Some of the studios below are primarily film studios but have been used to make television programmes. Others are loosely associated with the history of ITV or Channel 4. However, they were not directly connected with them - each coming into service for its own unique reason. In some cases they have been around for many years and continue to provide useful facilities to the industry.
studios listed below in the order they originally opened:
Walton Studios (Hepworth, Nettlefold, Sapphire)
Elstree (British National, BIP, ABPC, EMI, EMI-MGM,Thorn-EMI, Cannon, Goldcrest, Elstree Film and TV, Elstree Film Studios)
Shepperton (Sound City, British Lion, Lion International, Lee International, Scott brothers, Pinewood-Shepperton, Pinewood Studios Group) includes Lion Television
Crystal Palace (Baird Television Ltd)
Pinewood (Rank, Pinewood-Shepperton, Pinewood Studios Group)
Capital Studios (Ewarts, Capital)
Battersea Studios (ILEA, independent)
Stephen Street (Pearson, FremantleMedia) including a brief mention of Merton Studios
(Riverside Studios are covered on the old BBC studios page)
(Fountain and MTV studios are covered on the old ITV studios page)
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NB - I have where possible given the dimensions of the studios. This can be a bit of a minefield. BBC studios, Fountain, Teddington, Riverside and even Pinewood TV have their plans drawn in metric 50:1 but for some reason The London Studios (LWT) still use the very similar 1/4 inch to the foot scale. This slight but significant difference can cause problems if a set moves from one studio to another with plans of a different scale as it might not fit! Also, for marketing purposes the size of a studio is often quoted wall to wall. However, most of them have fire lanes running round each side so the available space for cameras and sets is somewhat smaller. Where possible I have quoted sizes within firelanes and in feet or 'metric feet' where applicable. This curious measurement was invented by the BBC and is 30cm in length. (If you think back to your old school rulers, they had 12 inches on one side and 30cm, which is very slightly less, on the other.) It does mean that a studio that is marked as 90 metric feet long is actually 88ft 6ins long. Most TV studios have their length and width within the firelanes clearly marked along the walls and/or on the floor in feet or metric feet. This enables the scene crew to put the set up exactly where it was drawn on the designer's plan. This very useful facility is never seen on film stages which, incidentally, are always still measured in feet and inches. |
Walton Studios - film studios with a huge influence on the early years of British television
1899 - 1962
In order to reduce the enormity of the mountain I have given myself to climb in creating this website, I have not included studios that weren't actually equipped to make programmes on multicamera video - even if they have produced programmes shown on television. Ealing Studios are, for example, not included. However, I have broken my own rule by including Shepperton and of course Elstree Film and TV Studios and my history of Pinewood strays beyond the two television studios there. One of my regular correspondents, Mitch Mitchell, is a great fan of old TV dramas and in the nicest possible way he put some pressure on me to include a reference to Walton Studios. Since he did take the trouble to write to me with huge amounts of useful info on all kinds of other studios - I feel obliged to acquiesce...
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The studios were in Walton-on-Thames, not far from Shepperton. They started life back in 1899, when Cecil Hepworth leased a house for £36 a year and built a 15ft x 8ft 'stage'. Hepworth was an inventor of exhibition and photographic equipment who had decided that he wanted to try his hand at film making. He created a production company - Hepwix - and began by making 'actualities', or local newsreels. He then moved on to making films using trick photography in his tiny studio. By 1905 Hepworth had added a large glass stage - using frosted glass to diffuse the light. Thus Hepworth Studios were created. He seems to have been a man full of imagination - as well as probably filming the first slow-motion footage, he also devised a system of mounting a camera dolly on a short length of railway-type track - thus probably creating the first tracking shots in cinema. Unlike other studios, production continued at the studio through the First World War, both by making propaganda films and by renting to visiting companies. Many films were made by the Hepworth company and several actors became stars as a result. Perhaps the best remembered today is Ronald Colman. However, following the Great War, British film companies were all struggling to survive and in 1923, despite some critical successes, both Cecil Hepworth and his film company were declared bankrupt. By then there were two stages and the studios were very well equipped. However, the receiver was a man who knew nothing of the value of all this and it was all sold off at a pittance - the library of old films made by Hepworth melted down to make dope for aircraft wings. In 1926 the studios were purchased by Archibald Nettlefold, a theatrical producer and recreational farmer who was part of a family of industrialists from Birmingham. Now there's a combination. (His surname was in fact the 'N' in the engineering company 'GKN.') The newly renamed Nettlefold Studios made a few comedy silents which were not hugely successful and were one of the last studios to convert to sound in 1930. However, they quickly caught up and in 1932 were the first studio in Britain with the new 'high fidelity' sound system. Nettlefold acquired further land at the rear of the studios and expanded Hepworth's original site, enjoying a fruitful relationship with Butcher's Films. The next few years saw Nettlefold Studios concentrate on making quota quickies. These were paid for by the big US film companies at the rate of £1 per foot so they had to be made very cheaply and quickly. Like most film studios around London, Nettlefold was commandeered by the government for the duration of the Second World War. Initially this was for storage but following a direct hit to their factory at Kingston-upon-Thames only five miles away, the Vickers-Armstrong aircraft company moved here and built two new hangars. It is not clear what happened to Nettlefold himself but by 1947 the studios were owned by Ernest G. Roy and had three stages, including the two new aircraft hangers. A modest string of films was produced but the studios lacked the driving force of Nettlefold. By the mid 1950s they had succumbed to the overall decline that saw many studios go under. However, rather than close - their saviour was the newly emerging world of commercial television.
