Yes Minister "The Official Visit" episode

[AY1975]

In "The Official Visit" episode of Yes Minister, the PM and his cabinet ministers travel to Edinburgh on a sleeper train for the visit of the president of some fictional African country.

The episode dates from about 1980, so it's a Deltic-hauled train of Mark 1 sleepers. Does anyone know whether the on-train footage would have been filmed on board a real sleeping car or in a mock-up compartment in the TV studios?

I would guess that if it was filmed on board a real train, it could have disturbed the other passengers in the same coach who were trying to sleep!

The interior looks fairly authentic, but there are a few small details that don't look quite right, such as the fire safety notice in gibberish.

The episode can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ez9XZWG7A

 

[800002]

They could have hired a set and recorded within it.
That's what I would do...

 

[Ken H]

They could have hired a set and recorded within it.
That's what I would do...

Would they have used film in those days?

But surely, they would have made a mock up with one side of the compartment missing so they could film easily. Or got hold of a scrapper and cut the side out.

They must have had a compartment coach that seemed to turn up in all sorts of productions. In some shots its obvious the scenery going past the windows has been 'photoshopped' in somehow.
This was long before blue background technology. (Colour Separation Overlay to give it its proper name)

 

[yorksrob]

Would they have used film in those days?

But surely, they would have made a mock up with one side of the compartment missing so they could film easily. Or got hold of a scrapper and cut the side out.

They must have had a compartment coach that seemed to turn up in all sorts of productions. In some shots its obvious the scenery going past the windows has been 'photoshopped' in somehow.
This was long before blue background technology. (Colour Separation Overlay to give it its proper name)

There was a mk1 compartment coach that turned up in a few programmes. "The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin" was one. Don't know what they used for the sleeper though.

 

[341o2]

I suggest the clips of the train starting, the signal, the Deltic etc are actual, but as for the compartment?
Can't hear any rail related noise in the background, and as Derek Fowlds leaves just before 17.34 the whole structure appears to flex. And 20.31?

 

[edwin_m]

Would they have used film in those days?

But surely, they would have made a mock up with one side of the compartment missing so they could film easily. Or got hold of a scrapper and cut the side out.

They must have had a compartment coach that seemed to turn up in all sorts of productions. In some shots its obvious the scenery going past the windows has been 'photoshopped' in somehow.
This was long before blue background technology. (Colour Separation Overlay to give it its proper name)

I remember background (I think it was green) being demonstrated on Blue Peter, which I would only have been watching several years before Yes Minister started up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key

The blue screen method was developed in the 1930s at RKO Radio Pictures.

I believe the normal technology for showing passing scenery through windows was back projection onto a screen set up on the far side of the windows. That's how they did scenes of people in the front of a car, seemingly filmed by someone sitting on the bonnet.

 

[Mag_seven]

The interior looks fairly authentic, but there are a few small details that don't look quite right, such as the fire safety notice in gibberish.

That looks like a studio mock up to me.

 

[DelW]

I'm pretty sure that the TV or film cameras of that era would have been much too bulky, and the lenses too narrow angle, to be able to shoot within a real sleeper compartment.
Had it been possible, it would have produced a very obviously wide angle shot (actors at the front appearing larger than those at the back). I think those scenes were shot from more like 10 - 15 feet away, so a studio mock up with no fourth side is my guess.

 

[MotCO]

I believe the normal technology for showing passing scenery through windows was back projection onto a screen set up on the far side of the windows. That's how they did scenes of people in the front of a car, seemingly filmed by someone sitting on the bonnet.

That's sometimes how it was. I remember seeing a Z-Cars panda car with the bonnet sawn off, towed on a travel to provide the in-car filming.

 

[Highlandspring]

It’s a set. I had forgotten John Savident was in it!