On the Beeb

As part of the promotional activity for the Birmingham Exhibition we had three of the Emett machines appear on  BBC Television's 'The One Show' on Wednesday. To get the machines on screen for an all too brief appearance took over two days of work involving a number of volunteers.

It started on Tuesday when  David Griffiths, Simon Goodyear, John Whitaker, Steve Jackson and myself converged on the store room under the Merrion Centre in Leeds to dismantle the Featherstone Kite and transport it to our 'secret location' near Birmingham. The Kite, along with the Little Dragon Carpet Sweeper and Visivision machine were given soft protection and secured in two long wheelbase vans for the journey.

After an overnight stay the vans were driven down to London and directed onto the piazza at BBC Broadcasting House by the very friendly and helpful team down there and we were joined by another group of volunteers including Michael Crofts, Dave and Sue Watts.

Unloading the Little Dragon

The machines were assembled under cover on the piazza and turned on. All of them worked perfectly and without issues. They may look fragile but Emett knew how to build reliable machines. They passed the electrical testing carried out by the BBC and were left to attract attention for the afternoon.

 

Connecting.

Adjusting 

 

 Dusting

Testing

 On the Piazza.

Matt Baker does a little vacuuming.

Late afternoon rehearsals took place and hard on their heels the show itself started. The machines appeared on screen at the beginning and were left operating whilst the rest of the show was broadcast. Halfway through the threatened rain materialised and the machines were swiftly and carefully repositioned in a more sheltered area and re-lit by the BBC technicians. At the end of the show the machines appeared with a brief interview of Emett's daughter and of Adrian Hall who played Jeremy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The repositioning of the machines undoubtedly had an effect on the available time for their appearance but appear they did.

On air at last.

 

Claire interviewed by Alex.

 Adrian Hall interviewed by Matt.

Dismantling.

After the show the machines were repacked and transported to Birmingham where they are now in position and in full working order at the Museum and Art Gallery.

Thanks to Michael Crofts for the majority of the photographs. The crew at the BBC for their professionalism and the volunteers who made it all happen.