the Admin Department had taken precautions.

Inevitably there is a sense of anticlimax and some people have wondered: was there unnecessary panic? As far as Thames was concerned there certainly was not. Flooding on a serious scale could have occurred. That it did not was due to a combination of three lucky factors: little rain to swell the rivers; very high barometric pressure; and a wind blowing against the tide.

Report — Munich

Director Jolyon Wimhurst, reporter John Morgan and a Report film team have just returned from Munich where they were completing the new dramatised documentary on Munich which will be screened in the Spring of 1972. Munich, the Bavarian capital, has always had a weakness for extravagance and a reputation for laissez-faire. This attitude gave birth to artistic and political excesses – from its Baroque architecture to revolutionary ideas, culminated by the rise of Adolf Hitler. In the year of the Munich Olympics Report tells the story of the city from the beginning of the 18th century to the present day.

EMI contract

EMI Electronics has won a major television equipment contract worth almost £200,000 to re-equip a Belgian television studio for colour broadcasting. The contract, which includes the first export order for the company’s new ‘2005’ three-tube colour cameras, is for the replacement of existing EMI monochrome equipment at the Brussels studio of Belgium Radio Television’s Flemish Service.

Still winning

As already reported in the Newsletter, the Thames Vauxhall Firenza at its very first appearance at a race meeting scored two out-right wins and broke the class record twice. The car continued its winning ways on its second outing at Inglistone on 10 October. It won the first saloon car race of the day, after Gerry Marshall had clocked the fastest lap in practice. Incidently the win was achieved despite the fact that the opposition was “formidable” to quote Bill Blydenstein. Before the final saloon car race (in which the Firenza was entered) the organisers gave each of the previous race winners a lap of honour. The unfortunate result of this was that the Firenza’s engine oiled up its plugs and although the plugs were changed the car went on three cylinders again during the race and finished seventh overall. But for the lap of honour it might well have come away with a double victory again.

U.S. Rivals

“Variety”, the U.S.-published, international show business magazine has a unique vocabulary. For those of us who don’t see it regularly, the following review of Rivals of Sherlock Holmes may be amusing:

Thames TV, the London independent, has whipped up a promising ITV network series meant to redress at least some of the balance with regard to the great detectives of Edwardian fiction. Hence the overall intriguing handle for this series of 13 hour long colorfilm mellers which has already sold in a number of off-shore markets.

The initialer featured John Neville as a smoothie forsenic scientist – a bit too smooth, in fact, since Philip Mackie’s script (from an Austin Freeman story) portrayed the hero as a man of immaculate gee-whiz intellect as well as urbanity. It was, in short, no contest from the start in this tale of a brothel murder. Never mind the plot cliches – the producers couldn’t be faulted for being faithful to the original text in that respect. And include among the cliches a compliment to the Baker St. hot-shot, in that Neville, too, trailed a Watson-type sidekick.

The seg was, however, nicely paced and sharply cast, and the Edwardian flavor came across effectively if economically. In notable support of Neville were James Cossins as his acolyte, Terence Rigby, Bernard Archard, Paul Darrow and, in particular, Eve Pearce as the madame-cum-innocent-landlady.

Fast Workers

Records were broken at Euston on 29 September to get a Daily Express ad on screen in the shortest possible time. The story began at 8.45 pm, when advertising duty officer Tony Clemens received a call from the Express asking if we had a spot available that night. We hadn’t, but one was cleared at 9.58 pm. By 9.45 pm, the script and artwork were ready and cleared, and were taken to Presentation for taping, and the commercial duly went out one hour and ten minutes after receipt of the first enquiry. John Robertson, the Publicity Manager of the Express, came to see the transmission, and expressed his gratitude for the co-operation we had given his organisation at such short notice.

