TV Secrets Revealed!

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1:11Hello and welcome to another edition of The Rest is Entertainment, the questions version of the show. Questions and answers. Remind us again who you are. I am Marina Hyde. Thank you. I'm Richard Osman. How nice to see you again. Very nice to see you. On the last show, we were worried that you were getting iller. Do you think you're iller now than you were? I think I'm not fully recovered. Let's put it that way. Yeah, okay, well listen, let's make this, we'll do it like a five minute. But make me sing for my supper. We'll do a five minute-er. Yeah. Yeah. Can I start with you? Please. Listen, I hate to ask you this question when you're ill.

1:43Peter, thank you Peter, asks, without being crude, I love a question that starts without being crude. Without being crude, in a sex scene, are the actors essentially dry humping each other, or is it carefully angled to avoid even doing that? Peter, I mean, I like you say without being crude, and then you're immediately crude. I don't know quite what else Peter could have been. And actually, in a lot of these scenes, there isn't really much else that they can do other than that. As you've said, there is a sort of thin gauze. It depends how much you're seeing. The way these things are done, and nobody likes doing them, these days when you see relatively pretty explicit sex scenes, there's not a lot they can do.

2:19They've got a thin gauze, they've got a closed set, sort of minimal crew, but they do now have intimacy coordinators. Now, that's really only taken off in the last five or six years because it used to be the producer who would negotiate between the directors and the actors and their team what they will and won't do and obviously that way quite a lot of people felt pressurized into things because the producer or the director are the people who've given you the job in the first place so you feel like and the actors felt pressure and actually i spoke to a producer about this specific question and he said it was so shocking i was once on a set we didn't realize until afterwards but essentially a sexual assault happened and the director had bought in champagne the actress was really nervous about doing the scene the director bought in champagne really early in the morning and only afterwards did she say in the makeup trolley something happened to me this does not happen anymore now in a world where you have intimacy coordinators there are nudity riders this is huge nudity riders is a whole new thing that's the name of my band nudity riders absolutely and which bits of your body you'll show how much you will or won't show of that piece of the body something like euphoria hbo's euphoria which has obviously got masses of sex in it.

3:28They can have huge numbers of nudity riders per episode and someone has got to go through and do every single one of those. And it's a sort of legal document, so it's quite a big deal. The Idol, oh dear, rest in not much peace. I mean, episode three of that is genuinely one of the worst things I've ever seen. I've strongly advised getting all the way to episode three just to see if you want to see one of the worst things you've ever seen. Anyway, but they will have a lot. And actually it's so specific that sometimes they'll say, oh no, no, no, they can only hook up in the front seat. They can't hook up in the back seat because you haven't signed off on that.

3:57So it's very, very regimented now. And this is designed to sort of put protections in for any of the pullman's. And I must say that in general, what is regarded in the industry is a lot better, but you have much more closed set. I mean, I was filming something the other week and it really was a sort of comedy moment, but because it involved a sort of, I suppose, an illusion of intimacy or something, it was a much smaller set, much fewer people are allowed in. If you're working on a good production, you're looked after. And it's 100 % one of those things. there's an awful lot of things you know the boxes you have to tick these days in tv but intimacy coordinators is the one thing that universally you talk to any actor they're all delighted with it it's you know it's a simple process a coordinator comes to both you say where are you having to be touched where you're not having to be touched you talk it through without as you say without the director without anyone who's directly employed you and all actors i think are like gosh i'm glad this happened because this is not how although i saw a funny interview with um damien liz hurley who of course i'm slightly obsessed with like all people this is liz hurley's son who's recently directed her in some film actually quite explicit apparently and they said do you have an intimacy coordinator he said no we don't need any of that wow oh my god something pretty mesmerizing about the whole thing but yeah anyway there we go we move on we move on we move on richard please can i ask you about oh i love this one jeffrey edsdale says is there any reason why contestants on game shows cannot look as well dressed as the host yes for example why can't men wear a suit and tie it seems all contestants men and women are only allowed to dress as if they're popping down to the shops gosh it's a good question i i spoke to the lady in charge of wardrobe on house of games and lots and lots of other shows sharon smith i was talking to her about it and so she has done shows for years where members of the public come in and have to be dressed in certain ways so i said but i did say yeah why you know something like point this why why why don't people wear suits and ties she goes well they're used to 10-15 years ago people would turn up with lovely jackets and shirts and people wear ties and all sorts she said over the years everyone's got much more casual she said on most shows what you are told in your briefing is dress as if you were going out for dinner on a saturday night that's the sort of general thing which is you know you get that feeling that you're sort of having these people invited into your house on a saturday night yeah and i would like the host to be looking like excuse me you're professional and you will be wearing the suit and then anyone else to just look like they might be coming around to yours on a Saturday night.

