London has dozens of spaces that are marketed as 'TV studios'. Some are converted from existing buildings such as warehouses, or are simply rooms within office blocks. These range from those with the latest high definition technology to those that are little more than a basic 4-waller.
However, this website ignores almost all the above and instead deals mostly with the main large studio complexes that have a history that in many cases go back to the origins of ITV and the BBC. I have included independent TV studios if they are of a reasonable size and have produced a variety of work, and film studios if they also have TV studios on site or have been used to make a number of multicamera television programmes on their stages. I have not included studios built specifically for one programme such as The Big Breakfast but there is a brief mention of The Bill's home in Merton as that particular base has also been used to make some multi-camera TV including Family Affairs. In order to put a limit on things I have left out the many small studios that can be found all over London - most of them making programmes for digital channels (shopping, quiz channnels, soft porn etc).
I have, incidentally, omitted Ealing Film Studios. Although they were owned by the BBC for many years they were never converted into fully-equipped TV studios or to my knowledge ever used for multi-camera programmes using OB units. They were the base for the BBC Film Unit and so were used for making programmes, usually dramas, on film or in latter years - single camera video.
A television studio is a factory floor. It is simply the most efficient way a particular type of television programme can be made. If it could be made cheaper anywhere else it would be. In fact dozens of programmes that used to be made in studios are now made on location or in offices. For example, Watchdog uses the production's own office as a studio. They drive up an OB truck once a week, turn on the TV lights and record a show. The next day it's an office again. Like many others, this show used to have a regular booking in a studio at TV Centre. Cost forced them to find an alternative.
Most of Britain's studio-based television is made in or near London. Outside the capital are a handful of studios making shows for the five main channels in Manchester, Leeds and Maidstone. (Of course, there are studios in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast but they mostly concentrate on making programmes for their respective nations.) Setting aside those studios permanently making soaps, news, sport, daytime magazine shows, weather and links for children's channels - London's main medium-to-large production TV studios in 2008 are at BBC Television Centre (6), BBC Elstree (1), The London Studios (3), Teddington (2), Pinewood (2), Fountain (1 or 2) Elstree Film and TV Studios (1+) and Riverside (1+).
These studios are used for entertainment programmes of all kinds including music shows, gameshows, chat shows, sitcoms, sketch shows, kids shows, quizzes, current affairs debates etc. Sadly, they are no longer used to make TV drama. The last example of this was probably The House of Eliott, made at TV Centre from 1991-1993. (The exception in London is EastEnders, which is still made using traditional techniques in multicamera studios but those studios are purely dedicated to that programme.)
Nevertheless, the big fully-equipped and fantastically expensive TV studio is still very much alive and well, despite numerous attempts over the years to declare its imminent death. At certain times of the year production companies can find it very difficult indeed to find available studio space. New large studios are probably not likely to be built soon in London (except possibly at Pinewood) but in Maidstone a large studio opened in 2005; the old Anglia studio E in Norwich re-opened in 2006 as an independent facility and in Manchester there are new independent studios springing up in and near Salford Quays, attracting work now but also getting ready for the BBC's move north in three or four years time. The question is -'will London-based productions be prepared to make their shows in these studios?' The answer of course is - 'yes, if they are much cheaper than the alternatives'.
Over the next few years the industry will continue its move to making programmes in high definition (HD). This change is technically as big as the change from black and white to colour. Sky is already transmitting several channels including Sky One in HD with more to follow soon. (A Sky HD box is required to receive them.) The BBC is now transmitting an HD channel via Sky HD and also Freesat. The BBC has declared that all their primetime output will be made in HD by 2010. C4 began to be simulcast in HD from December 2007 with ITV1 planning to introduce a 'red button' HD service on Freesat in the summer of 2008. All this demand for HD material will involve replacing studio cameras, vision mixers (switchers), monitors, VT recorders and cabling and routing systems. This will be very expensive indeed.
