The Idiot's Lantern 2 - The Secret Life Of Machines

It's been a good few months since the first of these TV-related posts, so I thought it was high time I did another. I wasn't going to cover this next programme for a while (there are so many other choices) but thinking about it, it does fit in nicely with the first piece about "Connections". It's also a series which despite being over 25 years old should be required viewing for almost everyone, since we take so may things for granted nowadays and have almost no idea how they actually work. Sure there have been other shows since that try to show you where modern objects come from ("How It's Made" being a prime example) and the rise of the Interweb means that if you want to find something out it's just a few clicks away. But back in the late 80s / early 90s there was nothing quite like this quintessentially British show and it's eccentric presenters.

The Secret Life Of Machines

The series was the brainchild of Tim Hunkin. Hunkin is an engineering graduate from Cambridge who is also a prolific cartoonist, having been published from the early 1970s onwards. He had a regular strip in The Observer newspaper called "The Rudiments of Wisdom" for an incredible 14 years from 1973 to 1987. Each intricately drawn cartoon was a wealth of obscure advice, odd facts and weird and wonderful information, as well as crazy tricks and practical experiments. How does hypnosis work? What is chocolate made of? What do crocodiles eat for lunch? Think of a question, and Tim had probably provided the answer at some point.

Spinning out of his cartoon series, Hunkin came up with the idea of a television version where he  could really get to grips with a variety of everyday machines, pull them apart and explain what made them tick. If James Burke's "Connections" traced the historical connectedness of scientific and technological discoveries, this series would revell in the sheer fun of explaining how things worked.

Tim's co-presenter was special effects guru Rex Garrod, who would later go on to create the radio controlled car that starred in the childrens TV series "Brum", and build several entrants for the early series of technological fight show "Robot Wars" (a series which has just been announced as coming back in 2016).

After touting the idea round a number of broadcasters, it was finally snapped up by Channel 4 and the first episode was broadcast on 15th November 1988. In each packed half-hour episode the pair would record the show from Tim's garden shed and using obsolete technology, giant working models, animation and (sometimes dangerous) experiments, explain the innovations behind the inner workings of the household gadgets we use everyday and that have come to define modern life.

(Rex on the left, Tim on the right)

It was a real labour of love for Tim and Rex, with none of the glossy sheen and slick editing of modern science shows. The topics covered were wide ranging and frequently went off at odd tangents to look at related technologies, with the pair attempting to create their own home-made versions of the device - sometimes with mixed results. If an experiment went wrong (and they often did), they showed it. At the end of many shows they built a giant sculpture / version of the machine under discussion (such as a huge mound of television screens , which they then set fire to).

Across three series and eighteen episodes the presenters looked at a wide array of everyday objects from vacuum cleaners, washing machines and televisions, to the internal combustion engine and the radio to the photocopier and the fax machine. The mixture of homemade Heath Robinson-esque creations, self deprecating humour and sheer infectious charm of the duo made these shows some of the best educational television - and possibly the best television full stop - of the late 80s / early 90s.

Of course a few of the items covered are now obsolete. It's particularly interesting to to see how far we have come with office equipment like word processors and photo copiers in the last 20+ years for example. I remember the days when graphical user interfaces and things like Windows were the stuff of science fairs. We didn't get our first office PC until 1986 and even then it was only a DOS-based green screen system with very little memory.

When I first discovered the show, I fell completely in love with it - but one episode in particular resonated hugely and even when I had recorded over my copies of everything else, this one remained in my collection for many years. It was of course the story of the machine that has made the most impact in my life -  "The Secret Life of the Video Recorder". My favourite part was, when discussing the importance of audio tape which led to the invention of video tape, Tim and Rex showed how they could create their own audio recording out of nothing more than sticky tape and powdered rust. I was astonished at what they had accomplished and how good the quality was.We could all be inventors!

Even now, more than twenty years later there is still an interest in the show, as it is so fondly remembered by so many people. Usually with this kind of niche programme, copies only exist in individuals private off-air collections and VHS or DVD copies would command premium prices on eBay. But Tim Hunkin is a real visionary and encourages people to share everything across the internet. After all, he did this in the first place for the love of science, not for financial gain. Thanks to p2p sharing and some excellent websites by Tim and others, there are are a number of places which have archived lots of information about the show, it's background and the episodes themselves - far more than I could describe in one small blog post. Plus the series is available in it's entirety on YouTube. It's also why I can happily embed my favourite episode right here:

If you want to see more (and I really, really encourage you to do so - it's fascinating stuff) then here are the links you need:

Your first port of call should of course be Tim Hunkin's own website, which has tons of stuff about his work, the machines he has built (and where you can find them) - plus the TV series itself. Tim also has dedicated sites for his "Rudiments of Wisdom" strips and his "Experiments" book. The latter is a lot of fun for kids and adults alike.

The "Secret Life of Machines" website gives even more information plus a list of places you can stream or download the series from, although it hasn't been updated in a while so a few of the links are dead now.

By far the best place I've found for viewing all 18  episodes is www.secretlifeofmachines.net

If you have not seen any of these shows then do have a look for them. You'll be so glad you did.