6:17Yeah. Have some spaghetti bolognese. Exactly. Yeah. But she said people used to be dressed much smarter. Everyone's much more casual these days. Now, there's lots of rules about what you can and can't wear if you come on television. And certainly if you come on something like House of Games or Pointless or The Chase, any of these shows where you can go on multiple episodes, you have to bring more than one set of clothes. You can't wear anything white, bright white. That doesn't react well with the cameras. You can't wear anything jet black either. that reacts with the cameras. You can't wear anything with a logo on it.

6:48Even the tiniest little logo. You can't have a little Adidas logo or anything like that. So if you start thinking about your wardrobe and the things you can and can't wear, you can't have anything with a close check or a close stripe because the second you put them on camera, they strobe. There's just something. They literally, you can see it like a heat haze. And so what you'll see in between shows on any big entertainment show is wardrobe will come out and hold up contestant's clothes to camera and in the gallery they're looking to see if it strobes or not and you can see it, Paul, because wardrobe like any department in TV, they want people to wear great clothes that's all they really want and sometimes you see Sharon coming out on House of Games and she'll have this jumpsuit and she'll be holding it up and you can hear in the gallery they go, no sorry, it doesn't read and she's like, oh come on and she's like, no Sharon, it's not coming she'll stomp off because that's the thing that she most wanted.

7:45So essentially if you're a contestant on something like Pointless you're bringing, you might be there three days you bring six outfits. So if you think about you at home, six outfits no black, no white, no logos no stripes, no checks you know, suddenly you're sort of... Three things left. Yeah, exactly. But Sharon and her brilliant team you know, they'll always have spare stuff around there. She said there's one top, she said, here's an easter egg for Pointless fans. She said there's one top we've had in the wardrobe room for about 10 years. She said, I think it's been worn 20 times on Pointless by different contestants.

8:18She said it's a rust and black covered, quite a sheer top that she puts under different jackets. And she said, so if anyone really wants to do a deep dive, they'll see that top time and time again. So as presenters, you can sort of wear what you want as a truth, but as you say, there's a, you have to look smart. And, you know, we've always worn just jacket and shirt on Pointless, but on House of Games now, I'm getting a bit more into knitwear, things like that. But the lovely thing about having wardrobe there is they're incredibly good at knowing what suits you. So over the years, certain things that I've worn on TV, I then wear in real life.

8:55Yes, you've had a stylist. Yeah, exactly, without even thinking about it. And sometimes you don't really get to take the clothes home. But if, for example, say Sharon has bought a shirt to wear on the next series or something, and she camera tests the shirt and it fails the camera test, it strobes or something, I can have it. Yeah. Okay, then I can take that home. So, you know, in my wardrobe, I've got lots and lots of very fine-checked shirts and things that have failed camera tests. But it's the same with contestants. So many times a contestant will come along and they'll have a series of things and Sharon will say, have you thought of wearing maybe something different or wear this?

