A View from the Audience
Dawn Ploughman reports on the recording of A Little Learning, shot 13 February 2002

The live recording of an episode of My Hero is the culmination of weeks of work, and even then the task isn't over. The process is quite tiring for the audience, too -- after a three-hour shoot, you get really tired. I didn't realise how tired I would feel!

But there are perks to the job. For a start, you get to walk through the set on your way to your seat, so you can have a good look at the bedroom and living room. For the past two seasons, I've noticed there was a tile missing on Janet's fireplace. Being very nosey, I noticed they have now just replaced it.

Once the audience are settled, they're "warmed up", not with a burst of fire from George but a busy warm-up guy, Bobby Bragg. Bobby actually sticks with us all the way through the three-hour recording, trying to keep our spirits up, jumping up every time filming stop or they had to change set. Three solid hours is very gruelling. Plus, I'm not sure I could stand another three hours with Bob, simply because I went to a recording last month and his jokes didn't change!

It takes about 15 minutes to film a scene, maybe a little less. They don't rush around, but they definitely don't hang about either!

A Little Learning opens with Ella and Stanley deciding to have a 40th engagement party, at the Northolt Health Centre. Unfortunately, they haven't invited George, because Ella thinks he's a twit and says the wrong things.

George is upset and feels he has no friends. So he decides to make new ones and picks five from a telephone box -- not a wise move, and Janet tells him so! But it seems there is one thing that can make an Ultronian hyper-intelligent -- I'm not telling you what, it'll spoil the surprise -- and George is quick to try it. And try it. And try it. And give some to baby!

Meanwhile, Mrs Raven and Arnie get engaged. Arnie's petrified, but is too scared to tell Mrs. Raven how he's feeling. Besides, she's only doing it for his insurance!

The recording went well -- there weren't many mistakes. Philip Whitchurch, who plays Tyler, made a few, but it's more enjoyable when they mess up! That's what Aunty's Bloomers [the BBC's out takes show] is for.

Sometimes, Ardal O' Hanlon forgot his lines and then stands there pulling a Dougal expression as the cameras have carried on rolling. And in one scene, the director wanted him to be angry, and he couldn't be any more angry -- though he did try. Little things like that. Everyone's funny!

RELATED LINKS OFF SITE
• Read Dawn Ploughman's report on the recording of Little Green Man: Go

HOW MY HERO WAS RECORDED
My Hero was recorded at Teddington Studios in London.ClappersTickets organised free tickets for live TV recordings such as Des and Mel as well as My Hero. Paul Wood, who regularly attended every My Hero recording, had this to say of the experience:

"The recording sessions -- which are a lot of fun -- run each episode chronologically. They even run the title sequence.

"Any external scenes and special effects scenes are pre-recorded and played in to the audience in the correct sequence on the studio monitors. When Janet and George are talking with Ollie and Cassie, Emily and Ardahl do their bit live and the children's responses are played in on the studio monitors. This is sometimes a bit difficult, as the timing is a bit unnatural. When I went to see Paul Mayhew- Archer speak at the Faringdon Arts Festival, he told us that the 'conversation' that George had with Biggles / Malcolm - Ells's dog - was done this way, too.

"The only time I've known this not to be the case was the episode recorded on 5th June, when they couldn't film the opening scene because of very bad weather. So the scene was explained to us in detail, as the whole plot of the episode depended on it. However, last Friday, they played this scene in to the audience during a long costume change to get the reactions (it takes Ardahl some time to get in and out of the ThermoMan costume).

"So effectively (usually anyway), we see the whole episode in the order it will go out to air. Bobby Bragg - the warm-up comic and host - says before every show that he "can't promise, but we might - just might - get to see a scene more than once". In reality the cast and crew are so professional that things don't often go very wrong, but when they do it can be hilarious (often with expletives - especially from Emily and Lou)!

"I know that they use the live audience reaction (laughter, oohs and aahs, applause) when the programme goes to air - I just hope they use some of the outtake laughter as well - after all it does belong to My Hero.

"Even if things do go very wrong - and they had several technical problems last Friday - they always seem to finish a minute or two before 10 o'clock! Mind you, there was quite a lot of VT in last Friday's recording, which was probably just as well, or we'd still be there!