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.
photo thanks to Peter Sumpter
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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An early plan for TVC dated around 1960. TC8 was the only one of the planned three studios along the spur that was eventually constructed. |
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TVC under construction. The White City stadium is in the background. This was used for the London Olympics in 1908. |
Of all the TV studio centres in the UK, Television Centre (TVC) was by far the largest. With eight medium to large production studios, four small ones and a further number of news and weather studios it dominated the industry from the 1960s right up to its closure in 2013. The building itself was huge - only seven stories high, apart from the East Tower, but the area it covered was considerable. As well as the studios, scenery block and restaurant block there were 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 encircled the main block. Thousands of people worked there every day - most not having a clue what everyone else did. There was a waitress service restaurant, two cafeterias and many snack bars, coffee bars, delis and tea bars all over the building, not to mention the BBC Club. The Centre contained 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 was 500 feet in diameter and at basement level covered three and a half acres. In the studios nearest the railway line (TC1 - TC3) 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. 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 did indeed fail on at least three occasions to my knowledge. To cope with this, emergency generators were installed and the power plant that originally only heated the water was during the 1980s replaced with two gas turbines that could 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 website or 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 could 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. Seven of the main studios had their original soundproofing stripped to the brick walls and new panels installed - making them look like new studios. Only TC8 remained as it was originally built since no asbestos was used in its construction. Following this process, all eight of the main studios remained free of asbestos - or any that was left was well encapsulated.
Rumours persisted to the end however that the building was still contaminated. How much truth there was in this is hard to determine. Certainly, huge amounts of work were done in the studios at vast expense over the years and they were constantly monitored for any trace of contamination. My guess is that the three remaining studios are probably now amongst the 'cleanest' in the country.
It's hard to say for certain how many other studios and film stages 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, the BBC certainly took this issue seriously - they spent literally millions of pounds removing or encapsulating the asbestos in this building.
Construction and alterations never ceased since building commenced in 1951. The sound of distant drilling disturbed countless transmissions and recordings over the decades. In fact, it was 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 often worked there as a freelancer over another 11 years right up to its closure but only ever saw a fraction of the building. Its unique circular design meant that many people, myself included, often exited a door onto a corridor and had to pause for a second to work out the best route to where they were going. Many is the time I said cheerio to someone as we went off in different directions only to meet them again a minute or two later, slightly embarrassed as we bumped into each other - having taken completely different routes to arrive at the same place. It happened so often that people barely remarked on it. Or perhaps it was just me.
I wrote at the beginning of this project that TV studios were factories. That rather trite description probably applied 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 made this inevitable. However, it was also a corporate headquarters and a news centre and anyone entering the reception area that faced Wood Lane would be hard pushed to get any sense that this building contained 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 from the 1990s the BBC's senior management was slightly embarrassed at the fact that inside this building were studios actually still making television. You could 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. 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 actually changed from this drawing to how the building was eventually used. The basic design was spot on and enabled the studios to be operated highly efficiently right up to 2013. Click on the plan to view it in all its glory.
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Of course, some things did change in its later years and many aspects of the Centre became 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, around a half the BBC's output is made by independent companies. Even its own in-house production teams use freelance crews. The BBC no longer has its own make-up, wardrobe or design departments. All were made redundant in the mid nineties and these people and their successors are now freelance. Around that time the camera, sound, electrical and lighting departments became staffed to a minimal level and began to employ freelancers on a daily basis. Following a round of voluntary redundancies in 2009, there were even fewer staffers on the books. By 2011 almost all the technical staff had gone. From the 1990s, some shows were crewed entirely by freelancers whilst most had a mix of staffers and freelancers on the camera and sound crews.
Many independent production companies booked studios at TV Centre to make their programmes for the BBC. Also, some companies used TV Centre to make shows for other channels - in particular Channel 4.
From the beginning of the 1990s - and this became the most significant difference to the nature of the building - the kind of programmes made in television studios began to change. 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.
So - for its final three decades what was made here? Well - sitcoms like Miranda, Ab Fab and Not Going Out; sketch shows like The Fast Show, Armstrong and Miller and Little Britain; gameshows like Pointless, In It To Win It, Eggheads and Who Dares Wins although some of these had to move in 2009 to Glasgow for political reasons; panel shows like Mock The Week, Shooting Stars, Buzzcocks and 8 Out of 10 Cats; chat shows like Parkinson and Jonathan Ross, features programmes like Watchdog and Crimewatch; cookery shows like Britain's Best Dish and The Hairy Bikers' Cook Off; news, weather, kids shows like Live and Kicking, Dick and Dom and Blue Peter, music shows like Later With Jools and Top of the Pops, entertainment shows like Strictly Come Dancing, So You Think You Can Dance, Harry Hill's TV Burp, Genius, Room 101, Chris Moyles' Quiz Night etc and... well, you get the idea.
At one end of the building was TC1, which still is a very large studio. In the early years it was used for major dramas like I Claudius, The BBC Shakespeares, various operas and big variety shows like Morcambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. It was ideally suited in the later years not only to Saturday night spectaculars Like Strictly Come Dancing or The Voice but also the big one-off events such as Children in Need, Comic Relief, Sport Relief and of course every four or five years - the general election. It's worth pointing out that in the final decade, six of the main production studios were busy for most of the year making programmes that were not sport, news or children's programmes so were unaffected by the disappearance of those departments to Salford and W1.
Despite the relentless misinformation put out by senior BBC managers (who had never actually made a TV programme there themselves) about the Centre being 'ill-equipped for the digital age' it remained very busy right up to the end. Its studios were not only the best designed in the country but were refurbished and refitted for HD between 2006 and 2011. They were very efficient to run, not the most expensive to hire and were popular with many independent programme makers as well as the BBC's own production departments.
TVC also of course had a unique place in the culture and shared memory of almost every adult living in the UK. The building itself was as easily recognised as Buckingham Palace and somehow felt like home to millions of viewers who had never even been there. It was destroyed by people with no personal experience of the process of making television who relied upon consultants for advice - but they of course were not directly involved in the television industry either. By the time everyone woke up and realised what a calamitous decision had been taken it was too late. Those responsible moved on from the BBC to well-paid jobs in other industries and indeed in other countries in some cases.
Of course, when it was first being planned nobody could possibly have imagined that a future Director General would one day decide to sell it off to raise a few million pounds. In those days, decisions were taken based on well-researched fact and direct experience.
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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 Westfield.) 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. This is the story that all visitors to TV Centre were told. However, Arthur Hayes has written to me casting some doubt on this. He worked with Dawbarn for seven years from 1956 so came to know him well. He says that this would have been most uncharacteristic of the way he used to work. The timing isn't quite right either. These are the points that Arthur doesn't think fit the story...
Arthur Hayes continues - 'So far I have found no documentary evidence as to when the Brief was handed to GRD but it must have been before the end of November and, quite likely, was at the meeting between GRD and MTT. It is evident that, whenever the handover took place, GRD worked rapidly and decisively in order to produce a definitive layout by the 10th December. I think it was a phenomenal feat, one that could only be achieved by first absorbing the contents of the voluminous brief. But that, I believe, was very much in his character. Equally impressive is the fact that a full design scheme and a model was produced for approval by the Board of Governors on the 30th March 1950.' In other words, Dawbarn is more likely to have already been working on his ideas for the project during the ten days before Dec 3rd (or later), when the back-of-an-envelope sketch was drawn. Only a week after that he presented a detailed design scheme to the BBC which surely would have been beyond the powers of even the fastest working genius. So - sorry to spoil a really good story but it is more likely that the sketch was simply made when Dawbarn was explaining to someone in the pub what was already in his head, rather than a doodle that gave him inspiration. On the other hand - those first ten days may have left him with no workable ideas at all and the final inspiration did actually come to him over that pint in the pub - and he really was able to work that fast. Either way, it was a brilliant scheme and still succeeded as the most efficiently designed studio centre in the UK. No other building has come close.
He decided to 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, a new idea 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 remained in use at TVC to the end. Thus you would 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 came 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. The newly appointed head of BBC Resources in 2001 however decided that this was misleading as visitors might think that TC1 was a telecine suite, not a studio. Really? Thus all the hundreds of signs around the building were changed to read 'studio x'. Nevertheless, everyone in the industry still referred 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 was 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 remained during the final two decades, hidden behind a locked door, and was occasionally rented out. There was 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 hung from the roof - one assumes to improve the ventilation and draw the paint fumes out.
On the ground floor was 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. Props were later stored in the area on the ground floor of the East Tower building. The old prop store in the basement of the Design Building was rebuilt as a climate-controlled secure storeroom for what looked like orchestral scores (not that I went snooping about or anything) - for the last years of the Centre the rest of the basement was used for general storage - although during the early 2000s a kids gameshow used this area to build a huge set. Geoff Posner (for it is he) recalls that the curiously named 'Movement Control' used to be on the ground floor of the Design Block. He also recalls that the prop store in the basement... '...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.
During the 1980s a large open-sided shelter running around the outside of the ring road surrounding the main building was constructed to store scenery in trucks. From the early 1990s all scenery was made by private companies and nothing was manufactured here any longer. The only scenery stored on site was for shows whilst they had a regular booking in a studio. Sets were destroyed when they were 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 was and still is is now bought or hired by each individual programme department (or independent production company) 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 took 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 later dematerialised and was replaced with a 'newer' rather smarter version, which I suspect was constructed purely for visitors to TVC to examine and be photographed with. I don't believe it was ever used an any Dr Who episode. The original spacecraft's whereabouts once again became a mystery. My spies tell me that it is still safe 'as it belongs to the BBC drama department'. Some mistake there, surely. It did however re-appear on the One Show's closing programme from TVC on 22nd March 2013 but which dimension it is in now is a mystery. Meanwhile, the 'visitor attraction' version vanished and in 2012 appeared proudly displayed in the foyer of the MediaCity studios in Salford. Bloody nerve if you ask me since those studios are not owned or run by the BBC and Dr Who has absolutely no connection with the place.
