An unreliable and wholly unofficial history
of BBC Television Centre...
...with grateful thanks to several current and ex BBC staffers who have passed some fascinating documents and other information to me.
contents of this web page...
stage 2 (restaurant block and TC9)
puppet studio/video effects workshop
(a potted history of early colour cameras)
stage 4 (the spur including TC8, TC10, TC11)
the television rehearsal rooms
stage 5 (including TC0 and TC12)
stage 6 (including the studio that never was)
An Overview
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The original plan for TVC dated around 1960. TC8 was the only one of the planned three studios along the spur that was eventually constructed. |
Of all the TV studio centres in the UK, Television Centre (TVC) is by far the largest. With eight medium to large production studios, five small ones and a further number of news and weather studios it continues to dominate the industry. The building itself is huge; it is only seven stories high, apart from the tall East Tower, but the area it covers is considerable. As well as the studios, scenery block and restaurant block there are countless hundreds of offices. When they ran out of space in the 1980s they built even more offices on the roof of the scenery runway that encircles the main block. Thousands of people work there every day - most not having a clue what everyone else does. The waitress service restaurant is no more but there are still two cafeterias and many snack bars, coffee bars, delis and tea bars all over the building, not to mention the BBC Club. The Centre contains a travel agent, a hairdresser, a dry cleaner, a florist (called 'Auntie's Blooms') and even a branch of WH Smith.
Its statistics are pretty extraordinary. The main block is 500 feet in diameter and at basement level covers three and a half acres. In the studios nearest the railway line the walls are 2ft 3ins thick to provide sound insulation. When opened, the building contained 85 dressing rooms, sufficient for 613 artists. There were originally 43 lifts plus 2 escalators to the basement level. (These have not worked for at least the past two decades, apart from a very brief period in the '90s when the new offices for 'TSPR' opened in the hub.) The ventilation system was the largest non-industrial system in Europe with 19 air-conditioning plants, 22 ventilating plants, 8 extract plants and 2 'absorbtion refrigerating machines'. Gosh.
It was originally supplied with 2 separate feeds from the national grid, in case one went down. Later, one of these was withdrawn by the electricity supplier when Battersea Power Station was closed and the one remaining feed has indeed failed on at least three occasions to my knowledge. To cope with this, emergency generators have been installed and the power plant that originally only heated the water was some years ago replaced with two gas turbines that can generate electricity as well as providing hot water and cooled air as a by-product. This system is known as 'combined heat and power' or CHP. (Their rumoured history of unreliability, however, is probably the subject of another book to be told elsewhere!) On this very subject I have been contacted by Andrew Prince...
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'Problem was they tried to be too clever and tried to extract the heat from either the main or the reserve generator. Point of interest, I was tasked with testing them once overnight. We advised the occupants of TVC that we were doing this and they should switch off PCs etc overnight just in case. Come the night we powered the CHP up, disconnected TVC from the mains and tried to load the generator up. I went around all the studios and put on all the studio lights we could and surprise - we cound not create the load we wanted. Just goes to show what power is wasted overnight by things being left on. Footnote, when it came to re connect TVC to the national grid, the breaker would not go in. It took several attempts before it held. Phew, there were a few white faced people there that night.' |
Despite best intentions, not all the original design choices were good ones. The official 1960 BBC book about the building proudly states that the roofs of the studios were covered in asbestos tiles and that the trusses supporting the studio grids were 'fire-proofed, their members being covered with sprayed-on asbestos fibre.' Guess what. In 1988 asbestos was unexpectedly 'discovered' in TVC's studios and they were all shut down for examination. Perhaps the BBC managers should have read the BBC's own 1960 book and they would have known some time before. Anyway - each studio was closed for detailed examination and after a few weeks depending on the seriousness of the risk was brought back into service. In the case of some, the asbestos was removed and with others it was encapsulated, with an intention to remove it at some later time.
The removal or containment programmes for each studio lasted for many months or in the case of TC1 - years.
Almost inevitably, this problem re-emerged in 2006. It was then announced that further work would be necessary on three of the studios - TC2, TC3 and TC5. This was subsequently carried out, one studio at a time, beginning with TC2 from late summer 2006. The studio reopened after a very expensive process of removal early in 2007 when work on TC5 began. This was complete by the summer of 2007 and TC3 was closed, reopening early in 2008. Now this process is complete - seven of the main studios have had their original soundproofing stripped to the brick walls and new panels installed - making them look like new studios. Only TC8 remains as it was built since no asbestos was used in its construction. As far as can be determined, all eight of the main studios are now free of asbestos.
Rumours still persist however that the building remains contaminated. How much truth there is in this is hard to determine. Certainly, huge amounts of work have been done in the studios at vast expense over the years and they are constantly monitored for any trace of contamination. My guess is that they are probably now amongst the 'cleanest' studios in the country.
It's hard to say for certain how other studios in London have been affected. Any built before the late '60s are likely to have asbestos somewhere in their walls or insulation. Within the TV industry, it appears that only the BBC have really tackled this issue seriously and spent literally millions of pounds removing or encapsulating the asbestos in this building.
Construction and alterations have never ceased since building commenced in 1951. The sound of distant drilling has disturbed countless transmissions and recordings over the decades. In fact, it is such an extraordinary building that there literally can't be a person alive that has been in every part of it. I was based there for 26 years and still often work there but probably have only ever seen a fraction of the building. Its unique circular design means that many people, myself included, often exit a door onto a corridor and have to pause for a second to work out the best route to where they are going. Many is the time I have said goodbye to someone as we go off in different directions only to meet them again a minute or two later, slightly embarrassed as we bump into each other - having taken completely different routes to arrive at the same place. It happens so often that people barely remark on it. Or perhaps it's just me.
I wrote at the beginning of this project that TV studios were factories. That rather trite description probably applies to this building even more than most. (Indeed, the then head of BBC Television described it as such on the day it opened.) The sheer scale of its operation makes this inevitable. However, it is also a corporate headquarters and a news centre and anyone entering the reception area that faces Wood Lane would be hard pushed to get any sense that this building contains television studios. Compare it with the reception area in ITV's headquarters on the south bank, or Teddington or Fountain or Pinewood TV. It's almost as though the BBC is slightly embarrassed at the fact that inside this building are studios actually still making television. You can certainly tell who was director general when that part of the Centre was designed.
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This marvellous cutaway drawing was sent to me by Bernie Davis. The original print was found in a skip by John Rossetti who had it scanned. It had crease marks and stains but thanks to Bernie spending a few hours in Photoshop it is now here for us all to enjoy - and wonder at. It reminds me of those drawings that the Eagle used to print of classic British inventions like the Spitfire or the Forth Bridge. And quite right too. This drawing truly indicates what an astonishing feat of design and architecture the Centre is. There is no other building like it anywhere in the UK - and probably in the world. If you were ever in any doubt that it should be listed and preserved (as a working studio centre) then just take a close look at this. I can't help but compare it with the on-line plans for the new studios at Salford Quays. I don't know whether to laugh or weep. The plan is dated 23rd July 1958 and it shows how the building was expected to look when it was completed. In fact there were several small changes. There is no East Tower on the foreground 'works block'. That was built in 1964 as something of an afterthought. Studios 8, 9 and 10 are indicated running down the spur, but only TC8 was actually built. TC1 has the tank in its floor - complete with ladder, enabling people to climb in and out (for a swim?). The roof alongside the two presentation studios was apparently intended to be used as an outdoor studio area. There are several other little interesting features too within the building - like a papier mache workshop - but what does strike one is how little has actually changed from this drawing to how the building is used now. The basic design was spot on and enables the studios to still be used efficiently some 50 years later. Click on the plan to view it in all its glory.
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Of course, some things do change and at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man I would have to say that many aspects of the Centre are now nothing like it was when I began to work there in the late 1970s. In those days the offices in the main circular block were taken up with the various departments of make-up, wardrobe, cameras, sound and lighting. Above them were the production offices of the drama department and the light entertainment department. The design department occupied the upper floors of the scenery block at the back of the building and dozens of designers and assistants had their offices there. All production was in-house - nothing was made by independent companies or freelancers so these departments were considerable and employed many of the top people in the country in their respective fields.
Now of course, between a quarter and a half of the BBC's output is made by independent companies. The BBC no longer has make-up, wardrobe or design departments. All were made redundant in the mid nineties and these people are now freelance. The camera, sound, electrical and lighting departments are staffed to a minimal level and employ freelancers like myself on a daily basis. Many independent production companies book studios at TV Centre to make their programmes for the BBC. Also, some companies use TV Centre to make shows for other channels - in particular Channel 4.
Over the last twenty years - and this is the most significant difference to the nature of the building - the kind of programmes made in television studios have radically changed. In the '60s, '70s and well into the '80s the studios were full of drama - series, serials and single plays. Entertainment was variety-based with big showbiz music and comedy spectaculars occupying studios on a regular basis.
Even sitcoms have now dwindled to a handful each year. In 2004 the BBC only made four sitcom series at TVC. (Ab Fab, The Crouches, Eyes Down and Two Pints of Lager.) In 2006 I believe Grownups and Two Pints... were the only sitcom series made here. 2007 fortunately saw a slight increase with yet more Two Pints..., Grownups back for a second series, After You've Gone series 2 being made here instead of Teddington and new series Labrats being made in TC8. All the other sitcoms shown on BBC TV are made at Teddington or Pinewood or shot on location as 'comedy dramas'. To be fair, sketch shows like Little Britain, Armstrong and Miller and Mitchell and Webb have become very popular in recent years - and these were made at TVC. Fortunately, the studio sitcom is itself now back in fashion - thank goodness - so the number of series made here is likely to increase over the next few years.
So what is made here? Well - sitcoms and sketch shows (as discussed), gameshows like In It To Win It, Goldenballs and Who Dares Wins, chatshows like Jonathan Ross and Charlotte Church, panel game shows like Eggheads, 8 out of 10 Cats, Buzzcocks and Mock the Week, daytime magazine programmes like Alan Titchmarsh, sport programmes, news, weather, kids shows, music shows like Later With Jools TOTP2 and Maestro, entertainment shows like Maria/Joseph/Nancy, Strictly Come Dancing, The Two of Us, Let Me Entertain You, Last Choir Standing etc. etc., features programmes like Crimewatch and ...well, you get the idea. That's almost it - but TC1 is a very large studio and is ideally suited not only to Saturday night spectaculars but also the big one-off events such as Children in Need, Comic Relief, Sports Personality of the Year, The Soap Awards and of course every four years or so - the general election! It's worth pointing out that six of the main production studios are busy for most of the year making programmes that are not sport, news or children's programmes so will be unaffected by the disappearance of these departments in a few years.
There is little likelihood of drama returning to the studios, which in my view is a great shame. For many years the BBC used to record a television version of successful West End productions under the Play of the Month or Performance banner. This gave millions the opportunity to see top theatre productions that they could not have otherwise, due to cost or where they lived. There is no reason why this could not be done again and there are certainly the crews and directors with the experience and talent to make such programmes. These are the kind of 'public service' programmes that only the BBC could make - and would clearly be of very high quality.
Variety is always 'about to make a comeback' and the occasional nostalgic music show is still made from time to time. However, in my view we won't see the return of a popular variety show until some truly charismatic performers like Morcambe and Wise or The Two Ronnies come along around whom such a show can be built. Ant and Dec are probably the closest to this we have now but of course, they are contracted to ITV and their shows are based more on gameshows than music and comedy.
Despite my possibly appearing to be dwelling on the past - TVC still has a certain something about it. Its studios are the best equipped in the industry. It remains busy for most of the year and its history too is unique, as is its design which I shall attempt to summarise here...
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Early Plans As soon as the war was over the BBC knew they would need to build a 'television centre'. They acquired Lime Grove Studios and shortly afterwards the Shepherds Bush Empire (Television Theatre) and Riverside Studios but these were stop-gaps and the intention was to move all television production into this new purpose built centre. A site of 13 acres, previously occupied by part of the Franco-British Exhibition was bought shortly after the war. This 140 acre exhibition had consisted of several highly ornate pavilions all faced in white which came to give this area of London just north of Shepherds Bush the name 'White City.' Following the original exhibition and - let us not forget! - the 1908 Olympic Games, the buildings hosted several other exhibitions and expositions. (What's the difference?) The last time the site was employed for its original purpose was for the British Industries Fair in 1929 although some areas were used for 'textile fairs' until 1937. During the war some of the buildings were commandeered for the manufacture of parachutes. In 1936 much of the site was taken over by Hammersmith council who built the South Africa Estate of flats surrounding the stadium. (Incidentally, the only remaining buildings dating from the exhibition were demolished as recently as 2004, when the site on the other side of Wood Lane was cleared prior to construction of a huge new retail park.) By 1949 the remainder of the site was derelict and the BBC purchased 13 acres originally occupied by the 'court of honour' - although several councillors objected strongly and thought that the land should have been used for housing. The only thing that remains of this extraordinary, spectacular exhibition site is a 2m square of terracotta tiles on the ground outside TC1.
The story of how architect Graham Dawbarn came up with the design is well documented but I'll repeat it anyway. Given a fifty-page brief he retreated to a pub for inspiration and with a plan of the oddly-shaped site in his head he pondered on the problem. How to fit eight to ten studios in this area - giving easy access to scenery and separately to artists, crew and audiences. Gazing at it for a few seconds he doodled a question mark on an envelope and the penny dropped. The shape was perfect.