Television saves the day... In 1955 Sapphire Films began hiring studio space, eventually buying the studios and renaming them Walton Studios. The company was owned by the powerful American producer Hannah Weinstein. In order to avoid the anti-Communist persecution and hysteria of McCarthyism sweeping the US in the early 1950s, Weinstein had moved her family to Europe in 1950 and established her own production company, Sapphire Films, in London in 1952. She pre-sold the idea of a Robin Hood series to an American flour company with the same name (they would sponsor the series in America) but because her politics were known to be left-wing she was unable to make the series in the US. England was no problem of course and since the series was made here she also did a deal with Lew Grade's ITC company to sell initially 39 half hour episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood. Over the following four years no less than 143 episodes were made on 35mm film. The series made a star of Richard Greene, and the opening musical sting and theme tune were sung by small boys in playgrounds all over the country for many years. Dozens of well-known English actors performed in the programme - some playing more than one part over the years. The scripts were of an unusually high quality because Weinstein made use of McCarthy-era blacklisted American screen writers, working under assumed names. Often stories contained themes exploring social justice - the subject matter was of course highly suited to that. Ironically, it became as popular in the US as it was in Britain. Each episode took only four and a half days to shoot. Of course, to make that many episodes so quickly involved revolutionary film-making techniques. The most original was that the scenery was made in sections that could be re-arranged in any order and almost everything was on wheels. It was said that they could change a set and be ready to shoot in six minutes. The man responsible for devising this technique was Peter Proud, an art director with 28 years of film experience. Setting and striking is normally very time-consuming but lighting a set can take even longer. Proud's solution at Walton Studios was to have a pre-lit area and simply move the set into the light. Bushes and lightweight canvas tree trunks were trucked about to form various parts of the forest and 'stone' walls and doorways instantly became different rooms or corridors within a castle. There was one enormous hollow tree that appeared in almost every episode in a different place. Viewers must have assumed that Sherwood Forest was riddled with hollow trees. There were sometimes a few exterior shots and these were mostly done around Runnymead and Windsor Great Park, just a few miles up the river Thames. They were usually shot by a second unit, often using stunt riders rather than the leads and rarely involving any dialogue. The series developed a visual style of its own and was hugely popular. So much so that Lew Grade decided to make something very similar himself. Thus at his newly acquired National Film Studios in Elstree, ITP (the production arm of ITC) began to make The Adventures of William Tell. The two series were almost identical in style and were shown by ATV around the same time. Most people would have assumed they were made by the same company but no. Sapphire Films sold the programmes to ITC who sold them to ATV. Sapphire made several more series employing the same excellent screen writers: The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956), The Buccaneers (1956), Sword of Freedom (1957) and detective/spy series The Four Just Men (1959). For many people of a certain generation these programmes made by Sapphire at Walton-on-Thames epitomise some of the best of British television from the late 50s/early '60s. One would have thought that the success of this work would have guaranteed the longevity of the studios. However, several things combined to bring it all to a close. Apparently, Weinstein's new husband mortgaged the property and assets of the studios for the promise of a fortune in Florida. The fortune never came and he did a runner. Meanwhile, The Four Just Men was received with glowing reviews by critics in Britain and America. However, the 39 episode series was not deemed suitable by the US networks and was only syndicated by local stations. The income from US sales was therefore much less than had been anticipated. As distributors, ITC did their best to sell it around the world and had some success. Not enough to counter the lack of an American sponsor, however. At the same time, ITC were said to be driving a very hard bargain with regard to the amount they would pay Sapphire for any further shows they might make. The sums would simply not add up and the bank foreclosed. In 1962 Walton came into the hands of a liquidator once again and much of the equipment went to Shepperton. Stage 1 (the Robin Hood stage) was apparently sold off to be dismantled and re-erected at Bray - to become used by successful horror film makers Hammer Films. On the other hand, Shepperton also claim to have received this stage which became their I stage. Maybe more than one stage was dismantled and sold - after all, there were two hangers built during the war that were later turned into stages. No doubt the salesman claimed to both studios that the one they were buying was the actual 'Robin Hood Stage.' The studio lot was sold to the local Council and became Hepworth Way and part of the 1960s Walton-on-Thames shopping centre (now itself demolished.) The flats at Hepworth Way and the shopping centre apparently feature in the film Psychomania. I am told that it was also the location for Monty Python's 'Can housewives tell the difference between...?' sketch.
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