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 David Tennant 'Welsh' version had 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.) However, as with so many 'facts' to do with TVC this story, widely believed, is probably not true. I have been contacted by Jan Vincent-Rudzki who interviewed Peter Brachacki in the mid '70s, specifically about his design for the Tardis. He told him that he got the idea for the Tardis walls from the 'pop-out' dispensers pills come in. In fact, early black and white episodes used actual photo blow-ups of pill containers stuck onto the walls. Mind you looking at the scenery block skylights, that's exactly what they look like too.
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.
From the 1990s the design block had no designers in it - nor was any scenery built in it. It later officially became the 'drama building' as it contained the offices of the drama department. No drama was actually filmed here of course. However, I guarantee that if you had asked almost anybody working at TV Centre where the drama building was they wouldn't have a clue. Ask where the scenery block was and quite a few would certainly know where you meant. In 2011 the ground floor was vacated by the Studios and Post Production business (which is owned by, but not part of, the BBC.) I gather that the BBC were charging so much to the company they own that they could not afford the rent. The stores moved over the road to a warehouse in Ariel Way in the summer of 2011 and the scenery store was occupied by the old Blue Peter set, which was shown to visitors until the building closed.
Stage 2 followed on straight away and was the construction 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. I'm told by Ron Isted that the basement was used to to house the Television Music Library (sheet music, not discs) between 1956 and 1960. 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 were on the ground floor and connected 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 reverted to office space as eating in the 'BBC canteen' was 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 became available via tea bars and delis spread around the building - but at weekends when all the office staff had gone home and the only people there were the ones actually making programmes there was 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, he pointed out how hard it is to find rehearsal space. 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 following few years until the BBC decided what they were going to do with it. Blow me down, but that's exactly what they did and some BBC Comedy shows for a while used 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 the 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 was an irregular shape, about 30 x 30ft average dimensions with a very low grid. It also had a corridor and small seating area which could 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 and again in 2009 and 2010 for further series of TMi, using TC2's old Thomson cameras. TC9 was decommisioned in 2011.
I have touched upon it already but of course alongside the Restaurant Block was the Blue Peter Garden. This had camera cable points linking it to the first floor corridor in the main block so that up to three cameras could be driven from the gallery of whichever studio was in use for the show that day. There was no actual 'Blue Peter Studio' - the programme used any of TC1, TC3, TC4, TC6 or TC8, whichever was available. The garden had a semi-permanent camera tower that was sometimes used for high wide shots and before hand-held cameras were available, one of the studio's cameras would be mounted on a mobile camera crane and pushed around the garden, avoiding the steep slope and the pond.
Stage 3 involved the most complex construction and took four years before the Centre became operational. It consisted of the main circular building (the doughnut) 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 were both 60 x 40 metric feet within firelanes and TC3 and TC4 about 90 x 70 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 and The Frost Report. 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 was never aware of this, having worked on many occasions in both studios, so possibly any acoustic difference was altered in later years. (Both studios in any case had new acoustic wall panels fitted 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 in their last years had very swish gallery suites. TC4 was fully equipped for high definition in the summer of 2008 and TC3 in 2011.
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 were almost mirror images of each other although oddly, TC4 was actually 1 foot wider than TC3 at 71 metric feet within firelanes. This may be because the walls of TC3 were thicker in order to keep out the noise of the Hammersmith and City tube trains. By some quirk of fate there is a 'whistle' sign beside the track right by TV Centre so every train seemingly pointlessly gives that curious hoot that tube trains produce each time they pass the building. As testament to the designers of the building, this has never disturbed a recording. 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, particularly when trying to position lights accurately over a drama or sitcom set. 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 had over London's other TV studios was 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 was hardly ever necessary. Every studio had dozens of scene hoists that could be tracked into position and raised or lowered at the push of a button. The hook was attached to a steel line that was fixed to the flattage or ceiling piece that needed to be supported. This made scene setting here much quicker, simpler and probably safer - and arguably gave 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 could then 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.
During the '60s, '70s and '80s, the Centre contained some extraordinary facilities, many of which most people working there probably had no idea existed. For example - Tim Dorney, engineer in News dept, has written to inform me that during the 1970s he discoved that there was a room at the base of the South Hall where grand pianos were stored. The door was never locked and he tells me that he passed many a lunch hour practising on one of several beautiful instruments, all of which were always in perfect tune. 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. 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, during the last two decades of TVC each studio had its own VT machines - sometimes as many as eight or more might 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 had 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 later became 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. Amazingly, all these shows continue to be made - Film 2013 currently presented by Claudia Winkleman and Danny Leigh and at the time of writing recorded in the One Show studio in White City. The Sky at Night is thought to be the longest continuously-running TV series in the world, and is now shot on location. Its main presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, fronted the show for over 55 years until his death in 2012. 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 Pres B 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 Ludovic 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. Some truly astonishing bands and solo artists performed live in this tiny studio for Whistle Test over many years. The show was also later made in any of the other studios that happened to be empty - always using the bare studio walls of course. In the early '90s the weather moved to a purpose-built suite containing several studios on the 5th floor of TV Centre. Pres A was then taken over by CBBC and used as a continuity studio - its original purpose actually. 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. Pres B also closed towards the end of 1996. Alan Brett has written to me. He worked 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. It's reasonable to assume that this was the last programme ever made in the studio - unless, of course, you know different!
As a little aside - Duncan Stewart (who now keeps Riverside Studios going) informs me that around 1985 he went to Pres A with his Dad who was replacing the studio's dimmers. They were simply getting a bit old. Some of the dimmers were duly saved from the skip and installed in Old Windsor Memorial Hall, where in 2013 they were still working perfectly. They don't make 'em like that any more!
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 did not last and early in 2005 the 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 were 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 was 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 was now an empty office with suspended ceiling and carpeted floor, the shape and size of the old Pres studios could still be made out. They seemed 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 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 tin shed in the yard at the back of Lime Grove but was only used for a few years.
Gordon Murray was the head of the BBC's Children's department and also produced their puppet programmes but by the time the new studio was opened he was beginning to become somewhat disillusioned. He apparently didn't think the BBC really appreciated what he was doing for them. He probably made around fifteen Rubovian Legends programmes in the new TVC studio. He was keen to move on from this method of filming as he was also becoming frustrated by the limitations of using puppets with strings. He produced a pilot called The Minute Men (minute men - geddit?) using stop frame techniques rather than strings but his bosses in the BBC were not impressed. Other short films met a similar reaction. Rather depressed at this, he left the BBC in 1964 and set up his own studio in Albert Mansions, near the Albert Hall. The Children's Department was closed at his departure and the puppet studio was never used for this purpose again. (Or was it?! Roger Singleton-Turner has written to me to let me know that in 1973 he shot some inserts to Paul Ciani's series Outa-Space in the puppet studio. This involved some prehistoric monster puppets.) Two years after he left the BBC Gordon Murray went on to have huge success with his own company making Camberwick Green and then Trumpton. One assumes that the senior manager who had driven him from the BBC did the decent thing and shut himself in a locked room with a loaded revolver. Well - somehow I doubt it. 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 on TV 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. (See elsewhere on this website.)
As mentioned above, the puppet studio probably became assigned to the schools television department around 1964 although what they used it for is not yet known. (Can you help???) 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 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 year or two 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 early 1990s 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 eventually closed. The area became used as a store for the visual effects department with many Dr Who props being left there. Bob Richardson remembers seeing several Daleks huddled in a corner, lit only by a dim emergency light. Sounds the stuff of nightmares! During 1997 the area was converted into the Sport graphics area as it was linked to Studio 5. For the previous few years Sport Graphics had been based in a tech room on the other side of TC5. This in turn became the lighting, vision and remote camera operating gallery. On 13th December 1997 the area went live, working into Grandstand. It continued in operation right up to the end of 2011. Most of the kit was the same as had been installed 14 years previously - there was not much point in upgrading it with the move to Salford looming. With all its CRT monitors I'm told it got very hot in there on a Saturday afternoon!
The last Sport programme from TC5 and its graphics area was Final Score on 26th November 2011. The studio remained mothballed until 31st December but then became part of the S&PP portfolio of studios and available for hire by anyone. The old Sport set remained until November 2012 - purely to be seen by the regular groups of visitors who tour the Centre every day. However, early in 2012 all the cameras, vision mixers, monitors, lights - in fact anything that could be removed was removed rendering the studio unuseable. Well... not quite. As its swansong TC5 was brought back into life for the 2012 US Presidential elections in November. A greenscreen was hung and Jeremy Vine presented the 'state of the parties' graphics from this studio. Why in here and not in TC4, say, is a mystery.
The final part of this phase of the construction of Television Centre was the completion and fitting out of studios 1, 7 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.
TC1 opened on 15th April 1964. (I'm sure I 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 at 14,000 sq ft gross when it has its huge dividing doors open. TC1 is 11,000 sq ft gross or 100 x 90 metric feet between firelanes (100 x 87 since the retractable audience seating was installed) 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 before the building's closing it came into its own with popular shows like Strictly Come Dancing, 'Maria', 'Joseph' and 'Nancy', Let Me Entertain You, Last Choir Standing, Maestro and the audition phase of The Voice. These big spectacular productions simply won't fit into any other London TV studio except for Fountain at Wembley and have enabled the BBC to present shows that are visually second to none. Its final show in 2013 was a special in which Miranda Hart interviewed Bruce Forsyth and was recorded on 25th March. 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.
TC7 was almost exactly the same design as TC2 and TC5 (and also with long lighting bars) although it was a couple of feet longer. According to the SMPTE Journal it opened on 4th July 1965. It was originally due to open in '62, then '63, then '64. Confusingly, 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.' In fact, TC6 did not come into service until 1967. 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 three series of Vic and Bob's Shooting Stars from 1995 to1997 also came from here. In 2002 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...