He would build most of the studios around a circular hub containing video recorders in the basement - so cable lengths to each studio were minimized. Around that would be dressing rooms in the basement and on ground floor level. The studios would be spread outside a circular corridor on the ground floor in a large/small alternate pattern, enabling crush bars or 'assembly areas' to occupy some of the space next to the smaller studios. On first floor level above the dressing rooms and assembly areas would be the studio control rooms and apparatus rooms - all with easy access to each other. The fan of studios would create wedges between them where other areas could be fitted - camera stores, prop stores, dimmer rooms and even a small puppet studio. A larger wedge between two of the studios would contain a wide access route between the front and back of the studios on the ground floor whilst above this would be the transmission suites, presentation studios, telecine areas and central apparatus room. Outside the studios would be a covered road or 'runway' enabling scenery to move between studios and to and from the scenery block - a large construction connecting the main block at the rear of the building. Outside the scenery runway would be a road enabling vehicles to move easily round the site. The circle of studios would extend along a spur that could be built in phases with more studios as and when required over the years. The spur would connect with the scenery runway at the back and the artists' corridor at the front. A concept plan was drawn up, a model made, and in 1951 construction began on the first building - the scenery block. However, the foundation stone for the main block was not in fact laid until 1956. There was a pause of a few years before building could commence on the studios. The government was going through financially straitened times following the war and they could not afford the huge capital investment that was required to be borrowed. As it transpired, the delay was to the good as the plans could be further developed and refined. The original plans had some of the studios rather different from the way they ended up. TC2, 5 and 7 were eventually built as originally conceived. However, TC1 and 6 were going to be the same size as each other - a very long and relatively narrow 75 x 120ft wall to wall with a grid height of 45ft. More interestingly, TC3 and TC4 were initially both planned to be a similar 75 ft wide and 120 ft long but the end 40ft was to have a grid height of 60ft enabling scenery to be flown as in a theatre. (These dimensions are taken from a magazine article dated 27th May 1950.) The enforced pause before building commenced brought about a squaring-off of the studios, an early plan to make TC6 divisible into two and a realisation that TC1 could lengthen to occupy the scenery runway space and widen by 25ft without ruining the concept of the whole building.
The building was intended to be constructed in phases or 'stages'. This highly confusing term is still in use at TVC today. Thus you will see signs indicating 'Stage 5' or 'Stage 6.' Most people in the industry would naturally assume these to direct the observer to a studio, given the nature of the building. But no. Stages 5 and 6 were construction phases and have come to refer to parts of the building. Another BBC term that is often taken for granted is the naming of studios. To avoid confusion every BBC studio in the country was given a unique name with prefix letters relating to its building. Thus 'TC1' is Television Centre studio 1. Allegedly, a few years ago the newly appointed head of BBC Resources decided that this was misleading as visitors might think that TC1 was a telecine suite, not a studio. Thus all the hundreds of signs around the building now read 'studio x'. Nevertheless, everyone in the industry still refers to them as 'TC whatever' so I shall here. Apparently, it would appear that he did not think that signs directing people to 'stage 5' or 'stage 6' were confusing at all.
Stage 1 was the construction of the scenery block (officially called the design block) which was completed in 1953. At the back of the building a scenic artists studio was constructed enabling backcloths to be painted. This extraordinary construction is 65ft from basement floor to roof beams. A platform half way up the room enabled the artists to paint massive cloths 30ft high and to reach all the parts of the cloth simply by raising or lowering the canvasses which passed through a slot between the platform and the wall. When finished, the cloth could be rolled up and stored in the basement or slid through a slot in the wall into the ground floor area. This space still remains, hidden behind a locked door, and is occasionally rented out. There is a small dirty window between a staircase and the platform area which I discovered early in 2006. A few small flats were leaning against the wall but there was no sign of any cloths having been painted recently. Large flexible tubes now hang from the roof - one assumes to improve the ventilation and draw the paint fumes out.
On the ground floor is an area originally used to manufacture and store scenery. A carpentry and machine shop created the sets which were then assembled in the setting space before being disassembled and stacked on trucks to be towed round the scenery runway to the studio. The scenery would then be brought back and taken down in a huge lift to be stored in the basement or repainted and adapted for use in another programme. In another part of the basement was a large prop store where items for dressing sets were kept. The prop store is still there - rented by a private company now - but the rest of the basement is presently a muddle of cages with old office furniture and other junk filling the place. Geoff Posner (for it is he) recalls... '...the oddly-named Movement Control in the basement of the Design Block which was a huge prop store and had thirteen artificial legs in the Artificial Legs section, not to say M******t Q***t. Now M******t's job was simply to book the musical instruments needed for all the shows in TC. Nothing else. Needless to say she went home at 3.30 most days.' I probably ought to make it clear that such practices ended many, many years ago! I have protected the lady's name to avoid any possible embarrassment. No doubt her manager was fully aware what time she went home. I'm sure the 1970s camera managers in my department were equally aware that when a six-man camera crew was scheduled to a studio with only four cameras, one or two of us usually went home after the morning rig. I can imagine how this reads to most people who thought that this was the sort of thing confined to British Leyland - yes I am now just as appalled as you are at what went on in those days but I wonder how many other British companies turned a blind eye to similar practices.
Scenery is currently stored in a large open-sided shelter that runs around the outside of the ring road surrounding the main building. Nowadays all scenery is made by private companies and nothing is manufactured here any longer. The only scenery stored on site is for shows whilst they have a regular booking in a studio. Sets are destroyed when they are no longer needed, whereas before the changes imposed in the 1990s, flats and other items would be saved if they could be, repainted and used on many different programmes. Thus, rather than 'the BBC' owning the scenery, it is now bought or hired by each individual programme which naturally does not have the budget to store it afterwards unless there is definitely going to be another series of the same show. This was one of the many changes brought in by John Birt. Actually, there is one exception to this. Paul Hayes has informed me that the original Dr Who Tardis fell apart in the 1970s and was replaced with another that was used until the final Sylvester McCoy episode in 1989. Despite the official policy of not storing scenery, this Tardis was never destroyed but over the years was quietly moved from place to place and hidden around the building. I suppose nobody could quite bring themselves to give the order to load it onto a truck for disposal. After all, it hardly takes up much room. (At least, on the outside.) Of course, the new 2004 series was made in Wales with its own new 'machine' but the original (extremely tatty) Tardis was still on site in 2005 and was used for a spoof opening to Jet Set on the day in April when the new Dr Who was first transmitted. I had the dubious honour of lighting this sequence. Spookily - I also lit the same thing in 2006, with Eamonn Holmes exiting the Tardis in the Blue Peter Garden on the day the next Dr Who series began. Curiously, a while after this website revealed the fact that it still existed, it was dug out of its hiding place, the dust blown off it and for a couple of years was proudly displayed outside the audience foyer entrance. (See below.) I'm not claiming any credit for this but I'm certainly glad to see that someone had the sense to make the best use of it. It's not there now of course. It has been replaced with a 'newer' version. The original one's whereabouts are once again a mystery. My spies tell me that it is safe 'as it belongs to the BBC drama department'. Some mistake there, surely.
The photo below shows the interior of the scenery block. Adam Tandy has written to let me know that he understood that the original Dr Who production designer (Peter Brachacki) got the idea for the treatment of the interior of the Tardis walls from this roof. I see what he means. In fact, I think even the current 'Welsh' version has an echo of it. (This unique design, incidentally, impressed English Heritage so much that they recommended a grade 2 listing for the building in 2008.)
For the first thirty-five years of the Centre, above the scenery workshop were the drawing rooms (no, not that sort of 'drawing room') and offices where all the designers used to work It was very handy for lighting directors, costume designers, producers and directors to be able to pop over one of the bridges and meet them informally, look at the plans, drawings and samples of materials to be used and discuss the progress of the set design for a programme. Nowadays this is is mostly done on the phone or via email which isn't quite the same. Geoff Posner recalls 'the track down the corridor of designers and their assistants with numerous bottles of wine balanced precariously on the tilted drawing boards...' amongst many other happy memories of the good old bad old days. As soon as the building was complete it was used to construct scenery which was then loaded onto lorries and transported to the studios in Lime Grove, Television Theatre and Riverside Studios. The offices were occupied by the team designing and constructing the main block and the head of the television service was also based here.
The design block now has no designers in it - nor is any scenery built in it. It is now officially called the 'drama building' as apparently it contains the offices of the drama department. I guarantee that if you ask almost anybody working at TV Centre where the drama building is they wouldn't have a clue. Ask where the scenery block is and quite a few would certainly know where you mean.
Stage 2 followed on straight away and was the building of the restaurant block. This overlooked a small area of grass and shrubs that soon would become the famous Blue Peter Garden. The building was completed in 1955 and at first was used as rehearsal rooms and office space. It began its intended use as a restaurant block in June 1960, with cafeteria-style seating on the first and third floors and waitress service on the second floor. The kitchens are on the ground floor and connect with the main block via a tunnel and lifts, enabling food to be brought on trollies to the sixth floor hospitality suite. They thought of everything! The waitress service floor closed in the mid-nineties, the top cafeteria reduced in size and some of the block has now reverted to office space as eating in the 'BBC canteen' is far less popular than it used to be. (Countless references to the canteen in comedy shows over the years probably didn't help.) In fact, so much so that late in 2008 it closed at weekends. Food is now also available via bars and delis spread around the building - but at weekends when all the office staff have gone home and the only people there are actually making programmes there is only one tea bar open for some of the time. Incidentally - in November 2006, the old 2nd floor restaurant (what used to be called the 'waitress service') was turned into a huge hairdressing salon studio with hidden cameras for BBC Three's Celebrity Scissorhands - a live reality show that somehow raised money for Children in Need. Apparently the 'celebrity' trainees were: 'Eighties pop icon, Steve Strange; winner of The Apprentice, Michelle Dewberry; Radio 1 DJ, Scott Mills; actress and Dynasty star, Emma Samms; Right Said Fred frontman Richard Fairbrass; TV presenter Sarah Cawood; singer Rowetta (Happy Mondays, X Factor); actor and TV presenter Ortis Deeley (Kidulthood, Live and Kicking); and TV personality Darren Day' it says here. I'm afraid I missed it. Geoff Posner suggested a very sensible use for part of this building in 2007. As a seasoned producer/director of many comedies over the years - and still very much at it - he pointed out how hard it is to find rehearsal space these days. The old BBC rehearsal rooms in Acton are no more so sitcoms mostly use draughty, cold and smelly church halls around London. He suggested turning a floor in this building back into a rehearsal room for the next few years until the BBC decide what they are going to do with it. Blow me down, but that's exactly what has happened, and some BBC Comedy shows do now use the old 'Waitress Service' floor to rehearse sketch shows and sitcoms. Glory Be! (More on the rehearsal room saga a little below. Be patient!)
Before leaving stage 2, I should mention a small studio that was established there in 1996. TC9 was created in a single storey building overlooking the Blue Peter Garden. This area, extending from the restaurant block, was originally designed as a 'foyer lounge' - hence the glass brick wall. It probably never had this use, being used initially as a builders' canteen, then becoming a store for the make-up department. This department was closed in 1995 and the studio was subsequently created to be used by the Children's department for continuity links and other short programmes. TC9 is an irregular shape, about 30 x 30ft average dimensions with a very low grid. It also has a corridor and small seating area which can be used for interviews. It was fitted with Thomson 1647 sportcams which had been in use in Pres A for a year or so. These could have the head separated from most of the electronics by an umbilical cable so that a very small camera was actually carried by the cameraman, enabling a great deal of movement. This freedom from fixed shots was seen as very exciting by the young directors of the links transmitted live from here, who often could not understand why this introduced lighting problems. Since the LD was also the console operator and had only one electrician for assistance, relighting between sequences could be very exciting to say the least. Because of the way the links were shot, quite substantial relights were usually necessary. It has to be said that not every sequence that went out from this studio over the years demonstrated perfect portraiture and subtle balance of foreground and background from the lighting point of view. In fact, on occasions the fact that the presenter had any light on them at all was something of a miracle. And I speak from some experience. In 2004 the studio ceased linking children's programmes on the main broadcast channels and became the continuity studio just for the CBBC channel. From late 2006 it was decided that links between children's programmes would be much shorter - often with no presenter in vision and the studio would no longer be required. TC9 was still under a 'service level agreement' between BBC Studios and the Children's department so it could not be used for general programming. It remained empty for about nine months but in September 2007 it became the home of two regular programmes - TMi, the Saturday morning show that had previously come from MTV's studio in Leicester Square, and SMart. (Yes, that really is how it's spelt.) The latter programme was presented by Kirsten O'Brien, who in a way returned home as she was for a long while one of the regular CBBC continuity presenters. The studio was mothballed once again in Jan 2008 as the cameras had become old and unreliable but it was brought back into use again in the autumn for another series of TMi, using TC2's old Thomson cameras. The studio is likely to be 'owned' by Children's department until they move to Salford in 2011.
Stage 3 involved the most complex construction and took four years before the Centre became operational. It consisted of the main circular building and the completion of studios 1 - 7. Four studios would initially be brought into service within the first few months - 2, 3, 4 and 5. The design of these was based on experience gained from working at Lime Grove and in particular Riverside, where various experiments involving gallery layout and lighting systems were tried out. The Centre officially opened with TC3 operational on 29th June 1960. TC4, 5 and 2 opened over the following few months. The shells of TC1, TC6 and TC7 were constructed around the same time but they were not fitted out until a few years later.
TC2 and TC5 are both 60 x 40 metric feet within firelanes and TC3 and TC4 are about 70 x 90 metric feet within firelanes. TC2 soon became the home of the new wave of satirical comedy shows such as That Was the Week That Was. TC5 was the home of schools broadcasting and according to a 1970 BBC booklet 'adjacent to studio 5 is an area specially designed and serviced for schools programmes.' I must admit I can't think to what this might be referring, unless the area originally intended as the puppet studio became taken over as some sort of preparation area. Other programmes such as panel game shows were also made here but for various reasons, most likely because no schools could afford colour televisions in the early 1970s, TC5 was converted to colour long after the other studios - probably in 1973. Of the larger two original studios, TC3 was earmarked as a drama studio and TC4 for light entertainment. The difference was in the acoustic treatment of the walls - TC3 had a shorter reverberation period so was more suited to speech. I have to say that I have never been aware of this - having worked on many occasions in both studios so possibly any acoustic difference was altered in later years. (Both studios now in any case have new acoustic wall panels following the removal of asbestos - TC4 in 1988 and TC3 in 2007.) Anyway, during the early years at least, TC3 was the preferred studio for drama. TC4 also had a variable acoustic system involving microphones and speakers around the roof and walls. This was called 'ambiophony'. The system is said to have worked quite well, but according to a sound supervisor of the time it had the disadvantage that the delays to the different speakers would only be correct for one position within the orchestra. That (and probably the scarcity of such programmes) meant that it fell into disuse. It was soon overtaken by artificial electronic reverberation systems, although interestingly, a similar system was included in Limehouse studio1 when that was built in 1982.