9:31And they go, oh, God, I would never wear that. and their partner will go, you know, well, maybe you'd look nice in that. So like a guy will go, okay, I'll try it and completely transform what they wear for the rest of their life. It's essentially a makeover show as well. Yeah. I mean, just unofficially. Yeah. It's the same with makeup as well. The makeup department, they'll get people in and they'll make people up in a different way because makeup is so personal and also you don't want... And everyone gets stuck in a rut and does the same thing for 10 years. Exactly. Those are the most successful articles about makeup.

9:59Like, are you stuck in a makeup rut? Yes, we all are. Of course I am. And for good reason. and so suddenly you change your make because someone does your make up in a different way and you know it changes it forever so the truth is people bring along something they feel comfortable in there is a huge limitation of what they can and can't wear but they can absolutely turn up in a suit and tie it's just most people choose not to I guess it's quite showy also you don't see other contestants doing it before so there's that in groups like you know subconsciously you think I won't do the same and also I don't wear ties and it looks like you're trying to be the host that's what I would feel exactly and we'd be like who's this guy yeah who's this guy in a suit yeah come on mate when you're in your knitwear oh can i say one other thing that sharon said which again this is about how much people care if you come on pointless let's say you bring like three outfits and she says the thing that breaks her heart is when a couple come in with great clothes and she and she's just like oh my god i cannot wait to see them dressed in these she said they always win on the first show and then go home she said it really upsets her oh no she never got to see their outfit never got to see the other lovely outfits another one for you marina i'm so sorry to ask you about sex and nazis but that's where we're going so far inevitable neil fraser listen you you have a speciality yeah people what can i tell you people come to know you for things neil fraser asks having recently watched the zone of interest and operation finale in these films do you need to clear the use of nazi symbology that's an interesting one okay well this is quite a quick one because it is actually in this country it is and in the u.s it's legal to use it for educational and artistic purposes, and that's films, video games, you don't have to clear any of it.

11:31In Germany, it is not legal. They have a huge amount of legislation about this, and to the point where even modelling kits in Germany, if you're modelling World War II planes or a whole battle scene, they come with that bit scratched out, or for the German market, it won't have the swastikas showing. Even at air shows, things like Finnish planes, which also had swastikas on them, they have to put a tarpaulin over it, So you can't see it. That's quite interesting. I don't know what Neil's planning. Listen, it sounds legal, Neil. Go ahead with it. Can I ask you another very short one then? Please do.

12:06Again, about filming. This is from Stuart Haddo. Showers. Yes. He's talking about sex, Nazis, showers. Three quadrants. Now my fourth, I'm sure, in the final half. Steam must be an issue when filming any sort of shower scene, says Stuart. Does this mean that every time you see someone showering on screen, they're actually enduring a cold shower? Ha ha. Well, Stuart, you're right. It is an issue and they cannot have a hot shower. There are things that you can get anti-fog sprays and whatever. It doesn't really work. So generally, it will be a pretty lukewarm shower. If they were having a cold shower, obviously, you can't help but draw breath and be sort of squeaking.

12:39So they wouldn't have that. But they would use sort of warmish water, but a vaporizer to create the practical effect because they want to correct the effect of steam. Oh, of the heat. Yeah. So just to create the practical effect always. but also if you're working on something that's quite high budget and therefore they have built a shower for you say you're James Bond in one of the James Bond movies and you're in a shower that will have been built on a stage therefore it is pretty ventilated it's enormous and so it's so if you see Bond showering he's not in some little hotel room he's in a massive sound stage they haven't got a huge crew no because there's so many cameras on things like that so no he will be they will have rigged that up on the stages at Pinewood I think in that case I would watch a film and I think you'd make a lot of money from it that was split screen, which was the film and a wider shot of the filming of that scene.

