@@jacquelineshepherd5292 The “1, 2, 3” is counting the beats of the music, the other numbers “18... 19...” are the shot numbers. This counting helps keep everyone (vision mixer, camera operators) in time and lets them know where they are in the sequence.
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Having just finished directing and vision mixing a 6 hour show I can feel their pain! Now almost all VT is digital based that type of issue I come across less. However today I was dealing with a mic dying live on air and loss of control of my robotic cameras! All in a days work :)
remember that happening on a show to decide who was doing Eurovision and the singer was gutted when interrupted to be told he had no mike. of course they let him do it again in another show
He is very good at what he does. Calm under a panicked live situation, but also excellent timing skills, like at the very end knowing how many words to fit in while having just a few seconds left. Impressive.
This is awesome to see. Believe it or not I actually remember this episode going out live. I had only just started in the video industry myself, but this was the first time I realised that "Live TV" is not always "Live TV". I also genuinely remember Phillip's excuse of "transmission problems". It made me laugh because it was quite clearly D-2 tape being shuttled!
@@davegwldn So what did happen? I gather from the talkback that there were 2 VTs playing simultaneously and the wrong one got shuttled. Is that correct? If so I can understand how it happened once, but how did it happen TWICE?!
@@simoncarswell3515 The VT operator, accidentally spooled off the master tape during the live transmission. The slave tape (back up) was then switched to, but the operator did the same to that one, meaning they had no back up. Phil really demonstrated just what a professional he was the way he kept it together, whilst the gallery went into meltdown, lol.
@@wishkid79 How did the VT operator spool off the master tape? Was it simply a case of pressing Fast Forward by mistake? And was it the same for the back up (slave) tape, they hit fast forward on that as well, or did they manage to do it to both simultaneously?
"This programme is gonna kill me"... "If you go speeding off in fast forward I shall have to pour a bucket of water over you"... Schofield cool as a cucumber throughout.
I have a DigiBeta VTR machine at home (not quite what was used here but fairly similar) and I can attest to how easily the transport controls can be knocked unless you flick a switch that says 'Key Inhibit' which locks the control panel. However on broadcast machines like this are usually in 'Remote' control mode - not meaning an infra-red stick, but another proper control panel somewhere else, usually at a control desk somewhere in the edit room, studio or gallery. Such machines were connected together with serial bus connectors, and as was mentioned briefly in the talkback, the two machines involved were in "duplex" which would mean one controller controlling two machines, as mentioned above one being a backup to the primary one - if the heads clogged in the primary one they would cut to the backup one - but the transport commands would be issued jointly to the two to keep them in sync. Now, I think what the VT operator was TRYING to do, under pressure, was get "Pre-recorded Item B" cued up on the backup tape whilst "Pre-recorded Item A" was playing out from the primary tape. Of course, what he should have done was wait until Item A was cut away from, then cue up both tapes to Item B. But with live pressures, thought he could be clever by using the backup tape to cue to Item B. In order to do this he would have needed to switch the primary VT to 'local' control instead of 'remote'. Then he could have shuttled 'B deck' freely and had it ready and parked for when it was needed. However 'A deck' was still locked to the 'remote' control, either because the 'local' switch hadn't been made or it itself had been put on 'key inhibit' which locks the control method until unswitched, and shutting 'B deck' also shuttled 'A deck'. Now, first catastrophe having happened, the VT operator thinks they're "off it" and have stayed with the live studio, probably assuming Philip is already filling-in live. So he starts to shuttle to Item B again thinking Item A has been completely torn up and thrown out the window, only to find his shuttling is going out on air again.
To be fair to Philip Schofield, he has just gone through something incredibly stressful. I think it's Paul Smith, MD of Celador (and later inventor of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) who is speaking off mic at the end telling people he's entitled to his view.
The talkback audio on this is brilliant btw. You have a panicked control room during the VT breakdown which sounds like a button was pushed accidentally and then at the end you have a frustrated Schofield saying "Eaten way for at least 5 f**king minutes".
Emma: "I cannot believe..." Floor manager: "Erm, Martin want's to do the trails." Phillip: "He can wait for at least five f*****g minutes. At LEAST five minutes." Floor manager: "Martin." Director: "Yeah, I heard" Floor manager: "Okay." Phillip: "Just let my hands calm down, just a bit.". Floor manager: "Martin, don't listen to him. 'Cause he's entitled to have a go at us. You'll only go home upset." Also interesting, 15:27 Phillip appears on screen: "Oh, I hate that bloke. It's so false."
@@97channel thanks for the transcript, I was trying to work out what was said. Fascinating. Presumably at 15:27 she's referring to Schofield? I know they're playing out from VT at this point, but wouldn't he be somewhere in the studio with an ear piece in? Wouldn't he have heard her? This is gold, many thanks!
@@MatgoStyles Hhmm, you could be right. I can hear it both ways though, now. It's very 'Brainstorm / Green Needle'. I can hear either version, depending on which I'm trying to.
I find this whole thing absolutely fascinating. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants stuff, back when this kind of output was watched by many more millions than today. Highlights for me 17:02 VT: "I thought you were off it!", 19:00 Impressive counting of music beats timed with camera shots, 23:04 "Oh my god if he's right we've had it. 29:15 Best part. Poor Philip. He must have been frustrated at the f*ck up and being dumped on air not really knowing what's going on. Part of live tv I guess...well ok, live tv mixed with pre-recorded inserts 😄
Gotta love how it started with an advert for the ill-fated Phillips CD-I game console. It was doomed from the start really, wasn’t it? Really interesting hearing the panic in the gallery when the VT went haywire. There’s been countless TV breakdown clips on TH-cam, but this is the first one where I’ve heard what ‘colourful language’ has been uttered behind the scenes. As someone who’s been on the mic in the wings for school productions I know there can be some stressful moments sometimes. Now just imagine that happening in front of a national TV audience…
I felt like it killed the show as a whole? Though they weren't cheating in how they ran the competition it was a bit of a shock to learn much of it was predetermined.