TC3 and 4 were both originally equipped with black and white cameras but the Centre had been planned with colour in mind. These two studios were re-equipped in 1969 and 1970 respectively with EMI 2001 colour cameras. Both studios now have very swish gallery suites, TC3 looks very smart with its new black studio wall panels and TC4 was fully equipped for high definition in the summer of 2008. Back in 1960 the original camera choice was interesting. No doubt in a desire to support both major British camera manufacturers, half the studios - TC2, 3 and 7 - were equipped with Marconi MkIV cameras and the other half - TC1, 4 and 5 with EMI 201 cameras. I have been given an interesting recollection by a cameraman of the period. He informs me that the EMI lens turret was designed for 5 lenses (although only four were fitted) and apparently was slower in changing lenses than the Marconi - particularly when going between the ones that involved crossing the blank plate. Apparently, for LE this was seldom an issue but for drama it could be crucial. In a scene with two cameras taking over-shoulder 2-shots until the crucial dramatic moment when a close-up was called for, there might only be one second when the vision mixer cut to the other camera for the reaction shot before cutting back for the close-up. If the turret was still turning then the cut would be forced to be late. There was at least one drama director of the day who allegedly refused to work in the studio with the slower turret because it compromised his shooting style. His plays or episodes of drama series had upwards of 500 shots in half an hour.
Studios 3 and 4 are almost mirror images of each other although oddly, TC4 is actually 1 foot wider than TC3 at 71 metric feet within firelanes. This may be because the walls of TC3 are thicker in order to keep out the noise of the Hammersmith and City railway line. The studios were equipped with the same design of long lighting bars as had been tried out in Riverside. Each was initially fitted with two 2kW fresnel lanterns and two multi-bulbed fill lights although this was adapted for each production. The lighting bars also at first had a parallel bar hanging a few feet beneath although quite how these were intended to be used remains a mystery! The bars were spaced the same as in Riverside - 2 feet from end to end and six feet apart. This wide spacing has frequently caused many a headache to lighting directors! Although the bars were replaced with a new design in the 1980s the wide separation remained the same. (In monopole studios like Teddington or TLS the tracks are only 18 inches or 2 feet apart which enables lights to be positioned much closer to where the LD needs them to be.)
These new studios adopted the dimming and lighting control systems that had been tried out at Riverside - Strand C-type consoles connected to variable resistor and auto-transformer dimmers, remotely controlled by an electro-magnetic clutch system. The heat generated by hundreds of these dimmers must have been phenomenal. Apparently, TV Centre was the first place to adopt normal mains voltage in the studios. Previously a voltage of 130 volts (why?) had been used. The BBC were also terribly proud of the fact that the lights in these new studios were 'remote controlled.' For someone who has become used to using automated lights like Vari*lites and Macs on various entertainment shows I found this claim somewhat surprising until I eventually found out what they meant. It seems that these were the first BBC studios equipped with luminaires that had attachments enabling an electrician to adjust pan, tilt, and spot and flood using a pole. Previously, every lamp had been adjusted by an electrician working off a set of ladders. I would hardly describe this as 'remote control' but seriously, this was a significant advance. I can work with an experienced pole operator to set 100 lamps and be finished in two or three hours. To do this using ladders would probably triple this time if not more.
One great advantage all the studios at TVC have over London's other TV studios is in the provision of motorised scenery hoists. In monopole studios a few motorised hoists are sometimes available but these have to be carried into position and placed where needed in the grid. Most scenery is therefore supported using hemp ropes and hauled up by hand. At TV Centre this is hardly ever necessary. Every studio has dozens of scene hoists that can be tracked into position and raised or lowered at the push of a button. The hook is attached to a steel line that is fixed to the flattage or ceiling piece that needs to be supported. This makes scene setting here much quicker, simpler and probably safer - and arguably gives designers more flexibility with their sets. In TC3 and 4 each hoist was initially only trackable within a span of about 10 feet but during the major refurbs of the 1980s more were installed and they can now track across the whole studio between the lighting bars. This improved system was originally installed in TC1, 6 and 8. TC1 has even more hoists, some capable of supporting immense loads.
Videotape and Telerecording The Centre was designed with the basement or 'hub' being set aside for the new technology of videotape recording. The BBC called it 'VT' - everybody else called it 'VTR'. (When giving a cue for a pre-recorded insert, BBC directors learnt to say 'run VT' - meanwhile, ITV directors said 'roll VTR'. I've no idea why the difference.) By placing the VT department in the hub, the cable runs to each studio were kept as short as possible. (Mind you, programmes at Television Theatre, half a mile down the road, were also recorded here in later years. Indeed, when all the machines here were busy, some shows were recorded at TVI, five miles away in Soho, so long cable runs were perhaps not quite as crucial as was originally thought. Try telling that to home cinema geeks who think a £100 ten-metre scart lead can't possibly provide acceptable pictures. One hi-fi shop actually refused to sell me one for that reason! Anyway...) The 2-inch 'quad' Ampex machines were very much new technology and were phenomenally expensive to buy. In 1960 the BBC was paying around £30,000 per machine. Bear in mind that around that time the cost of the average house was only £3,000. By comparison, in November 2008 an average house cost £224,000. That would put the price of a VT machine today at £2.24m! You can actually pick up a reconditioned second hand one today for about £20,000. (I can't find a 'new' price on the internet.) Tape too was horrendously costly - around £120 per hour. Another quick search of the internet will find today's popular format of Digital Betacam available at less than £12 for one hour's recording. Then take into account inflation over the past 50 years and the difference in price is obvious. That's why so many '60s and '70s programmes were wiped and the tape used again. Apparently, the videotape area in the basement was not ready when TC3 opened and a couple of machines were installed temporarily in the shell of Pres B. Even when complete there were initially only four, then seven more videotape recorders in the basement for the first few years. By comparison, these days each studio has its own VT machines - sometimes as many as eight or more may be in use to record the main output of the studio, a back-up copy and a number of 'iso' recordings. These are isolated feeds of individual cameras, enabling the programme to be edited more slickly at a later date. The Post Production area in Stage 5 now of course has well over a hundred more machines. It seems astonishing that for the first few years the whole of TV Centre had only eleven VTRs in total for recording and editing programmes. Even by 1970 there were only 16 VT booths - which was the maximum allowed for in the original design of the area.
Of course, many programmes were recorded - but not necessarily on tape. Beneath TC6 was a large area set aside for the telerecording department. Telerecording on film was a well-established means of saving programmes for archive purposes or for export. When the Centre opened, most film telerecording was still carried out down the road at Lime Grove. Garth Nicholson wrote to me in December 2008 with more info - and a comment on an astonishing recording of Dad's Army that had its colour restored from an original black and white film recording...
It is perhaps worth pointing out that programmes recorded on film were of poor quality compared with the live picture. Most engineers considered that the pictures, particularly in the early years, were barely broadcast quality. From 1946 to the mid '50s the BBC did not transmit telerecorded programmes unless they absolutely had to. Even a play with a repeat broadcast later in the week was perfomed live again. The reason we have those old BBC telerecordings is that the programmes were exported in that form to Commonwealth countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Research into improving the quality of the image did produce some results as the years went by and by the mid '50s more programmes were being recorded and transmitted on film. In fact, according to BBC handbooks - in 1959 the BBC telerecorded 1,300 programmes and re-transmitted 600. In other words, more were archived for possible export but 600 is still quite a sizeable number of TV programmes (on only one channel, don't forget) that were recorded on film for later transmission.
The telerecording area under TC6 became the BBC's very well-used and highly respected research library during the 1970s. This provided invaluable support to all kinds of programmes for the next two decades. In the mid 1990s under the new Thatcherite/Birtian commercial way of working it was declared unable to 'pay its way' (Heaven help us from small-minded accountants!!!) so it was closed. It even made the national papers when someone leaked that the record library was having to charge more to lend a disc to a production for an hour or two than for them to buy a new copy. The area is now a videotape archive. When the VT department moved to Stage 5 in 1992 the hub area of the basement was transformed into open-plan offices with a huge glass roof. Goodness knows how much that must have cost. This became the HQ for 'TSPR' - the original trading name with ancient Roman imperial overtones, for the newly commercial BBC Studios business. Latin scholars are invited here to come up with a suitable acronym. (It actually stood for Television Studios Production Resources - how boring is that?) I have hardly done the VT and telerecording departments justice here. For much more information and many old photos I recommend visiting the ex-BBC VT engineers' website on www.vtoldboys.com.
As well as the main studios there were several other smaller areas completed at this time. On the fourth floor in the central wedge between TC3 and TC4 was the main network control area for what was then called BBCtv and the planned second channel. A corridor led from the lifts towards the back of the building and on either side were the control rooms, apparatus rooms, voice-over booths and from 1963 a small room containing the 'noddy' camera that could be remotely tilted up to look at the revolving globe logo and down to look at a clock. Incidentally, perhaps not surprisingly, there was also a 'Big Ears' - a twin magazine caption scanner.
At the end of the corridor was another control room on each side that looked into a pair of studios, side by side. These were presentation studios and were known by all as Pres A and Pres B. They had been designed for continuity announcers such as Michael Aspel, Kenneth Kendall, Judith Chalmers and Nan Winton but within a few years the BBC decided to adopt out-of-vision announcers. Thus the studios became available for other uses. They were quite small - at 32 x 22 metric feet wall to wall with a firelane crossing the middle. This could never be obstructed! It's not quite clear when in-vision announcements ended but there was a new intake including Meryl O'Keefe in 1963. Pres A was the first to open in 1960 - Pres B opened in about 1963/4 with EMI 201 vidicon cameras. It was then converted to colour in 1966 and became the home of Late Night Line-Up - a daily arts and topical discussion programme. This studio thus became the home of the BBC's colour camera tests. It is likely that the tests in studio H at Lime Grove ended around this time. The colour camera tests in 1966 initially involved three Peto-Scott (Philips) PC60s. These were the cameras that had been chosen to equip the BBC's first colour OB units. Later, a three-way test was undertaken using a prototype EMI 2001 (then called the 2000), a Marconi MkVII and a Peto-Scott PC60. In order that the tests were fair, two of the cameras had a cue dot superimposed in the top left or right of the frame. These were changed every night so the engineers watching at home did not know which camera was which. They recorded their opinions and the results were later compiled. This story has been confirmed to me as being accurate by an engineer who was involved and by the studio director who worked on the experiments at the time. He later went on to direct the first colour shows in TC6 - themselves still very much an experiment. The camera chosen to equip TC6 and TC8 in 1967 was the Marconi MkVII. The reason for this choice is arguable and is discussed later on this web page. (See 'A Potted History of early colour cameras.') Pres A was converted to colour in 1968 (with Marconi Mk VIIs) and became the weather studio. Between forecasts it was used to make trailers involving captions and slides with a voice-over actor in a nearby sound booth. VT clips were played in and the people in the presentation department who made these trails became adept at producing very slick and professional-looking 'ads' for BBC programmes. This was one thing ITV took many years to get right. The ITV companies did not have an equivalent department or dedicated staff so their trails were much simpler - often nothing more than a caption voiced over by the continuity presenter.
One of the trickiest jobs as a young and inexperienced cameraman was doing the 'weather pan'. One camera had a locked-off shot looking at the Atlantic chart. The weather man - Jack Scott, Michael Fish, Ian McCaskill etc. - then moved to a smaller chart showing today's weather. This was being framed by another camera. At some point he would take three or four paces right to the next chart showing tonight's weather. Since there was no script and it was unrehearsed you had to take your own cue when to pan. It sounds simple but was highly nerve-racking as there were many false moves as he might take a pace camera-right and stretch across the chart to indicate East Anglia or the weather in the North Sea. Some individuals would move very briskly and if you were not careful he would leave you behind. Of course, if you incorrectly started to pan too soon then you either had to continue and leave him behind or stop and pan back in a rather pathetic manner. This, of course, is when he would notice that you had begun the move and as you panned back to the left he would leave the frame on the right. You can imagine the various cock-ups possible on this, the simplest of camera moves. At some point they all must have happened although never of course by me. No really. Honestly.
According to a couple of sources, the floor of Pres B was used to house the first VT machines at the Centre when it opened in 1960. Apparently, the videotape area was not ready to accept them. By the time Pres B opened around 1964 the machines had long departed for the basement. Pres B was used for a variety of simple shows over the years including The Sky at Night, Points of View and Barry Norman's Film '72 (and onwards) series. In fact, David Scott-Cowan has written to me to point out that a separate programme department was created to devise programmes that would fit into this tiny studio. It was based in the 'temporary' wooden building - originally the builders' site offices - that sat in front of TVC along Wood Lane during the '60s, '70s and '80s. The programmes included The Book Programme with Robert Robinson and Did You See? with Ludovik Kennedy. As mentioned above, around 1968 these studios were equipped with three Marconi Mk VII colour cameras each, which had previously been in use for a few months in TC6. These were very, very long. About five feet long in fact. Add a cameraman standing behind each one and there wasn't much studio left. All the more astonishing then that Pres B was the original home of the Old Grey Whistle Test. It began in 1971 and occupied the studio one night a week instead of Late Night Line-Up. If you ever wondered why they used bare studio walls as a set and the cameras never moved then just picture the scene: A live band plus three enormous cameras squeezed into a space about the size of someone's living room. It's a wonder there was space for whispering Bob Harris on his stool in the corner. In the early '90s the weather moved to a purpose-built suite containing several studios elsewhere in TV Centre. Pres A was then taken over by CBBC and used as a continuity studio - its original purpose. In 1995 the BBC1 and BBC2 transmission suites moved two floors down to the old telecine area following that department's move to the post-production area in stage 5. The old control rooms on the fourth floor were converted into continuity suites for the BBC's new digital channels. Once Studio 9 was opened next to the Blue Peter Garden around 1996, Pres A was closed. It seems very likely that Pres B also closed towards the end of 1996. Alan Brett has written to me. He works for a hospital TV studio and informs me that he was invited to go and help himself to anything useful from the old network control rooms. Whilst there he looked in the Pres studios and on the wall was a setting plan for Barry Norman's Film '96. It was dated 18th November 1996. My guess is that this was the last programme made in the studio - unless, of course, you know different!