13:26Wider shot of everything is amazing. Actually, well, funnily enough, if you like that, then I'm working on a TV show where you might see quite a lot of that. Oh, really? Yes, because it's all set behind the scenes at the film studio at which it is set. But... No, but I would want to watch the filming of you filming that. The filming of you filming. Well, yeah, you can pull back forever and ever. Funnily enough, God, I remember the... What was it? We had so many elections. the 2017 general election where Theresa May did a lot of events and they would have these events. Where's this going? Well, you would see these events and you'd see the news photograph of it and it would seem like she was surrounded by a crowd of people and then the media became so annoyed that the events were so stage managed and that they weren't at all open to the public.

14:07So there would be a few activists who were invited local Tory activists and if you saw a tight frame, you'd see Theresa May and lots of people around her. You'd think for all the world she was in an open crowd. then someone would pull back you know just with their iPhone and take a picture and it would be a massive empty hangar and there would be you could see it was just a completely secure environment and there were some people invited people with placards it was entirely staged it was honestly like a movie staged you were constantly in these kind of corrugated barns where these scenes were being staged and that whole election was really like that you didn't really feel you were meeting the public or they were meeting the public at all but of course everybody is a camera person now so they can just pull back and show you what it was actually like and people became so pissed off about like being shut out of everything that they were constantly posting on twitter now x what it really looked like and so you did get that thing and i think people realized that the whole thing was being controlled beyond all belief i love i love that that sort of thing so much i remember doing a red carpet photo once with i can't remember who it was with someone i was in a tv show with and and i had to bend down so i just bent my knees down to be the same height and then i saw the photo later and it was a full length one so it's just there's me like a kind of 1920s policeman with my with my knees bent yeah i any photo where you pull back on what it actually looks like yeah things like red carpets are fascinating because you sort of slightly always imagine that there's a small bit of red carpet in front of a venue and when they're these huge events like the golden globe sometimes they're in a load of tents miles away or you just see this massive like miles and miles of this stuff three different speeds of photographers public who's in the front row of all of this.

15:44It's insane. And I think people are really fascinated by that to see what the wide angle shot of it all looks like. Yeah. Behind the scenes, behind the scenes. Yeah. House of Games is the only show in history where the studio is bigger in real life than it looks on telly. Normally you go on BBC Breakfast or something and it's amazing because it's like you see the bit that you see on telly and then around it is just sort of people eating sandwiches and, you know. Yeah. They defy physics. They seem to go on for miles, you know, stretching the distance. But yeah, they are very small when you get in there.

16:11Stuart, we got an awful lot from that showers question, didn't we? Sorry, that wasn't a short answer at all. Okay, I think it might be time to go to a break.

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18:07welcome back everybody i'm going to start with a question for you richard about race across the world we have had so many questions about race across the world which as we said on the last episode is is out now it's really good it's a terrific series okay simon pickering would like to know with race across the world back i've always wanted to know about the logistics of the show for example i assume there's always a film career with each couple if there are only two seats left on a coach can they not use it as the film crew wouldn't be able to go with them any other behind the scenes info would be great without spoiling the magic too much oh gosh absolutely um so what you would have on race across the world if people have not seen it it's it's a series of couples who are getting from one point to another in this series it's japan and indonesia and sometimes absolutely out in the middle of nowhere having to find transport having to find lifts and and and what have you always on camera so you're always seeing them so you know you can work out that something is going on.

18:59They're not literally the two of them filming themselves. The key with that show, as with any show like this, is you try to leave them as alone as you possibly can. But there are insurance things and stuff like that. So they have what's called a follow car, which will be a fair way behind them, but will always be within five or ten minutes. And in the follow car, there's a medic. There's security in case of trouble. There's, of course, spare cameras and spare batteries and all that kind of stuff for the crew. So you've got the follow car that's always there. in case of trouble. It's a bit like being in the royal family at a respectful distance.

