Look and Read/Cloud Burst
From LookingAndSeeing.co.uk - a website about schools broadcasting
Cloud Burst
 | |
| Company: | BBC Television |
| First run: | Autumn 1974 |
| Episodes: | 10 episodes 20 minutes |
| Subject: | English |
| Audience: | Age 7-9 |
| Look and Read Stories | |
 Previous story: Joe and the Sheep Rustlers |
 Next story: The King's Dragon |
Look and Read's golden era begins with this classic cautionery tale, the first under producer Sue Weeks - drafted in at quite short notice to begin work on the series she would guide for the next 18 years.
Three great Look and Read staples were introduced in this story - the teaching segments introduce a funny little orange man called Wordy; the lead singer for the first time is Derek Griffiths; and each episode is introduced by the famous "Look and Read Eyes" animation ending with the programme's logo displayed in a large circle, which would also last for the next 18 years.
Some of the teaching content was dismissed as "ponderous and less than memorable"[1] even when the series was first shown in 1974, but the thrilling adventure story is filmed in such an ambitious and visually interesting way that Cloud Burst is a viewers' favourite.
Contents |
[edit] The Story
Two kids go looking for their crashed toy plane on the fens and meet a foreign scientist - Ram Pandit - who is working on a secret invention. The kids step in to help when some baddies, including one very familiar face, resort to subterfuge and kidnapping in their attempts to get hold of the invention.
A more detailed guide to the story - giving away the whole plot including the ending - can be read in the episode listings below, and on the separate story guide page.
Thematically the story considers the idea that technology could be used for good or evil purposes, as Ram Pandit wants to use his rain-gun to make land fertile in India and feed the starving, and Ravi Pandit wants to use his rain-gun to destroy the Fens and hold Britain to ransom. In an interview years later the writer Richard Carpenter said that he "was getting at nuclear energy, really."[2]
The story shows twin brothers, one good and one evil, who want to use their
[edit] The Teaching Middles
The story's author Richard Carpenter, also a seasoned actor and regular presenter of Merry Go Round programmes, introduces the story from his study. He has a television screen (actually a prop done with back projection) on which to watch clips from the film and documentaries. He also has a typewriter where a little orange man called Mr Watchword, or Wordy for short, lives.
[edit] Episodes
This episodic breakdown was written by Andrew K. Shenton. There is a detailed account of every episode on the story guide page.
- Out of Control
- In the Fens, Jenny Barber and her brother, Tim, are flying their model plane. They are watched by a man on a motor bike. The plane behaves erratically and crashes into some nearby trees.
- Ram Pandit
- Whilst looking for their plane, the children come across a house owned by an Indian scientist, Ram Pandit. He works with a colleague, Dick Turner, and a computer, which occupies much of one of the rooms.
- RAV 1
- Ram and Mr. Turner demonstrate the computer to Jenny and Tim. Ram promises to mend the control unit of Jenny’s plane. As they leave the house, they notice the man on the motor bike again.
- The Gas-gun
- Another Indian, Ram’s brother, is plotting to steal a computer "firing program" from Ram. Jenny and Tim set off to Ram’s house to collect the repaired remote control. Realising that his brother, Ravi, is on his way, Ram hurriedly types a message into the computer before he succumbs to gas fired by the gun of Ravi’s henchman, Number Two.
- In the Hut
- Ram is kidnapped before Jenny and Tim arrive. They are allowed into the house by Mrs. Green, the housekeeper, and are unaware of the fate that has befallen Ram. When they are caught in a downpour on their journey home, they shelter in a hut. As they leave, they are confronted by Mr. Turner.
- The Secret
- Mr. Turner is puzzled as to why Ram is not at home. He goes to the house with the children and they find the beginnings of an unfinished message on the computer. It refers to Ram’s twin brother, Ravi. He is now holding Ram prisoner in a factory. Mr. Turner takes Jenny and Tim into his confidence and reveals that he and Ram have been developing a "rain-gun" that will end drought and famine in India.
- To The Mill!
- Ravi announces his plan to use the rain-gun to flood the Fens and hold the country to ransom. He reveals that, using the information held on Ram’s computer, he has been able to make a copy of Ram’s rain-gun and tricks Mr. Turner into travelling to a windmill, where Ram is to be held.
- The Signal
- Ram is moved to the mill and, when Mr. Turner arrives, he, too, is captured and imprisoned. The children, meanwhile, are still at Ram’s house. Knowing that Ravi is returning to the house to steal the firing programme, Ram sends a message to the children using the model plane’s remote control unit, which is still in his pocket. The signal, he hopes, will alert them to Ravi’s imminent arrival. Jenny and Tim hide while Ravi steals the firing program. They follow him to the mill.
