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.

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).

My favourite cameras, the EMI 2001 ❤

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.

Thames Television had great British shows!!

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

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.

Mick now 72 in 2018, wow.

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

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.

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

That was very interesting

Sounds like that slider needs some WD40

My childhood

A bit of Barrel Distortion on that Mick Robertson slate.

Oh my goodness, Magpie had fabulous girl stars.

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 KZfaq but could never find it again.

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.

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

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

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

The old "Monster Mash"!

Oh. Thames made great shows

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.

I couldnt' listen to her say 'glass' for hours.

Notice how the woman they have introducing the video talks down to the audience, whereas the presenters didn't. Clearly she wasn't normally onscreen. I remember this episode because she annoyed the hell out of me.

Don´t you have any text generator?

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?

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?

So was Magpie actually broadcast live then?

Why is Frankenstein's monster sleeping in a coffin!

Is there a behind the scenes footage of Rainbow?

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

Very elementary, indeed!

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

and thunderbirds are go!

difrnt to blue peter

Who was "Magpie"?

Love the whining T-bar fader

It´s all analogue...

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

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.

Why were none of the Tories ever centred properly

ITVs attempt at competing with bluepeter.

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