@@UKArchiveTV Yes, for timings and control purposes, the first number generating games were pre-recorded earlier in the day but all the links and the final number selection was always completely live in order to preserve the fact that the final sequence of numbers was never known and couldn’t be corrupted or leaked etc. I think that many felt that this was some kind of scam or dishonesty but I truly believe that nobody felt that any wrongdoing or dishonesty was occurring at the time. It was just a practical production method that prevented some of the games going on and on and possibly leading to an impossible overrun of time and being unable to complete the show. By always keeping that last number unknown, I don’t think it even occurred to production that they were doing anything either misleading or dishonest. Don’t forget that this was the very first “live” scandal before the phone in frauds etc that followed which (rightly)led to the demand for transparency about issues like these. However, unlike those scandals to come - this one has no adverse or unfair impact on the viewers or contestants. Nothing was pre determined or rigged. The number generated was completely random and the outcome of the show was never affected. Also, considering it was the only really possible way of keeping the show to time - how would that be explained on air? What difference would it have made had they done so besides confusing viewer with the behind the scenes operations of TV production? That said, when the curtain did slip in such a public way - man, that studio’s environment that night was beyond brutal! 😩
Also my number had 3 of the same and it always felt like they were never going to select 3 identical numbers out of 5. And here the last number was on tape?
@@UKArchiveTV no. As I said, the last number was ALWAYS live. And I can attest that even the pre recorded number selections were always treated as live and never reshot or interfered with - just occasionally cut shorter in EVS for time.
Yeah, although this makes him look spoilt brat is also understandable why the bosses wanted to hold onto him for him to always look so chill with all that going on in his ear. Can't be easy
So much for "live tv", lol! Loved the panicked screams when the video inserts shattered the illusion and went haywire. How many jobs were lost after this little debacle? Though Philip.Schofield remained calm and professional all the time he was on air. Don't blame him for sounding off afterwards though. Was this revenge from Thames, perhaps?
Part of it was live, the way they filmed it was, they started filming as they take the telephone calls, before that the audience watch the recordings on TV screens for number generation. When the prize is won, if from of the audience, they film and generate next week's numbers. I went to it, sat though 10 takes of Vanessa may doing a flip over the male dancers and every time breaking her fake polystyrene violin
I wonder if someone in VT had a 2, 4, 5 and 6 on their own phone number, and was so desperate to see what the next number was, they decided to fast forward through Richard Digance's act!
I love this video, I worked as a medic on east enders / holby for about a year and just loved wating all that happens with tv production. I stopped in the end as it was about 2 hoyrs from my home and too much. So, with this clip - I guess a lot of this live production was pre-recorded. Human league was live I'm guessing but Richard Digance was not live? It is a bit confusing to try and work this out! What happened? Is the VT person responsible for 'playing back' the pre-recorded stuff? How come he made such an error! Twice! To me, it either comes across as someone soooo useless at their job or doing it maliciously. I guess the public thinks it's all live and this shows it isn't. Would he have lost his job? With all the orders from the ?producer, who then does all this as it seems too quick for someone to do this on hearing this, it's almost like he is doing it himself. Is the lady the assistant producer? Trails down the line, what's that? Who is Pres, they refer to? They mention Carlton? Is this company producing this live clip for ITV and ITV is overseeing it for their next show / commercials / timings etc? Can you tell me what they would have done if the first caller had got the answers right!? How would they of filled 5 mins! Do they have contingency as it doesn't sound like they do! Would they have expected Phil to just have waffled on? Would they have got fined etc, even when they came out on time? Literally, any links appreciated as I do admire what you do with your jobs. Maybe I should get into the TV medic role again. So many questions, I just this clip, thanks 4 sharing! I'm a paramedic but this seems like more stress than my job and I'm not convinced I could do it! The numbers with the live music, I've read the comments and tried to research this but I'm still lost. Is she just assisting with the different camera views, but everyone should know which shots to go to? The notes of the song, I just still can't work it out! Any links to this relating to TV production? Can you imagine if they messed up the audio with Human League! It would have looked so obvious re lip sync! Any help / links on this appreciated, I have such a curious mind and am fascinated by this clip, I've watched it loads of times. I once went into the 'Enders production suite (someone got a bee sting or something) and saw their 3 roles but this was all not live with a link to the director. Even that was so interesting. The Elstree site was amazing, all that site predominantly for Holby and Enders - god, the money in TV just shocked me! All that site for what is effectively 3 hours of TV a week - Jesus! Maybe I'm in the wrong career lol! I get appreciation from the public for what I do, but seeing this, I think what you do is unseen and if the public knew you would get appreciation too! (Hope that makes sense!).
I'll chip in what I can, but beware, once you start working in live you'll learn to live the wave of stress with all the tension released when you go off air... Yes, lots of live TV is pre-recorded where possible. That may be so you can cut an unknown poerformance (eg Digence's set) for length, it may be because Digence had somewhere to be that evening and could record his segment earlier in the day, or just to simplify(!) the live show to play in a package and have a breather. Human League was shot live (you can see the audience in reverse shots) insofar as they mimed live, so timing is guaranteed. The numbers read out are cues for reference so everyone can know where in the performance they are. The vision mixer will be using them based on rehearsals to know when to cut to close-ups etc, and where they have a big camera move to pick up a detail. Cameras will generally be told to "you track the main singer, you cover the wide and the backing singers, ..." etc. but certain cues will require repositioning, so they'll be listening for those cues for camera moves. VT is Video Tape and yes it's someone pressing "play" - this will be a mechanical issue, they hit play at the right times etc. No jobs would have been lost. That's the director you're hearing. And IDK the exact name in TV terms, might be "showcaller" for the lady, going through the master cues list and calling out when cues need to go, keeping everyone informed and being unflappable. In live, much like being a pilot, you don't have time to flap, you act. What gets played out where, when and who by (trailers, adverts, etc) was complicated when ITV was the regions but doing national shows. Ads and trailers may have been played locally per region whilst the show relayed nationally, so "networks" would have to make sure the right feeds were going to the right places at the right times. It can sometimes include oddities like local weather, for instance. Get yourself into a live TV gallery one day - it's a circus but compelling. There's also a clip you might like from 1977 Eurovision with Stewart Morris - again you might understand only a percentage of it, but it's compelling.