- Escape
- Ravi takes the rain-gun to flood the Fens, and leaves a henchman, Number Three, who we recognise as the man on the motor bike, to hold Ram and Mr. Turner prisoner in the mill. To create a diversion, Tim starts the motor bike outside and, in the ensuing confusion, he and his sister sneak inside to set Ram and Mr. Turner free. The race is on to stop Ravi using the rain-gun.
- Fire the Rockets!
- Ravi begins firing the rain-gun’s rockets that will ultimately cause massive flooding. Jenny suggests using her plane to hit the machine and sabotage it. Ram believes the rain-gun can be destroyed if the aerial is hit. The plane strikes the aerial and Ravi’s scheme is foiled. Ravi escapes but Number Three is unmasked as Ram’s housekeeper, Mrs. Green, who has been supplying Ram’s secrets to Ravi!
[edit] Credits
| Presented by | Richard Carpenter |
| Starring | Tina Heath as Jenny Barber Nigel Rathbone as Tim Barber |
| Singers | Jane Carr Derek Griffiths |
| Accompanied by | Gerald Down |
| Written by | Richard Carpenter |
| Music by | Roger Limb |
| Designer | Chris Robilliard |
| Reading consultant | Joyce M. Morris |
| Studio director | Peter Craske |
| Producer | Sue Weeks |
| Costume designer | Mary Woods |
| Make-up | Jane Speak |
| Graphics | Peter Jones Eddie Newstead |
| Film camerman | Peter Chapman |
| Film recordist | Bob Roberts |
| Film animation | Adrian Dobinson |
| Film editor | Peter Orton |
| Visual effects | Tony Oxley |
| Scientific consultant | Dr Kit Pedler |
| Background material | Bridie Raban Cliff Moon |
[edit] Theme Tune & Music
The theme tune is an all instrumental composition by Roger Limb of the BBC Radiophonic Workshops.
In the title sequence, the newly introduced Look And Read Eyes fade into the disc of the sun and images of desert and dry earth. A clap of thunder, accompanied by the 'Cloud Burst' caption, is followed by rainfall and crops growing from the earth and rapidly multiplying. Everything is accomplished with sequences of still images.
From episode seven onwards, once the rain-gun has been revealed, the gun is included in the sequence, pointing up towards the sky where it has started to rain.
The closing titles generally had a reprise of the theme tune, but in episode 2, episode 4 and episode 7 we hear the hum of Ram's giant computer at work instead. This makes sense in episodes 2 and 4, which end in Ram's laboratory, but is curious at the end of episode 7 which ends in the quiet country lane outside the lab.
[edit] Resources
[edit] Pupil's Pamphlet
A 48-page pamphlet containing the text of the story for children to read themselves, printed in green and black, with illustrations by Trevor Ridley.
This was the "book of the film", but in Look and Read's case it is more accurate to think the other way around - the reading is the most important thing, so the television programme is the "film of the book"[3]!
For the first time the pamphlet was a pure storybook, and did not contain extra activities for children to attempt after each episode, as earlier Look and Read pamphlets did. The move from workbook to story book was deliberate and was mentioned in the teacher's notes[4]. For one thing it meant that teachers could now reuse the pamphlets from year to year if they wished, as children were not expected to write in them.
The story is told by various characters including Jenny, Tim and - when we witness the secret activities of the criminals - by Number One. The writer occasionally interjects to move the story on, and his sections are printed in green. This was to help introduce the concept of narration to children, which was explained in the teacher's notes and was one of the key things teachers were asked to report back to the producers about, specifically "do the children find that the pupils' pamphlet is clearly laid out? Are they able to understand the change of narrator?"[5]
There was a significant problem with the first printing of the pamphlet in 1974 - the green printing was extremely dark and practically indistinguishable from the black print. This meant that the pictures looked less interesting, it was very hard to tell when the writer's text - meant to be identifiable in green type - began, and some text such as "A Look and Read Book" on the front cover was completely illegible. The next editions, from 1975 onwards, used a much lighter and nicer shade of green, and the text on the cover was redesigned so that it could be read.
1974 edition - ISBN 0 563 13032 6, originally priced 11p
1975 edition - ISBN 0 563 13818 1, originally priced 23p
[edit] Teacher's Notes
A 40-page booklet with a pink-coloured, cardboard cover, giving context information about the story, hints about the linguistic content of each episode and detailed suggestions for follow-up work.
There were many elaborate crosswords included in the notes, including several picture crosswords like those shown in the teaching segments of the TV episodes.
The notes for programme 3 included details plans to build your own word building computer, as used extensively throughout the programmes, from an old shoe box.
For the first time the notes also included full lyrics to the educational songs featured in the episodes, which could be duplicated and given out to children, especially useful when they were listening to the radio recordings of the songs without the animations from the TV episodes to help them understand.
