Episode 8 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.

HE SINGS

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, "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, Iain. Welcome to Help! My School Trip Is Magic.

Our magicians are no longer supply teachers.

They are now posing 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.

We've got a bit of culture on the show today,

with some wonderful classical ballet.

Can you guess what my favourite ballet is?

Swan Lake!

Here's what's coming up on today's show...

The Nutcracker.

Just start leaning a bit for me, mate.

Fergus choreographs magical moves that defy gravity.

It's RICELY does it,

when Katherine gives you a helping in Tricks Of The Trade.

You've been sending in clips of all your best magic tricks

and later on, I'll be picking my favourite.

It's the Wannabe Wizards.

And James has designed a device that causes disappearance

-and some 3D tomfoolery.

-No, it's all right. I know what I've done.

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

Do ya?

This is Fergus. He likes to think outside the box.

His cards are blue, but they're easily RED.

And it's a red-letter day for Year 5.

They get the day out of school, which is always cool.

What they don't know is that they've been hoodwinked at home and tricked

by their teachers, because this is one school trip with a difference.

They're going to the Royal Opera House - home of the Royal Ballet.

This school trip is going to start off normal and end up magical.

And so they don't recognise Fergus, he's going to start off normal

and end up beautiful.

And so he looks even more beautiful, we've enlisted John for contrast.

Only joking, mate.

The coach is effortlessly gliding its way towards its destination,

while our magicians are realising that dancing is anything

but effortless.

This is Xander, a dancer from the Royal Ballet, based here.

Showing our leads the nimbleness, strength and poise they require

if they want to convince the trip they work here.

Good luck with that, lads.

The kids don't know what's to come from their trip,

but they certainly won't be expecting this.

We're going to be doing magic that's inspired by dancing

and opera and the ballet.

Fergus!

Like I say, it's quite inspiring.

They'd better get a dance move on, cos the kids are here.

Whoa, it's Strictly Come Prancing.

I give that a seve-e-e-en!

The class are hot-stepping through the hallowed halls

and soon they're going to keep our fibbing magicians on their toes.

Last-minute checks on set, and while the cameras roll,

it's time for a final spin.

On their heels come the unsuspecting trippers, so it's over to the floor.

Good morning, boys and girls!

Good morning!

My name's Lee. Lee Outard.

I'm sure he just said his name was Leotard?!

Cheeky. Nice Scouse accent too.

Now, the Opera House has been here for over 280 years.

Well, maybe not THAT good, but it is a fact.

Who here likes to dance?

Lots of you.

Now, unfortunately, I don't have any of my top dancers here today.

But I do have my colleague and friend...

And magician.

-..Paul.

-Otherwise known as John.

Now, Paul is well-known for his performance

in the 1945 production Swan Lake,

where he actually played the Ugly Duckling.

Well, of course they all believe THAT.

Now, Paul's going to take us through some very basic exercises.

Now, Paul, let's start off nice and simple, like.

Let's do a plie.

Now, this I have to see.

It's very good. It's great. I'll give you a hand there, Paul.

He's not what he used to be.

Light on his feet, not as light on top.

-Now, what about pirouettes, Paul?

-Stand by.

-Great, that's...

-A thing of beauty.

You can tell he was once classically trained with that kind of technique.

The other thing we're going to do with Paul is a balance exercise,

so, Paul, if you make your way over to the mat.

John's happy to look silly, but soon Fergus will do some uber-cool magic.

So what Paul is gonna do is a basic stretch

that we get all our dancers to do.

He's going to lean over to a 45-degree angle.

Now, I know that sounds impossible.

Because it is.

And quite frankly, I didn't believe it until I saw it.

-You won't either.

-So, Paul, just start leaning a bit for me, mate.

Magic coming up.

And a bit more. And a tiny bit more. Come on, Paul.

No, Paul!

Well, that wasn't it! John went down like a sack of tatties.

But the magic really is coming up.

Like I said, Paul's not quite what he used to be.

Paul, clear that mat for me.

Give Paul a round of applause anyway for his efforts.

And for suffering for his art.

Now, I'm going to try and demonstrate

what it should look a bit more like. So what's going to happen now...