The network control for the two main channels moved down to the second floor, occupying the area previously home to telecine. The old studio control rooms and associated areas were later converted into new digital continuity areas for BBC1 and BBC2. Pres A and B remained as empty shells until 1999, when they were rebuilt with a mezzanine floor and converted into more transmission suites and technical areas, coming into service in 2000. However, even this is no more and early in 2005 the whole playout department for all the BBC and UKTV channels moved to a highly secure and sophisticated purpose-built area in the new media village at White City, just down Wood Lane. That operation is no longer run by the BBC but by a private company - 'Red Bee' - which was formed in late 2005. As far as I know, this suite of rooms was unoccupied throughout 2006 and into 2007. In Jan 2007 I explored the area and found that it had been completely transformed from the way the old control rooms and studios were originally laid out. Even the wall dividing the two studios had been demolished - with only a couple of pillars remaining. That must have been quite a job. There are now a number of rooms - one or two quite large - with smart carpet, glazed partitions and hardwood doors. The only clue as to what used to be there is the area up the new stairs at the back onto the mezzanine floor that was built within the space occupied by the two studios. Although this is now an empty office with suspended ceiling and carpeted floor, the shape and size of the old Pres studios can still be made out. They seem very small.
As mentioned above, during the late '90s the transmission suites for BBC1 and BBC2 were situated two floors down from their original location. Matt Phelps has written to me about his memories of this period... 'It was a 2 person suite - the Network Director and the Announcer, who sat in a glass booth off the left of this suite facing back towards you. The big green digital countdown in the middle of the stack was the 'weather counter' which was fired from this position and could also be seen in the 'self op' weather studio. If it went wrong, or you forgot to set it before a weather report, it usually sent the weather people into a fury! This room always stank of diesel fumes - especially in the Continuity booths - for reason that we never quite got to the bottom of during my 6 years there!'
The main phase of construction of TV Centre also included a couple of other interesting areas. In the corner of TC4 was a soundproof door leading to a studio about 20 feet square called TC4A. It had no equipment of its own but did have wall boxes with sound sockets connected to TC4's mixer. It was intended as a small band room and was occasionally used for this purpose in the early years. It could also be used as a stand-alone studio for simple single-camera interviews but although it was soundproofed it had no fixed production lighting facilities. When the studio was last refurbished it was reduced in size and converted into a kitchen and food prep area for TC4. Through a door in the opposite corner of TC4 was another small wedge-shaped studio - although somewhat larger than TC4A and quite a bit higher. This was planned to be the puppet studio and it had connecting doors to the studios either side so cameras could be wheeled in to make recordings. It had no sound or vision facilities of its own. It did have a simple scaffold grid with lamps on pantographs but how they were controlled I have no idea. It was intended to replace the old puppet theatre shed in the yard at the back of Lime Grove but was never used for this purpose after all. Gordon Murray was the producer of the BBC's puppet programmes but by the time the new studio was ready he had moved on to stop-motion techniques rather than using strings. He produced a pilot called The Minute Men but the BBC were not impressed. Other short films were met with a similar reaction. Rather depressed at this, he left the BBC. The puppet department was closed at his departure - the new studio lay empty and was never used. Gordon Murray of course, went on to have huge success with his own company making Trumpton and Camberwick Green. Meanwhile, Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate created Smallfims and sold such classics to the BBC as The Clangers and Noggin the Nog. The days of stringed puppets seemed to be over. Well, at the BBC they were. Sylvia and Gerry Anderson of course had other ideas and kept the technique alive - ultimately producing such 'Supermarionation' classics as Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet at their APF studios in Slough for ATV. As mentioned above, the puppet studio probably became assigned to the schools television department, although what they used it for is not yet known. TC5 was the home of schools broadcasting and the puppet studio had good access via a large door to this studio as well as TC4. Around 1983 this little studio became the video effects workshop where post production work was done on shows like Dr Who and various other dramas using BBC-developed multi-level overlay and early digital video processors. In the workshop there was space for a camera and a small blue screen as well as VT machines and a complex video mixing desk with loads of bolt-on toys. However - its creation had been a long time coming... Back in the mid 1970s a very small department of experts - who came to be called 'Electronic Effects Operators' had been formed - consisting of Dave Chapman, Dave Jervis and Mitch Mitchell - under the management of Bob Wright. They were used primarily to operate the inlay and overlay desks in studio galleries during the recording of shows. However - they realised that some effects were best achieved after the recording. In fact, you might say 'post-production' - although nobody called it that back then. Previously, any video effects would have been done in the gallery at the time of recording. Editing was simply that - making a final cut of the show. Such things as colour grading for video material or any kind of video post production were almost unheard of back then. Mitch describes how a typical effect was created... 'The Blake's 7 teleport effect with the white line was a hand drawn matte for instance so could only be applied to a pre-filmed sequence or after the video was layed down to tape. These things were only possible after the availability of the video frame brought about by 1"C format and frame stores of which Quantel were the main UK protagonists.' These complex effects were done in ordinary studio galleries whilst the studio floor was being used for a set and light day. However, this wasn't ideal to say the least. Mitch thought that it was 'nuts' to be using expensive studio galleries for this kind of work. Also - some were better equipped than others. He pressed hard to have a dedicated area created for this expanding area of TV production. The requirement was for a room containing vision mixing and video effect facilities, some VT machines and a camera with a small area of blue screen and space to shoot models and miniatures. The old puppet theatre was the perfect place but despite management promises that it was about to happen it was many years before it did. As well as the obvious issue of the cost of setting it up there is little doubt that the union had serious concerns about these individuals apparently doing the work of several separate specialists. Remember that in the 1970s the unions in Britain were not known for their flexibility and willingness to embrace change! In fact, Mitch and the others were all union members, had all been cameramen and were already in some ways doing the work of vision mixers. Anyway - sadly, after much frustration Mitch moved on in 1980 to do this kind of work for a newly created independent post-production company. A few years after he left, the video effects workshop was eventually opened. A few other EEOs were created to join the two Daves - Robin Lobb, Adam McInnes, Nick Moore, Danny Popkin and Ian Simpson. The work done in this little studio was ground-breaking for its day and it was used not just for sc-fi programmes but also to paint backgrounds onto wideshots in dramas, add snow or other weather effects - in fact much of the kind of work done by very sophisticated CGI today.
Despite the success of the workshop, by the end of the 1980s things had moved on and video effects work was being done in post production suites either in the new stage 5 at TVC or independently by companies in Soho, so the workshop was closed. From 1991 this studio became part of the sport graphics area associated with TC5.
The final part of this phase of the construction of Television Centre was the completion and fitting out of studios 7, 1, and 6 - in that order. This would finish the building as it was initially designed. Further expansion along the spur was in the concept phase only and no detailed plans existed at that time. TC7 is almost exactly the same design as TC2 and TC5 (and also with long lighting bars) although it is a couple of feet longer. Sources differ as to when it opened but it was probably in 1962. According to the 1963 BBC Handbook (Jan 1963) it opened in 1962 but an IEE publication, 'The BBC Television Centre and its Technical Facilities', dated May 1962, states that 'TC7, as well as TC1 and TC6, will be gradually equipped and brought into service during 1963 and 1964.' TC6 was a long way from being brought into service so maybe they were wrong about TC7 too. Possibly they decided to postpone TC6 and wait for colour so TC7 came into service ahead of schedule. Do let me know if you can add any evidence to confirm the date please. Its design was very similar to the first four studios and the equipment fit was also along the same lines. It originally had black and white Marconi MkIV cameras but was colourised with EMI 2001s in July 1968. Play School was based in this studio for many years, providing excellent training opportunities for young cameramen and boom ops and not so young trainee lighting directors. I still have in my garage a set of colour filters dating from the late 1980s that I carefully cut out and stapled together to create a very interesting underwater effect around the cyclorama end of the studio. The director said she was very impressed but I think she was just being kind. TC7 was used in later years for The Late Show, after it moved from Lime Grove, although of course dozens of other relatively small scale shows including panel games like Call My Bluff, cookery programmes with the likes of Delia Smith and childrens programmes such as Bodger and Badger were made in this studio. The original two series of Vic and Bob's Shooting Stars also came from here. Some years later it moved to TC1, which was quite a contrast. From 1976, each Saturday TC7 was given over to live kids' TV - starting with Multi-Coloured Swap Shop until 1982 when it was succeeded by Saturday Superstore, then Going Live and finally Live and Kicking. After a couple of series L&K moved to TC6 in 1997 - officially only occupying the same floor area as TC7 but, surprise surprise, the set gradually stretched over the years until it almost filled that studio!
I have been sent an anecdote by Mike Renshall relating to BBC vision mixers, similar to the one above. They could generate fancy 'wipes' by using a plug-in module - these were kept in a small flight case by the studio engineers. The pattern of the wipe was illustrated on the cartridge that you plugged in for the desired effect. Mike was a trainee engineer, working in TC5, when...
Back in the early '60s the 'works block' was also finished on the east side of the site. This was topped with a 13-storey office block - the East Tower - which was completed in 1964. Although built at the same time as the rest of the main block it was not part of the original design and does not appear on any of the early models or drawings. It seems like an afterthought and looks quite out of place with the rest of the site. Its materials do not match those used on the other buildings and its design is typical of the type of bland office block of the period which seems surprising, given the unique nature and high quality of the design of the rest of TV Centre. Not surprisingly, given its age and poor quality construction, it is now looking pretty tatty and in need of renovation. If and when TV Centre is sold by the BBC in a few years' time it is hard to imagine this tower surviving for long afterwards, even if the main block facing Wood Lane is retained for planning reasons. The LWT tower on the South Bank, albeit several stories higher, was built eight years later and is a much better design - nicely integrated into the rest of the LWT studio centre. Indeed, it is its defining feature and still looks very good even today. It is really disappointing that the East Tower did not achieve a similar effect at TVC.
TC1 opened on 15th April 1964. (I seem to remember watching a Blue Peter special on the day.) It was of course equipped with monochrome cameras and would have to wait until 1968 before it was colourised using EMI 2001 cameras. It was said to be the largest television studio in Europe although actually studio 5 at Wembley was and is much larger when it has its dividing doors open at 14,000 sq ft gross. TC1 is 11,000 sq ft gross or 100 x 90 metric feet between firelanes and its size has proved immensely useful for all kinds of productions. These used to be major dramas and operas or variety shows like Morcambe and Wise or The Black and White Minstrel Show. In the last few years it has come into its own with popular shows like Strictly Come Dancing, 'Maria', 'Joseph' and 'Nancy', Let Me Entertain You, Last Choir Standing and Maestro. These big spectacular productions simply won't fit into any other London studio except for Fountain and have enabled the BBC to present shows that are visually second to none. Originally it was going to have a section of the floor that could have been lowered with motors. The official BBC book about the Centre published in 1960 states 'A pit is provided, fifty feet long by thirty feet wide which can be filled with water and will have above it a sectional floor that can descend to a maximum depth of 7 ft 6 ins.' The idea went away before it was built but that part of the studio apparently still has a different maximum weight loading from the rest. I can't think what kind of television production would safely be able to make use of a tank containing thousands of gallons of water and in the event I suppose others couldn't either. I imagine that the problem of how to make the join in the floor so perfect that cameras could track over it without any disturbance to the picture also proved to be a bit of a headache. It does indicate though that at the time of designing the building, cost was almost irrelevant and all they wanted were the best possible studios with the best possible facilities.
TC6 is an interesting case. At the time the shell of the studio was built it was intended to install dividing doors and two sets of galleries. It is therefore rotated through 90 degrees compared with all the other studios and has its long wall running along the scenery runway. The idea of being able to split it was abandoned before the studio was fitted out. The lighting bars in TC6 are slightly further apart along the centre line because the grid was designed to make allowance for the doors that were never fitted. Because this studio is 'sideways on' people occasionally describe it as being long and narrow. In fact it is the same width as TC3 at 70 metric feet and only two feet longer than the other medium studios at 92 metric feet. The opening of TC6 was delayed until 1967 so that it could become the BBC's first colour studio. BBC2 officially went colour in July of that year. The first production was Once More With Felix starring Julie Felix. (Remember her? Just me then.)
Back to the late '60s and the dawn of colour on BBC2... Of course, costume drama was a perfect subject for colour and the first made in TC6 was Vanity Fair, starring Susan Hampshire. The series began in October 1967. It had been decided that the two big studios 6 and 8 were to be equipped for colour and would open within a few weeks of each other. It was also decided that TC6, 7 and 8 would share a common apparatus room but in the event this proved to be a nightmare for the studio engineers to operate. Within a few years walls were built and each studio had its own separate area and dedicated engineers like all the other studios. Roderick Stewart has written to me with an amusing anecdote...
One other item of interest about these three studios - they were initially designed to be dual 525 and 625-line capable. This came as a surprise to me when I discovered it as I would have thought that exporting programmes to the US was not a high priority in those days - unlike ATV at Elstree. However, I have been informed by one of the engineers responsible for the installation that TC6 did indeed make at least one programme in 525-line NTSC which was subsequently converted to 625-line PAL by the BBC's standards converter. The programme was a play - Charley's Aunt - starring Danny La Rue and made in 1969. I have also been informed that at the time the studios were designed there were no 625-525 converters, only ones converting from the US standard. (625-525 standards converters came a little later.) Thus, to make a programme for export to the US you had to make it in 525 lines. It also seems that one current affairs programme for the USA came out of TVC for the London contributions and was made in 525-line NTSC. Interestingly, there were some problems using the 525 lines/60Hz system as the frequency sometime 'beat' with the studio lighting causing a flicker. The lights were fed by normal 240 volt AC current which of course alternates at 50Hz. (50 Hz means that the electric current alternates fifty times per second.) ATV's studios at Elstree apparently got round this by using a DC feed to their lighting, which therefore did not flicker. Roderick Stewart has some more information on the 525-line capability of these studios...