Also for the first time, the notes did not include full vocabulary lists noting the frequency of use of every word throughout the story - these had been a common feature of all earlier Look and Read teacher's notes. Instead, teacher's were able to send in a stamped addressed envelope to be sent the vocabulary lists separately.
The notes were strongly praised in a general review of Cloud Burst in the Times Educational Supplement: "thoughtful and realistic, and particularly helpful for teachers who have not previously worked with children with reading problems."[1]
Suggestions for follow-up work were credited to Bridie Raban and Cliff Moon.
[edit] Craft Leaflet
A leaflet with pictures and instructions for making the word-watcher button, a "Cloud Burst" mug, badges, model rain-guns and more[6] was shown by Richard in episode 6. Teachers were invited to send a large stamped addressed envelope to the address given in the teacher's notes (BBC School Television, Villiers House, London W5 2PA) to obtain a free copy.
The response to this offer was overwhelming. Thousands of requests were received, all of which had to be handled personally by the Look and Read production office, and the sheets duplicated on the office photocopier. The response was in fact so massive that they were later asked to edit out this sequence for repeat screenings.
I do not have a copy of the leaflet, so if you do and you can provide a scan or copy, or just describe the contents in more detail, please get in touch.
[edit] Radio Resource Material
Whilst the earlier story The Boy From Space had issued a cast recording of the story book on LP, the idea was extended here and Cloud Burst was the first story to be accompanied by its own radio programmes. The programmes were designed to be tape recorded by teachers and used in the classroom in short segments.
The radio programmes contained a reading of the story by the actors in role, and replays of several of the phonic songs. It wasn't always possible to read all the the assigned chapters within one radio programme, so they just started from the beginning and kept going as far as possible before the programme ended.
Three episodes were produced:
1. Covering television programmes 1-4, broadcast 30 September 1974
2. Covering television programmes 5-7, broadcast 11 November 1974
3. Covering television programmes 8-10, broadcast 25 November 1974
They were repeated in the same pattern in subsequent years that Cloud Burst was shown on TV.
[edit] Production
Production of Cloud Burst began shortly after the completion of Joe and the Sheep Rustlers, when Richard Carpenter was hired to provide a new story for the series. He was not briefed on a specific theme or topic to write about, and the story was also given a new producer who had not worked on the series previously, so finding the inspiration for a plot was a major initial labour.
The producer and writer spent a lot of time thinking and driving around near Carpenter's childhood home in Norfolk, until he eventually pieced together the elements of a story based in the area. Carpenter then went to work on a script and pupil's story book, which was meticulously edited by hand to ensure that every single word and every piece of punctuation occurred the correct number of times in the correct places, and the vocabulary was limited to the 250 Key Words to Literacy and other necessary plot-words only. With this early work complete, production itself began in the spring of 1974...
FEBRUARY 1974
- Wed 6th or Thu 7th (not sure which) - The first material put to film for the story, the model plane flying scenes for the first and last episodes, long before the rest of the filming begins.
MARCH 1974
- Mon 25th - Final location recce by the production team
APRIL 1974
- Mon 1st - Location filming with all the actors began, in and around the town of Downham Market in Norfolk and including nearby Denver Mill. Filming continued over Easter a fortnight later. Cast and crew would travel between London and the location on their days off, which made it quite a disjointed affair. The initial drafts of the pupil's pamphlet and teacher's notes were also produced at this time, and checked by the producer whilst on location.
- Mon 29th - With all filming for the story bits complete, editing of these segments formally began - though it is possible that film editor Peter Orton had previously begun work alone whilst the rest of the production team were still on location. At this point only the filmed story was edited - the teaching segments were written over the summer and recorded close to transmission in the autumn.
MAY 1974
JUNE 1974
- Sat 1st - The radio programmes to accompany the series were recorded, carefully arranged while all the actors were still under contract!
JULY 1974
- Thu 18th - A meeting between Joyce M. Morris (educational advisor), Roger Limb (musician) and Adrian Dobinson (animator) marks the beginning of work on the series' songs.
AUGUST 1974
SEPTEMBER 1974
- Wed 11th - First studio recording session, with lots of Wordy sequences - in fact the first appearance of Wordy ever. Early on this morning, just before recording began, someone decided that the puppet didn't look quite right and stuck an old yoghurt pot on for his nose, and the Wordy face we all know was created.
- Mon 16th - Second studio recording, with Richard Carpenter segments.
- Tue 17th - Middle of episode 2 recorded.
- Wed 18th - 4th studio recording session.