From 1997-2013 TC7 was part of the BBC News empire. Each weekday, Breakfast came from here, followed by Working Lunch, Newsround, The Six and Newsnight. At weekends it was the home of Frost on Sunday which was replaced by the Andrew Marr Show. A very busy little studio indeed. In 2013 this rather sad poem was posted on the production gallery wall: Stop all the studio clocks, cut off the gallery phones, Prevent the Journalists from barking about a juicy bone, Silence the signature tune and with muffled wipe bong Bring out the TC7 End Credits & let the mourners come. Let boom cameras circle, whirring overhead, Framing the double-wall inset the message 'TC7 Is Dead'. Put red W1 lanyards around the necks of the crew While NBH security guys admit only the few. TC7 was our North, our South, our East, our West, Our Working Lunch and our AM Sunday best, Our Newsround, our Newsnight, our HardTalk, our song; We thought TC7 would last forever: We were wrong. The lights are not wanted now: Put out them all; Pack up the set and dismantle the Barco wall; Pour away the Breakfast Tea and sweep up the floor. For nothing now can ever come from here... anymore. Please email me if you know the author. He or she definitely deserves a credit.
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 looked 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. The Children's department left the East Tower during 2011. It is due to be demolished in the redevelopment and another larger tower containing flats built but not quite in the same place. The LWT tower on the South Bank, albeit several stories higher, was constructed 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.
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 were 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 was 'sideways on' people occasionally described it as being long and narrow. In fact it was 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 was only 4 feet long and spaced with their ends 3 feet apart. (In TC1 this distance is 4 feet.) Each row of bars was spaced four feet apart, rather than the 6 feet in 'long bar' studios. This arrangement gave 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.
Before leaving TC6 it is worth noting that from 1993 this was the only studio at the Centre to have its production, lighting and sound galleries at ground floor level. They had previously been on the first floor like all the others but due to the layout of the studio being lengthways, an area was available on the ground floor that had previously been used as large make up and wardrobe rooms and a lighting preparation area. A 14 month refit that also included the removal of the asbestos from the studio was used to make the move downstairs. This was the time when the studios were opening up to independent production companies. TVC was now in direct competition for business with the ITV studios on the South Bank (TLS). Their galleries are on the ground floor which is very popular with directors, producers and lighting directors, who often have to make many trips to and from the studio floor. Other studios around the country built since the 1980s also had galleries constructed at ground floor level. The requrement to have windows looking out over the studio floor was no longer necessary. TC6 did indeed prove to be very popular with many productions for this very reason. Never Mind the Buzzcocks was one of a number of shows that found a home here. All the more baffling then that when the new studios were built at BBC Glasgow and MediaCity in Salford, their galleries were placed an extraordinary 2 floors up at gantry level. It is as if all the lessons learnt over decades of programme making were forgotten overnight and an unnecessary annoyance to production teams was introduced without a care.
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.
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. The design of TC8 benefited from the experience gained from working in the older studios. It soon became the most popular studio in TV Centre. It was 2 feet wider than the other medium studios - and every inch counts when you are building a set. The built-in audience seating gave it a classier feel than the other studios - almost like a theatre - and it had a lot more space left on the studio floor when you were using an audience. Actors, comedians and performers loved it. Its galleries were well laid out, the ventilation system was better, the makeup and wardrobe facilities were very good, there were loads of motorised scene hoists all over the studio, the lighting bars were closely spaced so lights could be hung almost exactly where the LD needed them to be, there was a large prop room leading onto easy access from the ring road - everything felt right for every department - from when the studio opened to when it was forced to close in 2013. It was the favourite studio for literally hundreds of the greatest comedy and light entertainment artists in Britain's TV history. The programmes made in here included Sykes, The Liver Birds, Monty Python, Q, Are You Being Served, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Open All Hours, Dad's Army, Citizen Smith, Up Pompeii, Porridge, The Goodies, The Good Life, Reggie Perrin, Not the Nine o'Clock News, Fawlty Towers, Butterflies, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, To the Manor Born, Yes Minister, Only Fools and Horses, Bread, Hi Di Hi, Blackadder, Alas Smith and Jones, 'Allo 'Allo, May To December, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, Just Good Friends, In Sickness and in Health, Ever Decreasing Circles, French and Saunders, One Foot in the Grave, The Fast Show, Lee Evans - So What Now?, Absolutely Fabulous, The Brittas Empire, Dead Ringers, As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances, Dinnerladies, 2 Pints of Lager..., The Catherine Tate Show, Little Britain, Mitchell and Webb, Not Going Out, Yes Prime Minister and Miranda. Those are just a selection of comedy shows - maybe 10% of all those made in the studio. There were just as many entertainment shows that included the likes of Morcambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. Even Hole in the Wall was made in TC8. OK, maybe best forgotten along with Little and Large and quite a few others but there were plenty like Bob Says Opportunity Knocks, The Dick Emery Show, Blankety Blank, National Lottery Live, Jet Set, In It To Win It, Parkinson, Saturday Night Armistice, The Paul Daniels Magic Show, Look: Mike Yarwood, Dave Allen at Large, Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Top of the Pops, Tonight's The Night, Shooting Stars, Big Fat Quiz of the Year, Mock The Week etc etc etc and those are just the ones that happen to occur to me now. There will be at least another 30 or so that you are bound to remember if I could be bothered to look them up on Wikipedia. Right to the end it remained the favourite for many in the industry. Closing it was a genuine tragedy carried out by people who had never been involved in making any television programmes in their lives and were utterly ignorant of the damage they were doing. When it closed it was equipped with the latest HD kit, was still the best designed studio in the country and would have continued to have had bookings for many years to come. I wonder if Mark Thompson and his board of management have any idea of the damage they have done to the popular culture of this country in closing down this studio. It's like a bunch of sports fanatics deciding to close down the National Theatre because it looks a bit ugly from the outside.
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. For many years, almost every studio in the UK was equipped with one - they were available to purchase, in improving versions, from the early '80s to the mid '90s. Their manufacturer, Strand Lighting, offered no similar replacement when they stopped manufacturing them. Bizarrely, they and all the other console manufacturers only sold 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. 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.
The two news studios on the 6th floor of the Spur, N1 and N2, were not entirely fitted out with brand new kit, as you might have expected. According to engineer Bob Taylor, no less than 65 large lorries were used to transport cameras, other technical equipment and all the office contents to TVC from Alexexandra Palace. The move began on the night of Friday 22nd September 1969. Astonishingly, they had to be ready for a broadcast into Grandstand the following morning and fully up and runnning by Monday. People worked for days without going home, grabbing a few hours sleep when they could on camp beds in a conference room in order to complete the move without any hitches.
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 potential 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. I'm sure there are plenty of anecdotes of incidents during news broadcasts from these studios. Please send me some if they are relatively short and of course amusing/interesting. Well-known ones of course include Jan Leeming surviving an exploding light bulb above her head whilst on air in 1980. On May 23rd 1988 the 6 o'clock News was invaded by several women protesting against Section 28. Sue Lawley kept cool under fire whilst Nicholas Witchell sat on a passing lesbian to try to shut her up. The most impressive part of this was that the protestors actually found the studio. Most people who worked at the Centre had no idea where it was. Then there was the 1976 Peter Woods incident - some assumed a little the worse for wear after a few hours in the BBC Club. In fact it occured at seven thirty in the evening, during a five-minute bulletin into BBC2. After several slurred attempts to read out the trade figures he gave up, saying "Apparently, the trade figures are an awful lot." Network Control then faded him out and the continuity announcer had to make a quick apology. Hundreds of viewers phoned in to complain. His condition was later blamed on the effect of medication 'for sinus problems.' The news was always recorded 'PasB' on a domestic video recorder but on his website Bob Taylor, studio engineer, owns up to having removed the tape on the spur of the moment and erased it to save Peter's blushes. The official announcement was that the machine had been faulty. The incident didn't seem to affect Mr Woods' career however, and he was even included in the famous Christmas Morcambe and Wise dancing newsreaders sketch singing the last line. A little postscript to this incident: I'm reminded that despite the 'official' video recording having been lost, Kenny Everett used to play it during his anarchic radio show. How he got hold of it is a mystery but apparently a unit in the bowels of Broadcasting House had the job of transcribing news broadcasts so used to make an audio recording of the TV news. 'News Sound Recording' dept in the Spur of TVC also it seems would have had an audio copy so the mole who leaked the tape to Mr Everett might have worked in either of those departments. Or of course, neither. Another anecdote from Roger Tone's memory bank was recounted to me by Ian Hillson. It seems that Robert Dougall, one of the 'old school' BBC newsreaders, liked to sit on his 'lucky cushion' when he was in front of camera. He was known as being icy cool and with a somewhat subtle sense of humour. For a bet, one of the crew (who shall not be named here) placed a fully-charged whoopee cushion under the favourite 'official' one and the studio crew awaited the inevitable result when Mr Dougall sat down. He was a little late into the studio and sat down rather gingerly just before transmission. The whoopee cushion failed to detonate so all those in the know spent an agonising 10 minutes during the bulletin praying that it would not go off during a particularly serious piece to camera. The studio director, fully appraised of the situation, instructed the floor manager confidentially over talkback, "If it goes off on-air I expect you to say 'excuse me'..." It didn't - and Mr Dougall went to his grave never knowing how very close to an embarrassing incident on camera he had been.
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 Virtual Reality (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 was then on long-term booking to Children's dept until they moved to Salford and various children's series used the studio during that time. The studio was closed once Children's moved north but the studio floor was occasionally used for single camera interviews etc. 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 then returned to the BBC Studios portfolio and was available for general use. I understand that TC11 was occasionally used by the Sport department. In the autumn of 2008, 2009 and 2010 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 Club, 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. Fortunately these dreadful cameras were replaced by the Sony E-30 cameras from TC6 in the summer of 2010, which although SD were still very nice indeed and only 6 years old. In 2011 the Smithy 'round table meeting' sketch for Comic Relief was shot in here over a number of days using a host of A-list celebrities and politicians. The studio was closed in the autumn of 2012 and its equipment removed.
