Episode 12 Help! My School Trip Is Magic

It's term time again

and our four magicians have left school on a brand-new mission.

But do you think you'd recognise them

if they were outside the classroom?

Do you?

Now's your chance, cos they're going deeper undercover

with new disguises, ambitious costumes and even taller tales.

# La, la, la, la! #

This time, we're taking unsuspecting kids out of school,

piling them on coaches and sending them on school trips.

They're off to visit some amazing locations

where they'll witness incredible magic.

-I was like,

-HE GASPS:

-"Oh, my gosh!"

And once again we're hiding secret cameras in every corner

so you don't miss a trick on any school trip.

The magic is bigger than ever.

Wow!

It might be term time, but school's out.

I can't believe our teachers did that.

How long will it take before the classes shout...?

Hello. It's me, Ian. Welcome to Help! My School Trip is Magic.

Our magicians are no longer supply teachers.

They're now masquerading as staff in some popular attractions.

And because we know you know them, we've disguised them even more.

We've secretly filmed the results with special hidden cameras.

Let's see what's coming up in today's show.

Fergus runs rings round this school trip to the museum.

There he is! Thank you, Alexander.

James can't stand keeping a secret in Tricks Of The Trade.

You've been sending in all your best magic tricks

and later on I'll be picking my favourite.

It's the Wannabe Wizards.

And the class don't know where this trip is blowing

when Katherine lets rip with some musical magic.

Do you think you'd be able to tell if your school trip was magic?

Do you?

When it comes to school trips,

John's always on the ball.

And this ball's about to become - that's right - small.

But plenty of big surprises to come.

This is Year 4 bundling on their bus.

They're going on the road for a school trip, but they've been

led up the garden path, as this is a school trip with a difference.

Yes, it's a day out of school, yes, it's educational,

but it's also magic.

Oh, no, we didn't!

They won't know what's hit them on their trip to the Geffrye Museum.

Named after a former Lord Mayor of London, it's a museum showing

how the interiors of homes have historically reflected

changes in society.

And it's time to change the exteriors of our magicians

so they won't be recognised.

The museum contains front rooms

ranging from 1600 to the present day.

But we're going back to a time before TV,

and it's going to be a big wind up.

The school are wending their way to the scene,

but what can they expect from our leading men today?

For the class today, I'm going to be Gerry Farthing

who's Victorian, but he's a little bit more working class.

-GRUFF VOICE:

-He's a little bit more "Now then, 'ow ya doin'?"

I'm sort of more of the butler character,

and Fergus, who's playing Alexander Ball,

he's more of the... He's more of the squire, you know,

so he's in charge of me although we'll see how that works out.

I think we can see who the boss really is in this corridor of power.

No time for slowcoaches -

they better bust a move cos the bus has arrived.

The trippers are sitting inside the historical sitting rooms

and drawing the old drawing rooms.

Let's hope they don't waxwork out that that's John sitting there.

Meanwhile, Fergus is doing a little throwaway trick

to test everything's working.

John's joined him now, and he's running through his vocal warm ups.

-Ooh, aah, eee.

-Is he for real?

Aye.

And if my eyes don't deceive me,

there are the kids.

My name is Gerry Farthing, this here is my squire,

this is Sir Alexander Ball.

We work here at the museum telling people about the Victorian era.

This is John's audition as a butler for Downton.

He's dumbing up with some magic later, though.

Now, of course, in the Victorian era they didn't have television.

They had no television, they had to entertain themselves

in different ways - they used to play games.

A bit like when John was a boy.

They played games outside, like football, they still had that,

but in the house, in the parlour, they used to play parlour games.

They used to have games likes this - we've got things like Ludo,

Snakes And Ladders and Draughts and all sorts.

All manner, all manner of games.

All real Victorian era games,

but Fergus is about to play his magical game on them.

Well, now, the Victorians did love a jolly good puzzle,

they couldn't get enough of good puzzles

and what I have here is a Victorian puzzle mystery box.

A box can be entered from the sides, the front and the top.

The first part of this particular mystery involved

two pieces of rope, one white, one red.

Now, what I'm going to do is place the pieces of rope into the box

and I want everybody here to keep your eyes on the ends.

Fergus's posh accent knows no end,

but I'm keeping my eye on the rope ends.

Can you do that for me?

-ALL SHOUT:

-Yes!

Very good, very good. Yeah, very good.

The class are psyched, but wait till they get a load of this.

Watch them closely.

So, the middles go into the box, and they come out the top,

and the ends stay outside.

Now, some of the more astute of you in the class may have noticed

the middles of the rope have linked.