Armchair for Armchair

There’s a neat compliment for the Armchair Theatre series in a glossy magazine campaign by Parker-Knoll at the moment for their Buccaneer suite of chairs. The ad shows three photographs of a man watching telly while sitting on a Buccaneer armchair. The captions read: “It’s an armchair for ‘Armchair Theatre’”…, “A knees-up for ‘Come Dancing'”…, “And an escape from the fifth repeat of the ‘Wooden Horse’”… Fortunately for our reputation the man is sitting up keen, alert and vigilant for “Armchair Theatre”; very relaxed for “Come Dancing” and sound asleep for the “Wooden Horse”.

Out in front

At the end of the first 39 weeks of 1971, Thames has established a clear lead over the BBC and all other ITV programme companies in numbers of programmes in both the Network Top Twenty, and the London Top Ten. Up to 3 October, we had had 169 programmes in the Top Twenty (21-5 per cent) compared to Granada’s 153 programmes (19 4 per cent) and the BBC’s 149 programmes (19 0 per cent). In the London Top Ten we had screened 244 programmes (55-8 per cent) and originated 127 programmes (29 1 per cent). Full tables:

Network Top Twenty

TOTAL	785	100
THAMES	169	21.5
GRANADA	153	19.4
BBC	149	19.0
ITN	126	16.1
YORKSHIRE	80	10.2
ATV	53	6.8
LWT	51	6.5
OTHER ITV	4	0.5

London Top Ten Screened

TOTAL	437	100
THAMES	244	55.8
BBC	112	25.6
LWT	81	18.6

London Top Ten Originated

TOTAL	437	100
THAMES	127	29.1
BBC	112	25.6
GRANADA	66	15.1
LWT	57	13.0
ITN	42	9.6
YORKSHIRE	21	4.8
ATV	11	2.5
OTHER ITV	1	0.2

Booked?

No, not quite! Ciss Stapleton, lady cleaner with Thames, gets a big smile from the local traffic warden, Ciss had just collected her new trolley from Bob Hurley, so she decided to invest in ‘L’ plates until she feels ‘qualified’. Ciss, by the way, has been with Rediffusion and Thames for 15 years.

The post Newsletter – 22 October 1971 appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

‘Know what a lens is lad?’

‘Er, yes.’

‘Ever seen a television camera before?’

‘Er, I think so.’

‘Right. You start first thing in the morning.’

An occasional young cameraman might conceivably have started his career in television like this fifteen or twenty years ago. Recruitment into the industry then was sometimes a haphazard and irregular affair and even once in the job formalised training was not always available – you often learned as you went along.

Things today are very different. The video communications business has become a large and sophisticated industry. In addition to the broadcasting organisations and the host of small, private film and TV companies, virtually every university, technical college and art school as well as most of the larger education authorities have full-scale television systems in operation; the industry’s techniques and equipment have become highly advanced. Against such a background it was inevitable that regularised, planned training programmes, college courses and recruitment schemes should have sprung up. Young hopefuls entering the industry today will have to have at least some qualifications under their belts before they start and then after joining will more than likely embark on a planned course of learning and instruction.

In Independent Television, a number of the larger companies have instituted such schemes for all their recruitment and staff training. One company to have done this is Thames Television in London. Its training scheme began in its present form some three or four years ago and is still developing. Thames has set up a special Training Department with its own staff and its own Training Centre at Teddington studios. The centre includes a library of books, tapes and cassettes, a study area and special facilities which can be used as a lecture room, viewing room or television studio. The scheme has a number of sides to its operation and is not designed just for technical staff. There are courses for, among others, secretaries, programme directors and production assistants as well as staff from the business and administration sides. Recruits from both inside and outside the industry find they have a large number of courses available to them.

One of the most comprehensive training courses Thames undertake is the Technical Training Scheme. Student trainees in camera and sound work, operational engineering, film and other technical fields take one-year courses which include a period in the training centre followed by a period as operational trainees. The courses are devised on a modular basis covering a wide number of areas and each trainee follows the full course through. They begin to specialise during the operational phase and as vacancies occur are progressively absorbed into the company. The courses include lectures, demonstrations, visits and production projects, and a number of days a week working in a small closed-circuit studio and control room.

