Episode 9 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-laaa! #

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, and welcome to Help! My School Trip is Magic.

Our magicians are no longer supply teachers.

They're now faking it 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 have a school trip planned to a music academy today.

Music can be magical.

I've even got my magical invisible violin with me. Right.

HE PLAYS VIOLIN OUT OF TUNE

Oh, I just dropped it.

VIOLIN FALLING

Here...

VIOLIN STILL FALLING

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

VIOLIN LANDS AND BREAKS

HE SINGS HIGH PITCHED NOTE

John is the voice,

but he doesn't turn chairs round,

he turns heads with some smashing magic.

'Oh, bellissimo, magnifico.'

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

And later on I'll be picking my favourite.

It's our Wannabe Wizards.

As sure as eggs is eggs,

John will reveal the secret in Tricks Of The Trade.

And James is dressed as a courtier at the castle,

but will this trip be caught out with his spooky tricks?

HE PLAYS VIOLIN OUT OF TUNE

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

Do you?

CAT SHRIEKS

CAT MEOWS

We're about to have a ball thanks to magician John.

And what goes up must come down.

In size at least.

It's a big trick with a small golf ball.

And there's a big golfing expectation for Year Five.

They think they're getting on board for a normal school trip.

However, their parents and teachers know differently,

they're on a magical mystery tour to...

The Royal Academy of Music.

Famous former pupils include Sir Elton John, Katherine Jenkins

and Gareth Malone from The Choir.

Here they teach over 20 musical disciplines ranging from piano

to strings to vocal studies.

So, our magicians can play their tricks, string the kids along

and hit the high note,

we're giving them a musical make over.

John's an Italian tenor,

or should I say ten euros. Ha-ha.

And rollover Beethoven, here's Fergus.

Rolling down the road is the bus.

The unsuspecting kids are on their way

to experience a magical masterpiece.

# Mi-a-la-la-laaa... #

Sounds more like Fergus and John

will be creating a piece of music called Mayhem.

# La-laaaaaaaaaa! #

They better practice more as the class have arrived downstairs

completely unaware that Fergus is musically mixed up.

I just want to make sure I hit all the right beats.

All the right beats, beats, beats...

THEY BEATBOX BADLY

That's going to take some, eh, beating.

Meanwhile, the pupils are looking around the academy museum,

which includes the Stradivari violin

once played to Queen Marie Antoinette.

Our magicians are revved up for this one.

Come on, guys, no need to be 'violin-t'.

Their concerted efforts were worthwhile,

they're ready for the performance of their life,

as here comes their toughest audience yet.

-IN ITALIAN ACCENT:

-A good morning, boys and a girls.

How are you? You good?

STUDENTS: Yeah.

That's good. My name is Dino.

Dino Whatimean.

Dino Whatimean?

They don't know yet, mate.

Today, I going to talk to you about music.

You like-a music?

STUDENTS: Yeah.

Music, it come from the heart.

It's beautiful. You want to dance,

you want to sing, you want to move.

I love the music.

That guy definitely loves the 'muu-sic'.

How many people play a musical instrument? Who plays?

Oh, good, let's see what you play.

John plays a fool and likes to blow his own trumpet.

-What do you play?

-Piano.

The piano, we got lots of pianos here.

This is a piano gallery.

We got lots of pianos here, but do you know what,

we all got an instrument.

Every one of you bambinos, you've got an instrument.

What's your instrument? You tell me. What is it?

STUDENTS: Voice.

Your voice.

We can all sing.

Some better than others.

You know, in my hometown,

we have a myth that the tenors of Campobasso,

they could use their voice

to break the glass.

You get what we call a resonant frequency.

Say that for me. Say resonant frequency.

STUDENTS: Resonant frequency.

They're copying his dodgy accent.

You got a resonant frequency of the glass,

and the glass, it vibrates.

If I played a bit more,

it vibrate, it vibrate, it smash.

Now, I think we can do that today with your voices. Can we do that?

STUDENTS: No. Yes.

You won't need opera glasses to see this.

Listen, I got a beautiful glass here. Do you know what this is?

A beautiful glass?

This is a Venetian glass,

you listen to the beautiful sound of the Venetian.

That beautiful, yeah, that D minor.

They've noted it.