@@pdrg Thanks for replying, it's much appreciated. I still keep watching this clip with interest, shame there aren't more clips like this. Can I ask a few things? Pres, or presentation, who is that they are referring to? Are they the equivalent of ITV i.e. the main channel which follows after this programme and they need to know if they will leave the live show on time? Presumably, someone from the main channel is watching to ensure this happens, are they heard in this clip at all? The image where the fault occurs i.e. the show's image appears after the fault, does someone in this show put this up or ITV equivalent? Also, the announcer, are they from this live show or ITV equivalent? Last one! You always hear an announcer when there is a fault on shows and you hear them quite quickly! What is this job called, is that all they are there for i.e. in case of a problem to announce and reassure? Often they sound quite panicky!
@@rikgray9770 Hi Rik, rather a lot about internal distribution of programs changed over the era with the different ITV franchises, and I'm only really familiar with how it is today, so to a certain extent this is conjecture on my part. Presentation is functionally synonymous with the MCR or Master Control Room for the network. Where all the BT lines and microwave links from the different studios and sources (and feeds from other ITV franchises) come in, be mixed with adverts and are played out to the transmitters. This was normally staffed whenever the channel was on air. It's closely linked to the announcer you mention as there would tend to be what's known as a continuity announcer on standby in a sound booth near the MCR, their job was (and still is in the UK as all the big channels still have them, even if regionallity and how often they're truly 'live' has decreased) to announce any channel level changes. I.e keep people up to date with late schedule changes, announce the next program coming up, keep people up to date with technical faults etc... When the director and producers are talking to presentation here, they are explaining to Carlton's central control what's happening, to allow Carlton to make any timing changes that might need to be made or put up the holding card as you saw on the 'off-air' (or as received from the transmitters) vision. Those holding cards used to be mandatory on live programs, as program links from the studios are not as reliable as they are today, and pres would need something to cut too if they lost signal or a similar scenario such as this. The "main channel" as you refer to it essentially didn't exist at this point. Theoretically, every ITV channel had its own local output, and thus there was no national control. Of course, this was mostly cobblers, and as today regional variations were not the norm. The largest portion of programs would be fed to other franchises by means of them rebroadcasting each other, and having their individual MCRs cut away at the correct times for adverts. For this to work, timing is crucial and there were various means of communicating with the different franchises when things would be happening, including 'open TalkBack' and 'cue dots'. This never stopped the occasional cock-up though. You can't hear the presentation director here (the one in the MCR working for Carlton), but they are likely talking over an open line to the other network control rooms currently rebroadcasting Carlton's content, advising them of potential overruns to the program, and whether they have enough time to have their own continuity announcers declare the fault and ask viewers not to go anywhere. Talking telephone numbers wasn't at a particularly sensitive time, so they could afford to overrun a bit. But Coronation Street on afterwards was fed by Granada from Manchester, so it was important to ensure everyone knew not to cut over their feeds too early. But rambly, because TH-cam won't let me see what you wrote while I write. But I hope that answers some of your questions 😅.
I believe, by 1995, there was an ITV Network Centre and all programmes were patched through the LWT building which Carlton, GMTV and LWT all came out of. So Emmerdale would have gone Leeds > London > Network. TTT would have gone from Fountain into the South Bank then back out to Network. However, of course, those outside London wouldn't have seen the Carlton holding slide, these would be generated locally and the regions' incoming feed would still be getting the cockups. So "Pres" in this case would be relaying this all down an open line, or possibly the Red Phone, to each region's control room. The "off air" feed is Carlton because they were in Wembley, if they'd been in, say, Norwich, then your "off air" feed would have been Anglia.
Just wondering if the off-air recording is 100% as broadcast, because you can faintly hear the gallery voices in the background if you have headphones turned loudly enough.
"Off air" is the name of one of the feeds that is piped around the studio complex - rather than watching what comes out of the gallery, they show exactly what people at home are seeing, so if there's a break in transmission or similar, the studio will know quickly. Anyway, likely it was recorded to the same tape "off air" on one audio channel, gallery on the other, so a bit of bleed.
I don't know all the ins and outs and the various people involved OR how the tech worked at the time, but roughly: A member of the production team will have prepared a shot list, planning cuts between the various cameras and zooming in etc to give a dynamic feel to the song, as was the fashion at the time. It wasn't all made up on the fly, I think this would have been prepared this at the rehersal. For example, it looks like at 21:05 we have shot 72, an arty zoom in by a camera into the keyboard player. For the live performance, the vision mixer needs to make all these cuts but they can't operate the desk and read from the shot list, so the PA (production assistant) is "calling the shots". They are counting to keep in time to the music, and to keep their place in the song, although at times this has gone out of the window due to all the fuss going on. She holds it together very well. Interwoven with the shot numbers are beats in bar 1, 2, 3, 4 so she knows where she is, but as muscians do, they will often count "*1*, 2, 3, 4, *2*, 2, 3, 4, *3*, 2, 3, 4, *4*, 2, 3, 4" so they can keep track of the bar and the beat. It looks like the shot 72 on the keyboard was planned to last 2 bars so she called "72.....(pause 3 beats) 2 (second bar), 2 (beat) , 3 (beat), 4 (beat), 73 (next shot, band in a line looking stoopid)". It seems a lot of the planning went out of the window and the vision mixer was guessing a lot of the time.