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 passes and it appeared to be at its fullest between 09.30 and 17.30 during weekdays. Fancy that. A Blue Peter time capsule was buried inside the concrete ramp near the entrance. The brass plate indicating its location was removed early in 2013 - possibly by a souvenir hunter. The car park will be demolished and replaced with affordable housing during the redevelopment so what will happen to the time capsule? I have read one report that this time capsule was removed at some time and re-buried in the BP garden and this was one of the two that was found damaged. Can you confirm this - or is it still here?
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 planned 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. Despite the good intentions, in 2012 most programmes were still being recorded on tape and subsequently digitised for post production work. In November 2012 the post production side of BBC S&PP began moving out of TV Centre and into the old premises of Editworks, which had gone bust a few months earlier. The new HQ is in Charlotte Street, Soho - an area of London where many film and TV production companies are based, along with several other post production houses. It is being equipped with nine Avid Media Composer offline suites, nine Avid Symphony Nitris DX finishing suites, an Avid Pro Tools 5.1 audio suite and an Autodesk Smoke system. (The days of 130 VTR machines long gone.) The new building will house 14 permanent staff and freelancers - rather fewer than Stage 5 in its heyday. Meanwhile, the company's Digital Media Services department is moving to South Ruislip.
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 52 x 26ft but it also had a very large control room at 35 x 21 ft and a separate smaller soundproof 'loud' booth which is 21 x 15ft. 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. Matt Goodman has written to me claiming to be the one who thought that one up, and who am I to doubt him. 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 had 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-supported 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 knew it existed. There was a rumour for a while that it might be turned back into a sound studio but nothing came of that. In 2009 it was used for the occasional single camera shoot and as a rehearsal room for sitcoms. Early in 2010 the BBC's Research and Development department was relocated from Kingswood Warren to Centre House Block D - on the other side of Wood Lane. (They have now moved to MediaCity in Salford.) TC0 was allocated to them for their experiments, since there was no suitable space in the other building. Thus, the department that devised the various virtual reality systems returned home, as it were. In September 2010 they carried out what was probably a world first in this studio - a combined use of Super Hi-Vision pictures and stereoscopic 3D. The band The Charlatans performed a concert that was broadcast live to Japan. Apparently the images were quite extraordinary! Super Hi-Vision has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels. The current HD standard is 1920 x 1080. The format may soon be used in cinemas but is unlikely to be available for home use before 2020. BBC R&D are working along with NHK to develop ways of compressing the extraordinary amount of data that is involved in producing pictures so sharp. Until they do, it will not be possible to use this system domestically. However, only a few years ago it was thought impossible to transmit HD channels on Freeview. Thanks to the work done by BBC R&D, there are now several HD channels available via your aerial.
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 room was 35 x 21 ft so was actually very slightly larger than the old Pres A and B. 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 that operation moved to a room in the East Tower and the studio was closed. It was then used again as a control room for TC0 by the R&D department and TC12 as a studio no longer existed.
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 was a large area capable of holding two studio audiences - about 650 people - before they make their way to their studios. It contained 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 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. One wonders where audiences will wait when the Centre reopens with just TC1 - TC3 as there doesn't appear to be a similar holding area on the proposed plans.
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 become the best equipped LE studio in the country and would have been much in demand 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 become 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. The legacy of the old plans could be seen in the rather oddly shaped curved podium that extended 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. So Greg Dyke gave the go-ahead to rebuild much of Broadcasting House to take the radio news back there as well as the TV news. They returned in March 2013. Stage 6 was also finished off with a new reception area complete with Henry Moore sculpture (later removed), facing Wood Lane. It all looked very smart and businesslike. The old reception became the 'stage door' and was 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.
TVC came under attack on several occasions over the years. Apart from the Real IRA, it was surrounded by thousands of screaming pubescent girls when bands such as Take That performed on Saturday morning kids' shows. If you don't think that sounds too bad you should have been there! Only slightly less scary was the occasion when evangelical militant Christians tried to prevent people from entering or leaving the building during the Jerry Springer the Opera controversy in January 2005. More recently, when leader of the BNP Nick Griffin appeared on Question Time in TC6 on 22nd October 2009, several hundred angry protestors demonstrated outside the gate - about 25 breaking in as far as the Stage Door (the former main reception). On the same night three other audience shows were also being recorded - Harry Hill's TV Burp (TC3), Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (TC4) and Piers Morgan's Real Lives (TC8). About 1,000 ordinary punters with tickets therefore had to be got into the building past the shouting protestors - as well as the QT audience and the panelists - but somehow the security staff did it - and got them out again safely. I should declare an interest here, having lit the televised version of Jerry Springer the Opera, several editions of Live and Kicking and been in the building lighting TV Burp on the night of the BNP Question Time. (For the record, the ignorance shown by many of the protestors of what was actually depicted in Jerry Springer the Opera was astonishing and proved to me how otherwise intelligent people can be hoodwinked into believing anything if instructed by skillful and manipulative leaders. At least I had seen the show - several times - which most of those interviewed clearly had not.) Other incidents have included the women's invasion of the 6 o'Clock News in 1988 when Sue Lawley kept her cool and Nicholas Witchell sat on a lesbian. Meanwhile, in March 2000 a media studies student (no really) vaulted over the low turnstile in main reception and found his way to the main newsroom. He is said to have gone on the rampage, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage, getting 'within feet' of Anna Ford. Having smashed monitors and thrown a coffee table through a window, he explained afterwards that he was upset by Greg Dyke's style of leadership and thought the licence fee was too high. Apparently he threatened to kill anyone who tried to stop him but eventually somebody did and he ended up in a mental hospital. Still, A* for the essay he wrote afterwards so probably worth it. This happened incidentally after security had been tightened following the murder of Jill Dando. After that, access from reception into the building was completely redesigned with a high glass wall containing motorised turnstiles that only let one person through very slowly and could, in theory, trap someone half way round. Then there was the invasion of the live Lotto draw in TC4 during Jet Set on 20th May 2006. This was by six members of Fathers for Justice, one of whom allegedly received a distinctly less than friendly welcome from presenter Eamonn Holmes. The director cut to a close-up of him remaining calm and collected but those working on the show have told me what was happening just out of shot! Respect due to Mr Holmes. Soon afterwards, Camelot decided to move the draws to the rather more secure ex-British Forces Broadcasting Service (SSVC) studios run by Arqiva in Buckinghamshire.
Construction and refurbishment continued at TVC for the whole of its life. Individual rooms and whole floors were from time to time gutted and rebuilt. Studios too were given refurbs 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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The Centre as it was in its final years. Click on the image to see in detail. |
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 were 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 simply noted them when they started (or moved here from other 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, Theatre 625 (TC1), Billy Budd (opera - main set in TC1, orchestra in TC2), Sherlock Holmes (TC1), Stand Up For Nigel Barton (TC4), 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, Come Dancing (TC2!), 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 (TC6, TC8), Spike Milligan's 'Q', Comedy Playhouse (TC4), Top of the Pops (TC2 briefly then all large studios), International Cabaret, Beat Room (TC3), 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), Late Show (TC2), 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 (TC1, TC3, TC6, TC8), 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), Dinnerladies (TC8), 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 and TC6), 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 and TC4 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 from Capital), Are You Smarter Than Your 10-year-old (TC1, from Maidstone), Miranda (TC3, TC4), Armstrong and Miller (TC8), Coming Of Age (TC8), Piers Morgan's Life Stories (TC8, for ITV1), Tonight's The Night (TC8), Alan Titchmarsh Show (TC3, TC4), Harry Hill's TV Burp (from Teddington TC3 then TC4) |
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2010s |
Watchdog (TC2 - returned from office location in 2010), Pointless (TC1, TC8), Michael Ball Show (TC3), Hairy Bikers' Cook Off (TC4), Not Going Out (TC8 - from Teddington), Fast and Loose (TC6), 10 O'Clock Live (TC6), Gory Games (TC3), The One Ronnie (TC8), Britain and Ireland's Top Model (TC2), Compete For The Meat (TC8), Friday Download (TC3), King of...(TC6), Embarrassing Bodies Live (TC4), Minute To Win It (TC6), The Impressions Show, The Marriage Ref (TC4), The Ones (TC6), Oedipus (TC4), Alan Carr Chatty Man (TC6), 24 Hour Quiz (TC4), I Can Cook (TC2), Show Me Show Me (TC6), Trust Us With Your Life (TC8), Room 101 (TC4, TC8), Britain's Best Dish - The Chefs (TC3), Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (TC6), Up For Hire (TC6), Breakaway (TC3), Epic Win (TC4), Frank Skinner's Opinionated (TC8), I've Never Seen Star Wars, Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up (TC6), So You Think You Can Dance (TC1), Watson and Oliver (TC8), Fee Fi Fo Yum (TC3), Ab Fab specials (TC4), Argumental (TC8), Show and Tell (TC3, TC4), Genius (TC6), A Question of Taste (TC8), Mad Bad Ad Show (TC4), Just a Minute (TC3), Matt Lucas Awards (TC3), Morgan Spurlock's New Britannia (TC4), No Strings Attached (TC2), Mad Mad World (TC1), The Voice (TC1), You Cannot Be Serious! (TC4), Get Well Soon (TC2), Lucky Sexy Winners (TC8), Don't Sit in the Front Row (TC3), Breakaway (TC4), Meet the Parents (TC6), Big Fat Quiz (TC8), Yes, Prime Minister (TC8, TC4), Dara O Briain's School of Hard Sums (TC4), Tipping Point, Beat the Pack, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (TC4), Live at the Electric (TC8), Five Minutes to a Fortune (TC8), Up the Women (TC3), Let's Dance for Comic Relief (TC1), Big Chat with Graham Norton (TC3), Up the Women (TC3), Five Minutes to a Fortune (TC8), Name Dropping (TC3), When Miranda Met Bruce (TC1), Cash Point (TC2), Vic and Bob's House of Fools (TC3), Goodbye Television Centre (TC1). |
Just to emphasise again - a number of programmes carried on from one decade to the next - so what already looks like a busy 2010-2012 was actually even busier, with many well established series carrying on (eg Strictly, Buzzcocks, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock The Week, TV Burp, 2 Pints, Miranda, Later With Jools etc.) In fact, 2010, 2011 and 2012 were the busiest years at TVC for a long time and studios were being booked right up to the closing in March 2013. I have not included pilots - which again added to the studios' use particularly in recent years.