On the production side there are training programmes for production assistants and trainee directors, the latter spending most of their time working closely with other directors but also undertaking several weeks of concentrated instruction. In addition there are special courses for vision mixers, graphics department trainees, engineers specialising in quality control and digital techniques, plus external courses for VTR operations, lighting control, 16mm. film production and colour photography.

As well as the production and engineering courses, there are those catering for people specialising in the business and administration sides. There is a trainee secretaries’ course for recruits joining from secretarial college, and Thames’ trainee manager scheme covers most aspects of management and business administration. Short specialist courses for established managers cover labour relations, interviewing methods and industrial safety.

Another feature of the Thames approach to recruitment and training is the induction course. All new people joining the company go on a one-day induction course which includes a welcome from an executive director and tours of the Teddington and Euston centres as well as a look at some of Thames’ programmes and talks with personnel and welfare staff.

Yet another valuable and in some ways novel part of the overall scheme is the regular studio training sessions Thames organises for all its employees. These sessions are specially designed to give staff a chance

to do jobs they,would not normally do and so as well as being of great value they are needless to say great fun too. For some staff the sessions present a good opportunity to see if they really would like to be a cameraman or production assistant; others are able to test their prowess at such work as sound balancing, which a boom operator for example would not normally be able to do. Others find their experience usefully broadened by having to work in unfamiliar conditions and many of course appreciate the chance to sense the excitement of programme making. Anyone in the company from the newest recruit to the most established executive can apply to take part. An obvious advantage of the studio sessions is that they prove to some people that they will never make a cameraman, production assistant or whatever else it was they’d had ambitions for!

The broad thinking behind the entire scheme is one of fostering and developing talent. Young people coming into the industry are given the opportunity of receiving high quality training designed to suit specifically their talents. The right type of training must be given in the right areas. Care is taken not to deny job opportunities to those already in the industry, and those whose skills and abilities have been overtaken by technological change are offered re-training. The twin issues at stake in training are the short-term needs of individuals and the long-term needs of the industry.

The post So You Want to Work in Television… appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

The ITA have recently announced that advertising revenue for all companies during June 1969 is down on June 1968 by £886,504 even before the present government levy of varying rates up to 47½% is deducted. Current Company policy is to conserve and not waste money. The sales functions at Teddington in no way contradict this policy. They fall into three main categories. (1) Advertisers or agents using our premises for Sales Conferences. (2) Entertaining people who may be of use to the Company. (3) Promoting Thames to advertising agencies by using slides and other visual aids accompanied by a commentary persuading them that the most profitable way of advertising is to spend money with Thames. These functions include an escorted tour of the Studios, which seems commonplace to us but is of immense interest to people outside Television.

The first example mentioned involves Thames in the provision of facilities and organising the function. The second requires organising and costs the Company a small amount of expenditure on refreshments but the possible return of attracting future clients completely justifies this. The third function is obviously more expensive and financed by our promotion budgets.

Our dealings with Qantas Airways is an excellent illustration of how we profit from these occasions. They held a reception for all the leading travel agencies on MV ‘Iris’ to celebrate the opening of their television advertising campaign with commercials featuring Warren (Alf Garnett) Mitchell. Organising this function resulted in us gaining the exclusive advertising contract, which is worth approximately £100,000 between July 1969 and February 1970.

On 30 July fourteen women connected with advertising in London and belonging to a club called Adwomen were entertained at Teddington. In the future any one of them could be in a position to influence advertising with Thames.

In conclusion it should be emphasized that our major source of income is commercials and anything which we can do to increase that revenue benefits us all.

The post Sales talk appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Certainly they fulfil requirements which are various and not always obvious. Many programmes are far from dead after their first transmission. They are sold all over the world for later screening and Alys provides the scripts that have to go with them. It is often necessary, too, to refer back to programmes to find out who appeared in them, who made them, where they were made, what was said, how long they took to make, and how much they cost. The impressive coverage by ‘This Week’ of the invasion of Czechoslovakia, for example, provided material for the much acclaimed ‘Report’ documentary, ‘Remember Czechoslovakia’. Current affairs programmes, in particular, create more than transient interest among viewers. Requests for information are frequent and take in a wide spectrum of people from comprehensive scholars to university professors; some of the latter including an increasing number of academics who are making special studies of television as a communications medium.