They come up with a timed shot list, but they time it based on the beats/bars. So she's counting the beats/bars and calling the shot number. So either she, or the person operating the vision mixer, hits the right cameras on the beat. It's super complicated, but for people who direct music on TV it's the way they work - there's a good example th-cam.com/video/DP2QOmN57iU/w-d-xo.html
Where did the talkback audio come from? As I remember Carlton TV never had any studios and all their programmes were produced by Independent companies, such as Celador
Talkback was in the gallery at Fountain. However, Carlton would have "presented" the show to Network - so it would have been routed through the South Bank where Calrton and LWT playout both were, before going to the regions. The individual regions wouldn't have linked up with Fountain.
It seems like these errors were frequent as at 6:46 on this episode in february 1995 the VT clock shows up for a second th-cam.com/video/1FLhMJjKdJY/w-d-xo.html
No, the plunger result was predetermined. It's discussed in the gallery as to how they were going to fill the lost time. Phillip requested to take three calls, which the gallery had already just decided upon themselves, so they deliberately put through two callers on-air who had provided wrong answers to the operator. The first caller changing one of his answers could have seen him win, and leave the show with much more time to fill than they had content to do so with. Luckily for them, one of his other answers was also wrong.
@@97channel Would love to have known what the next plan would have been if that was the case. Maybe get the Human League to perform.... sorry, lip sync, an encore I guess. Either that, or end early and force the entire ITV network to start running 5 minutes worth of trailers.
VT get your act together... 😉 In other words saying that there are transmitter errors was incorrect it was what they were sending out which was problematic.
It sounds like they record the off-air output for complaince/record keeping and perhaps they also keep the gallery talkback audio for reference along with it (someone mentions hearing the talkback on the off-air, which suggests it's one tape with the left/right channels doing both programme audio and the gallery.
I think most of it was live, but some bits were recorded (perhaps because they were too hard to do live, or because people's schedules didn't line up).
With live game shows some parts aren't live. In this case they would have recorded the number generation parts of the programme earlier in the day and the last part when they are talking to the people on the phone is live. It wouldn't be easy to do the whole programme live because they need to know the numbers generated and varify with an independent adjudicator that the numbers were generated to the rules of the game. They would need to varify after each number generated, if those parts were live they would need to take a break after each number generation. Very few game shows are live because if the independent adjudicator feels that an answer is insufficient or the presenter asked the question wrong they can hold the programme.
Yep, the UK generally does what's known as "bar-and-beat" mixing. We're one of the few countries to not really adopt systems such as CuePilot which is very popular in Europe for directing music.
Phillip has said in his autobiography that they had 'open' talkback for Talking Telephone Numbers (e.g. where you can always hear the gallery), as opposed to 'closed' talkback (e.g. where you can only hear the gallery if a button is pressed)
@@JoshReid Aside from I might think of Phillip these days, his ability to have all this going on in his ear and present the show is impressive. Particularly how he times the end of the show perfectly with the countdown. How do you do that with all the noise in your ear AND make it sound smooth and professional?
![ค้างคืนโรงเก็บกระสวยอวกาศร้างกลางทะเลทราย [Around The World Ep. 3]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E5bWZQhABJE/mqdefault.jpg)
I remember this well randomly! The shock of the supposedly live show having recorded bits threw me off, even as a kid
Same thing happened with BBC1's Watchdog around the same time.
Can actually remember watching this "live". Schofield held it together fantastically. "I thought you were off it." Legendary.
Thanks for re-uploading this - I thought it was lost forever. Whoever the woman is who's counting the music - she's spectacular!
Anita Stubbs, I think. (See 28:13)
What is she counting?
@@jacquelineshepherd5292 The “1, 2, 3” is counting the beats of the music, the other numbers “18... 19...” are the shot numbers. This counting helps keep everyone (vision mixer, camera operators) in time and lets them know where they are in the sequence.
@@jonnyhaw gosh, that's so impressive! Thanks!
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WE'VE LOST RICHARD DIGANCE
This is outstanding. Educational as well as revealing. Thank you for making this available to view. 💫
Oh my god that advert at the start is proper legendary
"We've lost the whole of Richard Digance's act" - Poor bloke. Booked to appear for his act and they lost it!
Always fancied Emma Forbes when I was young during her Going Live years.
29:17 Phillip Schoffield saying the F Word. Shocking!
He'll have been saying it a lot more this week.
Having just finished directing and vision mixing a 6 hour show I can feel their pain! Now almost all VT is digital based that type of issue I come across less. However today I was dealing with a mic dying live on air and loss of control of my robotic cameras! All in a days work :)
6 hours robotic cameras sounds like bbc news
@@bencoatesworth7731 no sir but I know where you are coming from
remember that happening on a show to decide who was doing Eurovision and the singer was gutted when interrupted to be told he had no mike. of course they let him do it again in another show
Someone at VT was definitely fired that day.
0:10 oh look, a Phillip's Seedy Eye!
Watching this with the TB just makes you realise how cool Philip is.
He is very good at what he does. Calm under a panicked live situation, but also excellent timing skills, like at the very end knowing how many words to fit in while having just a few seconds left. Impressive.
Cool and Philip Schofield are two words that don’t belong in the same sentence.
This is awesome to see. Believe it or not I actually remember this episode going out live. I had only just started in the video industry myself, but this was the first time I realised that "Live TV" is not always "Live TV".
I also genuinely remember Phillip's excuse of "transmission problems". It made me laugh because it was quite clearly D-2 tape being shuttled!
Toanyone reading, to reduce risk you pre-record as much as you can, even in "live" telly. It also means you can get away with fewer camera moves!