If I lean forward, what's going to happen if I lean further than that?

-Yes?

-You'll drop.

-I'll drop and fall over.

-You'd think.

But what we train our dancers to do is become exceptional

at this stretch.

Fergus is about to do the impossible. Keep watching.

Normally now, the average person would go to here and fall over,

but our dancers don't.

Whoa! That looks incredible. They think so too.

They can lean right at an impossible angle

and actually move on that angle.

How's he doing that?

It's impossible, right?

Fergus has defied the laws of physics!

And then they can come back to that resting position.

-Isn't that cool?

-Yeah!

They're impressed by his flexibility,

but they don't realise he's bent the truth.

-A bit more.

-Let's have another look at a cute trick from an acute angle.

No, Paul!

John fell headlong to earth...

but Fergus took one giant lean for mankind.

Do not adjust your TV sets - it's not wonky

and the magic's far from shonky.

Later, John rotates this screen and turns the school trip upside-down.

Now Katherine 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 try on your mates.

Katherine will show you how to lift this jar full of rice,

touching it with a wooden spoon, but not your hands.

"Can't be done!" I hear you saying!

Keep watching and you'll find out later in the show.

It's going to be awesome.

It's time to twirl back to our school trip at the Opera House.

Earlier Fergus was a lean, mean, magic machine.

It's time now for John to take centre stage.

-Good morning, boys and girls.

-Good morning.

-Welcome to the Opera House. Beautiful, don't you think?

-Yes!

It's marvellous, darling, absolutely marvellous.

So's your accent.

I work in the costume department.

It's my job to look after all these wonderful, beautiful costumes.

Shame about your own, though, mate.

Who can tell me, what do you think a ballet dancer might wear

for everyday shows?

Everyday wear? What would a ballet dancer wear?

-A tutu?

-A tutu. Very good. Yes. I was quite large when I danced.

I used to wear what we call a three-three.

Badoom, boom, tsh!

Now, obviously some of the costumes that we have to wear

here at the Opera House,

they are very, very grand.

I can remember once having to dance a Viennese Polka

dressed as an 8ft pineapple.

Yes. Very difficult, but I did run rings around the other dancers.

That joke had a familiar ring.

Now, one of the big challenges for all of the dancers here

is changing costume.

Sometimes they have to change quickly in the wings, which is

why I have developed this.

This is the between-scene changing screen.

I'm very, very proud of it.

The between-scene changing screen? That's a tongue-twister.

And I'd like to demonstrate it now with the help of my colleague, Lee.

-Thank you, Lee.

-John's laying on a bit of magic assistance from Fergus.

Now, we're going to let you have a little look at the screen now,

so we'll turn it around.

Wonderful.

There's nothing behind that screen.

All that's on it is a pair of pink tights.

Now, as you can imagine, in a ballet,

Lee might not have a lot of time to get changed.

So he can used the between-scene changing screen to get changed.

He's going to do that now, very, very quickly. Are you ready, Lee?

Remember, nothing behind that screen. Watch carefully.

On the count of three. One, two, three...

And away he goes behind the screen.

He's grabbed the tights. Here he comes! Whoa, he's changed!

That's not Fergus!

He can come out dressed as another... Hang on a minute.

You're not Lee!

-John's only just realised.

-Oh, yes, I am.

Oh, no, she isn't! But where has Fergus gone?

Are you sure?

He's not behind the screen. He's vanished!

Where has he gone?

Are you sure you're Lee?

I'm sure she's not.

Actually, no, I'm not Lee.

She's not Lee, but she's about to unpick the mystery.

I'm, in fact, Katherine.

This is one confused school trip.

Oh, and Lee wasn't Lee.

Lee was Fergus and I'm not me, I'm John.

Because we're magicians and you've been set up by your teachers

and your parents.

The penny's dropped.

There's a camera over here. There's a camera over there.

And you're all going to appear

on CBBC's Help! My School Trip Is Magic.

THEY SCREAM

Fergus vanished and Katherine appeared.

Quite literally a quick change.

But how did it change our trippers' lives?

We thought it was calafragicsuperlisticexpealidotious.