I'm astute, but how did that happen?

Despite the fact that those ends never left your sight,

so those middles passed through each other.

Absolutely bamboozling - completely bamboozled those Victorians.

And you can see they're properly linked.

The ropes are linked, but they missed it.

There's more to come from this box of tricks.

Have a look at that there, have a look at that rope there.

-Just see if it pulls apart. Are there any funny bits in the rope?

-No.

Lovely. Well, if you pass me back the rope.

They've examined the ropes, but there's nothing ropey about them.

Well, if it's not the ropes, it must be the box. There must be

something else hiding in the box.

Absolutely nothing, no extra pieces of rope,

no funny business whatsoever.

This makes the second part of the mystery completely confuddling.

A real mind-messer. Ha!

So, if we take the white rope and the red rope once again,

we'll pass these into the box and pass them through the top.

So, here we go, just like so.

Now, at this point some of the Victorians would say,

"Hey, I bet those ropes are already linked",

but as you can see, nothing has happened yet.

Now, I will need two volunteers to come and help me

hold one end of the rope each.

Who'd like to come and help me?

-Yes, let's' have you. What's your name?

-Ruth.

Ruth, will you come up? And let's have... What's your name?

-Iggy.

-Iggy. Iggy, you come up.

A round of applause for the two volunteers, please.

APPLAUSE

Assisting in magic beats homework hands down.

Lovely. Now, Ruth, I'd like you to, with one hand,

hold both pieces of rope,

and Iggy, I'd like you to do the same. Lovely.

I'm going to place this quill... A quill's a thing that they used to

write with back many, many years ago before the invention of pens.

I'm going to place that in-between the ropes.

Could you lightly pull both your ropes very lightly?

Gently just pull them out of the box.

Lovely, so you'll pull your white rope, Iggy,

and you'll pull your red rope, Ruth, fantastic job.

Now, don't pull for the moment, just loosen slightly,

but hold on to those ends tightly.

Now, are we agreed it would be

quite impossible for those

two ropes to link as they are

clearly separate, yes?

-ALL:

-Yes!

Good, so if I remove the quill,

I'm going to place the red rope

into the box and place

the white rope into the box.

Now, I want you to hold on to those ropes nice and tightly,

on the count of three, you're going

to pull them out of the box.

Three, two, one, go!

-RUTH:

-What?!

And you can see - impossible!

They've linked, they've melted through and linked in the middle.

Wow! the ropes have linked inside the box. It's impossible!

It's mind-melting magic!

Well, it's rope-melting magic.

Remarkable! Can we have a round of applause for my volunteers?

The ropes are together, but it's not over yet.

The last part of the mystery didn't involve two ropes,

it actually involved just one piece of rope. So, er...

This man here on the end. Which piece do you prefer?

-White.

-The white piece.

Excellent, this is the piece we'll use.

So, I place this through the box

just like I did with those other pieces of rope -

enters the box and comes out the other side.

Here's the next part - we use a solid metal hoop.

So I'd like yourself...

have a look at the hoop, make sure it doesn't come apart,

no funny business, and then place the hoop back in my hand. Lovely!

So, a solid hoop

and a solid piece of rope.

The hoop is going to go into the box

with the piece of rope.

It only takes a few moments,

we just let that hoop settle

with that piece of rope.

Good tension building - they'll be open-mouthed in a minute.

I think now it should be done.

The inexplicable, boys and girls,

has happened.

Somehow that hoop has melted

onto the centre of that rope.

Isn't that quite remarkable, boys and girls?

The trick was inside the box, but the secret isn't out yet.

Fergus showed them his puzzling box of tricks.

It was empty, but the ropes mysteriously connected in the box.

What was going on in there?

Coming up - will it be hoop, hoop hooray

when Fergus ends up inside these solid rings?

Incredible! Now, thank you, thank you.

Now John is going to set you a magical challenge

in Tricks Of The Trade.

If you fancy yourself as a magician,

here's a trick you can play on your mates.

John is going to show you how to stop James standing up

by simply using one finger.

Can't be done, right?

Wrong!

If you can't work it out,

John will point you in the right direction later...

with any luck.

Back to the museum, where Fergus fooled them

with his hoop on a rope parlour game.

And John's about to go one better. Hoop-fully...

Another hoop game that they played was this one here,

which was called hoop jumping.

Now, hoop jumping used some of these things - big, horrible metal hoops.

Have a look at that one.

You have a look at that one, solid metal. Now...

Noted and verified.

You just have look at that, Sir Alexander, and maybe that one.

Now, the idea of hoop jumping was that people used to try

and jump in and out of the hoops.