19:33It is very similar to being in the royal family. That must be a fun gig, driving in that follow car. Yeah, or a prime minister who wants to bicycle to work and has to have the full protection squad going around them, but it's allowed the illusion of thinking that they're a free individual. Yeah, exactly. Oh, look at this majestic Canadian countryside and there's a big van at the back. So you've got that And each pair has got a two-person crew with them. They've got a PD, which is a producer, director. So that's someone who's shooting the thing, but also thinking of what's going on as well. And you've got an AP, which would be an assistant, who also has a camera, which can be you.

20:09So you've got two cameras at any given time. Now, with them, any time they do get a lift or get on a bus, they have to have at least one camera operator with them. So you're absolutely right. If they get on a bus and there's only two seats, they cannot get on that bus. There has to be three seats. Fine without four, that's fine. One of the poor, the AP, I'm guessing, has to go and sit in the trail car. Or maybe the PD. Anyway, either way, you have to have three. But they can't ever help. You couldn't ever catch a lift with the training car or anything like that. So the PD and the AP will always be in whatever form of transport they're in, unless there's only one seat, in which case one of them will go in that follow car.

20:49But there is a car nearby. but they would never, unless there's a problem, the couple would never ever see that car. They're just in a very, very tight unit of people. And that's why it's such a great show because it feels very natural. They're obviously embedded very much and they're constantly on camera. So they're catching all sorts of stuff. There's also, not unexpected, given that that camera crew have to be with the couple the whole time. And yet if you watch the show, there's some extraordinarily beautiful shots of the countryside, which is one of the reasons we love watching it. There is a GV crew.

21:19general view general view so they will know the course that our couple have taken yeah they'll get a note from the pd saying we went here we went there we got this car we were in this train station they will do the exact same trip and every time there's like a beautiful mountain you know they'll send a drone up or get the fancy stuff yeah exactly or just little things of the bus station just anything so they will give that stuff that you can drop in so it's the real trip that the people did but they have a bit more time to curate a shot and make the thing look more beautiful everything is done to make the trip as genuine as possible so they're not getting a single bit of help but though which is why it works because you can always tell if anything's been done as you say two or three even on the formats in the morning bargain hunt or whatever if you're being made to do things a third time the joke or whatever it is you can always hear you can always hear whereas on this one there's people behind it but hopefully it will never be needed it's a great question we've got loads of questions about race across the world maybe we'll get on to others in future weeks it's a brilliant show if you've not been watching it um marina andy rogers asks with interior design masters back love interior design masters by the way it got me thinking about the homes and businesses who hand over their rooms to shows like this what happens if the makeover is awful does the production company pay to put it right oh well i believe we have a very special guest audio on this matter.

22:39Hi Richard and Marina, it's Alan Carr here. Yes, sometimes the people who own the shops or the hairdressers or the hotel room really hate what they've done. And what we do is we go back, we paint it back to how it originally was so no one is offended. Thank you, Alan. That's our first guest. That is our first guest and fantastic. I have to say that in the old days of things like changing rooms, they just left you with it. I think you probably We had to sign the release form. And by the way, I think they often, no offence to the designers in that, but there was a lot, because there was always that incredible time pressure element.

23:14They had to like glue gun and staple gun, a lot of stuff. And people were left with these things. I remember once reading an interview with a woman who was so horrified by what her neighbours had sort of wished upon her in one of those shows that she thought, right, I'm going to have to research how to put this back myself. And she got so into it that she discovered her passion and then she ended up becoming an interior designer. So, you know, something good came out of her. Something good. Hideous, I don't know, fake medieval dining room makeover or whatever it was. Yeah, it's always worth listening to Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen on things like that and some of the stuff you got away with over the years.

23:51By the way, if you haven't been, I know we don't really do recommendations on this show, but I'm going to go on out on a limb because we're crazy, right? It's freeform. Do exactly what you like. Do exactly what you want. It's a sandbox. Yeah. Now, here's what I think about the next election. No. Interior Design Masters I absolutely love. And Alan is an amazing host on Interior Design Masters. I'm not just saying it because he very kindly recorded a thing for us. But he's such a brilliant host on that. He's such a brilliant host on everything he does, Alan. His sitcom, by the way, on ITV is also brilliant.