I don't know about Mary Poppins, it was more like "pop and lock 'em"

when Fergus showed them an incredible move.

I never knew he was going to be able to lean over without falling.

Then Fergus went behind the screen and something strange happened.

Lee, he can come out dressed as another...

I was like, "Why is it not a man?"

An even bigger question, where did the man go?

He vanished into thin air.

I thought that trick was amazing.

A big thumbs-up while I call out, "Fergus, where are you?"

It's time to hear the kids shout...

Still to come, Katherine will reveal how to lift a jar of rice

using only a spoon in Tricks Of The Trade.

Have you worked it out yet?

And Fergus is as flat as a pancake,

but is it more than this class can take?

That's not quite what I had in mind.

Or will the kids realise their school trip is magic?

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

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 Diana from Bradford.

My dad told me about a famous magician called

David Copperfield, who walked through the Great Wall of China.

I said, "That's easy," so I thought I'd do the same thing

with my pack of cards and a small piece of card.

-Really?

-So, I pushed the card through.

-Ta-da!

-Whoa, it went through really easy! Let's get a rewind.

So, I pushed the card through.

-The card is through the cards.

-Ta-da!

-Unless it's an empty box.

My dad said, "There are no cards in there

"or they've all got little holes in them".

I said, "OK, Dad, there aren't any cards in here...

"just a Great Wall of Steel."

-What?! STEEL can't work that out.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

James and Fergus, two magicians for the price of one.

Two coins in the hand are worth one in the fist.

He's waving his money around. Now there's only one pound.

That's for Fergus.

Double money. Double trouble.

Here comes even more trouble. Year 5 are already buzzed up

cos they're getting out of school for the day. This is Geona.

Remember her, cos she's going to be a start later on.

Their teachers and parents are fully in the picture,

but all this class know is they're off to the Design Museum.

Here they celebrate all kinds of designs, ranging from

domestic applications to futuristic inventions.

We've had to get inventive with our guys' disguises,

so they don't get recognised.

James is styling, Fergus not so much,

-but he's smiling.

-It's great for me today,

apart from the hair, which I am quite proud of.

I think the rest of it is, er, rockin' high street chic.

If you say so. The coach is drawing into the museum.

Fergus has done some drawings of his own.

Stick to the magic, mate.

The school trip's in full swing.

Here's Geona again, looking at some objects made by a 3D printer,

which has inspired today's tricks.

In a room elsewhere in the museum, the cameras are being camouflaged,

the clapperboard is being...well, clappered.

The magicians are walking the walk

and soon they'll have to talk the talk,

but will the class believe them?

They're in position, but how are they feeling?

A little bit nervous now.

Yeah, excited.

Excited nervous.

No time for nerves now.

Good to go. The eagle has landed.

Bird is approaching the nest.

Here they come.

They don't know it yet, but they're going to see

some great tricks that will tap into their imagination.

My name is Andrew Brunel, and I work here at the museum.

And today I'm going to be telling you just a little bit about design.

Fergus has designs on blowing their mind.

I've got a pretty cool prototype to show you today.

Who would like to see that?

Whoa, they're excited and they haven't even seen any magic yet.

Right, well...have you heard of, like, those automated lights you get

in your houses or the schools,

and you can control them all from your mobile phone?

You can control the lights or maybe you've got a remote control.

They're pretty cool, right?

Well, this is designed for the plumbing in your house.

This is a three-dimensional schematic model,

which will enable you to control your plugs,

your taps, and your toilet flushing.

THEY GIGGLE

Toilet flushing, always funny.

Who's been at home and, say, run the bath and then they go downstairs...

They might stick on the telly or you might start talking

to your mum or dad or whoever, and then you realise

you've forgotten to turn the taps off

and you've nearly flooded the house.

That's happened to me many times.

That's true, but this prototype isn't - it's magic.

This process called Mind The Tap will stop that from happening.

So imagine this one here,

this plug here is plugged into your bath, right?

So you run a nice, little, hot bath.

You're going to have a relaxing evening.

You put the plug in, brilliant. Done.

Then you go downstairs and you go to put this plug in the sink.

