Whenever any television play is being taped in the studo, one of the make-up girls watches a special TV monitor to make sure that an actor's face and hair look exactly as the director wants them to look.
Often make-up can go streaky under the hot lights and is repaired with sponge and powder.
Meinir Jones-Lewis, make-up girl with Thames Television, was faced withe special problems when she worked on Ace of Wands. The current stort has an Egyptian setting and one of Meinir's tasks was to turn actor Michael Mulcaster into an ancient high priest.
"He had to be completely bald and wear gold make-up," she explained. "This took about an hour to do and ages to wash off afterwards."
A bald-headed effect is produced by putting a rubberised cap over the actor's gead, but it is extremely difficult to hide the join between the cap and the face.
Jean Kelly designed some splendid robes for several high priests and priestesses in the story. "Although I did some relearch on the authentic costumes, I only used those as a basis," she said. "The ones used for the programme are much more theatrical and are not meant to be accurate reproductions."
Red, black and gold are the basic colours of her costumes which were made mostly of fragile silk and gold tissue.
The ancient Egyptians certainly wore a lot of clothes. "First of all we had an under-robe which looked rather like a man's long night-shirt," said Jean. "We added a wide sash and over the robe put a coat with wide square armholes and a hood. The slippers the actors wear are yellow with long pointed toes."
To go with all the costumes and make-up, studio designer Harry Clark built an ancient Egyptian temple, complete with wall paintings, carved statues, mummies and a rather ornate coffin.
"Fortunately, there are specialist firms where you can hire most of the things," he explained. "But we needed a 10 ft. statue of an ancient king which had to be specially made. It looks like stone, but is actually made of polystyrene."
"Eight feet of it was carved in one pieve," said Clark. "But then it was too tall to get through the studio door, so the head area had to be made separately and put on in the studio."
Allister Bowtell made the statue, using a special hot wire cutter to carve out the polystyrene. But as polystyrene is inflammable, I suspect that if you are making something from the material, you buy a simple polystyrene cutter from a department store. Use it carefully, because it will be very sharp.
Start with ceiling tiles and have a go at making your own ornaments, decorating them with water-based paints, not oils. The tiles are fairly cheap, providing you don't have a 10 ft. statue in mind.
The article was accompanied by a colour photograph of Michael Mulcaster standing in front of the statue in the temple.