They see where this is going, and they're happy to follow.

Now, if you're really good, you might be able to jump

into two or three hoops, but the record is ten hoops.

And they used to play this game in the dark, the Victorians, right?

They played a lot of games in the dark

cos they didn't have a lot of electricity then, not many lights.

Not many lights -

and soon they won't be able to hold a candle to Fergus' magic.

So they had to play it in the dark,

and what you had to do is try to jump into these hoops.

Now, Alexander here is very good at the game.

The game being magic, Alexander being Fergus.

Alexander can get into those hoops

in under ten seconds, boys and girls.

All right, mate, don't show off.

In under ten seconds, without jumping over the top.

It's remarkable to see. We're going to give it a little go now,

and we're going to do it in the dark, so I've got a curtain here.

John raised expectations, it's time to raise the curtain on this trick.

So, what we'll do, we'll count him down from ten.

We'll see if he can do it in ten seconds.

I want you to all count with me from ten down to one.

Are you ready? Here we go. Ten...

-ALL COUNT:

-Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four...

Here he comes, has he done it?

..two, one! And there he is - completely inside the hoops.

He's only gone and done it! He's gone through those hoops.

It's a tight squeeze.

Incredible. Now, now, thank you, thank you.

The class are suitably impressed, but there's more.

The incredible thing is that Alexander here,

good that he is, right? He's a good guy to work for,

Alexander can get out of those hoops twice as fast as he can get in.

Good job she's holding her head on - her mind's about to be blown.

Alexander's going to attempt to

get out of the hoops in under five seconds.

They don't believe it can be done. I'm not sure I do.

-Under five seconds.

-Five seconds?

I've never done that before in my life!

Oh, come on, sir, you'll be able to do it.

Now, boys and girls, you've got to count me down.

Who does he think he is? Houdini?

Are you ready? Here we go.

-ALL COUNT:

-Five, four,

three, two, one.

Zero - and there he is!

-Alexander - completely out of the hoops, there he is.

-Hey!

Thank you, Alexander.

Yeah, he's out of the solid hoops in one piece.

Not a hair on his wig out of place.

Sit yourselves down.

I've... I've got a little confession to make, ain't I? Now...

They've been dressed for the past, but now it's time to give

this class a little present and reveal the big secret.

Myself and Alexander, we don't work here, really.

This is really Fergus, in case you hadn't guessed.

He's heard of Fergus.

My name is John

and we're actually magicians

and you've been set up by your teachers and your parents,

and there's a camera here and there's a camera there,

and there's a camera at the back, there's a camera over there,

and you're all going to appear on Help! My School Trip is Magic!

CHEERING

The hoop trick has sent this class loopy.

But how did they describe what they witnessed?

I thought it was just epic.

The trippers were cock-a-hoop when Fergus showed them

his magical box of tricks.

My favourite bit of the trick was

when the pieces of rope joined together and the hoop was on it.

The hoopla hoo-ha got even larger

when Fergus leapt into the ring.

..one! And there he is.

He got through all of those big rings

and he couldn't have unscrewed them in that time, so...

And there he is. Alexander -

completely out of the hoops, there he is.

At the end they said they were magicians,

but I still couldn't work out how they managed to do it.

Magic, magic and more magic!

They didn't expect that.

How long would it take for you to shout...?

Still to come to come - John will reveal a secret that will

make you stand out in Tricks Of The Trade.

Have you worked it out yet?

And will Katherine be brassed off if these pupils

realise their school trip is magic?

ALL GASP

But first, we asked you to send in clips of yourself

performing your best magic tricks.

We received loads of clips

from all over the country.

Each week, I'll be choosing

a favourite Wannabe Wizard

and showing them to you guys.

My Wannabe Wizard this time is

Phillip from Shrewsbury

and he's a magician

with plenty of bottle.

Now, I've got a trick here, and I've got

a tube and a bottle in the tube.

Could you just take the tube up and show your bottle?

Two balsamic vinegar bottles.

OK, just put the bottle in your left hand, please.

And then take the empty tube and put it on top of the bottle.

OK. Now, all you have to do is do as I do.

So, we'll turn it once,

twice, third time,

and you should end up in the same place, like...

Mum's is upside down!

-You did turn it round as many times as I did?

-Yes.

She definitely did.

Can you just turn it so it's the right way up?

OK, this time let's spell out magic. Hold it this way up.

Both the same way up.

M...A...G...

I...C.

And you should end up like...

How did that happen?!

I... You've got to... I'll turn mine so it's like yours.

So we do it like this.

Let's turn it four times.