Yeah? As you put this plug in the sink, in order to stop

the house from flooding,

Mind The Tap will unplug the plug from upstairs.

It's cool, isn't it?

It's cool, but not a trick yet.

The two taps are just connected by string, right?

Now, let's say you're downstairs and you want to go back upstairs

and put the plug back in the bath.

This plug will come out of the sink automatically. Check it out.

Whoa!

Well, that still figures - they're connected.

Isn't that cool? But Mind The Tap

is so sophisticated it's actually got little sensors on here, right?

Little sensors that will recognise

when a plug's been unplugged like that.

And it will allow you to put one straight back in.

Hang on, that makes no sense.

If they were connected, how could Fergus do that?

Now, the only problem with this particular prototype is

if both plugs want to be in at the same time...

Whoa, both plugs are down together, how is that possible?

Magic, that's how.

..it confuses the little sensors here. That won't work.

It's confused them too.

The amazing thing with this is that it all works on Wi-Fi,

so there is no cable connections.

Wi-Fi? More like "what-was-that-fi"?

-How cool is that? Who'd like one of them in their house?

-Me!

That invention was credible, but the trick was incredible.

And Fergus is about to pipe up with some more well-designed magic.

Once you've got the prototype,

you need to start thinking about how the design looks.

Yeah? You all agree with that?

Yeah!

Yeah, but who designs YOUR look, Fergus?

I need to have a word with them.

The great thing about the classic designs is

they can be recognised just from their silhouette.

So every item and exhibit we have going, I create a silhouette.

I've got very good at it and very fast.

I'm a bit like, er... the guy that's in that film...

and he's got those scissors for hands...

Edward Scissorhands.

Bernard Scissorchops. That one.

Not too many jokes, mate, they might trip you up.

I'd like to demonstrate this, but I'm going to need a helper.

By which he means magic assistant.

-We'll have you. What's your name?

-Geona.

-Will you help me?

Round of applause...

Told you to watch out for her.

She's about to star in Fergus' next trick.

Geona, I've got a bag here of lots of different designs.

Can you see all the different designs in there?

So...that is a vacuum cleaner.

See that one? What else we got?

We've got a squeezer on that one.

And we've also got a phone box on that one.

So, what I'd like you to do, Geona, is to reach in

and take out one of your very own designs.

You happy to do that?

So, go ahead, just reach in, take one out and I won't look.

Geona's choosing a design.

Got one?

OK, and then what I'd like you to do, Geona, is look at it,

remember it and go and sit back down.

She's happy with her choice.

Geona, I want you to think... about the design, OK?

Fergus has got scissors,

but has he got the chops to correctly guess Geona's design?

Whoa, watch his fingers of fury.

He's quick, but he's not taking any shortcuts.

He thinks he can read her mind,

but he's about to blow the minds of all her mates.

Lightning hands!

Geona, I've made an image.

Can you tell everyone what image you took out the bag? What was it?

It's a telephone.

A telephone? Be impossible, wouldn't it, if I'd made a telephone?

So you'd have thought.

Can you get up and show the card to everyone, the one you took out?

It's a telephone, right?

Look, it's an old-fashioned telephone

and look at the design that I made.

THEY GASP AND CHEER

It's an old-fashioned telephone, but it's a cutting-edge trick.

The class are impressed,

but they still don't suspect that this school trip is magic.

Fergus impressed them with his disconnected misdirection

and his super silhouette skills.

The trip's about to take an even more surprising turn

when James gets involved and gets a reaction that's anything but flat.

Now it's time for Katherine to reveal the secret

in Tricks Of The Trade.

Katherine will show you how to pick up this jar full of rice

using only a spoon.

Do you jam it in the neck of the jar and lever it up?

No, the head of the spoon won't even fit.

Do you lift the jar from underneath, using the spoon?

No, that won't work. Here's how.

Simply tap the jar on the table a couple of times and then push

the handle of the spoon down the jar as far down as possible.

Give it some welly, Katherine.

Then pull the spoon up and the rice will contract against it,

lifting up the jar.

That's a great trick for you to take away.

Talking of takeaway, that's made me hungry.

Both plugs want to be in...

