The first recording today is the first episode of the second series of M.I. High – It’s a Kind of Magic.
The episode opens with the young spies chasing someone. I like the use of pencils as radio – perfect for playing in the playground.
They’re chasing the evil Grandmaster, who’s chasing one of them on a quad bike. I always shudder a bit when I see quad bikes. At a work event once, there were quad bikes as part of the entertainment, and one of the people at the company had an accident and mangled their leg.
They capture the Grandmaster and he’s taken away by MI9. Their controller, Lenny, congratulates them. He’s played by Danny John-Jules.
I have issues with some of the writing. Quibbles, really, like their evil organisation is called SKUL which stands for Super Kriminal Underworld League.
The team get medals from the visiting President of the United States.
Entertainment is provided by magician David DeHaverland. He does a disappearing act, with the President. But when he is supposed to bring her back, she’s not there.
I love all the school bits that have hidden spy gadgets, like the lightswitch that hides the secret entrance to their HQ.
Mason, from the CIA, is asking MI9 why they’ve let DeHaverland go. “He told us nothing. We’ve let him go so my team can investigate.” “What, the same team that let him kidnap the president in their first place?” This seems extremely unfair since he had a whole team of people himself at the event.
In order for the team to find out about the magician DeHaverland, Lenny (who is undercover as the school caretaker) gets the Headmaster to invite DeHaverland to perform at the school.
He doesn’t like the idea – he’d prefer his choice – Jenny Gribble and her Balloon Orchestra.
DeHaverland does a card trick. I’m glad to see the card picked is a Three of Clubs, Penn and Teller’s favourite card.
Lenny talks to the Grandmaster, to find out if SKUL were involved in the kidnap. This slightly reminds me of Michael Mann’s Manhunter. Slightly.
The team are watching DeHaverland. He treats his assistent, Leah Retsam, like dirt. “Leah, this room is like your brain. Impenetrable. No one is to go in there. Do you hear me? No one.”
Back at the cell, Mason arrives with a note found outside. “I’ve kidnapped the president. I’ll hand her back in exchange for the grandmaster.” Mason wants to hand the Grandmaster over, Lenny doesn’t want to give up their prisoner.
Leah can’t do the cups and balls trick very well. “I wish DeHaverland would teach me some tricks.”
Blane finds DeHaverland’s magic book, but the page on the Disappearing act is missing.
The team think he has the missing page on him. They follow him through the school, but he seems to just disappear on the landing.
It’s getting close to the grand opening of a new wing, the reason DeHaverland was invited. Leah doesn’t know where he is. “Like I know where he goes. All he does is shout at me and tell me I’m useless, which I am.”
Lenny, Rose and Blane are looking at DeHaverland’s magic book which leads them to the Secret Order of Magicians, hired during the war to help with things like disguising tanks and planes. (This really happened, as I found out in an episode of Secret History.) They spot a hidden code in a picture of the order.
It leads them to a cafe called Harry’s Cafe.
Blane finds the secret headquarters of the Secret Order of Magicians, complete with pictures of Sooty and Paul Daniels on the wall.
DeHaverland hasn’t turned up, so Leah is forced to entertain. It turns out she can, at least, do the Sawing a Headmaster in Two trick.
Blane finds DeHaverland at the headquarters. But he says he’s there to find out who was behind the trick to make the President disappear. He also explains how he got away from them when they were following him. “Contorted myself through an air vent. I know. I’m amazing myself.” This show is endearingly stupid.
He finds the book containing the members. “Master L. I don’t know any Master.”
DeHaverland wonders if it’s a fiendish code. Blane works it out. “Retsam. Your assistant, Leah Retsam.”
Leah brings the President to the prisoner exchange. She explains she used hypnotic stage lights to put the audience in a trance so she could swap the cabinet with the president with an empty one. Then she uses the same lights to hypnotise everyone there, so she can free the Grandmaster (who escapes on his quad bike – he won’t get far) and take the President to SKUL HQ.
But the M.I. High team stop her, with the help of Lenny’s hologram projector.
And DeHaverland has a trick of his own, and puts chains around her. “And this is my trick. It’s called… So, you really think you’re better than me?”
Daisy takes a moment to adorn Mason’s face before she snaps him out of the trance.
DeHaverland finally opens the new wing.
Headmaster Flatley is still in two halves. “Mr. DeHaverland says, because he didn’t cut you in half, he can’t put you back together.” “What?” “Magician’s rules.”
Media Centre Description: Children’s spy drama. The school spies tackle a mysterious mission as a slippery magician kidnaps the President of the USA.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Monday 7th January 2008 16:58
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Monday 7th January 2008 17:00
The other recording today is an episode of The Simpsons – Fear of Flying. This is one I’ve looked at on my tapes. I haven’t watched these episodes for over 15 years, probably, and yet I still remember huge chunks of them, which I think shows how much these were watched in our house. The children loved them, and a surprising amount of their cultural education came subliminally from all the references in the show. I’ve lost track of the number of times we’d be watching an old film or TV show, and one of the kids will say “Oh now I understand what that Simpsons episode was referring to.”
So It’s hardly surprising that I remembered, for example, when Homer is banned from Moe’s, and Moe throws his favourite record out of the jukebox, that it was It’s Raining Men. “And I’m pulling your favorite song out of the jukebox.” “It’s Raining Men?” “Yeah, not no more it ain’t.”
Media Centre Description: Marge seeks professional help from a psychiatrist after realising that she is terrified of flying.
Recorded from Channel 4 on Monday 7th January 2008 18:00
After this, the recording stops with the start of Hollyoaks. My daughters reminded me that when we used to watch these recordings at the time, as soon as Hollyoaks started they’d all shout “Turn it Off!” We taught them well.
Here’s the ad breaks from this recording.
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