TC1, TC6 and TC8 were designed with a new short lighting bar system with one dual-source luminaire on a rolling trolley on each bar. Each bar is only 4 feet long and spaced with their ends 3 feet apart. (In TC1 this distance is 4 feet.) Each row of bars is spaced four feet apart, rather than the 6 feet in 'long bar' studios. This arrangement gives much greater flexibility to the lighting director. Top light entertainment LD Dickie Higham used to have his own studio classification which baffled many a colleague (including me) until the penny dropped. According to him, TC1, TC2, TC3 and TC8 were all 'long bar studios.' The rest were 'short bar' ones. He was, of course, referring to the distance from the studio to the BBC Club.
Stage 4 was the construction of the first section of the spur. In 1959, months before the building had opened, a meeting was held to discuss what would be included in the first section of the spur. They decided that it would contain another medium to large studio - TC8 and the new news centre. Preliminary work began in 1963 and by 1966 the basic shell of the building was complete. The occupation of the news area was postponed, however, by the World Cup. The BBC, as host broadcaster, had to house the world's TV companies for the contest so the space was turned into facilities for them. A temporary studio was built, equipped with EMI 203 black and white cameras, which following the World Cup was used as the weather studio whilst Pres A was being colourised. Once this was over work could resume on equipping the studios and newsrooms. The design of TC8 benefited from the experience gained working in the older studios. It is said to be the most popular studio amongst many programme makers. Its galleries are well laid out, the studio is slightly wider than the others at 72 metric feet by 90 metric feet within firelanes and it was the first studio built with retractable audience seating. This enables a greater floor area to be used than the other studios when an audience is present. It also has the same short lighting bars as in TC1 and TC6. It has a better ventilation system than the other studios, in which the cool air enters via vents distributed all over the grid. The other studios use pipes spaced a few metres apart around the top of the walls that pump cool air over the top of the cyc. I believe it is also the only studio at TVC in which no asbestos was used in its construction. TC8 opened in 1967 with Marconi MkVII colour cameras a few weeks after TC6. The Marconis only lasted a few months and by April 1968 they had been replaced with EMI 2001s.
TC8 was also the first studio with thyristor dimmers controlled by a computer memory console - the Thorn Q-File. This console was subsequently installed in TV Theatre and all the other studios at TVC except TC6 and Lime Grove D and E. These three studios were equipped with the Strand MMS - 'Modular Memory System.' This was a console with fader wheels rather than the motorised faders of the Q-File. It had a slightly different operating philosophy from the Thorn desk which some liked, others not. It was in fact the predecessor to the Galaxy - without question the best lighting console ever developed for TV studios. Almost every studio in the UK is now equipped with one - they were available to purchase, in improving versions, from the early '80s to the mid '90s. Their manufacturer, Strand Lighting, has not offered them for sale for about 10 years now. Bizarrely, they and all the other console manufacturers have not offered a similar replacement but only consoles that very few operators or LDs believe are as suitable for television as the old Galaxy. Thus, these old lighting desks soldier on. Spare parts are acquired from old consoles being replaced in theatres or studios all over the world. A few years ago, the BBC even bought an old Galaxy from Russia. When one of the many lighting console manufacturers have a new one for sale that is as good as a Galaxy then they will probably sell about 30 of them within a year or two. Sadly, this won't be Strand. They went bust in 2006 and part of what remained of them was taken over by an American company, who were subsequently bought by Philips. The current range of Strand consoles are very much aimed at theatre use. TC7 and TC8 were later equipped with a radical re-development of the Q-File called the 'Thornlight.' It had obviously been designed by a committee and was in some ways rather clumsy to operate. However, once you got the hang of it it was extremely flexible and I personally really got to like it. These were later replaced by Galaxys, as eventually was TC6's MMS, until by the late 1980s the only studios still with a Q-File were TC1 and Television Theatre.
On 20th September 1969 the two news studios on the 6th floor of the spur were opened. They were equipped with remotely-controlled Marconi MkVII colour cameras. The news department had transferred to TVC from Alexandra Palace.
Both news studios were originally about 30 x 40 ft. This was a bit of a disappointment to the news department, who had become used to working at Alexandra Palace in studios almost twice as big. It is odd actually, that they were so small and consequently somewhat limited in their use. However, in 1984 N2 was enlarged to include the lobby area and prop store that was sited adjacent to the two studios. It thus became about 40 x 50 ft but one end has a low ceiling. This enabled a big wideshot of the studio set to be done at the beginning of the Nine o'Clock News around that time. N1 and N2 were closed in 1998 when the new News Centre opened in Stage 6. They became the 'property' of BBC Resources who renamed them TC10 and TC11 but that department could not afford to refurbish them so they were left unused for a couple of years. TC10 (30 x 40ft) was the home of daily afternoon shows The Phone Zone from April 2000 and then TOTP@Play, both broadcast on satellite channel UK Play. When this channel closed down in September 2002 the studio was unused for a while but then became the home of the VR department until 2004. However, it is not known what VR programmes were made here. During this period it was also used to make two new series of Treasure Hunt for Fremantle in 2002 and 2003. From 2004, TC10 entered a 'service level agreement' with the Children's department and was used for presentation and continuity for childrens programmes on BBC1 and BBC2 replacing TC9 in this role. From April 2006 the daily Level Up show was based here. This replaced X-Change on CBBC channel. Level Up ended its run in Sep '06. This studio is on long-term booking to Children's dept and various children's series have used the studio over the past two or three years. TC11 (50 x 40ft) was opened as the home of Liquid News from February 2002. At the extended end of the studio with the lower ceiling the 60-Second News set was built. Both these programmes went out on BBC Three. Liquid News became very popular with a small but dedicated audience. Initially it was based in TC0 and then moved to this studio to make way for CBeebies. The original presenter, Christopher Price, had a dry innuendo-laden style and the show became very much his vehicle. Tragically, he died suddenly on 22nd April 2002, at the age of just 34. The show gradually reduced in audience terms and was quite expensive to produce with reporters being sent to glamorous locations all round the world. It was axed on 1st April 2004. TC11 then became the home of BBC Three's 7o'clock news. This in turn ended in December 2005. The studio was subsequently used for a few news-related bookings, including covering for the main news studios whilst they were being refurbished in 2006. It has now returned to the BBC Studios portfolio and is available for general use. I understand that TC11 is occasionally used by the Sport department. In the autumn of 2008 it was used for the daily Strictly Come Dancing spin-off series - It Takes Two. Previous series had been made at independent studio The Hospital, with its lovely Thomson LDK 6000 HD cameras, so the rather less sophisticated JVC KY-29D cameras in this studio certainly provided a bit of a challenge to the lighting and engineering departments, to say the least.
Back to the history of the building... During the 1980s the site was developed further. Offices were built behind the scenery block which also contained the telephone exchange - hence it became known as the EBX block - and opened in 1982. The multistorey car park for 964 cars just snuck in before such things became completely impossible for planners to agree to and also opened in 1982. It was said at the time that planning permission had only been granted by the council on the condition that it would be used by those working unsocial hours. Astonishingly, once opened many such people found it very difficult to obtain car park tickets and it appeared to be at its fullest between 09.30 and 17.30 during weekdays as indeed it is now. Fancy that. Yet more office space had to be found so a ring of prefabricated buildings were set on top of the scenery runway. This became known as the 'periphery' and these offices containing 15,000 sq ft opened in 1985, blocking the view of the park previously enjoyed by those sitting on the terrace outside the BBC Club. This view had been carefully planned by Dawbarn in the original design and was no accident. Still - these were the 1980s and offices had to come first, obviously.
Television Rehearsal Rooms
In 1978 a steering group had been set up to examine what could be included in the project to complete TV Centre - in other words, Stage 5. The 'Television Development Committee' chaired by Robin Scott would examine four or five possibilities. (One of the intentions was that this final phase of construction would partly replace the existing facilities at Lime Grove and TV Theatre.) Their conclusion was to construct stage 5 in two phases - the first would provide a new videotape area containing 100 machines (in fact it became 130) and accommodation for staff from Lime Grove. The second phase would see the construction of a replacement for Television Theatre (TC9). It was assumed that the project would be complete by the mid 1980s. In fact, construction did not commence until January 1985 and the first phase was completed in February 1988. It contained no television studios although at the time it was still assumed that the new TC9 would be built within a few years. The huge task in designing the new studio was begun. By October 1985 the plans were well developed - even to the extent of building a large scale model in which acoustic tests could be undertaken. The huge volume of the new studio - far greater than any other built by the BBC - was raising issues of reverberation within the building and the possible penetration of traffic noise. Thus the research and detailed plans for TC9 gathered pace. To support the weight of the new building, piles 100 ft deep had to be driven into the ground. Its largest single girder is 22 metres long and weighs 12 tons. Despite these superlatives Stage 5 is a monolithic brick-faced block that does not quite match the colour or style of the previous construction. The back of the building is in my view particularly unsympathetic to the original design. It includes the BBC post production areas on its upper floors. No less than 130 VT machines were installed. Rather different from the 16 machines the VT area in the hub was originally designed for. The move of the VT department to stage 5 did not take place immediately. They had to wait for a new tape format to be established before equipping all the suites. This format was the D3 cassette. Developed by Panasonic, the BBC was its first major customer. A few suites were opened in 1991 and used for training but the big move to stage 5 happened in January 1992. The BBC's post production department had been created in 1989 - combining film editing with VT editing and sound dubbing. This new department was, as its name suggests, more concerned with what happens to the programme after it has been made rather than during it. From 1991, the new D3 cassette enabled every studio to be equipped with its own machines in the studio's apparatus room which were (and are) remotely operated by the studio resource manager who sits in the production gallery. The new VT suites in stage 5 thus became almost entirely used for editing. In the late '90s as each studio was converted to digital widescreen, the tape format in general use was changed to Digital Betacam. This uses the superior component system of recording whereas D3 recorded composite pictures. It took many years and several tape formats but with Digital Betacam we at last had a recording system in use that in playback was indistinguishable from the original live pictures. In 2006 the BBC announced that over the next few years it plans to go over to a tapeless system of recording and transmitting programmes, meaning that everything will be stored on hard disk or server. This will avoid having to digitise recordings prior to editing, grading and dubbing. The transferring of the final edit to a master tape will become a thing of the past with programmes being transmitted as data directly off a hard drive. This will simplify the whole post production process and cut costs.
TMS/TC0 The new stage 5 included a music studio on the ground floor. It was built to replace the TMS (studio H) in Lime Grove and was equipped to a very high standard. It opened in July 1989 and was planned to have sufficient space for 40 musicians. It apparently had an automated Neve 48-channel sound desk together with 2, 8 and 24-track ATRs. (I was previously mystified as to what these initials stood for. It was more than a year before Aiden Lunn wrote to me to point out the obvious. ATR stands for 'audio tape recorder'. Doh!!!) The main floor area is about 45 x 28 ft but it also had a very large control room, almost half the size of the studio itself and a separate smaller soundproof 'loud' booth. The whole studio is a floating box within a box construction. The walls have variable acoustic panels that can be turned round for hard or soft surfaces, and it has a silent ventilation system. Unfortunately, the new TMS only had a working life as a sound studio for a few years. With the new commercial way of working introduced in 1993 (snappily named 'Producer Choice') each studio had to bid for bookings in competition with those outside the BBC. Despite its superb facilities it was priced too high and therefore did not get the use it deserved. It struggled to pay its way for a year or two until the decision was make to close it. It might seem curious to some that closure was a better idea than cutting the hire cost to attract business but that is the way an accountant's mind seems to work.
Around 1995 the studio found a new use. It reopened as a 'virtual reality' studio following a name change. It was considered unwise to call it TC9 as the BBC policy in the '90s was to close studios, not open new ones. Senior BBC management might not understand. Therefore it became TC0 ('TC zero') which also had a nice 'virtual' ring to it. The studio was initially equipped with a 2-D system called 'Virtual Scenario'. Around 1997 this was upgraded to a 3-D system called 'Free-D'. Richard Russell worked on this project. He informs me that Free-D was first shown publicly at IBC in 1997. It had been developed by BBC Research Dept. and many people thought it would be very popular with programme makers. The system allows actors or presenters to move freely in front of a blue screen whilst the camera can track, pan, tilt and zoom. Hand-held cameras can also be used. Sensors detect all these parameters partly by looking at 'targets' mounted all over the studio grid and the system automatically locks the background behind the artist. This background can be a photograph or more interestingly a computer-generated 3D world. I mentioned 'blue screen' but it was even cleverer than that. The cameras had a ring of blue LEDs around their lens and the cyclorama and floor were made of grey fabric impregnated with millions of highly reflective glass beads (rather like a road sign). Thus the camera saw the cloth as bright blue but the actors could be lit in any colour to match the background. Free-D was a great idea but sadly few producers initially liked it or understood its implications and only a handful of VR programmes were made in TC0. These included Record Breakers Gold - although in fact this show probably only used the 2-D system.. Richard Russell also recalls another children's series, probably broadcast live on Sundays, which involved children searching for objects that they couldn't see (although the viewers could, through the magic of VR). As a small studio, TC0 was perhaps not the best environment to fully explore the potential of Free-D. Therefore, VR 'targets' were installed in the grid of some large studios. One quarter of TC4 still has them mounted between the lighting bars - I lit an experimental VR programme in there in July 1997. TC1 was fully equipped for Fightbox and Elstree D for the series Bamzooki. Shortly after the studio closed as a sound studio, the control room was converted into a dubbing suite. Thus it was not possible for it to become the new vision and production control area for TC0. At one end of the main studio is a timber bridge running across the room's width that was originally intended to be used for musicians. A single control room for sound, vision and production was constructed beneath it. This effectively reduced the studio's length by about eight feet. A basic floor-mounted lighting truss was constructed within the studio - the ceiling would not take the weight. VR proved to be a commercial disappointment and after a few years - probably in 1999 - the gear was removed and the studio was booked for a conventional series (if that's the right expression) when The Chris Moyles Show took up residence. This went out on digital channel UK Play. When this series ended after some months it was followed by another daily show - The Phone Zone. Some time later this show moved upstairs to TC10 to become TOTP@Play and TC0 became the home of BBC Choice's entertainment news show - Liquid News which began broadcasting in May 2000. When this in turn moved upstairs after nearly a couple of years to what had become TC11 the studio was occupied by the presenters of the CBeebies channel from February 2002 until the end of 2007. In January 2008 they rather surprisingly moved to studio 4 at Teddington. It seems that the studio was probably not used at all in 2008. However, one wonders how many production managers even know it exists. I did hear a rumour some months ago that it might be turned back into a sound studio but I have heard no more on that one. What a waste of a useful space! Incidentally - the old sound control room was itself turned into an ad-hoc TV studio for a kids' live interactive puppet series called Nelly Nut in 2004. This formally become known as TC12 and for a while was the home of one or two CBBC programmes including Sportsround. It then became the continuity studio for CBBC - the 21st century version of the famous broom cupboard. Early in 2008 this moved to a room in the East Tower and the studio was closed.