Beautiful, beautiful glass, we're going to try

and break the glass with our voices.

Here, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

I'm going to cover up the glass for your safety,

but more important...

for my-a safety, yes?

We're going to cover up the glass with this beautiful, little cover

like this, so that we don't get glass all over the shop-a.

His Italian impression hit a bum note then.

Here's what we're going to do.

We going to get a C minor, three octaves above middle C,

it's very difficult, very difficult, but you can do it.

OK, we have a little warm up.

We're going to sing the note, OK.

Just do this with me, you sing after me, are you ready?

Remember to watch the glass for some class magic.

# La-la-la-laaa! #

# La-la-la-laaa! #

Oh, you... I going to cry, I going to cry, that beautiful.

I'm filling up, too.

That beautiful. We do it again.

# La-la-la-laaa! #

# La-la-la-laaa! #

Very good. We're going to go a little bit higher.

# La-la-la-laaa! #

'This trick's going to be off the scale.'

That's very good. OK, I think we're ready for the note.

This is the note we're going to hit.

HE SINGS NOTE BADLY

Not quite sure John got that?

Can you hit that note?

STUDENTS SING NOTE

That's a little bit low.

You've got to lift it up a little. Lift it up, lift... whoa, whoa.

Wait, bambino, bambino, whoa, whoa, whoa.

We're going to go like this.

HE SINGS HIGH-PITCHED NOTE

-STUDENTS REPEAT NOTE

-That's good, OK.

I'm going to count you down. I'm going to count one, two, three,

you're going to sing the note. We're going to lift the volume,

get louder and louder and louder.

The frequency vibrate the glass and break.

-Here we go, you ready?

-We're ready.

Take in a big deep breath.

Uno...

duo...

quattro...

Tres amusing.

STUDENTS SING

And more. And more.

And more. And more. Argh.

Wow, the glass exploded

and so did my mind.

You break the glass.

Let's get a rewind.

STUDENTS SING

And more. And more. And more. And more.

Argh.

They hit the high note

and the glass, it broke.

Bellissimo, magnifico.

They can't believe their eyes or their ears.

It's beautiful. I want to throw you roses.

John told them about the resonance frequency.

It vibrate, it vibrate and smash.

The class reached the note and it was a major highlight

when it made the glass go, BOOM.

Some supreme magic led by the great soprano.

Encore I hear you say?

You're in luck.

Fergus bangs his magical drum with a trick that takes some beating.

Can I hear you make a 'duff'?

STUDENTS REPEAT

Now John is going to set you a magical challenge

in Tricks Of Trade.

If you fancy yourself as a magician,

here's a trick you can try

on your family at breakfast.

John is going to show you

how to stand an egg

on its end like this.

Did you actually do that one John?

Can you remember how?

Keep watching and you'll find out how to do it later in the show.

Provided that John gets his stuff together.

It will be awesome, we promise.

Back to the music academy in time for a second verse.

John's magic was beyond compare,

but can Fergus better his operetta?

It's time for Eine kleine nachtmagic.

So, my name is Trevor Cleff.

Trevor Cleff?

Sounds like treble clef.

But the class don't know the musical score yet.

I'm in charge here at the academy of all instrumental design.

I replicate things, I fix things, I do all of those things.

So, isn't it wonderful the things that we have around us today?

You'll have seen downstairs, we have a Stradivari violin,

dates back, it's like 300 years old.

This particular piano here is from the 1600s,

so that is 500 years old.

Isn't that incredible?

And a true fact.

Now, one of the things I specialise in is drums

and the design of drums,

so who here has played the drums?

Lots of you, very good.

Now obviously the drums are very, very noisy instruments.

Don't bang on about it, mate.

But what we're going to do is talk about the design.

So, we have here a drumhead

and here we have the plinth.

The plinth is the thing that the drumhead sits on,

so it's nice and stable.

Keep your eyes on that drum,

cos it's so magic, it'll knock your high hat off.

Now, often you have padding in the drum

and what that does is it reverberates the sound,

so it makes it echo. So, you get a really good, solid noise.

We also have drum skins.

They go on the front and the back of the drum.

And we're going to do that now

with some assistance from Dino, so over you come, Dino.

Dino is Bach...

I mean, back.

So, I'll place this one here, this drum skin, on the front,

and Dino will place that one on to the back.

