However they did have a large studio audience and the Judges were there to represent the eyes of the listener. You are right about the listener being blind to the goings-on in the BBC studio. If The Piddingtons could have appeared on Penn & Teller's 'Fool em,' they would have fooled them. Penn Jillette also thinks a switch took place. I can confirm the selected envelopes were NOT switched. The Stratocruiser broadcast has baffled the world. The audience played their part in randomly choosing a page and line number and I can confirm that the audience members were truly random. Nowadays, the book test is based on identifying a single word, the Piddingtons transmitted an entire line of text. The broadcasts have been rare for too long, I am glad Jesse Cox agreed to pass the recordings on to me for the site. James Randi says that it is important to pass the secrets of magic down as they often come back much improved. I see this as more than just a book but an 'event' in magic history, the day Piddington's Secrets are finally passed down. My book reveals a lot that has never been reported before.

Indeed much has been written about them in the press and I have seen much of it.

The book was born, and wow, what an amazing and wondrous journey it was learning all the unknown secrets and adventures the Piddingtons had. I spoke with the Piddington family and asked permission to pass down the methods to future magicians and they said 'go for it'. He had to know of them to do his job in the BBC.īefore writing the book I had no idea the methods were unknown, I found this out accidentally. We even found my Granddad's notes about their methods. I discovered this by accident whilst working with Paul Daniels in the 1990s and I just had to know more - and over many years I heard all about Piddington's adventures from all who knew. My Granddad George Hart worked with the Piddington shows on the BBC here in London and also during their tour of the UK back in 1950.

The Piddingtons by Russell Braddon