https://www.timhunkin.com/a243_Secret-Life-of-Machines-intro.htm

  [spanner]                                                  tim   .  [anima]   .   hunkin                                                 [pencil]
  engineer                                                           newpad.gif                                                           cartoonist
                                                                     (50 bytes)                                                          

 

                     THE SECRET LIFE OF MACHINES

                              SERIES 1
                         The Vacuum Cleaner
                         The Washing Machine
                         The Sewing Machine
                          The Refrigerator
                     The Central Heating System
                           The Television

                              SERIES 2
                            The Motorcar
                             The Engine
                          The Quartz Watch
                            The Telephone
                              The Radio
                          The Videorecorder

                              SERIES 3
                           the Fax Machine
                              The Lift
                         The Word Processor
                         The Electric Light
                           The Photocopier
                             The Office

30 years on from the original broadcasts,  Norman Margolus sent me a
   version of the youtube versions, upscaled with Machine Learning
 software from Topaz labs. I thought it was amazing so then sent him
my digitised versions of the films which are much better quality than
  the current youtube ones. Running these through the same software
 produced even better results. They aren't perfect - small text and
 small faces look very strange - but overall are a huge improvement.
So while we were at it I added a short commentary at the end of each
                              episode.

 Its best to watch the new versions with an ad blocker installed on
 your browser. I don't receive any of the income from the ads but am
unable to remove them because Youtube automatically detects the theme
music which is copyrighted. The income from the ads is split between
 Google (who own Youtube) and the copyright holder. Its fair enough
  for Google to make some money, its obviously expensive to host so
many videos and Youtube does provide a unique and accessible service.
   However, copyright law has become deeply corrupt. It now rarely
supports the creative people who originated the material but instead
    the money goes to multinational companies, in this case, The
                       Universal music Group. 

                                   

                               HISTORY

 In 1984 my position as a cartoonist at the Observer had started to
 look insecure  there were a rash of new editors, each imposing some
  new feature on the paper, with the existing features successively
squeezed. Fortunately I had written and presented a TV script called
    Why Things Go Wrong a couple of years before  directed by Mick
   Jackson, today a successful Hollywood director. Through this I
    acquired an agent, Rod Hall. Faced with my insecurity at the
     Observer, Rod encouraged me to try writing a series for TV.

The two sides of my life - researching stuff in books for the cartoon
  strip and making things, had made me realise just how much clever
human activity in the world can not be explained in words or suit the
 format of a book, let alone fit with the publishing fashion of the
day. The examples of this which seemed most immediate to me were the
everyday machines around the home that everyone takes for granted. I 
ve always enjoyed taking machines to bits and trying to mend them. It
  was always frustrating doing my cartoon strip about this sort of
 machine  it would be so much better if people could actually watch
                        the machine working.
                 washing machines.jpg (24736 bytes)

I wrote a scruffy three page proposal about washing machines and sent
  it off. Rod arranged numerous lunches with TV executives but none
 came to anything. On the brink of accepting defeat a director I had
 drawn an animated cartoon for, Andrew Snell, said he would approach
 Channel 4 with my idea. I heard nothing for several years, but with
impeccable timing, he rang to say it had been accepted within a month
of my being sacked from the Observer. I ve since been told, though I
 have no idea of whether its true or not, that my proposal landed on
Jeremy Isaac s desk (the then director of C4) just after his wife had
died, when he was struggling to use his washing machine for the first
                          time in his life.

 
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