24:20He sort of everything he touches turns to gold. And the thing that Ingrid is watching and absolutely loving at the moment is the show where he and Amanda Holden do up properties in Italy. Which I saw the first episode of. I've missed the last couple. And funnily enough, our lovely producer Neil, who asked Alan to record that for us, he was talking to Alan about the Amanda Holden thing. And he said, Alan said, he often just sits back in the sunshine because he's worried about his nails. He said, Amanda Holden absolutely gets stuck in. She's very much the sledgehammer wielder amongst those two. He says, I love it.

24:53He said, I sit there in the sunshine and she's in there in coveralls, you know, knocking down a supporting wall. Like any great TV marriage, it just works. It just works. And the woman's doing all the work. Yeah. But he's such a great presence on our TV screens. And lovely. And indeed, now in our podcast. Thank you, Alan. Let's get him on every week. Let's ask him a question. It doesn't matter what it's about. Have you got any other questions for Alan Khan? We will be the go-between. But I thought every time I meet someone famous now, I'm going to see if there's a question. Related to it, yes.

25:24Yeah, that's a thing to do. But yeah, Interior Design Master is an absolute cracker. Marina another question from Neil Collins Neil asked with the Formula One forcing a move of some Channel 4 shows and at times the football on BBC who decides when schedule changes are necessary in this day and age of streaming on multiple channel services Ah okay well if it's something like we're not going to have gladiators this week because it's the Six Nations that's happened you know a couple of months ago or whatever it was those schedule changes are almost quite obvious what I do think is more interesting is major deaths for whom the news coverage is interrupted for.

26:00And on the BBC, they have something called Category 1 deaths. And those are the King, Camilla, this is the current Category 1 people, Prince William, and Prince George as the heir's heir. Those are the only four for whom they run regular preparedness exercises. Now, in the old days, you could listen to someone like Jeremy Paxman who has written about this, Peter Sissons wrote about this. Every six months, the whole of BBC News would have to rehearse the equivalent of the queen dying or the queen mother dying, as it was back then. And they'd all have to come in every six months on a Saturday and do the whole wargaming of it.

26:36And carpox would have to stand in for Buckingham Palace because, of course, they couldn't. What would have to stand in? A carpox. A carpox, OK. Because they'd have to have a sort of, it would have to be a remote location, things were being sent in. So you'd have to check that all the systems and also the chains of command worked. And they did this for real. Nowadays, they do it all via text messages and there are various different chains of command, but they regularly do this and you have to answer certain things. How many people would be in that chain of command? Well, a lot when you consider going down to all the different people who would be farmed out to the various different locations.

27:07Now, a few, not that long ago, well, a few years ago, some other BBC reporter got wind of this, but failed to understand that someone saying that the Queen was dead was actually just, they were doing a wargaming exercise and tweeted that the Queen was dead when she wasn't and then said it was a prank. It was a whole sort of thing. I've obviously just thought, oh, strange no one else has tweeted this. I'll put this out. I'm the first one. I mean, I just have to, as we've said it before, it's always possible not to post. Yes, exactly. Always possible. That's a big one for me of not to post. But funnily enough, Peter Sissons, you know, they were rehearsing the Queen Mother's death for so long and he would have had to have a special suit made, all this sort of stuff.

27:43But even when it happened, you probably don't remember the story, but Peter Sissons, who was a newsreader at the time, one of the main BBC newsreaders, he wasn't wearing a black tie at the moment he announced the thing. And this story went on for weeks and weeks and weeks. People bashing the BBC for the fact that he hadn't had the black tie on at the moment he said it. But so, as I say, those are the category one deaths. And those are people for whom the news programming will be automatically interrupted. But so my point was like, sorry, you're telling me that if Prince Harry dies now, you are not interrupting the news programming for it.