There's nothing inside that drumhead or underneath it.

They're placing the skins carefully on the drum.

It's already starting to look a bit more like a drum, yes?

STUDENTS: Yes.

Shall we see if it sounds a bit more like a drum, yes?

STUDENTS: Yes.

They don't mind a bit of noise.

Oh, that doesn't sound much like a drum does, it?

Normally you get more of a 'duff'. Can I hear you make a 'duff'?

STUDENTS IMITATE

Put a couple of those together

and you could have 'duff duff' bit from the end of EastEnders.

Now, if you have a smaller drum like a drum with a thinner skin

and even more timbering you get like a...a 'ka-ch'.

-Can you do a 'ka-ch'?

-STUDENTS REPEAT

Good, and then you might have a cymbal, like a high hat,

like a 'ti-ti-ti-ti'.

So, can I get a 'duff-ch-ti-duff-ch-ti'?

STUDENTS REPEAT

That's right. Now, these drums will all go together.

Normally, drums aren't played on their own

because they're so noisy and loud,

so they'll be part of a bigger band or something like that.

Some loud magic coming up.

Watch the drum.

Dino? Do you know when the drum was first invented?

Yes, the first drum it was, it was in a...

KNOCKING

-What was that?

-Did anyone else hear that?

STUDENTS: Yes.

Where did it come from?

MORE KNOCKING

It's sounds like the drum, but that was empty, wasn't it?

This drum is playing itself.

It's playing a trick on them.

It's playing itself, that's...

OH!!

BOOM, a banging trick. It's Catherine.

Where did she come from?

She certainly a good stick.

It's Catherine.

And I'm Fergus.

Yeah, I'm John.

They're about to build to the big crescendo.

-John is not actually Italian...

-I'm not.

but he does love to eat a lot of pizza.

Gives a new meaning to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

And in fact we are...

magicians.

You've all been set up by your teacher, by your schools,

by your parents. There's camera, there's a camera there,

there's a camera there, and you're going to be on

Help! My School trip is Magic.

High-five.

A chorus of approval,

but what chord did it strike with the school trippers?

It was a really excellent trick.

John's soprano sorcery totally smashed it.

I couldn't believe when the glass broke.

I didn't know that it was going happen.

It was time to drum up support for the next trick.

When they slid the two sides,

there was no way that they could kind of get in.

There was definitely no space inside that bass drum.

When the lady came out from the drum

I actually knew their faces,

cos I've watched it on TV.

And now you're on TV, too.

I've never seen anything like it except for cartoons.

This Mozart-ful magic hit the school trip

like a bolt from the Blue Danube.

It was as pitch perfect as this shout...

-CHILDREN SHOUT:

-Help! My school trip is magic!

Still to come.

John shows you how to make boiled eggs stand like soldiers.

Have you worked it out yet?

And James is at the castle

to make them jump with his cabinet of horrors.

Will they realise their school trip is magic?

It really spooked me out.

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 our favourite Wannabe Wizard

and showing them to you guys.

My Wannabe Wizard this time is Jacob from Newtown Powys,

with two tricks for the price of one.

Hi, my name is Jacob

and I'm going to do a few magic tricks for you.

My first magic trick is going to change

one ace and three threes into four aces.

Wow. Sounds complicated.

Here is one ace...

and three threes.

One ace, three threes. Righto

Now, I'm going to change them into four aces.

But how?

Oh.

Abracadabra.

Now as if by magic,

which it is,

they've changed into four aces.

Blow me down.

My second trick is going to be with the magic goblet.

OK. That can make balls disappear and reappear.

Gotcha.

First, I'm going to put this ball in my pocket.

It's definitely not in the goblet.

Where is the ball? In my pocket or in the goblet?

It's in your pocket, mate.

-You think in my pocket?

-Yes.

I can tell you...

-you're wrong.

-Wow.

Now where is the ball? In my pocket or in the goblet?

-Duh, in the goblet.

-Think it's in the goblet?

-Yeah.

And I can tell you...

you're wrong.

Not again.

Where did it go?

It was in my pocket.

How did it get in there?

I hope you've enjoyed my magic show.

Too right. We have.

And thanks for watching.

You're welcome.

Here's card jester James.

Some might say he's not playing

with a full deck.