Around 2000 an area on the ground floor of stage 5 previously used as the lamp store was converted into 'The Foyer'. (The lamp store moved to the scenery block). The Foyer is a large area capable of holding two studio audiences - about 650 people - before they make their way to their studios. It contains a licenced coffee bar and also a BBC shop selling merchandise. It took many, many years for the BBC to realise that an audience that had been kept waiting outside in the January rain for half an hour or more before coming into the studio would not laugh as loud as one that was nice and warm and had had a glass of wine.
Stage 6 was, as we have seen, very nearly a superb television studio that would have been the envy of the whole industry. Nearly, but not quite. During the '70s and '80s the entertainment department had been putting pressure on the BBC's senior management to construct a new studio in the remaining space at the end of the spur at TVC. It would replace Television Theatre but would be far more flexible in its use. It was to have a floor area about 98 x 85ft wall to wall but with the addition of large audience rostra on two levels. (So somewhat larger in both length and width than LWT's studio 1). The BBC producers were fed up with the way that LWT's big shows looked so much more impressive than theirs made in TC8. Even TC1 didn't look as good once you filled it with the usual mobile seating.
Detailed plans were drawn up over several years for this new TC9. It was to have a grid height of 72 ft (TC1 is 'only' 45ft high) which would enable scenery to be flown on counterweight systems. There would be a permanent audience rostra seating 400 which could be extended with moveable 'wings' and the studio would have its own foyer, make-up, wardrobe and scenery handling areas. There was even to be a large band room with its own control room - oddly duplicating the new music studio a few yards away in stage 5 which was almost exactly the same size. Terry Brett was asked to represent the lighting side of things. He was a busy LD at the time but attended many meetings of the steering committee. He tells me that he is still waiting for someone to inform him that the project has been cancelled - let alone thank him for all the work he put in. Terry tells me a couple of problems with the studio's design that had to be overcome. One concerned the trough that was to run round the bottom of the cyclorama so that groundrow lights could be hidden, thus creating an 'infinity cyc'. One challenge was how to create this trough whilst still leaving enough headroom in the news department garage beneath. Terry describes another issue that arose:
Before stage 6 was built, the ring road past TC8 came to an abrupt end and a ramp took it down to the level of the front car park. Terry tells me that somewhere under the ramp a couple of experimental sections of trough were built complete with hydraulic lids. He even has some video of the contraption in operation. I wonder if it's still buried under there...??? Cameraman Jeff Naylor was asked for his advice on a particular issue...
I see that some things never change.
The idea was to close TV Theatre and transfer Wogan, or the show's successor, to the new studio. It would also of course be available for other big Saturday night shows. There is little doubt that this studio would have been the best equipped LE studio in the country and would have been much in demand today for big gameshows and music/entertainment shows. Sadly, despite all the work done on the project it was abandoned very soon after Michael Checkland became DG. The studio had been enthusiastically supported by Bill Cotton but it was cancelled within a week of his retiring from the job of Managing Director of Television in 1989. It was becoming fashionable with some around that time to declare the age of the big TV studio over. Also, the new director general and his assistant John Birt were introducing far more stringent financial control over all the BBC's costs and expenditure - so with accountants rather than programme makers running the BBC the project didn't stand a chance. If only construction had begun a few months earlier it would almost certainly have been completed and now be the busiest studio in London! Instead, TC1 - which was due to be refurbished - would be given a more fundamental refit, with built-in retractable audience seating and redesigned stairs with a new glazed foyer area at first floor level for the audience. After nearly three years work the 'new' TC1 opened in January 1991 but was not a patch on what might have been. I imagine that the managers of BBC Studios wish they now had that 'nearly but not quite' studio with its large audience and plenty of floor area to rival Fountain or TLS studio 1. The legacy of the old plans can be seen in the rather oddly shaped curved podium that extends from the base of Stage 6 towards the Horseshoe carpark. This was part only of what was going to be the grand entrance to the new theatre leading in turn to the foyer on the first floor and taking audiences into the main studio auditorium at the back of the seating (as happens in West End theatres). There was even an idea for LED lights announcing tonight's performance displayed around the semi circular facade above the entrance doors. Stage 5's rear elevation makes a bit more sense too when the original proposals are understood. So what did become of stage 6? Well, it became the BBC's News Centre. It was opened in July 1998 by (some might say appropriately,) Sir Christopher Bland. It seemed a good idea to John Birt to bring radio news away from Broadcasting House in central London to join TV news several miles away at Television Centre. Guess what? The journalists didn't like it. They still don't. So Greg Dyke (a man who actually understands television) gave the go-ahead to rebuild much of Broadcasting House to take the radio news back there as well as the TV news. Stage 6 was also finished off with a new reception area complete with Henry Moore sculpture (now removed), facing Wood Lane. It all looks very smart and businesslike. The old reception became the 'stage door' and is still occasionally featured on various shows. Stage 6 opened in July 1998 and the Real IRA tried to blow it up in March 2001 with a taxi parked outside. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Although the damage looked superficial (one assumes that such an attack had been foreseen) it took about two years before the scaffolding came down and an even stronger bombproof wall of glass was revealed. Oh - and you're not allowed to park outside any more.
Of course, building has continued at TC for the whole of its life. Individual rooms and whole floors have from time to time been gutted and rebuilt. Studios too are given refurbishments every few years. The running of the building itself was taken out of the BBC's hands in 2001 and became the responsibility of a company called Land Securities Trillium. The early days of this new operation were sometimes not as smooth as they might have been. A studio resources manager has told me a story that cannot possibly be true. Allegedly, shortly after Land Securities Trillium took over, he phoned the new number to ask for the air conditioning to be made cooler in the studio he was working in. He was connected with an office in the north of England. The operator requested the studio's 'room number', what floor it was on, the address of Television Centre and various other details. Finally, he was told the job number and informed that the work would be carried out next Tuesday. Thankfully, I believe this and other similar teething troubles were ironed out within a few weeks. In July 2006 the contract to supply facilities management passed to a company called Johnson Controls. I assume they too learnt pretty quickly to adjust studio temperatures faster than next Tuesday.
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It would be impossible to list every programme ever made TVC - some are probably best forgotten anyway. (Little and Large, anyone?) What I shall foolishly attempt to do here is to list by decade a range of typical productions. They are in no particular order. I am bound to have missed some really obvious ones. Where I know it, I shall indicate the studio in which it was made. It's worth pointing out that although some shows almost always came from the same studio others moved about quite a bit, depending on available space. TC3, 4, 6 and 8 are all about the same size so a show designed for any one of these will fit in another. Where I have indicated a studio it doesn't mean that it didn't also use others.
There are quite a few where I haven't put the studio even though I have a pretty good idea. For instance, TC8 has for years been the favourite studio for sitcoms but unless I am sure, I have not noted it here.
Some series spanned years or even decades so I have noted them when they started (or moved here from other BBC studios).
Anyway - here goes...
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1960s |
The Wednesday Play (many highly regarded individual titles), Play For Today, Softly Softly, Dr Finlay's Casebook, Compact (TC2), The Forsyte Saga (TC4 - last b/w drama), Vanity Fair (TC6 - first colour drama), 30-Minute Theatre, Billy Budd (opera - main set in TC1, orchestra in TC2), Steptoe and Son, Not Only...But Also, Till Death Us Do Part, Dad's Army, That Was The Week That Was (TC2), Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life (TC2), BBC-3, The Lance Percival Show, Tomorrow's World, Frost Over England, It's a Square World, Morecambe and Wise (TC1 and TC8), Sykes (also at Riverside), Harry Worth, The Dick Emery Show (TC8), Marty (Feldman), The Liver Birds, Meet The Wife, The Rag Trade, All Gas and Gaiters, The Likely Lads, Marriage Lines, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Spike Milligan's 'Q', Top of the Pops (TC2 briefly then all large studios), International Cabaret, The Black and White Minstrel Show (TC1), Jackanory (probably every studio at some time), schools programmes (TC5), Ask the Family (TC5), Top of the Form, Call My Bluff (TC2, TC5), Points of View (Pres B), Late Night Line-Up (Pres B), The Sky at Night (moved here from Lime Grove to Pres B and the corner of several other studios), Holiday '69 and onwards (TC5) |
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1970s |
Elizabeth R, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, I Claudius (TC1), Pennies From Heaven (TC6), Play of the Month (TC1 usually), Play of the Week, War and Peace, Testament of Youth, Secret Army (TC8, TC1), To Serve Them All My Days, The Onedin Line, The Pallisers, Churchill's People, BBC Shakespeares (TC1 mostly), Telford's Change, Professional Foul, The Duchess of Duke Street, The Flying Dutchman (opera - main set in TC1, orchestra in TC3), Hansel and Gretel (opera - main set in TC1, orchestra in TC3), Dr Who (moved to TVC from Riverside and Lime Grove - used most large studios), Blake's 7, The Two Ronnies (TC1 plus others), Are You Being Served?, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Open All Hours (TC8), Citizen Smith (TC8), Up Pompeii!, Porridge, In Sickness and in Health (TC8), The Les Dawson Show (TC8), Rentaghost, The Goodies, The Good Life (TC6), The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Fawlty Towers (TC4), Jim'll Fix It, Blankety Blank (TC8), Parkinson (TC8), The Old Grey Whistle Test (Pres B plus others), Butterflies, To The Manor Born, Play School (TC7), Blue Peter (TC1, 3, 4, 6, 8), Grange Hill (various studios before moving to Elstree in 1985), Multi-Coloured Swap Shop (TC7), Film '72 and onwards (Pres B) |
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1980s |
The Chronicles of Narnia, Tenko, Lord Peter Wimsey, Performance (TC1 usually), Marie Curie, The Ginger Tree (TC4 - first HD drama series), Juliet Bravo, Bomber Harris (TC6), Yes Minister (TC8), Only Fools and Horses (TC8), Bread (TC8), Hi-De-Hi, Blackadder, Russ Abbot, Alas Smith and Jones, 'Allo 'Allo (some series), Birds of a Feather (series 1), May To December, Just Good Friends, Ever Decreasing Circles, Three of a Kind, Children in Need (TC1), Noel Edmunds' Late Late Breakfast Show (TC8), The Paul Daniels Magic Show (TC8), Lenny Henry Show (TC8), Victoria Wood as Seen on TV, French and Saunders (TC8), A Bit of Fry and Laurie (TC6), Bob Says Opportunity Knocks (TC8), Bob's Full House, Saturday Superstore (TC7), Going Live (TC7), Double Dare (TC4), Chucklevision, Newsnight (TC2, then TC7), BBC Breakfast (TC2 then TC7), Crimewatch UK (most studios at some time), Watchdog (TC2 and 5) |
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1990s |
The House of Eliott (last multicamera studio-based drama series - TC1), One Foot in the Grave (TC8), The Fast Show, Absolutely Fabulous (TC8), Rory Bremner (TC6), Knowing Me Knowing You, Saturday Night Armistice (TC8), The Thin Blue Line, The Brittas Empire (TC8), As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances, Never Mind the Buzzcocks (TC6), I'm Alan Partridge (TC1), Shooting Stars (TC7 for two series then TC1), They Think It's All Over (TC6), Live and Kicking (TC6), The Stand-Up Show (TC7 then TC6), Terry Wogan's Friday Night (TC1), Ruby (TC2, TC4), The Full Wax (TC1), Comic Relief (TC1), Auntie's Bloomers (TC8), The National Lottery Live (TC8) The Late Show (TC7), Later With Jools (TC1 and TC3), Noel's House Party (TC1), The Generation Game (Jim Davidson version - TC4), Bodger and Badger (TC7), Run the Risk (TC1), Grandstand (from Lime Grove to TC5), Match of the Day (from Lime Grove to TC5), 2000 Today (TC1) |
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2000s |
My Family (series 1 only), 2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (TC8, TC6), The Crouches (TC8 & TC1), Lee Evans - So What Now? (TC8), Dead Ringers (TC4), Catherine Tate Show (series 2 & Christmas special - TC8), Little Britain (TC1 & TC8), Swiss Tony (TC8), National Lottery Stars (TC1), TOTP (returning from Elstree and Riverside to TC3), Distraction (for C4 - TC1), Boys and Girls (for C4), Without Prejudice? (for C4 - TC4), Friends Like These (TC1), Wright Around the World (TC4), In It To Win It (TC1, TC4, TC6, TC8), Jet Set (TC4), Eggheads (TC6, TC3, TC4, TC1), The Keith Barret Show (TC8), Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (TC4), Liquid News (TC0), Come and Have a Go, Hard Spell, Strictly Come Dancing (TC4 then TC1), Strictly Dance Fever (TC1), X-Change (TC2), The Saturday Show (TC6), Dick and Dom in Da Bunglow (TC2 then TC6), Mock the Week (TC8), Level Up (TC10), The Soap Awards (for ITV1 - TC1), New Paul O'Grady Show (for C4 - TC6 and TC8), 8 out of 10 Cats (TC6, for C4), Grownups (TC6 and TC8), That Mitchell and Webb Look (TC8), A Question of Sport (TC8), How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? (TC1), TMi (TC9), The Charlotte Church Show (for ITV1), Any Dream Will Do (TC1), I'd Do Anything (TC1), Alan Titchmarsh Show (TC4 for ITV1), Let Me Entertain You (TC1), Who Dares Wins (TC1), Lab Rats (TC8), Goldenballs (TC8, TC3, TC4 and TC1 for ITV1), The Omid Djalili Show (TC8, TC1, TC4), Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding-Dong (TC8 for C4), It Takes Two (TC11), Last Choir Standing (TC1), Hole In The Wall (TC8), Would I Lie to You?, Maestro (TC1), Ready Steady Cook (TC2) |
It's interesting that TC3 seems to be so poorly represented above. Some of those programmes above without a studio indicated almost certainly were made in TC3 but I can't confirm that. During the '60s and into the '70s it was a favourite studio for dramas - the titles of individual plays are sadly forgotten. During the 90s it was not converted to digital widescreen due to lack of funding so was often empty. From about 2002 - 2006 it was the home of TOTP and has been the home of Later With Jools for a number of years.