Once, twice, third and fourth time,

and you should end up like this because you did...

Third time unlucky.

He's pretending - he knows it's magic.

You end up like this, but you're meant to end up like this.

Thank you very much.

The pleasure is all ours, sir.

Here's magician Fergus looking smart,

as he's about to visit an academy.

He's got his pen ready, but he won't need it

as the next trip is all about music.

That's it now, he's ready for his next ROLL.

And the kids are ready to roll - out of the school gates

and onto the bus, ready for a day out with a difference.

And this difference may not be MINOR,

as it's going to be magic.

The only thing that the kids know is they're off to

the Royal Academy of Music.

Founded in 1822, it trains 700 students a year.

Its museum includes ancient instruments and original

manuscripts from composers like Purcell, Schubert and Mendelssohn.

And it's time to compose a new look for our magicians

to keep them undercover.

Eccentric for Fergus, strict for Katherine.

Not far away from their real personalities.

Also not far away is the bus.

Hope our magicians are ready for the performance of their lives.

I've never been any good at music, I'm still no good at music

so I can only hope today will go OK.

I think everything will be fine as long as everyone

does as they're told.

Wow, Katherine's not going to have trouble keeping the class in check.

And here they are now - ready to check out the auditorium

and soak up the atmosphere.

Fergus had Mozart on his mind, but it's time for magic.

The kids are looking at the orchestra pit,

but the best bit is coming up, and they won't know what's hit them.

Some last-minute fine-tuning in our magic room,

and it's time for the class to take their front-row seats.

-Good morning, boys and girls. ALL:

-Good morning.

My name is Ronald Key, but you can call me Ron.

Ron Key? Has Fergus started on a bum note?

And I'm in charge of the historical items, so everything that you see

that looks a bit old, like me, I look after those things.

Now, we have loads of old musical manuscripts, like this,

from composers such as Liszt to Schubert.

Could have been a longer List, then.

And these are ancient pieces of music that are irreplaceable.

So, what sort of things do you think we have to protect these

musical manuscripts from? Anybody?

Er, being sampled by Rudimental?

-Have a guess, yes?

-Don't rip the paper.

Don't rip the paper. Tearing.

Aha! A more sensible answer.

-Yes?

-Don't bite the paper.

-Don't bite the paper.

-Unless you're a dog

whose Johann Sebastian BACH'S worse than his bite.

I do that a lot, I get told off for that.

Yes? At the very back.

-From water.

-From water. Excellent.

Now, water is actually the biggest problem - it's the damp.

So what we've developed here at the Academy

is an anti-damp solution. An anti-damp solution.

And I think you'll all agree after you've seen this,

it is quite incredible.

This is going to be more magic than you can handle.

HANDEL - the composer!

So, here is some of Handel's sheet music.

And you'll see now what we're going to do

is see what happens when this music

gets wet after it's been treated with the Academy's anti-damp solution.

Handel wrote Water Music, so only natural for Fergus to use that.

So, what's going to happen now if I pour this water into the sheets?

-Would it ruin the sheets? ALL:

-Yes!

It would completely ruin the sheets, and these are irreplaceable.

Hope he knows what he's doing.

It's my responsibility to make sure these don't get ruined - but watch.

H2O, my gosh!

-CHILDREN MURMUR

-What are you doing?

They can't believe it. This magic's anything but drippy.

Now, if you watch, it will almost look like

the sheets have absorbed the, er... Absorbed the water, right?

But in actual fact,

all that's happened is that water has been dispersed.

I can't believe the sheet music is bone dry.

It's been dispersed in the paper.

But where? Moved off to the second movement?!

So, when you want that water to come back again, if you watch,

we need to remove that water, otherwise it will ruin the sheets.

Get ready to drink this in.

ALL GASP

Poor class - they don't know what's hit them.

That's amazing! Water, with a big hint of magic.

How incredible is that?

And these are the things that protect all of our musical sheets.

Spontaneous applause and it's music to his ears,

but they have no idea our maestro is magic.

Looking like a broody Beethoven, he was "hoven" a laugh

with his water music magic.

He poured over the musical notes,

the water went in, but they didn't get wet.

Then the water came out - but not his secret yet.

The class are thirsty for more thrills and spills...

-TUBA PARPS

-..but what's that noise?

Hope Katherine hasn't blown it.

Now it's time for John to reveal the secret in Tricks Of The Trade.

John will show you how to stop James

standing up by simply using one finger.

Have you worked it out yet?

Don't put your finger in his ear, John - urgh!

Now, it won't work by simply putting it on his shoulder.