- Thu 19th - First batch of animations delivered. These song animations were intended to highlight specific letters within words which were being taught by the songs. Unfortunately there was little contrast between the different colours used and it was difficult to see which bit was being highlighted. Since it was less than a week to transmission, there was no time to have the animations revised, so they simply had to crank up the contrast as much as possible while editing the episodes, though the end result was still far from perfectly distinct.
- Fri 20th - First editing session, covering episodes 1 and 2. The programmes were edited at the Television International facility in London, since the BBC didn't have enough of the necessary 3-machine suites of its own to go around.
- Tue 24th - TX episode 1, 10:00am
- Wed 25th - Middles of episodes 3 and 5 recorded.
- Fri 27th - Block editing session of all the radio episodes.
- Mon 30th - 6th studio recording.
- Mon 30th - TX Radio programme 1, 11:40am (chapters 1 - 4)
OCTOBER 1974
- Tue 1st - TX episode 2, 10:00am
- Tue 8th - TX episode 3, 10:00am
- Fri 11th & weekend - Episode 4 edited. These editing sessions combined the previously completed filmed story with the teaching middles, which were recorded roughly sequentially and so didn't require extensive editing. When assembling the programmes, one of the last things to be done would be the story recap at the beginning of each episode, which was assembled in the final dub since it could last however long or short was needed to fill up time. Then the narration was the very last thing edited on.
- Mon 14th - Script for the teaching segment of episode 10 approved by the reading consultant, meaning all writing for the series was now complete.
- Tue 15th - TX episode 4, 10:00am
- Wed 16th - 7th studio session, recording most of episode 6.
- Thu 17th & Fri 18th - Editing episode 5.
- Tue 22nd - TX episode 5, 10:00am
- Wed 23rd - 8th studio, with Richard Carpenter.
- Thu 24th - 9th studio session.
- Fri 25th - Episode 6 edited.
NOVEMBER 1974
- Fri 1st - Episode 7 edited.
- Tue 5th - TX episode 6, 10:00am
- Wed 6th - 10th studio recording.
- Mon 11th - Rest of episode 7 & a bit of 8 edited.
- Mon 11th - TX Radio programme 2, 11:40am (chapters 5 - 7)
- Tue 12th - TX episode 7, 10:00am
- Thu 14th - Final studio recording (postponed from Wednesday 13th).
- Tue 19th - TX episode 8, 10:00am
- Fri 22nd - Episode 9 edited.
- Mon 25th - TX Radio programme 3, 11:40am (chapters 8 - 10)
- Tue 26th - TX episode 9, 10:00am
- Wed 27th - Episode 10 edited.
- Fri 29th - After a final editing session at 10am, production on Cloud Burst was officially completed.
DECEMBER 1974
Tue 3rd - TX episode 10, 10:00am
All dates and details here are taken from private sources and unreliable records (apart from broadcast information, obviously, which is taken from published sources) and is neither complete nor necessarily correct. I have not had any access to any internal BBC paperwork in compiling this list - so if anybody has any more information or can corroborate or refute any of this stuff, please get in touch.
Stuff covered in the timeline: filming and recording the programmes, editing the programmes, transmissions (TX) of the programmes (only the first TXs are noted), the radio programmes, including recording and transmission, and other random stuff.
[edit] Broadcasts
Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. Unless your teachers managed to get the video recorder to work, this is when you would have seen it in school. See the Schedules section for precise dates and times.
- Summer 2003, CBBC
- Autumn 2003, CBBC
- Spring 2004, CBBC
- Summer 2004, CBBC
- Autumn 2004, CBBC
- Summer 2005, CBBC
- Spring 2006, CBBC
- Summer 2007, CBBC
[edit] Links
[edit] Sources & References
Sources used in compiling this page:
- BBC (1975) Look and Read Teacher's Notes, Autumn 1975
- BBC TV (1974) Cloud Burst television programmes
- Carpenter, Richard (1974) Cloud Burst London: BBC, Autumn 1974 & Autumn 1975
- Killick, Jane (1993) "Richard Carpenter: A Catweazle Start..." in TV Zone, issue 46 September 1993, pp.17-19
- Mares, Cherida 'Reviews - ETV - Noses to the Grindstone' in Times Educational Supplement 15 November 1974 page 95
- With thanks to Andrew K. Shenton for further information
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 All review quotes from Mares (1974).
- ↑ Richard Carpenter quote from Killick (1993) p.19 (all of 7 words on Cloud Burst!)
- ↑ "Film of the book" phrase used in BBC (1975) page 2
- ↑ New purpose of the pupil's pamphlet described in BBC (1975) page 4
- ↑ Explanations of the role of the narrator in the pupil's pamphlet mentioned in BBC (1975) page 4, and page 40 for teacher feedback quote
- ↑ Contents of the craft leaflet described in BBC (1975) page 21