It's interesting that TC3 seems to be relatively poorly represented above in some decades. Some of those programmes above without a studio indicated were possibly 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 2002 - 2006 it was the home of Top Of The Pops and was 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 BBC 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. Many such shows were of course made down the road at TV Theatre on Shepherds Bush Green.
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I have been sent photocopies of the front pages of the scripts for what is still considered by some as the best sitcom ever made. I refer of course to Fawlty Towers. Only 12 episodes were recorded over two series. For those who like such things - here's where they were made and please note how long they had to record them in series 1. Only one and a half hours. For series 2 they had a whole 2 hours! Also note the gaps between episode 1 and 2 and between episode 10 and 11. Interesting too that the show moved so much between studios from week to week. I must confess, I wish I had realised that The Germans was recorded in TC6 when I worked in it. I would certainly have said 'Don't mention the war' far more often.
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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 1080i high definition. 1080p/50 HD and 3D will be the next development - TC6 was the first studio to be fitted with this standard. Between 2006 and 2011 BBC Studios installed HD cameras in TC1, TC8, TC4, TC6, TC3 and TC2 (in that order.) The BBC now have a policy of making all BBC1 and BBC2 peaktime programmes in HD. TC1 made the first stereoscopic 3D programme in the UK in the summer of 2009 using hired kit.
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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 then moved to Teddington studio 4 and is now in TC10) Equipped with JVC KY-29D cameras. Hardly used since CBeebies left. Occasionally booked for single camera shoots. Sometimes used as a rehearsal room. In early 2010 TC0 was taken over by BBC Research and Development Dept as their experimental studio. Closed in 2013. |
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TC1 |
100 x 87 ft. (Originally 90ft wide before audience seating installed.) 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). GVG 1600 vision mixer. 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, vision mixer replaced with Sony 7000 series 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, Sony MVS 8000 vision mixer and HD monitors in refurbished production and lighting galleries. Received a new vision matrix during the summer of 2008. Made first stereoscopic 3D programme in summer of 2009 for Sky using hired kit. The last Blue Peter from London was made here on 28th June 2011, subsequently moving to MediaCity in Salford where it is based in a tiny studio a fraction of the size of TC1. That's progress. This studio will survive the reconstruction of TV Centre but closed in March 2013 to enable the redevelopment to take place. |
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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 in 1969. Used for storage of audience seating units throughout '70s. Re-opened in 1981 with five Link 125 cameras and GVG 1600 vision mixer. New lighting hoists and Kahoutek dual-source lights installed. 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 and Sony 7000 series vision mixer. From 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. 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 E30s in summer 2008. Fitted with a new Calrec digital sound mixer in Jan 2009. Equipped for HD using 'fly-away' kit and cameras hired or borrowed from other studios in September 2009 for new series of Ready Steady Cook. Had an HD refit in the summer of 2011 which involved the permanent installation of the flyaway kit the studio had been sharing with TC3. TC2 suffers from very old dimmers (probably 30 years old), many of which have become unreliable causing lights to randomly flicker. These are well overdue for replacement. This studio will survive the reconstruction of TV Centre but closed in March 2013 to enable the redevelopment to take place. |
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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 - six Link 125s installed at same time as new Grass Valley 1600 24 channel vision mixer. Galaxy 2 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 so Thomson 1657 widescreen cameras 'borrowed' from other studios when required on a daily basis. Sony 7000 series vision mixer installed. 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. Became home of Harry Hill's TV Burp in 2009 after seven years at Teddington. Received a full HD refit in the summer of 2011 - 8 x Sony HSC-300 cameras and new Sony mixer and OLED monitors. Reopened in time for Britain's Best Dish, which was previously recorded at TLS. This studio will survive the reconstruction of TV Centre but closed in March 2013 to enable the redevelopment to take place. |
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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. GVG 1600 vision mixer fitted. 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. GVG 4000 vision mixer fitted. 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 Sony MVS 8000 vision mixer, HD monitors and VTRs. Sound also converted to 5.1 surround. Regular home of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross from 2001 - 2010. Was the home of Harry Hill's TV Burp for its final few series from 2010 to 2012. Cameras and electronic infrastructure removed to go to Elstree in Jan 2013 - programmes until closure used an OB scanner for facilities. This studio will be lost in the redevelopment and closed in March 2013 along with the rest of the building. |
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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 around 1973. Studio mothballed for a while in mid 1980s. Re-opened in 1987 after 2-year refurb (!) and equipped with GVG 1600 vision mixer and Link 125s. Link 130s originally specified but had to be abandoned when they proved unuseable so major change to camera system mid way through installation. Thomson 1657 widescreen cameras installed around 1995 along with 2 x Sony 7000 series vision mixers. Lighting gallery converted into second production gallery enabling two sport 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. 'Virtual' green screen sets used for several years. Old puppet theatre/video effects workshop converted into sport graphics area in 1997. 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 another new set when asbestos removal was complete in summer 2007. Production Gallery 2 (and incoming/outgoing lines) converted to HD for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Six year old ex TC6 Sony E-30 cameras installed summer 2010. Vacated by Sport dept at the end of 2011. Galleries now stripped of equipment so the studio is effectively closed. Temporarily brought back into life for US elections in Nov 2012. This studio will be lost in the redevelopment. |
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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 encapsulate and part remove asbestos. Studio closed in July 1992 and reopened in September 1993 after major refurb as TVC's first serial-component digital studio. The refurb took 14 months. Included in the refurb was the complete removal of all remaining asbestos in the studio, cable ways and air conditioning. Acoustic wall panels replaced. 8 x Thomson 1647 Sportcams installed. First refurbishment done under new 'Producer Choice' commercial regime and planned to cost a third less than previous refurbs. Many so-called non-essential things left out but many carried out over following few years when found to be essential after all. (However, this remained the only studio not to have cups on the lighting hoists that enabled them to be raised or lowered using a pole. This added 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 became '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.) Thomson 'Synonym' temporary vision mixer installed as production model not ready. Galaxy Nova installed. New Calrec Q-series sound desk with 60 channels. Thomson 9500 vision mixer fitted probably in 1994. 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. Received HD upgrade with 8 Sony HDC-1500 cameras (including 1080/50P capability) in July/August 2010 making it the fourth fully equipped HD studio at TVC. It became the first 3D capable studio in the UK - with 3D stereoscopic monitors in the production gallery. The equipment from TC6 has been used to refurbish Elstree D. The final recording was an edition of Pointless on 21st December 2012 but equipment remained in place well into 2013 due to delays in refurbishing Elstree D. This studio will not survive the redevelopment. |
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TC7 |
62 x 40 ft. (So 2 feet longer than TC2 and TC5). 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 1979 with Link 110 cameras. (The EMI 2001s were sent to the newly-opened Greenwood Theatre for another 2 years' use.) Link 110s 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. Sony 7000 series vision mixer installed. TC7 was home of Swap Shop, Saturday Superstore, Going Live and early series of Live and Kicking before News dept arrived in 1997. Thomson 1657 widescreen cameras installed in 1997. New Sony BVP-E30 cameras installed in 2004. New Sony 8000 vision mixer installed over Christmas 2007. Newsround moved to Salford in autumn of 2011. Breakfast moved to Salford in April 2012. TC7 was vacated by Newsnight in October 2012 when it transferred to New Broadcasting House, W1. It continued to be used for the 6 o'clock News until 15th March 2013. TC7 will be lost in the redevelopment. |
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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 with Schneider lenses (much nicer than Varotals.) New sound desk installed in 1981. Link 125s ex TV Theatre installed in 1991 along with 16 channel GVG 1600 vision mixer also ex TV-Theatre. Mixer later replaced with 24-channel GVG1600 ex Lime Grove. 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 1657 cameras and Thomson 9500 vision mixer installed. This was the first 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. Vision mixer also replaced with GVG Zodiak which a year later was moved to TC9. Sony DVS9000 vision mixer installed in 2005. Equipped with Sony HDC-1500 high definition cameras in summer 2006 and full HD vision installation completed in January 2007 including new Sony MVS 8000 vision mixer. New 5.1 sound desk installed in Jan 2008. 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. It has always been the most popular studio at TVC amongst programme makers. Miranda was the last sitcom series to be recorded in this studio in October 2012. The studio continued in use recording a gameshow - Five Minutes to a Fortune - until 26th March. Its equipment has been transferred to stage 8 at Elstree. Under the redevelopment plans It will possibly fall within the area designated 'The Television Factory' but its intended use is not yet known. |
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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. The later TC9 was an irregular shape, about 30 x 30ft average dimensions but also had a corridor and small seating area which could 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. Ex-TC8 GVG Zodiak vision mixer installed in 2005. 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. After several more months of inactivity it was used again for TMi from September 2009 and again in 2010. Blue Peter occasionally used TC9 in 2010. Since the BP Garden is outside the door it is perhaps surprising this hadn't happened before. Early in 2011 the studio was closed and its equipment removed. |
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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 Thomson 1647 CCD cameras. 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. From summer 2010 became home of CBeebies, which returrned from Teddington. Studio 'closed' in 2012 and equipment removed. However. used for Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe in Jan 2013 using 'One Box' cameras. |
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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 Thomson 1647 CCD cameras. 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. Around 2006 Sony 8000 vision mixer installed. 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, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Sometimes now used as a rehearsal room. TC11 received some of TC6's Sony E30 cameras in the summer of 2010. 2011 Comic Relief 'Smithy round table meeting' sketch shot here. Studio closed in 2012 and equipment removed. |
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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 were 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 converted studio in East Tower early in 2008. Studio used by BBC R & D dept. until they moved to Salford in 2013. |
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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 was later converted to offices. |
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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 was later converted to offices. |
with thanks to Mike Emery for collating much of the above information regarding cameras and to Ian Trill for vision mixer info.
If you spot any errors or can fill in any of the blanks do get in touch!
I am of course aware that there were 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.
