CLOSE-UP OF MAYHEW MAYHEW Er, I'm pretty lucid now. And I've got a clear conception that this is towards the end of the experiment... DIRECTOR'S VOICE (OFF) Can we cut please? MAYHEW LOOKS TOWARDS THE DIRECTOR, SLIGHTLY CONFUSED AT THE INTERRUPTION FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 4, Sequence 6 - 02/09/55

The last bit of sound footage from the session, and it's a good one.

	CLOSE-UP OF MAYHEW, AS BEFORE MAYHEW Well, er, Humphry Osmond said... that was the difficulty all the time... it was bound to be... of trying to find this bridge of communications between the two worlds of time in which I've been this afternoon, in your presence... and I've failed to do so... not for want of trying... I know, in my lucid moments, that I've failed... but, er... it's because I don't think it can be done, that's all I can say. I don't think it can be done. One can only live in one time or in another... LONG PAUSE ...and, er... I think, er... (PAUSE) yes, I'm sorry, once again I'm coming back to what I've been trying to say - that I have seen a whole series of things happening, but not in a series. Er, they have been of equal reality, Humphry. Some have been more real, some have been less real, but no... of inequal reality, but they have neither gone in front of each other nor behind each other... there's been no time sequence at all in them. And, for all I know, what I'm saying now, I may have said before... it's obviously... (PAUSE, SHRUGS) ...and er, I'm now becoming tired as well... in, er... I can see, in physical terms... so that, I'm afraid I must disappoint to you again... MAYHEW SUDDENLY SITS BACK IN HIS ARMCHAIR AND STARES AT THE FAR WALL, WITH A GREAT BIG BENIGN GRIN ON HIS FACE. DIRECTOR'S VOICE (OFF) Cut! FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 4, Sequence 7 - 02/09/55

	BRIEF SHOT OF MAYHEW'S RIGHT LEG NEXT TO A BRASS BUCKET OF COAL FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 4, Sequence 8 - 02/09/55

The final roll of film is opened and used to take some final wild continuity shots, just to get enough in the can before the team get to go down to the pub (although, in that eventuality, we assume Mayhew would have taken a raincheck.)

	BRIEF (ACCIDENTAL) SHOT OF MAYHEW'S SHOES FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 1 - 02/09/55

	CLOSE-UP OF THE SMALL TABLE NEXT TO MAYHEW, UPON WHICH ARE A HALF-FILLED GLASS OF WATER, A SPOON AND A MEDICINAL BOTTLE. WE SEE OSMOND'S HANDS BREAKING A CAPSULE CONTAINING MESCALINE IN HALF AND POURING IT INTO THE WATER. HE THEN PICKS UP THE SPOON AND STIRS THE MIXTURE FOR A WHILE UNTIL SATISFIED THAT IT'S ALL DISSOLVED CORRECTLY THEN HE STICKS THE TIP OF THE SPOON IN HIS MOUTH AND TASTES IT! SAVOURING THE TASTE, HE THEN MAKES SOME COMMENT (WHICH WE DON'T HEAR SINCE THE FILM IS SILENT) FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 2 - 02/09/55

	EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF MAYHEW'S FACE. HE HAS HIS EYES CLOSED, THEN OPENS THEM AND STARES DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA LENS FOR A FEW SECONDS, BLINKING A BIT. FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 3 - 02/09/55

	ANOTHER SHOT OF MAYHEW'S STARING FACE, THIS TIME CUTTING OFF HIS MOUTH, MAKING THE SHOT LOOK LIKE SOME WEIRD OUT-TAKE FROM A LUIS BUNUEL FILM. THIS LASTS ABOUT 17 SECONDS AND HE STARTS TO SAY SOMETHING TOWARDS THE END. AGAIN, WE DON'T HEAR THIS. FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 4 - 02/09/55

	ANOTHER FEW SECONDS OF THE SAME SHOT. MOUTH SLIGHTLY IN VIEW. MAYHEW THEN GRINS AND SAYS SOMETHING FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 5 - 02/09/55

	A SHOT OF MAYHEW'S POV (IE THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM). WE THE CAMERAMAN, 'TUBBY', WITH HIS FILM CAMERA POINTING TOWARDS US. ALSO PRESENT IS A WOMAN, SITTING ON THE SOFA, MAKING NOTES ON A WRITING PAD. FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 6 - 02/09/55

	BRIEF (ACCIDENTAL) SHOT OF SOME OBSCURED SCENE - WE CAN JUST MAKE OUT A BESUITED UPPER TORSO BUT LITTLE ELSE. Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 7 - 02/09/55

	AN 18-SECOND SHOT OF THE MAUVE CURTAINS WHICH DELIGHTED MAYHEW SO MUCH EARLIER. WE SEE THEY ARE INDEED, AS OSMOND POINTED OUT, QUITE ORDINARY. FILMING CUTS Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 8 - 02/09/55

	A 12-SECOND SHOT OF A LAMP ON THE WALL OF THE LIVING ROOM PICTURE CUTS TO WHITE Panorama: The Mescaline Experiment - session rushes Roll 5, Sequence 9 - 02/09/55

So there you go. A moral lesson to us all. If a fruity doctor offers to give you a dose of mescaline, just make sure you have a camera crew present.