There's certainly not much on top.

I don't mean his shiny head.

With that, he's the heir to a magical crown.

This is Year Four mounting their mighty stead

for a school trip into the past.

And not so long ago they were set up by their teachers and parents,

but this trip is not simply educational.

It's not just historical...

it's magical.

It's a trip to...

Leeds Castle, deep in the Kent countryside.

It's been a Norman stronghold,

a Medieval palace,

a Jacobean country house

and a Georgian mansion.

And in more recent times, it's been home to James...

well, for about an hour.

We've put him in this courtly costume,

and he's already clearly feeling the part.

Today, I've been getting into character

by skipping gracefully up the corridors

and trying to talk as grand as possible.

Which I think has gone remarkably well.

This lot will be the judge of that.

They don't know it yet,

but this castle is going to give them the creeps.

CREEPY LAUGH

The castle we're in today is very old,

so we're going to play on that with the tricks,

and make it may be a little bit spooky,

and there might be some frights along the way.

Good job the coaches aren't here yet.

Oh! That made me jump.

And James better jump to it

and get to our room right with all the old-y hidden cameras.

While the kids feel the history of these hollowed halls,

it's time for James to get his story straight.

I didn't know they did the running man in Tudor times.

Here comes the class now,

and they're going to meet

our king of conjuring with some tales

that'll blow their minds and chill their spines.

-Good afternoon.

-STUDENTS: Good afternoon.

Wonderful. My name is Lou Scannon

and I'm dressed as a courtier from the Tudor times.

He said his name was Loose Cannon,

but it shot way over their heads fortunately.

I'm here to tell you about the most famous Tudor ever to live,

in fact one of the most kings of our country.

I'm here to tell you about King Henry VIII.

There he is.

Not literally.

Feast your eyes upon Henry's splendour.

Wow, if he's impressed with that,

wait till he gets a load of the magic.

Now, who can tell me how many wives Henry VIII had?

Yes, at the back.

-Six.

-Six. That's right, Henry VIII had a lot of wives.

None of the class have a sixth sense about James's real identity.

In fact, even though this castle predates Henry by 400 years,

it was renovated by Henry for his first wife Catherine of Aragon.

And I'm pleased to tell you that today

we have several artefacts to show you

from the time of Catherine of Aragon.

In fact, this, believe it or not,

was Catherine's personal jewellery box.

It wasn't. But this is where the magic fibbing begins.

Given to her as a gift by King Henry himself.

They're with him so far.

And you can see it has a little drawer at the front

with some jewellery in,

and on top, this is the most miraculous find,

is a small ring box.

And inside the ring box

is what we believe to be the actual engagement ring

of Catherine of Aragon to King Henry.

They believe it really belongs to the former queen.

This is very, very old.

Now, just going to pop that back in the box.

The ring is back inside the historical box.

Here at the castle we're very, very proud to have...

Something's caught their attention.

The box has sprung open on its own.

They don't know what to make of this.

Yes, OK, OK, OK, OK, calm down, calm down.

He wants the class to keep a lid on it. Ha!

Sorry.

It's very strange. Erm, where was I?

James knew it would open up, and is acting up.

That's right, Catherine of Aragon.

That's right, that's right. We were talking about Catherine.

We're very pleased to have such a large collection

of Catherine's possessions here.

They're watching that box.

Including the jewellery box and several...

It popped open again. This is creepy.

This isn't funny. I...I don't quite know what's happening.

The ring is still intact and...

-It did just move, didn't it?

-STUDENTS: Yeah.

The class are moved, too...

to nervous giggles.

-It wasn't just my imagination?

-STUDENTS: No.

It's very strange.

Some strange things happen when you're at the castle.

If we could just keep our eye...

-Oh!

-Whoa, the box jumped out,

but James hasn't been caught out yet.

Maybe, some things are best left untouched,

and we'll quickly put this away.

He claimed the ring belonged to Tudor queen

and trippers couldn't believe what they'd seen.

The wooden box popped open twice,

and then the class were spooked out

when the ring box pinged out.

Later on, will the trippers be scared witless

when they witness this...?

-She was one of the...

-Oh.

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

John will show you how to get an egg to stand up on its end

just like this one he allegedly did earlier.

Can you work it out?

Do you use double-sided sticky tape?