However, just for the record there were in stage 6 three news studios used for the BBC News Channel, BBC World News and the regular main bulletins on BBC1 - except for the 6 o'clock News which came from TC7. These all ended on March 15th 2013 when operations moved to New Broadcasting House.
The final few years...
Stage 6 was since 1998 occupied by Television and Radio News. This department moved to New Broadcasting House in central London in March 2013. The weather department also moved to BH at the same time.
During 2011 and into 2012 Sport and Children's departments transferred to Salford. News, Sport and Children's departments were occupying 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 from summer 2007 it used the much smaller TC2 - and then only occasionally.
Thus, between 2011-2013 a considerable amount of activity using the small studios moved from this building.
The main studios remained very busy right up to the end of 2012. TC4 and TC6 were then closed to remove their kit - although TC4 was used for some shows in 2013 using an OB unit because of the shortage of studios in London. The other two main studios were fully booked up to the end of March. By main studios I mean TC3, TC4, TC6 and TC8. These four studios are the most popular size of about 90 x 70 ft. Almost all comedy and entertainment shows are made in studios this size.
So - What was going to happen???
The final five or six years of TVC saw its fate go from seemingly inevitable complete disposal and demolition to something that at least preserves a minimum amount of programme-making capability. I shall attempt to sum up the various changes of fortune below...
In January 2007 the BBC heard that the licence settlement for the following six years would be below the rate of inflation. The planned move of Sport and Children's departments to Salford from 2011 was to be ring fenced as was the commitment to pay for digital switchover. The BBC Trust stated that it did not intend to see programme standards eroded. Thus, they had to make some significant savings elsewhere.
One area where the BBC stated that it hoped to make savings and also raise some cash was 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 were then and remained right to the end the best equipped and many would say the best designed studios in the country. If these were no good then heaven help the rest of the industry.
The BBC hoped 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, was never made clear. The fact is that from January 2007 until the beginning of 2013 - nobody, including the Director General, was actually in a position to be able to confirm exactly what would happen to Television Centre. Back in 2007, the future of the building in any case rather depended on the sale of BBC Resources - in particular, BBC Studios, the business that operated the studios themselves.
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The attempted sale of BBC Resources... A separate plan, hatched in 2007, was indeed the intention to sell off BBC Resources. This consisted of three divisions - Studios, OBs and Post Production. The Costume and Wig department, popular though it was, was simply closed early in 2008 and the BBC have since left their purpose-built rehearsal rooms in Acton, where the Costumes and Wigs had been located. The three remaining divisions of BBC Resources were due to have been disposed of by April 2008. 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. It therefore appeared that at some point in the future the BBC would be faced with an interesting choice. Either sell the building to a developer who intended 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 would keep the studios open as an independent business - or keep the Studios business running as part of the BBC and sell off the rest of the site. The first choice would probably have raised more cash but it would have meant that the profitable and still needed BBC Studios business was 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 without an alternative arrangement for the business would certainly not have been in the best interests of the BBC anyway, since they would still need London based studios for their own production teams and for the independent companies who make programmes for the BBC. The five large studios here represented almost half the available fully equipped TV studios of that size in the London area. If simply closed then the shortage of studio space would mean serious scheduling problems and inevitable increased costs for all programme makers. Back in 2007 it had been assumed that the new owners of BBC Studios would have used the following few years to build new studios elsewhere (probably Pinewood) or convert film stages into studios so the staff - and existing programme contracts - could move there. This of course never happened. 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 Production 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 would appear 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. With the sale of the business having come to nothing due to the recession, the value of the site itself continued to plummet during 2008. Early in 2009, the old Studios and Post Production divisions were merged to form a new company, snappily named 'BBC Studios and Post Production'. (BBC S&PP) Although it seemed unlikely that there would be another attempt to sell the business in the following few years, the 'Delivering Quality First' document issued by the BBC in September 2011 did include an interesting statement. It said that the BBC would 'seek new ideas and potentially external investment for our resources business.' The chief executive of S&PP, Mark Thomas, then issued a statement to staff which said 'We must accept it is very unlikely the BBC will be able to fund all our ambitions, including remaining at Television Centre or moving to a new location.' The biggest problem in selling off the business in 2008 was said to be taking on the pension liabilities and conditions of service of all the staff. During the early part of 2011, many staff were offered redundancy. There were then no staff cameramen (apart from one), sound crew or lighting directors remaining and only the bare minimum of staff engineers. The number of resource managers was also reduced to a handful with freelancers running most shows on the day. This reduction in overheads helped the profitability of the business and also of course made it much easier to sell it off at some time in the future.
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To list or not to list...
Perhaps the clincher that ensured that at least some parts of the building would be around for a while is its architectural merit and its place in the nation's cultural history. Possibly familiarity bred contempt but in declaring an intention in 2007 to simply dispose of it, the BBC's senior managers seemingly failed to look around at the property for which they were the current custodians.
Selling the building for it to be demolished was always likely to be somewhat problematic. The local council have made it clear in the past that they wished to preserve the building and would have taken a very dim view of any major modifications to it, making the granting of planning permission for any new development highly unlikely. National organisations interested in preserving the country's heritage too were likely to protest strongly at any attempt to lose this rare icon to late 1950s architecture.
In fact, 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...
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'...it is not currently listed grade 2 but just on a local authority list of buildings of merit , also sitting within a conservation area, the aim of which is to preserve and enhance the setting of TVC and White City Station. I have argued on behalf of the BBC not to have it listed as the nature of television operations is such that we are constantly altering the building inside and out and to have to obtain listed building consent each time would be very inhibiting. However, I have no doubt it would be spot listed should any radical future site proposals surface.'
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When the announcement was made of the intention to dispose of the site there was a petition to No 10 signed by large numbers of people. English Heritage subsequently 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 did 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 by the summer of 2008 they were no longer saying that they planned 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 was 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 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.'
In fact it was not until 10th July 2009 that the announcement was made. A letter was sent to the BBC from the DCMS that stated that TV Centre would be listed at Grade II.
Barbara Follett, the architecture minister, was quoted as saying "BBC Television Centre has a special place in our shared history and heritage. The home of BBC television news since 1969, and the place where Blue Peter, Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers first came to life (well, one correct fact out of three isn't bad for an MP I suppose), it has been a torture chamber for politicians and an endless source of first-class entertainment for the nation – sometimes both at the same time. I am delighted to be able to give it the extra protection that listing provides."
However, as with all these things, it was not quite that simple.
Despite the recommendations of English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the government decided to award special grade II status only to the central ring of offices, the courtyard with its statues and fountain and the exterior walls of TC1. They declined to include the scenery block, the restaurant and studios 2 - 8. Indeed, they also said that the interior of TC1 is not covered by the 'special' status.
However, the announcement also stated that while other studios in the building, as well as the scenery block and canteen, did not meet the level of architectural or historic interest needed for special listing, they will nevertheless gain grade II status because of their “structural attachment” to the more notable parts of Television Centre.
I have sought some clarification of this rather confusing situation and my understanding is as follows:
The whole building is listed giving a measure of protection but only the central ring and TC1 - i.e. not the other studios - were described as being of SPECIAL interest. Excluding parts of the building from 'special' status removed uncertainty for incomers and made conversion/partial redevelopment easier to apply for. However, I am told that to demolish ANY part, even the appallingly ugly East Tower, will require listed building consent and therefore a demonstrable improvement to the setting and use of the heritage areas.
So - Where did that leave us???
In November 2008 an interesting email was sent to BBC staff by DG Mark Thompson. In it he stated that due to the financial crisis and large number of empty offices across the UK it was unlikely that the Centre would be sold by 2013. In his words - 'We'll need to review this timetable.'
As it turned out, the timetable was (for the moment at least) set in the late summer of 2010 when the BBC Trust, hoping one assumes to keep the government off their backs, volunteered to freeze the licence fee for two years. This in effect meant a reduction of millions of pounds in the income of the BBC so it was essential that savings would have to be made wherever possible. In September 2010 the BBC declared that they would 'definitely' leave TV Centre in 2013. They even announced an evening of live TV to be held one day in 2013 to mark their departure from the building. (They didn't mention that it would be hidden away on BBC4).
In November 2010 property consultants Lambert Smith Hampton were appointed to oversee the redevelopment of the building. The BBC were said to be intending to sell the building but - good news at last - rent back some of the studios to continue making programmes at the site. They also said that they might move BBC Worldwide into the building and base one of the BBC orchestras here.
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This 'artist's impression' was released by the BBC in May 2010, indicating how they saw the future of TV Centre once they have left. It's worth pointing out that the exciting buildings in the foreground are in fact the Westfield Shopping Centre. TVC can just about be made out in the background - or at least what's left of it, with what appears to be a bonfire burning in the central courtyard. |
In the summer of 2011 events moved on yet again.
The Centre was put on the market on 13th June, with purchasers having to register their interest by 1st July. This caused a flurry of unfavourable comment in the industry and the press, with many reacting as though this was a huge surprise - even though the BBC's intentions had been pretty clear since 2007.
The BBC spent the next few months considering the various options and choosing a winning bid. They needed to maximise the amount raised from the sale as the BBC was now even more broke than it was when this process was started. This of course was due to the licence fee being frozen by the government until 2016 - which represented a significant cut in real terms.
Confusingly, in the BBC's press release of 13.06.2011 was the clear statement that the BBC 'will now remain in the Centre until 2015', suggesting that the leaving date had been postponed by two years. This date was still being quoted in the press well into 2012. However, all departments were soon back on a timetable to leave by the end of March 2013. It seems that the 'Delivering Quality First' document, issued to staff in October 2011, brought the date forward again.
Delivering Quality First is the Orwellian BBC name for a number of stringent cuts of around 20% across all departments. This has meant that the BBC will eventually be leaving the Media Village at White City in Wood Lane as well as TV Centre and more people than were ever originally planned are now working in New Broadcasting House in W1.
