TG300 Side car combination Wows football pundits at THG Studios Altrincham
We were honoured to be asked to do a 'small but important' favour for Royal Alloy Global, But under a cloak of Secrecy...
Their CEO had managed to get an exclusive product placement for a Royal Alloy TG300 side car combo in the promo images for the forthcoming Season 2 of 'the OverLap On Tour' football Podcast show for SKY Tv. However, it was all very hush, hush and that's why there hasn't been any leaked images - even though the shoot was done almost 3 months ago.
In fact SKY Creative have asked that we only release the story and images after the 1st December...
So a large unmarked van containing the TG300 sidecar combo was duly dispatched to THG Studios in Altrincham in Cheshire on a wet Wednesday in early September 2024...
The THG Studio complex is enormous and I was delighted and surprised that the studio manager allowed me to drive the scooter & sidecar from the loading bay thru the actual studio and into the room that the photo shoot was being set up. No drama whatsoever as the sidecar fits thru the studios internal doorways with less than a centimetre to spare at either side! Correctly positioning the scooter and sidecar onto the grey backdrop took 30 minutes to get it into exactly the position that the production crew wanted it to be in. The crew then became stand-ins for the 'Talent' which consisted of SKY Tv's football pundits - Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Jamie Carragher.
The crew then spent ages on working on who needed to be where and looking in what direction to get all 4 pundits clearly into shot, at this point the crew asked for the mirrors to be removed to get a better view of the pundits. There's many, many Health and Safety Hoops that need to be jumped thru on any photo shoot and these included bringing along Royal Alloy open face helmets for the 'talent' to carry, so it all looks legal and above board.
The colour of the scooter and sidecar would be digitally changed to go with the specific backdrop that reflects whichever European City the podcast is being presented from on each particular episode. So just like in the movies - what we see in the studio is nothing like the finished image You see on Tv - Only the pundits and the Royal Alloy are Real !
The actual shoot was scheduled for late morning, however - 2 of the pundits were delayed in heavy traffic and one of those pundits didn't get the Memo about wearing Summer Clothing for the shoot, so a Runner was duly dispatched to Moss Bros to get some suitable Summer looking attire ! At least Ian Wright excelled himself by bringing a Panama hat for that authentic Englishman abroad look and No, we don't ask why Gary Neville is wearing a coat. Probably because he's carrying all the bags and travelling separately, as the scooter and sidecar can only carry 3 people!
By the time the 'Talent' was all changed and ready to go, the latest episode of the Podcast was now ready to be recorded, so the shoot was further postponed until after the Podcast was in the bag. A 4pm deadline for one of the pundits to have to leave the studio to be at another appointment now meant that the total photo shoot was reduced to 10 minutes ! Fair play to the boys, they've done this before and they're all used to performing under pressure. They listen to instruction, do what's asked and ad-lib brilliantly when required. Had we have had more time, i would have happily obliged as they all wanted to have a ride in the side car around the car park and they were genuinely interested in the Royal Alloy scooter and sidecar!
The first Episode of Season 2 has just been announced on SKY Tv, so keep an eye out for the various different images carefully created for each episode.
and finally, No - they wouldn't let me keep the football as a memento, it's the same football that they use for Every show and they're very precious about it!