On the drama front, there were a number of easily forgotten series that came and went and several striking single plays that often appeared under the banner of 'Play of the Month', 'Play for Today', 'Performance' etc. Again, during the '70s and '80s the BBC were famous for their traditional Sunday teatime dramas - often of Dickens' work. These were usually made in TC3, TC4, TC6 or TC1. The amount of drama made in these studios gradually faded during the 1980s until only a handful of series were being made by the turn of the decade. With the ease of shooting using digital video on location and the improvement in the quality of super-16mm film all drama was being made using a single camera on location or in film studios by 1994 - or was being shot in its own dedicated studio like EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.
Incidentally, there is a lack of mention of music specials with the likes of Shirley Bassey, Jack Jones, Sammy Davis Junior etc. although I do remember there seeming to be a constant flow of such programmes - especially during the seventies.
Measurements are in metric feet (30cm) and relate to working area within firelanes unless there are no firelanes. I have highlighted the dates when cameras were replaced. Over the years technology has moved on. It has followed this pattern: monochrome, 4-tube colour, 3-tube colour, CCD 4:3 colour, widescreen colour, digital widescreen colour and finally 1080i high definition. (1080p/50 HD will be the next development, TC6 being the first studio to be fitted with this standard.) The BBC has installed HD cameras in TC1, TC8 and TC4, with TC6 planned for an upgrade in 2009 but TC3 and the smaller studios will probably follow over the next few years. The BBC have declared an intention to make all programmes in HD by 2012.
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TC0 |
45 x 28 ft wall to wall. Originally built as TMS (television music studio). Opened in July 1989. Mural of musicians and instruments on corridor wall outside the studio indicate its origins. Closed as sound studio and converted to 'virtual reality' TV studio renamed TC0 probably in 1995. Record Breakers Gold and one or two other shows made here using VR. VR kit removed around 1999 and studio used for The Chris Moyles Show and then The Phone Zone - daily shows for UK Play channel. From May 2000 used for Liquid News for BBC Choice. From Feb 2002 - January 2008 was continuity studio for CBeebies channel. (CBeebies now in Teddington studio 4) Equipped with JVC KY-29D cameras. Hardly used since CBeebies left. Occasionally booked for single camera shoots. |
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TC1 |
100 x 90 ft. Opened in April 1964 with EMI 203/6 cameras. Converted to colour with EMI 2001 cameras in 1968. During '70s used for several operas and major dramas like I Claudius and BBC Shakespeares. LE included Black and White Minstrel Show and Morcambe and Wise Show. Closed for major refurb and asbestos removal in 1988. Re-opened in Jan 1991 with Thomson 1542 CCD cameras (first at TVC). QII lighting console installed. 96-channel stereo sound desk installed. Control galleries completely rebuilt. New 384 seat audience rostra fitted. Acoustic wall panels all replaced. Lighting hoists all replaced. Cameras replaced with digital widescreen Thomson 1657D cameras and lighting console changed from QII to Galaxy in 2000. In 2003 VR 'targets' fitted in grid for Fightbox VR series - also used for general election. In summer 2005 sound desk converted to 5.1 digital audio ready for high definition. TC1 is used for all kinds of shows from comedy:- I'm Alan Partridge, Little Britain - to LE: - Strictly Come Dancing, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? - and major event programmes: - General Elections, Comic Relief, Sports Personality of the Year and Children in Need. This studio staged the live final of ITV's Kids' Stars in Their Eyes in March '06 when Granada's studios in Manchester were closed for some months due to asbestos scare. TC1 was fully equipped for high definition in August 2006 with 10 Sony HDC-1500 cameras and HD monitors in refurbished production and lighting galleries. Received a new vision matrix during the summer of 2008. |
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TC2 |
60 x 40 ft. Opened in 1960 with Marconi Mk IV cameras. Home of weekly soap Compact and satirical comedy shows like That Was The Week That Was throughout '60s. Not converted to colour so closed around 1970. Used for storage of audience seating units throughout '70s. Re-opened in 1981 with Link 125 cameras. First studio at TVC to be equipped with Galaxy lighting console. Breakfast Time and Newsnight moved here in 1987 from Lime Grove. Probably equipped with Thomson 1542 cameras around 1991. News dept moved to TC7 in 1997. Basic widescreen refurb in 1998 with Thomson 1657s. Since Jan 2002 used for daily X-Change programme on CBBC channel. This programme ended in March 2006 after 2,032 shows. The studio was officially closed at the end of March as asbestos was said to have been discovered in the air conditioning system. However, it was used for one or two programmes in summer 2006 with a temporary AC plant. It was then decided to reopen the studio after all so removal of asbestos began in August 2006. The cost of removal is said to have run into millions of pounds. It reopened in Jan 2007, temporarily as the Sport studio whilst TC5 had its asbestos treated. It became available for general programming from the summer of 2007. Blue Peter now uses this studio. TC2 is an interesting addition to BBC Studios' portfolio. They have not had a medium/small studio to offer general clients for a number of years as all three of these studios have been permanently tied up with Children's, Sport and News. Received TC4's 4-year-old Sony E-30s in summer 2008. Equipped with a new Calrec digital sound mixer in Jan 2009. |
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TC3 |
90 x 70ft. Opened in June 1960 as drama studio (very 'dead' acoustic) with Marconi Mk 4 cameras. Colourised in 1969 with EMI 2001 cameras. Major refurb in 1985 - Link 125s installed at same time as new Grass Valley 1600 28-input vision mixer. Galaxy console and 541 new dimmers installed. New lighting hoists fitted. Permanent retractable audience seating installed. Asbestos treated in 1988. Thomson 1542 CCD cameras installed in 1992. These only 4:3 PAL so work reduced during 1990s until digital widescreen refurb in 2001 for return of TOTP. Galleries also rebuilt at this time and sound facilities upgraded to be suitable for several live bands on the same show. No cameras purchased but Thomson 1657 widescreen cameras 'borrowed' from other studios when required on a daily basis. Red Assembly area converted into 'Star Bar' for use by TOTP. New Sony BVP-E30 cameras installed in 2004. Later With Jools used this studio from 2004 using HD cameras via an OB unit. Further work on asbestos removal began in the summer of 2007 leading to closure for several months. Reopened in January 2008 with new black wall panels. In 2009 made Eggheads in HD using 'fly-away' HD kit thus proving that the studio galleries can be used for HD productions if necessary. |
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TC4 |
90 x 71ft. Opened in Jan 1961 as LE studio with variable acoustic ('ambisonics') and small band room (TC4A). Initially equipped with EMI 203/4 cameras. During '60s was favourite studio for sitcoms. In 1967 was the studio used to make all but one episode of The Forsyte Saga - the last major drama shot in black and white. Colourised in 1970 with EMI 2001 cameras. £2m major refurb in 1983. Link 125s installed. Galaxy console and new dimmers installed. New lighting hoists fitted and permanent retractable audience seating installed. Grass Valley 1600 vision mixer fitted. Asbestos removed around 1988 and new acoustic wall panels fitted. Thomson 1542 CCD cameras installed in 1992. Major refurb to digital widescreen in 1996. Galleries rebuilt and new Thomson 1657 cameras installed. Galaxy Nova console installed. VR 'targets' installed in quarter of grid for VR shows in 1997 but hardly ever used. New Sony BVP-E30 cameras installed in 2004. New sound desk installed summer 2007. TC4 is used for all kinds of programmes but gameshows in particular have been a regular booking for the past few years. Refurbished in summer 2008 with eight Sony HDC-1500 HD cameras and new mixer, monitors and VTRs. Sound also converted to 5.1 surround. |
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TC5 |
60 x 40ft. Opened in Aug 1961 with EMI 203/4 cameras. During 1960s was home of schools television, although other programmes made here too - especially panel games. Last studio at TVC to be colourised with EMI 2001s, probably in 1973. Later equipped with Link 125s during 1980s - precise date not yet known. Major refurb in 1991 to become sport studio. Lighting gallery converted into second production gallery enabling two programmes to be run from different ends of the studio simultaneously (on BBC1 and BBC2). Studio divided by thick black drapes. Lighting gallery moved into old prop store and also remote camera controls fitted enabling a reduction in the size of the camera crew. New graphics area built in old puppet studio/video effects workshop. 'Virtual' green screen sets used for several years. Thomson 1657 widescreen cameras installed around 1995. Around 2001 new 'real' permanent set built on two levels to be used by all sport programmes. New set design in 2005. Further work on asbestos removal discovered to be necessary in 2006. This began early in 2007. Old acoustic wall panels removed and new ones fitted. Sport returned to the studio with new set when asbestos removal was complete in summer 2007. Will be vacated by Sport dept when they move to Salford Quays around 2011. |
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TC6 |
92 x 70ft. In original plan was to be two studios divided by doors but this was never actually done. Opened in 1967 as BBC's first colour studio. Cameras were Marconi Mk VIIs but were changed in 1968 for EMI 2001s. In 1977 replaced with 3-tube Link 110s with Varotal lenses. (Very prone to blue flares!). 1988 closed for 10 weeks to remove asbestos. Acoustic wall panels replaced. 1993 reopened after major refurb as analogue component studio. Thomson 1647 Sportcams installed. First refurbishment done under new 'Producer Choice' commercial regime. Many so-called non-essential things left out of refurb but most carried out over following few years when found to be essential after all. (However, this remains the only studio not to have cups on the lighting hoists that enable them to be raised or lowered using a pole. This adds significant time and inconvenience to finelights.) Gallery suite moved downstairs to ground floor after 'new customers' - independent production companies - requested this. (Old gallery suite on first floor is now 'red button' interactive control room for digital TV channels.) First studio to have all colour monitors fitted in production gallery. (Previously, only the transmission and one preview monitor had been in colour.) Galaxy Nova installed. New Calrec Q-series sound desk with 60 channels. Upgraded to digital widescreen in 1998 with Thomson 1657s. Gallery monitors replaced. TC6 was home of Saturday morning kids' TV from 1997-2006 with Live and Kicking, The Saturday Show and Dick and Dom in Da Bunglow. Also very popular with independent production companies. Never Mind the Buzzcocks a regular booking since 1996. TC6 received TC8's 2-year old Sony E30 cameras in August 2006. New sound desk installed summer 2007. TC6 is planned to be given an HD upgrade around Christmas 2009, making it the fourth HD studio at TVC. This is likely to become the first 1080/50p studio in the UK. |
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TC7 |
62 x 40 ft. Opened in 1962. Originally Marconi Mk 4 black and white cameras but equipped with EMI 2001 cameras in July 1968. Home of Play School from 1968 when it moved here from Riverside until 1988. Refurbished in 1981 with Link 110 cameras with Schneider lenses (much nicer than Varotals.) Replaced with Link 125s from another studio in about 1992. In 1994 Thomson 1647s installed and a major refit carried out which included rebuilding and enlarging the gallery suite in preparation for it to be used for news-related programmes. TC7 was home of Swap Shop, Saturday Superstore, Going Live and early series of Live and Kicking before News dept took over in 1997. Converted to digital widescreen around 2000. New Sony BVP-E30 cameras installed in 2004. New Sony 8000 vision mixer installed over Christmas 2007. Will be vacated by News dept around 2010/2011 when they move to new studios in Broadcasting House. |
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TC8 |
90 x 72 ft. Opened in 1967 with Marconi Mk VII colour cameras. Replaced early in 1968 with EMI 2001s and was first studio in UK with these cameras. Designed as LE studio and the only one at TVC to have retractable audience seating designed from the outset. No asbestos said to be used in its construction so only studio not to have had wall panels replaced. Only studio with ventilation ducts spread all over grid so air conditioning usually very good here. First studio with Q-File lighting console and Thyristor dimmers. In 1978 fitted with Link 110 cameras. New sound desk installed in 1981. Link 125s ex TV Theatre installed in 1991. Major refurb including rebuilding of gallery suite completed in November 1994. (The visitor's 'well' in front of the monitor stack in the production gallery was removed.) New widescreen Thomson 1657s installed. This was the first serial digital widescreen studio at TVC. Sound desk and dimmers not replaced at this time and major headaches caused to both sound and lighting departments for several years until eventual upgrading about five years later. New Sony BVP-E30 cameras installed in 2004. TC8 has been the favourite studio for comedy for many years and dozens of sitcoms have been made here. After TC1 it has the largest working floor area when the audience seating is in use. Equipped with Sony HDC-1500 high definition cameras in summer 2006 and full HD vision installation completed in January 2007. New 5.1 sound desk installed in Jan 2008. |
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TC9 |
Was at one time to be the name of a new TV Theatre to be built as the second part of stage 5. Plans abandoned in 1989. Today's TC9 is an irregular shape, about 30 x 30ft average dimensions but also has a corridor and small seating area which can be used for interviews. Converted from old make-up store on the ground floor of the Restaurant Block in 1996. Fitted with Thomson 1647 sportcams which had been in use in Pres A for a year or two. Used as continuity studio for children's programmes on BBC1 and BBC2. Converted to widescreen in late '90s. In 2004 became continuity studio for CBBC channel and CBBC on BBC Prime. The studio no longer used for CBBC continuity from late 2006. TC9 unused for about nine months even though it was on long-term booking by Children's dept. However, from Sep 2007 it became the new home of SMart and TMi. Old Thomsons said to have become unreliable and overdue for replacement. Studio mothballed again early in 2008 but was brought back into use in autumn 2008 for another series of TMi using TC2's ten year old Thomson 1657s. |
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TC10 |
30 x 40 ft. Originally news studio N1 - initially used for BBC1 news bulletins - opened in 1969 with Marconi Mk VII colour cameras. In 1981 replaced by Bosch KCP 60s. In the early 1990s replaced with Ikegami HL79s. Closed in 1998 when news moved to stage 6. Renamed TC10 but not refurbished due to lack of funds. Eventually reopened with JVC KY-29D cameras in 2000 for UK Play channel to use for The Phone Zone which then became TOTP@Play daily afternoon show. This channel closed down in September 2002. From 2002 - 2004 was used as VR studio. During this period was also used to make new version of Treasure Hunt for Chatsworth. From 2004, TC10 was used for presentation and continuity for children's programmes on BBC1 and BBC2 replacing TC9 in this role. From April 2006 daily Level Up show based here. This replaced X-Change on CBBC channel. Level Up ended its run in Sep '06. This studio is on long-term booking to Children's dept and various children's series have used the studio in recent months. |
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TC11 |
50 x 40 ft. Originally news studio N2 - opened in 1969 with Marconi Mk VII colour cameras. In 1981 replaced by Bosch KCP 60s. Initially used for BBC2 and weekend news bulletins. In 1985 the lobby area and props store between N1 and N2 was taken over by this studio and its size increased - although this addition has a low ceiling. This studio then became the home of BBC1's Six and flagship Nine o'clock News. In the early 1990s cameras replaced with Ikegami HL79s. Closed in 1998 when news moved to stage 6. Renamed TC11 but not refurbished due to lack of funds. Opened again early in 2002 with JVC KY-29D cameras when Liquid News moved here from TC0. 60 Second News set built in the low-ceilinged end for the new BBC Three channel which replaced BBC Choice in Feb 2003. Liquid News ended in April 2004. The studio was then the home of BBC Three's 7o'clock news. This was axed in December 2005. The studio was used early in 2006 as a temporary news studio whilst the main studios in Stage 6 were being refurbished. TC11 is now part of the BBC Studios portfolio again and available for general programming. Used for Strictly Come Dancing spin-off It Takes Two in 2008. |
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TC12 |
About 30 x 20 ft. Originally built as control room of music studio. First used as TV studio in 2004 for interactive CBBC show Nelly Nut. Later used for other CBBC shows including Sportsround. Up to 2 cameras are borrowed from TC0 as and when required. From late in 2006 became the continuity studio for CBBC using a CSO (chromakey) backing to overlay presenters on top of graphics. New presenter/puppet CBBC continuity from summer 2007. This moved to Newsround studio in East Tower early in 2008. Studio now unused. |
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Pres A |
32 x 22 ft. Opened in 1960 as monochrome studio with EMI 201 vidicon cameras. Originally intended as in-vision continuity studio but only used as this for a few years (until at least 1963.) 3 x Marconi MkVII colour cameras installed in 1968 ex TC6. Became used as weather and trails studio. Link 110s installed around 1980. Weather left to go to new purpose-built weather centre in TVC around 1990. Thomson 1647 Sportcams installed around 1994. Used as continuity studio for children's programmes until closure in 1996. Cameras moved down to TC9. Was never converted to widescreen. The studio no longer exists. |
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Pres B |
32 x 22 ft. Opened around 1964 as monochrome studio with EMI 201 vidicon cameras. Originally intended as in-vision continuity studio for planned second channel (BBC2) but never used for this purpose. Colour tests with 3 Peto-Scott (Philips) PC60s, then 3 different cameras in 1966. 3 x Marconi MkVII colour cameras installed in 1968 ex TC6. Used for a number of small shows including Late Night Line-Up, Points of View and Barry Norman's Film 'xx series. Famously, the original home of Old Grey Whistle Test. Link 110s installed around 1980. Due to fewer and fewer bookings the studio closed around the end of 1996. The studio no longer exists. |
with thanks to Mike Emery for collating much of the above information regarding cameras.