They were D3 machines and the servos on them were ridiculously fast. It's a long story as to what actually happened but I was there...
@@davegwldn So what did happen? I gather from the talkback that there were 2 VTs playing simultaneously and the wrong one got shuttled. Is that correct? If so I can understand how it happened once, but how did it happen TWICE?!
@@simoncarswell3515 The VT operator, accidentally spooled off the master tape during the live transmission. The slave tape (back up) was then switched to, but the operator did the same to that one, meaning they had no back up. Phil really demonstrated just what a professional he was the way he kept it together, whilst the gallery went into meltdown, lol.
@@wishkid79 How did the VT operator spool off the master tape? Was it simply a case of pressing Fast Forward by mistake? And was it the same for the back up (slave) tape, they hit fast forward on that as well, or did they manage to do it to both simultaneously?
It was a friend of mine who hit the cue button on the deck and spooled on air on a supposedly “live” show. I really felt for him 😩
Were they credited or did they avoid that shame? haha
"This programme is gonna kill me"...
"If you go speeding off in fast forward I shall have to pour a bucket of water over you"... Schofield cool as a cucumber throughout.
I have a DigiBeta VTR machine at home (not quite what was used here but fairly similar) and I can attest to how easily the transport controls can be knocked unless you flick a switch that says 'Key Inhibit' which locks the control panel. However on broadcast machines like this are usually in 'Remote' control mode - not meaning an infra-red stick, but another proper control panel somewhere else, usually at a control desk somewhere in the edit room, studio or gallery. Such machines were connected together with serial bus connectors, and as was mentioned briefly in the talkback, the two machines involved were in "duplex" which would mean one controller controlling two machines, as mentioned above one being a backup to the primary one - if the heads clogged in the primary one they would cut to the backup one - but the transport commands would be issued jointly to the two to keep them in sync. Now, I think what the VT operator was TRYING to do, under pressure, was get "Pre-recorded Item B" cued up on the backup tape whilst "Pre-recorded Item A" was playing out from the primary tape. Of course, what he should have done was wait until Item A was cut away from, then cue up both tapes to Item B. But with live pressures, thought he could be clever by using the backup tape to cue to Item B. In order to do this he would have needed to switch the primary VT to 'local' control instead of 'remote'. Then he could have shuttled 'B deck' freely and had it ready and parked for when it was needed. However 'A deck' was still locked to the 'remote' control, either because the 'local' switch hadn't been made or it itself had been put on 'key inhibit' which locks the control method until unswitched, and shutting 'B deck' also shuttled 'A deck'. Now, first catastrophe having happened, the VT operator thinks they're "off it" and have stayed with the live studio, probably assuming Philip is already filling-in live. So he starts to shuttle to Item B again thinking Item A has been completely torn up and thrown out the window, only to find his shuttling is going out on air again.
That's Numberwang!
😂
To be fair to Philip Schofield, he has just gone through something incredibly stressful. I think it's Paul Smith, MD of Celador (and later inventor of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) who is speaking off mic at the end telling people he's entitled to his view.
The talkback audio on this is brilliant btw. You have a panicked control room during the VT breakdown which sounds like a button was pushed accidentally and then at the end you have a frustrated Schofield saying "Eaten way for at least 5 f**king minutes".
Emma: "I cannot believe..."
Floor manager: "Erm, Martin want's to do the trails."
Phillip: "He can wait for at least five f*****g minutes. At LEAST five minutes."
Floor manager: "Martin."
Director: "Yeah, I heard"
Floor manager: "Okay."
Phillip: "Just let my hands calm down, just a bit.".
Floor manager: "Martin, don't listen to him. 'Cause he's entitled to have a go at us. You'll only go home upset."
Also interesting, 15:27 Phillip appears on screen: "Oh, I hate that bloke. It's so false."
@@97channel thanks for the transcript, I was trying to work out what was said. Fascinating. Presumably at 15:27 she's referring to Schofield? I know they're playing out from VT at this point, but wouldn't he be somewhere in the studio with an ear piece in? Wouldn't he have heard her? This is gold, many thanks!
@@97channel She's saying "I hate that break, it's so fast"
@@MatgoStyles Hhmm, you could be right. I can hear it both ways though, now. It's very 'Brainstorm / Green Needle'. I can hear either version, depending on which I'm trying to.
@@97channel There is no way anyone would insult the on screen talent on talkback. Also it was a shorter than average break.
I find this whole thing absolutely fascinating. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants stuff, back when this kind of output was watched by many more millions than today. Highlights for me 17:02 VT: "I thought you were off it!", 19:00 Impressive counting of music beats timed with camera shots, 23:04 "Oh my god if he's right we've had it. 29:15 Best part. Poor Philip. He must have been frustrated at the f*ck up and being dumped on air not really knowing what's going on. Part of live tv I guess...well ok, live tv mixed with pre-recorded inserts 😄
loves this as a kid purely for Emma forbes
Gotta love how it started with an advert for the ill-fated Phillips CD-I game console. It was doomed from the start really, wasn’t it?
Really interesting hearing the panic in the gallery when the VT went haywire. There’s been countless TV breakdown clips on TH-cam, but this is the first one where I’ve heard what ‘colourful language’ has been uttered behind the scenes.
As someone who’s been on the mic in the wings for school productions I know there can be some stressful moments sometimes. Now just imagine that happening in front of a national TV audience…
I was a 16 year old runner on this show. Ooohhh it was a dark day. Brutal
I felt like it killed the show as a whole? Though they weren't cheating in how they ran the competition it was a bit of a shock to learn much of it was predetermined.