Alys is, like all archivists, preoccupied with considerations of space – where to put everything, what is to be kept or thrown away. And now space becomes even more important. In her corner of the Cottage at Teddington she is in the process of centralising the Company’s technical books and in setting up, as a branch of the Information Section, a small comprehensive library of standard reference books for the use of all departments based at Teddington.

In character with all libraries, the value of the Company archives will continue to increase with time.

The post Alys Carter and Teddington’s Programme Archives appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

What’s more, the company gives them a wide range of the very latest facilities, based on both film and videotape. Thames operates six studios: three in the main production complex by the river Thames at Teddington, and three more including the specially designed Thames News studio at the company’s headquarters in Euston Road, London. The Teddington studios are used mainly for drama and entertainment programmes, while the Euston facilities are devoted almost exclusively to news, current affairs and feature programmes.

For location work outside the studios, Thames maintains a large Film Department and a Mobile Division with six outside broadcast (OB) vehicles equipped to bring superb studio standards to ‘outside programmes’ like Wish You Were Here…? and London Night Out. In constant touch with Thames’ main facilities through microwave radio links, the OB units can record programme material on videotape for later transmission or insertion into other programmes. And, of course, they also provide live coverage of sporting events, state and other major occasions.

Many studio programmes, too, are transmitted live. Reporting London and Thames News are examples. But most are pre-recorded in sequences which can be edited together later, which allows time for corrections to be made, and therefore ensures the highest possible quality.

The post The heart of Thames: making programmes appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Chairman
Howard Thomas CBE

Managing Director
Bryan Cowgill

Executive Directors
Jeremy Isaacs – Programmes
Ian M Scott CA – Administration & Finance
James F Shaw – Sales & Marketing

Other Board Members
Mrs Mary Baker
Lord Brabourne
John T Davey FCA
R R W Dicks
H S L Dundas CBE DSO DFC DL
John M Kuipers
Sir John Read FCA
Colin S Wills FCA

Executives
Ben E Marr CA – Company Secretary
R G J Godfrey – Engineering & Technical Director
John Hambley – Planning & Development Director
John O’Keefe – Industrial Relations Director
J A Muir Sutherland – Managing Director, Thames Television International

F J Atkinson – Technical Controller
Donald Cullimore – Controller, Public Relations
RJ Hughes – Sales Controller
Derek Hunt – Chief Accountant
Philip Jones OBE – Controller of Light Entertainment
Verity Lambert – Controller of Drama
Max Lawson – Financial Controller
Sam Leitch – Head of Sport
Geoffrey Lugg – Controller, Programme Planning & Liaison
Ian Martin – Controller of Features, Education & Religion
Malcolm Morris – Controller, Programme Department (Administration)
Peter Pagnamenta – Controller of Current Affairs
A C Parkinson – Controller of Administration
Eric Parry – Controller, Programme Services
Mike Phillips – Controller, Advertising & Publications
Grahame Turner – Controller of Outside Broadcasts
Sue Turner – Controller of Children’s Programmes
Mike Wooller – Controller of Documentaries

HEAD OFFICE AND LONDON STUDIOS
Thames Television
306-316 Euston Road
London NW1 3BB
Telephone: 01-387 9494

TEDDINGTON STUDIOS
Teddington Lock
Teddington
Middlesex TW11 9NT
Telephone: 01-977 3252

MOBILE DIVISION
Twickenham Road
Hanworth
Middlesex
Telephone: 01-898 0011

REGIONAL OFFICE
Norfolk House
Smallbrook Queensway
Birmingham B5 4LJ
Telephone: 021-643 9151

The post Inside Thames appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.