On Tuesday, 2.12.2025 two professional actors visited our Camerloher Gymnasium for the BBC “Laugh ‘n’ Learn Workshop”. The two BBC actors Isabel and Charlie provided all students from year year 9 up to 13 with the fun opportunity to learn how TV really works, all while keeping it light and entertaining and challenging students by only talking in English.
Isabel and Charlie are both part of the “Laugh ‘n’ Learn” programme, which offers workshops for elementary school children up to middle and high school students. All while talking in English they shared their knowledge of the TV industry, acting careers and the production of a scene.
To begin, we collected different jobs related to a TV set that we already knew of, going from producer, actor and director to the hair and makeup crew. Once we had identified all the meaningful roles that play a part in creating a scene, Isabel and Charlie began searching for volunteers from the student crowd. We needed to build an entire film crew out of students. All through learning by doing, the two professionals taught us all about the commands and techniques behind filming a single scene. The director, which was one of our 12th grade students, decided on a name for our movie and Isabel left the room with the designated actors, to rehearse a scene. In the meantime, Charlie instructed the filming crew. Then we could watch the scene unfold: A bank robbery in which the criminals were disguised as elderly men. During the scene, one of the characters suddenly suffered a heart attack, creating a distraction, before the plot took an unexpected turn and revealed that two of the supposed bank employees were actually undercover FBI agents. One of the robbers even switched sides, while the others fled, resulting in a dramatic ending.
Throughout the process, Isabel supported the student actors and helped them improve their performance, while the student director and producer gave instructions using professional filming commands such as “Lights”, “Action” and “Cut”. After watching the first version of the scene, further adjustments were made, including musical changes to increase tension towards the end. Once the final version was completed, the verdict was clear: it was a wrap.
The workshop ended with a Q & A session in which students were able to ask the actors about their careers and experiences in the television industry. Charlie talked about his brief appearance in the Barbie movie and explained how even a few seconds on screen can require days of filming. Isabel shared insights into her work in theatre and musicals, as well as the international nature of an acting career. Both actors emphasised that networking and personal connections play an important role in the industry and that a production’s budget strongly influences how long filming and editing take.
Overall, the BBC “Laugh ’n’ Learn” workshop offered an entertaining and insightful look behind the scenes of television production. By actively involving students both in front of and behind the camera, it showed how learning through participation can be both effective and memorable.
Rosa Pilgram, Q 12