If you spot any errors or can fill in any of the blanks do get in touch!
I am of course aware that there are a number of news and weather studios distributed around the building. However, these do not come under my self-imposed remit of only including studios around London that make a range of different programmes. I know I have included the old news studios N1 and N2 above but only because they then became used for general entertainment programmes when they were renamed TC10 and TC11. Also, frankly, I don't wish to include any information here that some people planning unwelcome acts might find useful.
Let's look at the present state of Television Centre...
Stage 6 is currently occupied by Television and Radio News. This department is due to move to Broadcasting House in central London around 2010. The weather department is also due to move to BH at about the same time or soon after. From 2011, Sport and Children's departments are due to transfer to Salford Quays, in Manchester. News, Sport and Children's departments currently occupy the small studios TC5, TC7, TC9 and TC10. Blue Peter used to book a large studio one or two days a week almost since the building opened but since summer 2007 has been using the much smaller TC2.
Thus, from around 2011 a fair amount of current and recent activity will no longer be happening in this building. One can see why at first glance the Centre seems to be in decline.
However - let's look at what will be left...
The Post Production department in Stage 6 will still be there with many millions of pounds-worth of superbly equipped editing suites and post production suites. And of course the main production studios will be unaffected by the move north. TC1, TC4 and TC8 have recently been refurbished and are now the most advanced high definition studios in the UK. TC6 will be converted to HD late in 2009 - and is likely to have the even more advanced 1080P/50 system (the first in the UK). No doubt the other studios will follow soon. TC3 is presently SD but has equipment and cameras that are only a few years old. TC6 and TC4 received new sound desks in the summer of 2007, TC2 a new sound desk in January 2009.
The smaller studios - TC2, TC5 and TC7 again have all been refurbished relatively recently. TC2, TC3 and TC5 have recently returned to service following an extensive asbestos removal programme that is said to have cost millions. All the studios are now said to be free of asbestos contamination. There are also the small studios around the building - TC0, TC9, TC10, TC11 that would make very nice bases for digital channels in the way that Teddington have done with their small studios.
The studio dressing rooms, incidentally, are very well equipped - including a handful of 'superstar' dressing rooms which have been designed and appointed to astonishing levels of luxury. These were created three or four years ago and are said to have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. There is probably nothing quite like these in any other studio centre.
So - What's going to happen???
In January 2007 the BBC heard that the licence settlement for the next six years would be below the rate of inflation. The move of Sport and Children's departments to Salford from 2011 has been ring fenced as has the commitment to pay for digital switchover. The BBC Trust has stated that it does not intend to see programme standards eroded. Thus, they have to make some significant savings elsewhere.
One area where the BBC has stated that it hopes to make savings and also raise some cash is through the disposal of surplus property. The BBC announced on 18th October 2007 that the BBC Trust had agreed in principle to the sale of Television Centre by the end of financial year 2012/13.
The closing of TV Centre was justified to the press by various announcements including one allegedly from a senior BBC manager who claimed that Television Centre is 'an analogue dinosaur in a digital age.' If this ill-informed comment did indeed come from someone senior in the corporation then the BBC truly does have serious problems. The eight main studios here are currently the best equipped and some would say the best designed studios in the country. If these are no good then heaven help the rest of the industry.
The BBC hopes to raise £300m from the sale. After the announcement was made, there was a fairly widespread assumption that this meant that the building would be demolished and replaced with offices, housing or an extension to the Westfield retail park that has recently been built on the other side of Wood Lane. I even heard that the owners of Queen's Park Rangers might have been interested in building a new stadium here. Of course, these were all whispers of rumours.
In fact, whether the sale of the building would be to a developer who would simply demolish it, or to a company who would keep the studios open and redevelop the rest of the site, has never been clear. The fact is that nobody is now or ever has been in a position to be able to confirm exactly what will happen to Television Centre in three or four years time. The future of the building in any case rather depended on the sale of BBC Resources - in particular, BBC Studios, the business that operates the studios themselves.
A separate plan, although closely linked to the disposal of TVC, was indeed the intention to sell off BBC Resources. This consisted of Studios, OBs and Post Production. The Costume and Wig department, popular though it was, was closed early in 2008 and the BBC have now left the old rehearsal rooms in Acton. The three remaining divisions of BBC Resources were due to have been disposed of by April 2008. During the process of the sale, the one obvious question that nobody seemed to be able to answer was - 'who will pay good money for BBC Studios if the studios themselves are due to be closed only four or five years later?'
It was assumed, when the announcement was made that TV Centre would be sold, that the studios would by then no longer be operated by the BBC but by a private company. However, the attempt to sell the business during the winter of 2007/2008 came to nothing. The BBC will thus be faced with an interesting choice. Either sell the building to a developer who intends to clear the site and be presented with the considerable problem of what to do with the Studios business and its staff - or sell it to a company who will keep the studios open - or indeed keep the Studios business running as part of the BBC and sell off the rest of the site.
The first choice would probably raise more cash but it would mean that the (profitable) BBC Studios business is simply closed down and the staff left with nowhere to go. This would hardly be a popular decision with programme makers, let alone the staff.
Simply closing the studios would not be in the best interests of the BBC since they will still need London based studios for their own production teams and for the independent companies who make programmes for the BBC. A shortage of studio space would mean serious scheduling problems and inevitable increased costs.
It had been assumed that the new owners of BBC Studios would have used the next few years to build new studios elsewhere (probably Pinewood) or convert existing film stages into studios so the staff - and existing programme contracts - could move there. This will not now be happening.
Just for the record, it seems that one company was interested in purchasing the whole of BBC Resources but their offer was not acceptable. The decision was made to sell the divisions separately and BBC OBs were sold off - to SIS. On 5th June 2008 it was announced that BBC Post would remain a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC as a suitable buyer had not been found.
As for the Studios division, although ITV were said to be in discussions it seems likely that only one company - Pinewood Studios Group - made it through to the final stages in the negotiations. According to the Guardian, one of the sticking points was the pension liability of BBC Studios staff. Whatever the reasons, the sale did not happen. On 7th March 2008 Mike Southgate, CEO BBC Resources, declared 'business as usual' for BBC Studios including the upgrading of TC4 to HD in the summer of 2008.
It is unlikely that there will be another attempt to sell the business in the next few years. The banking credit crisis has in any case made it far more difficult for any company to borrow the large sum necessary to purchase another business. Nothing will have changed economically for the next two or three years at least so any attempt to go through the process again will be pointless. If there is an easing in credit in say three years' time then no company will be interested in paying a high price for the business if there is any likelihood that the studios will be demolished only a year or two after that. The only chance of selling the business then would be to guarantee that the studios themselves would be available for use for a reasonable number of years.
Perhaps I am being over-optimistic but it does seem to me that there is a chance that the long-term future of the main studios at TV Centre may be just a little more secure than they have seemed for some time.
Selling the building for it to be demolished would in any case be somewhat problematic. The local council have made it clear in the past that they wish to preserve the building but have stopped short of listing it - under pressure from the BBC, who did not want to be prevented from carrying out modifications to the structure for operational reasons. However, the council may well take a very dim view of plans to demolish it. National organisations interested in preserving the country's heritage too are likely to protest strongly at any attempt to lose this rare icon to late 1950s architecture.
In fact, following a petition to No 10, English Heritage looked into its status with regard to giving it a Grade II listing. Perhaps rather surprisingly to some, they came back with a very strong recommendation on 30th June 2008 to preserve not just the facade of the building - but to keep it as a working television centre. Not only do they want the main studio block preserved but also the scenery block and the restaurant block!
Rather depressingly a BBC spokesman immediately began to argue the case but they did issue the following statement...
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'The BBC has announced that it does not intend to occupy the whole of TVC after 2012 but any reference to detailed development plans for the building and site is premature. We recognise the historical importance of the building and will be looking for a solution that best preserves the interests of the BBC and licence payer but there are no firm plans currently on the table.'
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It is worth noting that they are no longer saying that they plan to wholly leave the site and abandon it to its fate. The tone is certainly different from the original statements made some months earlier. To see what the fuss is all about, the statement on the English Heritage Website is worth quoting in full...
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Peter Beacham, Heritage Protection Director for English Heritage, said: “This building is not just architecturally important. As one of the first purpose-built television studios in the world, it represents the moment when Britain led Europe into the television age. The BBC itself is an important part of our British identity and Television Centre has acquired an iconic presence. “The nation has an immense fondness for this building and what it represents for our culture. We all feel we know areas such as the Blue Peter garden and the studios where people have watched significant moments in broadcasting over the last 50 years: from early Doctor Who to Top of the Pops, Terry Wogan and Children in Need. “We know the BBC is rightly proud of their building and their heritage, and we are enthusiastically working with them to make sure that marking TV Centre’s national importance will not affect its ability to adapt to changing technology or new uses. We are glad that, following the current Heritage Protection Bill, we will be able to put in place a modern type of designation that involves a Heritage Partnership Agreement. This will make sure that the site remains just as flexible, despite being of undeniable national interest and one of very few monuments to television history.” English Heritage has assigned special interest only to the very best parts. These are the scenery workshops, with its barrel-vaulted ceiling and rows of circular rooflights; the light and airy 1950s canteen that overlooks the Blue Peter garden; and the distinctive circular drum that houses offices and the main studios. This has some very good 1950s design and architectural features including dazzling mosaics, a gilded sculpture of Helios in the centre of the drum and the familiar pattern of atom-like discs on the front. with thanks to the English Heritage website |
It was announced that the final decision on the listing of stages 1-4 of the site would be made by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) later in 2008. However, by the end of the year there had been no such announcement. In December, I wrote to the Culture Secretary to ask whether he had made his decision.
On January 15th 2009 I was sent the following email by a representative from the DCMS:
'I can inform you that the decision on this application has not yet been made. Officials from DCMS and English Heritage visited the site in November 2008 and DCMS officials are still in the process of gathering expert advice. A thorough assessment of all the evidence, including reports from English Heritage, will be carried out and we aim to put recommendations shortly.'
As far as I know, there has not been an announcement yet.
One of the BBC's architects who was heavily involved in the design of Stages 5 and 6, including the abandoned TC9, wrote to me in 2006 to clarify the situation at that time regarding the listing or otherwise of the building...