However, when they said that they would be leaving in 2015 (or in fact 2013), the BBC were not including S&PP. Part of their press statement made this clear. It stated that 'the existing Studios and Post Production business will continue to operate following the sale of Television Centre, either remaining on site or in a new location.' It would all hinge (as it always has) on who was to buy the Centre. TVC was either to be sold outright to a purchaser with their own development plans or to a company who would work in partnership with the BBC to enable the studios (or at least some of them) to continue in operation. The BBC also stated that they would like to see a 'visitor destination' on the site and they reportedly saw the benefit in creating a hub for creative businesses.
In September 2011 a couple of interesting bits of news emerged. One was that most of the 11 companies shortlisted to purchase the building were looking to form a joint venture arrangement which would involve keeping some of the studios in operation. One of the interested companies was said to be internet giant Google. Others were reported to include property development companies Stanhope, Delancey and Argent.
The other news was that the BBC had for a while been in secret negotiation with the Olympic Park Legacy Company over occupying the International Media Centre building after the games. This, it is said, would have included moving EastEnders from Elstree to that site and may also have been seen as a location to construct some studios to replace those at TVC. However, this plan was abandoned. The BBC said it was not able to commit in the medium term to the Olympic centre so it became available for other companies to occupy.
In November I heard that the shortlist of purchasers had reduced to five - four of which planned to keep most of the studios open. In December this list was said to be down to 3 contenders and rumour had it that all planned to keep some studios in operation. The announcement of the winner was due to be in March 2012 but this deadline came and went.
It transpired that the BBC was now intending to hold on to 51% ownership of the building, thus guaranteeing that some studios did remain open. It is not clear exactly when this change happened - or if indeed this had always been the intention. However, the shortlist was said to be down to two companies and an announcement of the winner was due in the early summer.
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So - finally... The announcement came on 16th July 2012 with more details emerging on 20th when completion took place. Interestingly, the BBC decided to retain ownership of the building but sell its lease. This was sold to Stanhope plc, a property development company. The BBC have retained the freehold but this could be bought by Stanhope at some time in the future. The sale of the lease was for £200m plus 'future overage payments.' The finance is backed by Mitsui Fudosan UK and Alberta Investment Management Corporation. Stanhope announced in January 2013 that they were also to receive a £50m loan from Royal Bank of Scotland to help pay for the reconstruction. They announced that the whole TVC site will be extensively redeveloped but the exterior of the original main block facing Wood Lane will be retained. There will be a mix of leisure, office and residential facilities. The site will be opened up as envisaged in the GLA's 'White City Opportunity Area Masterplan' of April 2011 which I am sure you are completely familiar with. Actually, Google it - it makes interesting reading. It includes a proposal for a linear park running from the horseshoe carpark in front of TVC - all grassed over - across Wood Lane and running some distance either side of the elevated tube line track as far as the West Cross Route dual carriageway. Slightly bizarrely, it also includes a public footpath and cycleway running right through the central courtyard, through the South Hall and beyond to link up with Hammersmith Park!
Since April 2013 the BBC have been renting back the whole site from Stanhope whilst they complete the removal of all useful kit and decommission the CCA (or Central Apparatus Room as I still like to call it.) Stanhope will have vacant possession of everything except TC1 - TC3 and stage 6 in 2015. During the redevelopment of the left hand end of the building, the S&PP business are using the refurbished BBC Elstree D, which will house Children in Need, amongst many other shows. Stages 8 and 9 on the Elstree film studio site (owned by Hertsmere Council) have been leased and converted into TV studios. They are slightly smaller than TC3, 4, 6 and 8. They have been given TV floors, and a gallery suite has been constructed in Portacabin-type buildings next to stage 9 as well as fitting out the existing control rooms between the stages that have never been used for that purpose. These are for stage 8. The cameras and other equipment have been taken from TC4, 6 and 8 and moved to Elstree. Stage 1 in the George Lucas building is being fitted with a control room suite within the building ready for Strictly Come Dancing.
BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC, not to be confused with the BBC World Service) will take over what is now stage 6 at TVC, which is being refurbished. (This is the area previously occupied by BBC News.) Worldwide will move from the BBC Media Village at White City just up the road. The lease for those buildings will then be sold off. This is particularly interesting as it represents a reversal of the original idea, which was to move out of TV Centre completely and move some departments to the Media Village. (The One Show will, incidentally, move from the Media Village to occupy a studio on the ground floor of the new Peel Wing in New Broadcasting House, currently used by BBC London.) There was a well-supported rumour some months before the final announcement that BBC Worldwide would occupy some of the studios at TVC, using them as exhibition spaces, conference rooms and visitor attractions, sharing one or more with S&PP for them to use in busy periods. Indeed, one of the BBC orchestras was going to take over one of the studios. However, I understand that this interesting idea was abandoned 'as the sums wouldn't add up.' This was a very seriously missed opportunity in my opinion.
TC1, TC2 and TC3 will survive but very sadly it is planned that no other studios will remain after the redevelopment. It is no secret that the Studios and Post Production business would dearly love to hang on to at least one more medium studio. S&PP has taken out a 15 year lease on studios 1-3 from 2015. They will have office and dressing room facilities in the basement beneath these studios. The original 'East Hall' will be recreated, occupying the area previously used by the Star Bar, some toilets and dressing rooms. This will contain a coffee bar for the use of crew and performers and will be used as an audience holding area. There will be a small area behind the South Hall for storage.
Unfortunately, one medium studio (TC3) is never going to be enough to cope with demand. This size of studio (90ft x 70ft) is the most popular for most programmes, from sitcoms to gameshows, panel shows to chat shows and all things between. The plan to share one of the remaining studios with BBC Worldwide would still make perfect sense and would be of enormous benefit to the UK TV industry as a whole. The inclusion of only one medium studio represents an extremely poor decision on the part of the BBC senior management. It is not just the BBC themselves who need studios, it is all the independent companies who make programmes for the BBC - and of course for all the other channels too. One does fear that the importance of providing studio space of the right size has not been understood by the decision makers. TC1 is too big for many shows and TC2 much too small. At least two medium sized studios (90ft x 70ft) will be essential for the needs of programme makers. Salford and Glasgow only have one studio each of this size. Teddington's main studio is due to close in the summer of 2013 making the problem even worse. My understanding is that the independent production companies who have regularly used TVC were asked whether they would need studio space in the future. I gather that all responded that they would and were very concerned at the proposals to close a number of medium studios. I am afraid that one can only conclude that these concerns were ignored by the BBC. It appears that only the requirement of their own in-house production department was addressed. Unfortunately, most comedy and entertainment shows that appear on BBC channels are made by independent companies rather than the BBC themselves. These are now struggling to find studio space which is bound to push up costs and may even mean that some programmes cannot be made because there is no studio available.
The actual plans... The plans were revealed to the public on 5th February 2013. There were no great surprises - the proposals had been known in principal for many months. The whole site is to be opened up to the public - the gates on Wood Lane will go and the horseshoe car park will become a public 'square'. The central circular courtyard will also be public and a cycle route will, as rumoured, pass through the building to link up with Hammersmith Park. Stage 6 will indeed house BBC Worldwide - from the end of 2014. Stage 4 (The Spur) and stage 5 will together become 'The Television Factory' This will consist of refurbished offices hoping to attract small media companies. The ground floor will contain shops, cafes etc. Stage 4 contains TC8, which was constructed some years after the rest of the building. It is not clear from the plans if TC8 is planned to be retained or demolished. There might yet be an opportunity to keep this on as a performance space which could be used for visitor attraction exhibitions, as an arts cinema, for conferences and even - dare I suggest it - as a TV studio in busy periods. TC1, TC2 and TC3 are retained - the area behind the South Hall becomes a rather small scenery/props/lighting storage facility. Delivery access is via an outer road running round the site - past the flats. S&PP will return 'in the winter of 2014.' They have a 15 year lease on the studios. TC4-TC7 and possibly TC8 are all demolished. They are replaced with an inner ring of flats occupying the existing offices overlooking the central courtyard. Behind them is a narrow strip of grassed and planted area. Then a ring of flats follows the outer line of the existing building. The current offices in the central ring that face Wood Lane become a luxury hotel. The North and South Halls become the entrances to the hotel and flats. A small housing development is to be built in Dodds Yard. The East Tower is demolished and replaced with another block, slightly nearer to Wood Lane and somewhat larger and taller. This will contain flats. The restaurant block is demolished and replaced with a block of flats. The multistorey carpark is demolished and replaced with 'affordable housing.' The basement beneath TC1-TC3 is for the use of S&PP (dressing rooms, offices etc). The rest of the basement becomes a car park for 500 cars - but this of course is mostly for the use of the flats and offices. It is not known how many spaces will be allocated to the studios. Another statement mentions 1000 parking places on the site in total.
The planning and construction schedule is as follows: April 2013 - Programme making ceases on site. All offices are vacated. Some engineering areas continue for a while such as CCA - possibly until November 2013. Studio equipment is removed - the BBC retain use of the whole building up to the end of 2014. January 2013 - detailed planning applications to convert stage 6 for BBC Worldwide. April 2013 - detailed planning application for refurbishment of TC1-TC3. May 2013 - outline planning application for the remainder of the site. Detailed applications to follow.
Autumn 2014 - BBC Worldwide occupy stage 6. 2015 - TC1-TC3 back in use by S&PP early in year. They are planned to return 'in winter of 2014.' 2015 - Stanhope take possession of the building - demolition and reconstruction begins on rest of site. 2020 approx - project complete.
So - yes, for several years the studios will be operating in the middle of a building site. And will then be surrounded by flats and a hotel whose occupants may not be too keen on noisy lorries moving about late at night.
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The anger and frustration felt by many working in the industry at the decision to demolish most of the studios at TVC is widely felt. It is not only because of the cultural and artistic legacy, it is because of the sheer practical benefits of having a number of studios based in one place. The decision was taken by managers who themselves had no experience of making television programmes in studios. They employed consultants to advise them who were also not people currently making programmes. It appears that the views of the independent TV production companies who make most comedy and entertainment programmes were ignored. Perhaps most galling - most of those responsible have moved on - some including Director General Mark Thompson are not even working in the UK any more.