At regular intervals, about twice every five minutes at the peak of the experiment, I would become unaware of my surroundings, and enjoy an existence quite conscious of myself in a state of complete bliss, for a period of time which, for me, did not end at all. It didn't last for minutes, or for hours, but for years, and during this period I would be aware of a pervasive, bright, pure light, like a kind of invisible sun snow. For several days afterwards I remembered the afternoon not as so many hours spent in my drawing room interrupted by these kind of excursions, but as countless years of complete bliss interrupted by short spells in my drawing room. But to the film team, and to Dr. Osmond, the excursions lasted no time at all. In fact, according to the parochial assumption of the scientist, they could not in fact have happened, because there was no time for them to happen in, as the film shows. Hallucinogenic Drugs and Their Psychotherapeutic Use (page 171)

For an unbroadcast (and indeed unedited) programme it has certainly garnered plenty of coverage over the years. Short illustrative sections from the archived 35mm rushes were broadcast for the first time in an edition of Everyman ('The Rise Of LSD' - 16/11/86) which looked at the history of hallucinogens in the wake of the growing acid house culture. As previously mentioned, BBC 2's themed TV Hell evening later dusted off a few clips for inclusion in its 'A-Z Of TV Hell' segment (31/08/92). C4's unimaginative Top 100 TV Moments From Hell (09/09/00) also re-used some of the same footage.

The sleevenotes on the back cover of the release read:

where once we asked 'who are the shamen', we now seek the word of mayhew. is he some velveteen sage, a jabberwock dandy, an incandescant legend; or is he a king's road owsley, a provider of the magic cube? perhaps he is; perhaps he is not, reality is not in question here. for him the psychedelic quest is over, his mind shaken and shivered, his perception doors burst open. the shamen spin this tale in thunder, where hip-hop collides with freakbox and churning guitars set the story free. Christopher Mayhew Says - sleevenotes.

Indeed. The track also sampled sections of the original session dialogue.

	HERRING To help us discover the truth about our senses, we tried to contact some of the scientific luminaries who used the harmless and wonderful LSD drug in the past, but they all seem to have gone mad or died. LEE So, instead, under this thick, sound-proof deprivation blanket, we've got the 1960s TV journalist, Mr Christopher Mayhew! GRAMS: 'CHRISTOPHER MAYHEW SAYS' - THE SHAMEN LEE Christopher, hello, now, back in the sixties you chemically altered your perceptions, live on British TV using LSD. So, are you gonna do that here tonight? MAYHEW (IANNUCCI) (POSH BBC ACCENT) Unfortunately, the BBC will no longer allow its staff to take dangerous hallucanagenic drugs live on air. But all is not lost. Underneath this sheet I've got four hundred high-tar cigarettes, one hundred Pro-Plus caffiene tablets, ten bars of full Dairy Milk chocolate, a big plastic bottle of Woodpecker cider, a few packs of Lucozade glucose tablets and a whole jar of Vic's Vapo-Rub. So I reckon my senses should be plenty chemically altered by the end of the show, thank you very much. HERRING Right, Mr Mayhew, well let's tuck you in, and we'll be back to see how you've got on later. MAYHEW Fine! Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World BBC Radio 4 - Series 2, Show 3 - 29/07/93

And, in an echo of the original experiment, we return to find the fictionalised Mayhew in an altered state:

	LEE Now, you'll remember that at the start of the show we left 1960s TV scientist Christopher Mayhew asleep under a sheet, stuffing himself with psycho-active stimulants, Let's see if he's ready to come out from under it and face the world with a new set of senses. Christopher Mayhew, are you there? MAYHEW Yes, and the stimulant cocktails have taken effect now. I'm chemically altered and rearing to go. LEE Okay, let the experience begin. MAYHEW I'm lifting off the blanket... now! (PAUSE) Oh, my giddy aunt! What a to-do! I seem to be able to literally kick down the doors of perception and use my senses to see everything as it really is. LEE And what can you see now, Mr Mayhew? MAYHEW My stars! None of what our pathetic five Earthly senses perceive is real at all! The whole of the world is just a screen in a huge provincial cinema, and what we know as 'reality' is just a film projected onto it. I hope there's an interval soon - I'm bursting for the toilet after all that cider! Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World BBC Radio 4 - Series 2, Show 3 - 29/07/93

When the show's resident Hammond organ-playing 'Believe It Or Not' file expert 'Peter Fenn' subsequently appears and is 'perceived' by both 'Christopher Mayhew' and Lee & Herring - thus conclusively proving that Fenn and his organ are "the only real things in existance" in an otherwise bleak world - Mayhew decides to go and have a bit of a lie down.

	Lord Mayhew in 1987
	Dr Humphry Osmond in a world of his own

Dr Humphry Osmond continued with his experiments into hallucinogens well into the 1960s, publishing several papers and writing many books on the subject. His research included treating alcoholics with LSD which, it's said, yielded a surprising success rate. However, with the emergence of an underground drug culture making news waves, such was destined to become out-of-favour with the medical establishment and Osmond had no option but to cease the whole operation. He eventually left his post at Canada to become director of the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry at the New Jersey Psychiatric Institute in Princeton, before settling down as a professor of psychology at the University of Alabama. He died on February 6th 2004.

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