@@UKArchiveTV Yes, for timings and control purposes, the first number generating games were pre-recorded earlier in the day but all the links and the final number selection was always completely live in order to preserve the fact that the final sequence of numbers was never known and couldn’t be corrupted or leaked etc. I think that many felt that this was some kind of scam or dishonesty but I truly believe that nobody felt that any wrongdoing or dishonesty was occurring at the time. It was just a practical production method that prevented some of the games going on and on and possibly leading to an impossible overrun of time and being unable to complete the show. By always keeping that last number unknown, I don’t think it even occurred to production that they were doing anything either misleading or dishonest. Don’t forget that this was the very first “live” scandal before the phone in frauds etc that followed which (rightly)led to the demand for transparency about issues like these. However, unlike those scandals to come - this one has no adverse or unfair impact on the viewers or contestants. Nothing was pre determined or rigged. The number generated was completely random and the outcome of the show was never affected. Also, considering it was the only really possible way of keeping the show to time - how would that be explained on air? What difference would it have made had they done so besides confusing viewer with the behind the scenes operations of TV production?
That said, when the curtain did slip in such a public way - man, that studio’s environment that night was beyond brutal! 😩
@@jamescollett6378 great reply, thanks. These days they are definitely more careful about when they say they are live.
Also my number had 3 of the same and it always felt like they were never going to select 3 identical numbers out of 5. And here the last number was on tape?
@@UKArchiveTV no. As I said, the last number was ALWAYS live. And I can attest that even the pre recorded number selections were always treated as live and never reshot or interfered with - just occasionally cut shorter in EVS for time.
26:18 'can phillip do one'?
he has now.
And they took off Thames Television for crap like Carlton who couldn't even play out a show properly.
Look how young Philip schofield looked back then
I don't think he's changed much at all
I appreciate watching through your webvideos. Appreciate it!
What an absolute pro Phillip is.
Yeah, although this makes him look spoilt brat is also understandable why the bosses wanted to hold onto him for him to always look so chill with all that going on in his ear. Can't be easy
yeah .. he's a pro alright
19:00 she IS the live number generator 😂
16:56 so much for "live tv" OMG
1:18
YOU'RE NOT WRONG!
So much for "live tv", lol! Loved the panicked screams when the video inserts shattered the illusion and went haywire. How many jobs were lost after this little debacle? Though Philip.Schofield remained calm and professional all the time he was on air. Don't blame him for sounding off afterwards though.
Was this revenge from Thames, perhaps?
Part of it was live, the way they filmed it was, they started filming as they take the telephone calls, before that the audience watch the recordings on TV screens for number generation. When the prize is won, if from of the audience, they film and generate next week's numbers.
I went to it, sat though 10 takes of Vanessa may doing a flip over the male dancers and every time breaking her fake polystyrene violin
That is back then when philip Schofield was wearing glasses
I thought it was Bradley Walsh until I clicked on the video.
1:20 Schofield & OMO 🤔
Best bit was Human League 😆
Amongst the ads ‘Nonce upon a time ‘ !.
Was the end game called Fast Forward, or was that Schofield making a knowing comment? (3:24)
The talkback audio bit is interesting, has there been any other shows recorded like that out there?
th-cam.com/video/XTgCLfYdRo4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XgTKRWdDO_NDExHn
I wonder if someone in VT had a 2, 4, 5 and 6 on their own phone number, and was so desperate to see what the next number was, they decided to fast forward through Richard Digance's act!
Edit the human league bit separately its excellent
Nothing with Human Leauge don't Diss them
The VT is fired for sure.
17:40 VT’s in “big trouble now”.
Hahaha it sounds like a sketch comedy show when they realise
Amanda Abbington in the Mcdonald's ad!
Someone just really didn't like Richard Digence 😄
I love this video, I worked as a medic on east enders / holby for about a year and just loved wating all that happens with tv production. I stopped in the end as it was about 2 hoyrs from my home and too much.
So, with this clip - I guess a lot of this live production was pre-recorded. Human league was live I'm guessing but Richard Digance was not live? It is a bit confusing to try and work this out!
What happened? Is the VT person responsible for 'playing back' the pre-recorded stuff? How come he made such an error! Twice! To me, it either comes across as someone soooo useless at their job or doing it maliciously. I guess the public thinks it's all live and this shows it isn't. Would he have lost his job?
With all the orders from the ?producer, who then does all this as it seems too quick for someone to do this on hearing this, it's almost like he is doing it himself. Is the lady the assistant producer?
Trails down the line, what's that? Who is Pres, they refer to? They mention Carlton? Is this company producing this live clip for ITV and ITV is overseeing it for their next show / commercials / timings etc?
Can you tell me what they would have done if the first caller had got the answers right!? How would they of filled 5 mins! Do they have contingency as it doesn't sound like they do! Would they have expected Phil to just have waffled on? Would they have got fined etc, even when they came out on time? Literally, any links appreciated as I do admire what you do with your jobs. Maybe I should get into the TV medic role again.
So many questions, I just this clip, thanks 4 sharing! I'm a paramedic but this seems like more stress than my job and I'm not convinced I could do it!
The numbers with the live music, I've read the comments and tried to research this but I'm still lost. Is she just assisting with the different camera views, but everyone should know which shots to go to? The notes of the song, I just still can't work it out! Any links to this relating to TV production?
Can you imagine if they messed up the audio with Human League! It would have looked so obvious re lip sync!
Any help / links on this appreciated, I have such a curious mind and am fascinated by this clip, I've watched it loads of times. I once went into the 'Enders production suite (someone got a bee sting or something) and saw their 3 roles but this was all not live with a link to the director. Even that was so interesting. The Elstree site was amazing, all that site predominantly for Holby and Enders - god, the money in TV just shocked me! All that site for what is effectively 3 hours of TV a week - Jesus!
Maybe I'm in the wrong career lol! I get appreciation from the public for what I do, but seeing this, I think what you do is unseen and if the public knew you would get appreciation too! (Hope that makes sense!).
I'll chip in what I can, but beware, once you start working in live you'll learn to live the wave of stress with all the tension released when you go off air...