Well, you could do,

but John can't find the end.

Do you flatten the egg?

Not unless you've got a change of clothes.

Here's the secret...

You need to use a small amount of salt.

Pour out a small pile of salt

and balance the egg in the middle of it.

The egg should stand upright.

Now, blow away the loose salt around the egg,

it will leave just a couple of grains of salt

propping up the egg

and make it look it's standing up by itself.

Now, you're ready to show your family

and fry their brains.

It's back to the castle for some more magic of moats.

I mean, notes.

Conjuring courtier James is about to bring some history to life,

but will he scare the class out of theirs?

If I could show you this beautiful cabinet here,

which was a possession of Catherine of Aragon,

and kept in her bedroom next to her bed.

She had a big, four-poster bed with grand curtains.

-Most likely.

-Like this.

And inside are kept some of her possessions

that might have been found in the bedroom in the 1500s.

-Not really.

-Here we have a bell.

HE RINGS BELL

Not lunchtime yet, though.

Which Catherine might have summoned upon her ladies-in-waiting

and gone, "Please, please come help me,

"I would like my breakfast."

And ring the bell like so.

We also have this.

Who can tell me what this is? Yes.

Tambourine.

It's a tambourine, that's right.

And it would have been used by the court jesters

who maybe would have done a dance and a song for the king and queen.

That's very, very old, indeed.

And we have this,

which is a goblet full of jewels.

You can see many jewels in the goblet, which is very, very old,

and a very, very valuable thing.

Remember these objects.

And last but certainly not least,

a wonderful picture of Catherine herself.

Isn't she looking splendid?

Beautiful lady Catherine.

Looks more like princess Leia from Star Wars.

Now, let's just pop that back in there.

And if we close up the curtains...

Note, nothing funny going on at the back.

Now, in addition to this,

another interesting thing happened here at the castle

all those years ago.

-You see, it is while Henry was married to C...

-BELL RINGS

What just happened?

The bell just fell over.

That's very strange. Erm...

Most certainly is. Must have been a draft.

Anyway, what was I saying? That's right.

It was while he was married to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon,

-that the king met his second wife at...

-TAMBOURINE JINGLES

What? The tambourine feel out of the cabinet.

What on earth?

There's no-one in there.

And it's not a spooky coincidence.

That is very strange, isn't it?

Strange magic.

Maybe, we should just put that back and carry on.

Ah, yes. Every...everything's fine, everything's fine.

James is enjoying the charade, and it's not over yet.

He met his second wife Ann Boleyn

as he was married to Catherine of Aragon here at the castle.

-In fact, she was one of the...

-THUD

Oh.

Nervous laughter and hands over mouths,

this dastardly trick is definitely working.

They've spotted something untoward.

It's behind you.

That's alleviated the tension.

The picture's changed.

That's not Catherine of Aragon at all.

It's now a very strange looking man, indeed.

Putting it mildly, that's John.

Now, such things can go unexplained,

as you imagine, this castle is very old.

However, I do have an explanation for the happenings today.

Would you like to know the explanation to the wondrous events?

STUDENTS: Yeah.

You see this is not Catherine.

They know that much.

His name...

is John.

The truth will out.

And you see, my name is not Lou.

My name is actually James,

and I'm a magician.

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

and, you're being filmed on cameras there, and there,

and there for CBBC's

Help! My School trip is Magic.

CHILDREN SCREAM

Wow, that magic featured a strange presence from the past,

but how did the class remember it?

It was really amazing.

James displayed a cabinet full of items

apparently belonging to Catherine of Aragon,

and the bell fell all on its own.

When he showed us all the stuff, I was like, "Nobody's in there."

Then it was just really creepy

because, erm, the tambourine fell and all the jewels fell out,

and I was like, "What's happening?"

It's like the cabinet was alive. How was it happening?

He was one of the...

It really spooked me out,

cos..cos he wasn't touching anything.

The portrait of Catherine changed to a mugshot of magician John...

Now a very strange looking man, indeed.

I thought like I was dreaming,

cos I knew that possibly couldn't be real.

It was real all right. Really magic.

They didn't see it coming and they couldn't work it out.

-CHILDREN SHOUT:

-Help! My School Trip is Magic.

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 yourselves shouting,

"Help! My school trip is magic!"