We've already seen technological untruths

and well designed magic at the museum and now it's James' turn.

Right, now, technology moves so fast sometimes

it's difficult to keep up with it.

Every two seconds there's a new phone or a new gadget.

And part of my job is to stay one step ahead with the technology.

Now, this is our prototype 3D scanner.

OK, so 3D scanner, that sounds plausible.

At home you might have a scanner, put a bit of paper in it.

But this one can scan three dimensions.

So you can put objects in it, like toys,

and make a copy of that and store it on a computer.

They totally buy James' disguise

and I think they'd like to buy the scanner.

This is one of our top-secret ones at the moment,

because this one does something special.

-Do you want to know what that thing is?

-Yeah!

They'll soon find out what's special about it. It's magic.

OK, well, this one, as well as doing inanimate objects,

this one also does living things.

So it's a bit more advanced. It can do plants and animals.

Even humans.

And that's what we're going to do today with help of Andrew.

Come on, Andrew.

Andrew, remember, is Fergus' alter ego for the tricky trip.

Right, what we're going to do is take the front off this box.

So obviously it needs to fit something quite big.

-So, Andrew, Andrew, you all right? You all right, bud?

-Yeah.

Right get in there and watch your head on the top, go on.

Fergus is climbing into the 3D scanner.

Don't copy that at home, or 3D scan it.

Now, Andrew, it's going to go a little bit dark.

-Just putting the front of the box on.

-I don't really like the dark.

Bit late to tell James you don't like the dark now, mate.

Now, what we have to think about now is,

cos Andrew's quite complex in many ways,

it's important to get all the details right.

So first of all, he's human.

Like most of you in this room today, he is a human.

Apart from that, we need to get his size.

So what do you think? Large...

-Small!

-Small?!

Good job he's small, it's a tight squeeze in there.

Fine. Now, what we're going to do,

is I'm going to turn the handle here

and what will happen is the machine now will scan him

in three dimensions.

Inside the...

Whoa, what's happening?

It's flat-packed Fergus. That's not quite right?

Um...all right, settle down, settle down!

-That's 2D!

-They're right, he's in 2D.

Didn't James say this was a 3D scanner?

That's not quite what I had in mind there.

Um...but it's all right, it's all right.

Look, cos if you remember,

that's not actually Andrew - it's just a copy.

See, Andrew luckily is safe and sound inside the box, look.

There he is.

Eh, he's disappeared! They can't believe it! Where's he gone?

James has gone in for a closer inspection. Definitely not in there.

Right, no, it's all right, it's all right.

I know what I've done.

What I've done is this, look, see...

-Maybe that 2D pic IS Fergus.

-I had it set on 2D.

I think what we'd be able to do is if we reverse the process...

Put that on 3D and give him a little wind in,

hopefully what'll happen is reverse the process.

James is winding Fergus in and winding the class up.

..which should mean that the internal gubbins of the machine

on the X, Y and Z axis should mean that we're OK now.

So hopefully...

Oh, there he is.

Phew! We had more of the series left to film. Good job he's back!

He looks a bit dishevelled.

Sorry about that, sorry about that.

Oh, ooh, watch yourself, watch yourself.

Oh, your glasses are all wonky there.

They SCAN do magic, now they should tell the truth.

Thank you, Mr Comran.

Now, we actually have a confession for you

here at the Design Museum today.

We don't really work here.

And we are both magicians

and...there is a hidden camera there,

and there's a hidden camera there, and there's a hidden camera there

and you've all been set up by your school

and you're going to be on CBBC's "Help! My School Trip Is Magic!"

No wonder they're excited!

This 3D magic has taken them into another dimension.

That trick was totally radical.

The machine now...

Fergus went into the 3D scanner, but came out flat.

Where did the original go?

My favourite bit was when he disappeared

and I was surprised, because I didn't know where he went.

Inside the box, look...

He vanished, but James had a plan.

He was gone, then he reversed it and he was back.

I was like, "Wait, how did THAT happen?"

Oh, there he is.

It was all as if it happened by design.

It was really fantastic. I loved it.

It was an inventive trick and the class didn't suspect a thing.

See you later, but until 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!"