However, if you put your finger here right in the middle

of the forehead, without using any real pressure,

James, or indeed anyone else, wont be able to stand up.

Your friends will be upstanding for an outstanding trick.

That is, of course, if you don't put the finger on their forehead.

It's time for another movement at the Academy of Music.

So far this school trip has been anything but dry,

and the pupils don't realise it's magic.

But there will be something funny about Katherine's symphony.

Good afternoon, class. My name is Claire Annette Reed.

Claire Annette Reed? Sounds like "clarinet reed,"

for which, read: Katherine's little joke.

And I'm a symphony conductor.

She's about to conduct some musical magic.

Although recently I've been travelling around the country

working with a lot of brass bands.

Can anyone tell me an instrument

that is a brass instrument? Any ideas?

A trombone.

Excellent. Any other brass instrument? Yes.

-Piano?

-Not a piano.

I'll tell you what you have to have to have a brass instrument.

First of all, it has to be made from brass,

and secondly, we make the sound with the instrument

using the vibration of our mouth.

Ron, could you just demonstrate that for us, please?

HE BLOWS A RASPBERRY CHILDREN LAUGH

That's Fergus' level, right there.

In fact, I'd like us all to have a go at that, please.

-They can't wait to get involved.

-Purse your lips together and blow.

ALL BLOW

OK, enough now, thank you. That's very good.

Passing wind has never sounded so tuneful.

Now, behind me we have our music cabinet which

we keep some of our brass instruments in.

-They're coming right up.

-HE SINGS A FANFARE

We've got some of the instruments which were mentioned.

Ron, would you mind just passing one of those out for me?

Thank you. Can anyone tell me what this is?

It's called a bugle, this one.

I love a toasted bugle - bagel!

And Ron, could you pass me out another one, please?

That's a mini trumpet!

What is this one? Very good, it's a pocket trumpet. Excellent.

-So this is our pocket trumpet.

-Have to have a big pocket, though.

And this is a beautiful one.

Can anyone tell me what this one is called? Yes.

-A French horn.

-A French horn, excellent.

I love a cream horn, myself.

French horn. And then, finally, this is my favourite.

I love this, it's called the tuba.

It's very heavy, the tuba, so we'll leave that in there.

Too bad she couldn't get the tuba out, that's a real BLOW!

Ah, well.

..the doors back up again. That's brilliant.

Now, can anyone else tell me, if we've got a brass band,

what else do we need to make it all work and come together? Yes.

There's an old expression - where there's muck, there's brass

but where there's brass, is there magic?

What we also need, we need musicians to play the instruments,

which is very important.

And can anyone tell me what else we might need in a band?

-Conductor.

-A conductor, excellent. That's my job.

I conduct all the brass band together

so we can make some fantastic music with the...

TUBA PARPS

That was my rumbling stomach.

Nope - definitely not me. I saw them jump in the room.

Did you hear that?

TUBA PARPS

That sounds like a tuba player.

It's coming from inside the cabinet, but it was empty!

HE PLAYS A TUNE

I know this tune, but where do I recognise it from?

It's our theme tune - and now my earworm.

Wow!

-APPLAUSE

-That was amazing.

It was amazing! Where did he come from?

Other than the Academy, of course, where he's a talented student.

But I have confession, everyone.

This is a real tuba player, but I'm not really a conductor.

In fact, I'm not even a semi-conductor.

John lent her that one.

My name's not Mrs Reed, it's Katherine.

And I'm actually called Fergus.

It's all building to a crescendo...

And you've all been set up by your teachers and your parents.

-I knew it!

-And you're being filmed right now.

There's a camera over there, there's a camera over there and over there.

You're going to be on CBBC's Help! My School Trip is Magic.

CHEERING

A well-orchestrated trick by Katherine and Fergus,

with plenty of oompah, oomph.

But how did the class chart its success?

It was really, like, weird. It was really, like, impossible.

Nothing's impossible when Katherine's involved.

She presented instruments from inside this otherwise empty cabinet.

There was nothing in there, cos they opened the box

and there was nothing behind.

It looked normal but sounded strange.

-TUBA PARPS

-Music with the...

He wasn't there, and then just like teleported in there somehow

and started playing!

An academy student suddenly appeared playing the tuba.

They all just started shaking and we were like,

"How did he do that? How did he do that?"

I want to know too, mate, but Katherine will not tell me.

All I do know is this school trip featured a catchy trick.

That's nothing. I can play the tuba.

TUBA toothpaste!

FALLING SLIDE NOTE

See you later, but till then, if you're on a school trip

and you think something magic's going on,

maybe you'll find yourself shouting "Help! My school trip is magic!"