Yes, lots of live TV is pre-recorded where possible. That may be so you can cut an unknown poerformance (eg Digence's set) for length, it may be because Digence had somewhere to be that evening and could record his segment earlier in the day, or just to simplify(!) the live show to play in a package and have a breather. Human League was shot live (you can see the audience in reverse shots) insofar as they mimed live, so timing is guaranteed.
The numbers read out are cues for reference so everyone can know where in the performance they are. The vision mixer will be using them based on rehearsals to know when to cut to close-ups etc, and where they have a big camera move to pick up a detail. Cameras will generally be told to "you track the main singer, you cover the wide and the backing singers, ..." etc. but certain cues will require repositioning, so they'll be listening for those cues for camera moves.
VT is Video Tape and yes it's someone pressing "play" - this will be a mechanical issue, they hit play at the right times etc. No jobs would have been lost.
That's the director you're hearing. And IDK the exact name in TV terms, might be "showcaller" for the lady, going through the master cues list and calling out when cues need to go, keeping everyone informed and being unflappable. In live, much like being a pilot, you don't have time to flap, you act.
What gets played out where, when and who by (trailers, adverts, etc) was complicated when ITV was the regions but doing national shows. Ads and trailers may have been played locally per region whilst the show relayed nationally, so "networks" would have to make sure the right feeds were going to the right places at the right times. It can sometimes include oddities like local weather, for instance.
Get yourself into a live TV gallery one day - it's a circus but compelling. There's also a clip you might like from 1977 Eurovision with Stewart Morris - again you might understand only a percentage of it, but it's compelling.
@@pdrg Thanks for replying, it's much appreciated. I still keep watching this clip with interest, shame there aren't more clips like this.
Can I ask a few things?
Pres, or presentation, who is that they are referring to? Are they the equivalent of ITV i.e. the main channel which follows after this programme and they need to know if they will leave the live show on time?
Presumably, someone from the main channel is watching to ensure this happens, are they heard in this clip at all?
The image where the fault occurs i.e. the show's image appears after the fault, does someone in this show put this up or ITV equivalent? Also, the announcer, are they from this live show or ITV equivalent?
Last one! You always hear an announcer when there is a fault on shows and you hear them quite quickly! What is this job called, is that all they are there for i.e. in case of a problem to announce and reassure? Often they sound quite panicky!
@@rikgray9770 Hi Rik, rather a lot about internal distribution of programs changed over the era with the different ITV franchises, and I'm only really familiar with how it is today, so to a certain extent this is conjecture on my part.
Presentation is functionally synonymous with the MCR or Master Control Room for the network. Where all the BT lines and microwave links from the different studios and sources (and feeds from other ITV franchises) come in, be mixed with adverts and are played out to the transmitters. This was normally staffed whenever the channel was on air. It's closely linked to the announcer you mention as there would tend to be what's known as a continuity announcer on standby in a sound booth near the MCR, their job was (and still is in the UK as all the big channels still have them, even if regionallity and how often they're truly 'live' has decreased) to announce any channel level changes. I.e keep people up to date with late schedule changes, announce the next program coming up, keep people up to date with technical faults etc...
When the director and producers are talking to presentation here, they are explaining to Carlton's central control what's happening, to allow Carlton to make any timing changes that might need to be made or put up the holding card as you saw on the 'off-air' (or as received from the transmitters) vision. Those holding cards used to be mandatory on live programs, as program links from the studios are not as reliable as they are today, and pres would need something to cut too if they lost signal or a similar scenario such as this.
The "main channel" as you refer to it essentially didn't exist at this point. Theoretically, every ITV channel had its own local output, and thus there was no national control. Of course, this was mostly cobblers, and as today regional variations were not the norm. The largest portion of programs would be fed to other franchises by means of them rebroadcasting each other, and having their individual MCRs cut away at the correct times for adverts. For this to work, timing is crucial and there were various means of communicating with the different franchises when things would be happening, including 'open TalkBack' and 'cue dots'. This never stopped the occasional cock-up though.
You can't hear the presentation director here (the one in the MCR working for Carlton), but they are likely talking over an open line to the other network control rooms currently rebroadcasting Carlton's content, advising them of potential overruns to the program, and whether they have enough time to have their own continuity announcers declare the fault and ask viewers not to go anywhere. Talking telephone numbers wasn't at a particularly sensitive time, so they could afford to overrun a bit. But Coronation Street on afterwards was fed by Granada from Manchester, so it was important to ensure everyone knew not to cut over their feeds too early.
But rambly, because TH-cam won't let me see what you wrote while I write. But I hope that answers some of your questions 😅.
I believe, by 1995, there was an ITV Network Centre and all programmes were patched through the LWT building which Carlton, GMTV and LWT all came out of. So Emmerdale would have gone Leeds > London > Network. TTT would have gone from Fountain into the South Bank then back out to Network. However, of course, those outside London wouldn't have seen the Carlton holding slide, these would be generated locally and the regions' incoming feed would still be getting the cockups. So "Pres" in this case would be relaying this all down an open line, or possibly the Red Phone, to each region's control room.
The "off air" feed is Carlton because they were in Wembley, if they'd been in, say, Norwich, then your "off air" feed would have been Anglia.
Is that Paul Smith who takes the call from Presentation when the vision mixer can't, and advises the director not to go home upset?
Definitely sounds like him
I remember this 😊
Stay VT! Good VT
Just wondering if the off-air recording is 100% as broadcast, because you can faintly hear the gallery voices in the background if you have headphones turned loudly enough.
Bleed through on the tape, especially if it’s an analogue recording. Happens sometimes
"Off air" is the name of one of the feeds that is piped around the studio complex - rather than watching what comes out of the gallery, they show exactly what people at home are seeing, so if there's a break in transmission or similar, the studio will know quickly. Anyway, likely it was recorded to the same tape "off air" on one audio channel, gallery on the other, so a bit of bleed.
