| Saturday Night Out was originally hosted by Robert Beatty as 'The Man with the Mike'. The memorable title sequence started with a picture of a telephone on a desk. This would ring and a voice would say: "Outside Broadcast, we're starting now...". The camera would then pan out of the window, where we saw the Outside Broadcast vans ("Roving Eyes") on the move and a BBC doorman saluting. The action would then cut to show the camera on the roof on the Roving Eye travelling fast down a straight road towards a hoarding showing the inscription "Saturday Night Out". The brakes would squeal and the camera would burst through the hoarding and cut to the OB live transmission for this week. So began a weekly, hour long, live programme which was never filmed. The firm rule was that it was always live. One week it would be coming from the Midlands, the next week Brussels and the following week it might be Paris or London. In February 1956 The Royal Engineer's were planning to send a steam engine named Merlin, a 1919 engine of the King Arthur class along the track, blowing up the track so the train went over an embankment. The driverless train goes speeding along the track, whistle blowing, it arrives at the embankment, where there is an explosion, the train rises slightly in the air, drives down the embankment & comes to rest in the middle of the plain, whistle still blowing. The train, tender & three carriages still remain upright! Somewhat of an anticlimax to the expected wreck of ... |