The BBC has converted its two largest studios, TC1 and TC8, fully to HD with 10 and 8 cameras respectively (including 5.1 surround sound). TC4 is due to become HD in the summer of 2008. Meanwhile, Teddington has already recorded several HD sitcoms using hired-in equipment and in the summer of 2007 bought four HDC-1500 cameras with a fifth being added early in 2008. At least one of Pinewood's TV studios is likely to be converted to HD within the next year or two. Fountain took the plunge and bought ten HD cameras in 2007. TLS are actively making plans and are said to be looking at Ikegami HD cameras, rather than the Sonys which everyone else seems to have gone with. Not many studios are left that don't at least have plans to convert but if they don't soon they will certainly begin to lose work. However, it is extremely expensive and some might not be able to afford the investment.
Pre TV...
Before the Second World War there was only one television studio centre in London - Alexandra Palace - but there were 21 film studios, each with several stages. By the early 1960s the number of film studios had dwindled to a mere handful but on about half a dozen sites around the capital television was thriving. The decline in the film industry coincided with the dawn of television so a number of studio sites were ready and available to be converted to the new entertainment medium.
The film studio capacity had exceeded the demand and many closed - either to become television studios or to be lost to redevelopment. Amongst the most famous was Denham, which in its day was the largest studio in the country with 7 stages. It closed in 1951. (Apparently, the BBC briefly considered siting its new Television Centre there, rather than at White City. Now wouldn't that have been nice! I gather that the Post Office couldn't guarantee to get the necessary sound and vision cables laid in time so it had to be rejected.)
Many film studios had been built to accommodate the system of quotas introduced by the government in 1928. This stipulated that at least 20% of all films shown in cinemas in the UK must have been made in Britain. The Hollywood studio companies therefore made hundreds of 'quota quickies' in studios all round London - usually very cheaply but crucially giving invaluable experience to actors and crew members. After the war the quota was dropped and a tax was introduced on cinema ticket sales. These two things combined to create a rapid decline in the UK's film industry and the inevitable result for many studios was closure. A contributing factor of course was television itself. People were not so inclined to go to the pictures once or twice a week if they had a TV set in their own living room. This was particularly true from about 1955 when the ITV companies began broadcasting.
Those old film studios that found a new life with television included Lime Grove (Shepherds Bush), Riverside (Hammersmith), Teddington, Highbury, Wembley Park and National Studios in Elstree (which in 1938 were owned by Joe Rock).
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The map shown above is taken from the International Motion Picture Almanac of 1937-38. It is thus a fascinating snapshot of the industry shortly before the war and so in industry terms, just before television changed everything. Of the 21 studios shown, only five are still making movies of which two currently make both movies and TV programmes. Six became purely television studios. Of those, two - Highbury and Shepherds Bush (Lime Grove) - have since closed. The map is far from accurate. For example, Teddington is shown south of the river! In case you were wondering - Bray did not open until 1949. |
The arrival of television...
The table below shows the year each studio opened. It is interesting to note the two main clusters of construction - around the launch of ITV and then during the early to mid 1960s. This latter group forms the majority of the studios in use today. News/presentation and small studios are not included unless they have special significance or are part of a larger complex. Studios marked in red are no longer in use.
Studios marked 'TC' are at BBC Television Centre, 'LG' were at Lime Grove and 'TLS' are at The London Studios.
Studios marked with an asterisk* were converted into a TV studio from previous use as a film stage.