Can someone explain the counting during the song?
I don't know all the ins and outs and the various people involved OR how the tech worked at the time, but roughly: A member of the production team will have prepared a shot list, planning cuts between the various cameras and zooming in etc to give a dynamic feel to the song, as was the fashion at the time. It wasn't all made up on the fly, I think this would have been prepared this at the rehersal. For example, it looks like at 21:05 we have shot 72, an arty zoom in by a camera into the keyboard player. For the live performance, the vision mixer needs to make all these cuts but they can't operate the desk and read from the shot list, so the PA (production assistant) is "calling the shots". They are counting to keep in time to the music, and to keep their place in the song, although at times this has gone out of the window due to all the fuss going on. She holds it together very well. Interwoven with the shot numbers are beats in bar 1, 2, 3, 4 so she knows where she is, but as muscians do, they will often count "*1*, 2, 3, 4, *2*, 2, 3, 4, *3*, 2, 3, 4, *4*, 2, 3, 4" so they can keep track of the bar and the beat. It looks like the shot 72 on the keyboard was planned to last 2 bars so she called "72.....(pause 3 beats) 2 (second bar), 2 (beat) , 3 (beat), 4 (beat), 73 (next shot, band in a line looking stoopid)". It seems a lot of the planning went out of the window and the vision mixer was guessing a lot of the time.
They come up with a timed shot list, but they time it based on the beats/bars. So she's counting the beats/bars and calling the shot number. So either she, or the person operating the vision mixer, hits the right cameras on the beat. It's super complicated, but for people who direct music on TV it's the way they work - there's a good example th-cam.com/video/DP2QOmN57iU/w-d-xo.html
Where did the talkback audio come from? As I remember Carlton TV never had any studios and all their programmes were produced by Independent companies, such as Celador
TVC Studio 1 I believe...
@@mikusguitarius Talking Telephone Numbers was at Fountain Studios, later to be the home of The X Factor.
At some periods (maybe not now) it was required to keep a talkback recording for compliance and complaints follow-up.
Talkback was in the gallery at Fountain. However, Carlton would have "presented" the show to Network - so it would have been routed through the South Bank where Calrton and LWT playout both were, before going to the regions. The individual regions wouldn't have linked up with Fountain.
Is there a date to this breakdown?
January - April 1995.
It seems like these errors were frequent as at 6:46 on this episode in february 1995 the VT clock shows up for a second th-cam.com/video/1FLhMJjKdJY/w-d-xo.html
Emma Forbes’s mom is ‘Nanette Newman ‘ fairy /aka Schofield’washing up liquid’ ads .
15:39 it being
So was the plunger random? They were panicking when the first caller changed his answer to the first question.
No, the plunger result was predetermined. It's discussed in the gallery as to how they were going to fill the lost time. Phillip requested to take three calls, which the gallery had already just decided upon themselves, so they deliberately put through two callers on-air who had provided wrong answers to the operator. The first caller changing one of his answers could have seen him win, and leave the show with much more time to fill than they had content to do so with. Luckily for them, one of his other answers was also wrong.
@@97channel Would love to have known what the next plan would have been if that was the case. Maybe get the Human League to perform.... sorry, lip sync, an encore I guess. Either that, or end early and force the entire ITV network to start running 5 minutes worth of trailers.
Philip is a pro
0:22
When the lady is counting during the human league what is she counting? It can’t be seconds
VT get your act together... 😉 In other words saying that there are transmitter errors was incorrect it was what they were sending out which was problematic.
MAD DOG MACREE
I guess talkback audio was recorded for a reason, not normally done so ?
It sounds like they record the off-air output for complaince/record keeping and perhaps they also keep the gallery talkback audio for reference along with it (someone mentions hearing the talkback on the off-air, which suggests it's one tape with the left/right channels doing both programme audio and the gallery.
Was this show live or pre recorded I’m confused? I’m assuming the bit at the end is live but the rest is pre recorded?
I think most of it was live, but some bits were recorded (perhaps because they were too hard to do live, or because people's schedules didn't line up).
Live with pre-recorded inserts
With live game shows some parts aren't live. In this case they would have recorded the number generation parts of the programme earlier in the day and the last part when they are talking to the people on the phone is live.
It wouldn't be easy to do the whole programme live because they need to know the numbers generated and varify with an independent adjudicator that the numbers were generated to the rules of the game. They would need to varify after each number generated, if those parts were live they would need to take a break after each number generation. Very few game shows are live because if the independent adjudicator feels that an answer is insufficient or the presenter asked the question wrong they can hold the programme.
What’s with all the counting?? 😂😂😂
She's counting the bars of the song so the vision mixer knows when to cut the various camera angles.
Ah yes I see it now
Yep, the UK generally does what's known as "bar-and-beat" mixing. We're one of the few countries to not really adopt systems such as CuePilot which is very popular in Europe for directing music.
@@jamesmt142 That's the Eurovision system aye?
Do the presenters hear the talk back feed to cos i would find that annoying and distracting
Phillip has said in his autobiography that they had 'open' talkback for Talking Telephone Numbers (e.g. where you can always hear the gallery), as opposed to 'closed' talkback (e.g. where you can only hear the gallery if a button is pressed)
@@JoshReid god would find that really distracting having to listen but ignore people talking in your ears
@@JoshReid Aside from I might think of Phillip these days, his ability to have all this going on in his ear and present the show is impressive. Particularly how he times the end of the show perfectly with the countdown. How do you do that with all the noise in your ear AND make it sound smooth and professional?
1:59
You're welcome.
What is the lady doing when she's counting numbers during Human League? She sounds like a deranged bingo caller.
phllp s is rude sane on p 2000 why have we stoped f
lily is sick xxxx
Are you devoid of fingers? What happened here?