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1935 (180 lines, then 240 lines) |
Crystal Palace 1, 2, 3 (Baird's regular transmissions began in February although the studios were in use for trials and experiments for at least a year before this. From November, resolution increased to 240 lines) |
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1936 BBCtv begins (240 & 405 lines) |
Alexandra Palace A and B (Began in November. A was 405 line EMI system, B was 240 line Baird system. Baird 240 line system ended in Feb 1937. Then B converted to 405 lines.) |
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1950 |
Highbury A* (b/w high definition cameras from 1950-1956); LGD*; LGG* |
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1951 |
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1952 |
LGH* |
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1953 |
LGE*; TV Theatre |
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1954 |
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1955 ITV begins (405 lines) |
Viking*; Granville; Television House 7-10; Wembley 1-4*; Wood Green Empire; Hackney Empire |
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1956 |
Riverside 1*& 2*; King's Theatre Hammersmith |
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1957 |
Chelsea Palace |
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1958 |
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1959 |
Teddington 2*& 3* |
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1960 |
Elstree C*& D*; Wembley 5 (now Fountain); TC2; TC3 |
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1961 |
Elstree A*& B*; TC4; TC5 |
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1962 |
TC7 |
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1963 |
Teddington 1* |
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1964 BBC2 begins (625 lines) |
Wycombe Road, TC1 |
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1965 |
Hillside 1 and 2 |
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1966 |
Elstree Film 7, 8, 9 (Built as film stages with monopole grids and 8/9 with space for control rooms but not equipped for TV); Pinewood J & K (Built as film stages with monopole grids, flat floors and space for control rooms but not equipped for TV) |
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1967 colour on BBC2 |
TC6; TC8 (first colour studios in UK) |
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1968 |
Ewarts A & B (now Capital) |
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1969 colour on BBC1 & ITV (625 lines) |
Thames Euston 4, 5, 6; Golders Green Hippodrome, N1, N2 (later became TC11, TC12) |
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1970 |
Battersea A and B |
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1971 |
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1972 |
LWT 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (now TLS) |
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1978 |
Molinare 1 and 2 |
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1979 |
Greenwood Theatre |
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1980 |
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1981 |
Thames Euston 7 |
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1982 C4 begins |
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1983 TV-am begins |
Limehouse 1 & 2; TV-am 1 & 2 (now MTV) |
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1988 |
LWT 10 |
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1989 Sky TV begins |
Sky 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; BSB 1, 2, 3, 4 (now QVC) |
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1990 |
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1991 |
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1992 |
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1993 |
TLS 7 |
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1994 |
Teddington 4 (formally music studio) |
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1995 |
TC0 (formally music studio) |
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1996 |
TLS 8; TC9 (formally make-up store); Disney A and B (mothballed in 2005 but now occasionally used again.) |
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1997 Five begins |
Stephen Street 1 and 2 |
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1998 Sky Digital & OnDigital begin 16:9 widescreen available |
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1999 |
Elstree Film stage 7* (part converted to TV studio with resin floor and Portacabin control rooms) |
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2000 |
Pinewood TV-one* & TV-two* (fully converted to TV studios from stages J & K); TC10 (formally N1) |
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2001 |
Cactus TV |
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2002 |
TC11 (formally N2) |
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2003 |
The Hospital (first colour HD studio in UK) |
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2004 |
Teddington 6 (formally viewing theatre/meeting room); TC12 (formally music studio control room - closed in 2008); 1 Leicester Square (MTV studio - closed in 2007) |
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2005 |
Teddington 7 (formally prop store area); Teddington 8 (formally edit suite), Sky A, B, C, D (news studios) |
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2006 HD available (1080 lines - service available via Sky or Virgin cable - Sky One and BBC trial HD channel amongst others.) |
Riverside 3; Princess Studio |
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2007 (C4 HD channel begins via Sky) |
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2008 Freesat begins in May (All BBC, ITV and C4 channels available via free satellite service with BBC and ITV offering HD channels) |
Teddington 9 (studio 7 divided in half and 'new' half called studio 9) |
Finally, I have taken the liberty of copying a superb sketch drawn in 1995 by Dicky Howett. Dicky is a very knowledgeable expert on the history of British television cameras. He owns dozens of them - most of which he has returned to full working order. He and a colleague, Paul Marshall, run Golden Age Television Recreations - a company that rents out period television equipment for use as working props in films and TV programmes. Their expert knowledge has been called upon several times by me in the writing of this website.
Anyway - below is a drawing of the principal monochrome television cameras in use in London's studios from 1937 to the beginning of colour in the late '60s. Despite at first glance looking like a rough sketch it is in fact incredibly accurate and I have often found it invaluable in identifying camera types. It was originally printed in 405 Alive magazine and I hope the people associated with that publication and Dicky himself won't mind me copying it here...