The excuse given for demolishing most of the studios was that it would have cost too much too keep them on. As Danny Baker pointed out, the same excuse was given when all those videotapes from the '60s and '70s were wiped. Those responsible have never been forgiven and I suspect that Mark Thompson and his board of management will never be forgiven for what they did. There has been a lot of misinformation spread around. Michael Grade, on the One Show, said that it would cost £200m to convert the studios to high definition. In fact all the main studios were converted between 2006 and 2011 and were at the time of closure the best equipped studios in the country. No wonder they were being booked by programme-makers right to the end. One hopes that Lord Grade was simply misinformed and that his chairmanship of Pinewood-Shepperton had not coloured his views.
The closing of TV Centre is a national disgrace and those concerned should be ashamed at what they did. There was an opportunity to keep the studios but redevelop the rest of the site but ignorance or plain lack of imagination seems to have affected their judgement. There is yet a small chance to partially make amends - by saving TC8, the Centre's most popular studio.
What has been clear all along to many in the industry is that the BBC will still need a reasonable number of fully equipped studios in London in 2015 and beyond. Indeed, it would be bizarre - if not to say gravely irresponsible if the BBC had created a situation where there were not enough television studios of the right size in the UK's capital city - a city with a worldwide reputation for all forms of entertainment and culture. After all, they have just spent hundreds of millions in redeveloping Broadcasting House in central London, making it the best equipped radio and television news centre in the world. They have also created an excellent drama centre in Cardiff and an expensive new broadcasting centre in Glasgow. So to severely curtail the television comedy and entertainment side of their business would be perverse to say the least and wholly inexplicable to other broadcasters around the world. This at a time when Sky is planning new big studios for its own use.
London has been and always will be the creative focus of the UK's entertainment, music, theatre, cinema and television industries. In recent years it has become more than that - a truly global city attracting talented people from all over the world.
Sadly, having just one medium studio will be insufficient for London's needs - particularly since Teddington is due to close in the summer of 2013. TC2 is far too small to be much use for anything other than small magazine type programmes and TC1 is considered by some too big for comedy - many performers like a more intimate room and a closer relationship with the studio audience. In other words, the 90 x 70 foot studio is what most productions need.
There is fortunately an opportunity within the proposed scheme to keep TC8 as a shared space to be used by BBC Worldwide, by the media companies within the 'Television Factory' and by BBC Studios during busy periods. With a bit of imagination it could be very busy staging exhibitions, conferences, visitor attractions etc. It could even be an arts cinema at times. Then during the busy programme-making periods it could be used as - a television studio. After all, a 'Television Factory' is not much use without a studio. I gather that TC8 was indeed included in the scheme until only shortly before the plans were published.
I have made the case for retaining the studio personally to the BBC's Head of Commercial Design, Development and Planning and the BBC's Head of Workplace, who is also the head of the joint BBC/Stanhope working party that is planning how the Centre will be redeveloped. Let us hope that a way can be found to make this happen.
Many well-known people have commented publicly on the BBC's decision to sell off most of TV Centre. Let's face it - none of them favourably. These include almost all those who appeared on the Goodbye From Television Centre programme. Jools Holland and the producer of Later With Jools also made their views known. Alexander Armstrong said in an interview early in 2013:
"The BBC is a brilliant, infuriating, delightful cornerstone of our culture but it drives me round the twist. I will never forgive them for selling off BBC TV Centre. It's probably the best studio facility in Europe, possibly the world, and it's being sold off for flats and a luxury hotel."
In the Goodbye from Television Centre programme it was quite clear that almost everyone who was invited onto the show to reminisce about 'the good old days' was in fact very upset and angry about what had been done. 'I'd like to kick them up the arse' shouted Brian Blessed and I suspect that a very long queue would form behind him to join in. Michael Grade, chairman of that show and as it happens - chairman of Pinewood-Shepperton, looked distinctly uncomfortable at times as it began to dawn on him that his guests were not simply going to tell a few funny stories but were genuinely moved and upset at this crass decision.
So, what's to be done? Celebrate what has gone before, certainly. Regret that nothing was done in time to stop the demolition of most of the studios. And put whatever pressure can be brought to save at least TC8 along with TC 1-3.
It may even be possible to save all eight main studios. Planning permission has not yet been granted. Nothing is certain at this stage.
A well organised campaign to save all 8 main studios was launched in April 2013. It is simply called Save TV Centre Studios and has the backing of Equity, The Writers' Guild, the Musicians' Union, BECTU, the NUJ and many others. A number of well known celebrities, journalists, actors and musicians have also given their support and there is a petition with a large number of signatures. If you support the saving of the studios I urge you to sign. The website is on savetvc.co.uk
There are hundreds of people who have been taking photographs of the Centre and posting them on-line. There are also two very good Facebook pages - 'BBC TVC' and 'Memories of BBC Television Centre'. If you are on Facebook I strongly advise visiting both. There is loads to see and read. Joe Godwin has also posted a superb slideshow on YouTube of photos of various parts of the building taken on January 1st 2013, accompanied by a number of familiar Kids' TV theme tunes. Well worth a look here.
Another beautifully made video showing snippets of TVC programme gems superimposed on the building has been made by Ed Stradling. See it here.
One of the many performers to criticise the closure and whose knowledge and intelligence is beyond question is David Mitchell. In 2011 he wrote the following whilst musing on new ways the nation might celebrate special days:
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Television Centre Day (always the last Tuesday in August - the day before the department stores put up their Christmas decorations) This should be a day when the nation comes together to celebrate its proud tradition of masochistic decision-making, the unique British characteristic of allowing ourselves to destroy things that almost everyone likes, to be able to accept a line of argument, however nonsensical, purely because it leads to a conclusion that will cause us pain. The day will feature a parade of bendy buses from Euston station to a block of flats in Shepherd's Bush where they used to make TV programmes. The media coverage should generate business for local hotels as a large number of journalists are expected to travel down from Manchester. copyright David Mitchell - The Observer |
Of course, part of the assumed reduction in demand for studios is due to the enthusiastic desire by a few to move programme making out of London to Salford. One does sense that this is not welcomed terribly enthusiastically by all producers. Perhaps the last word should go to Jeremy Clarkson. Love him or hate him, his views expressed in an article he wrote on 20th July 2011 are shared by a great number of people working in the industry:
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...A lot of the arguments against the BBC's move have been centred on the expense, but I believe there's a more important problem than money. In short, Salford is up north. I do not speak now as a trendy southern poof who misses Tony Blair and has angst about sending my kids to private school. A television show found that since 1740 every single person in my family tree was born, married and died within 12 miles of one Yorkshire village. I am therefore a pure-blood northerner, a man who makes Michael Parkinson look like Brian Sewell. Cut me in half and you'd find I run on coal and whippets. But here's the thing. While I was being raised in the north, my parents would occasionally risk the highwaymen and take me to London on trips. There are photographs that show a six-year-old me looking at an elephant in London zoo and pointing at a black man on Bayswater Road. I remember trying to make a soldier in a busby blink and gazing in open-mouthed wonderment at the sheer size of the Palace of Westminster. It all seemed so much more exciting somehow than anything I'd ever encountered oop north. And now, 30 years after I escaped from Yorkshire, that still holds true. I still get a tinkle fizz when the motorway ends and I'm plunged into the labyrinth. I still get a kick out of the BT tower and from hailing a black cab. I absolutely love London. And I'm sorry but if the BBC now said I had to move back up north, I'd resign in a heartbeat. Many others faced with the same problem have done exactly the same thing. We are told that too many BBC shows are made by Londoners in London, but that simply is not true. Top Gear, the show on which I work, is based in the capital but, so far as I know, every single one of the production team is originally from somewhere else. The producer is from Glossop, in Derbyshire. One of the researchers is from Loughborough, in Leicestershire. Until recently we even employed a Scot. Richard Hammond is from Birmingham. James May is from one of the moons of Jupiter. We are therefore as "London" as the Chelsea football team... when John Terry is ill. London is full of the cream. The bright. The sharp. The ambitious. People who had the gumption at some point to up sticks and leave the two-bit town in which they were raised and do a Dick Whittington. You see it as you drive about: cafes rammed full of people reading big newspapers and talking about big things and drinking coffee that people in Salford have never heard of. It's where the shows are. It's where films premiere. It's the nation's Oxbridge. It's the best of the best of the best. Salford? It's just Salford. A small suburb with a Starbucks and a canal with ducks on it. It's a box that has been ticked. A gentle tousle of the politicians' mop. According to Wikipedia, its only real claim to fame is that a man there was ran over by Stephenson's Rocket. Oh, and someone once found a head in a bog. This does not qualify it as a great place to make television shows. Indeed it's a very bad place. Every week we have to try to entice a guest to our studios, which are in Guildford. Sometimes it's tricky. But it's nowhere near as tricky as it would be if we had to get them up to Manchester. Or as expensive. Every week I'd have to say: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome... Stuart Hall. Again." That might become wearing. And how could a news programme run from Salford? It's nowhere near any court that matters and nowhere near a single politician. Furthermore, if we ran the show from Salford, we'd be employing people from Salford. People who were born there and thought, "Yes. I like this. I see no reason to go anywhere else." And in the world of television that could be a genuine handicap. Every year we'd end up making a Christmas special from the Dog and Duck or the nearest Arndale centre. A television show needs to be run by worldly people. Not people who are frightened to death of the next town. And what would be the upside? Who cares where a show is made? Who cares whether the Blue Peter garden is in London or not? Who cares whether Simon Mayo is speaking to you from Portland Place or a glass-fronted tower up north? It makes not a jot of difference. At the end of a show now it often says BBC Wales or BBC Scotland. If at the end of Top Gear we put up an ident saying BBC England there'd be hell to pay internally. But why? Nobody who'd paid for the joke would give a damn. The big problem here is that politicians - and they're behind this shift, be in no doubt about that - have got it into their heads that Britain is a big place. But it isn't, really. It's titchy. Moving half the BBC from London to Salford is the same as a parish council moving the table around which it meets from the village hall to the community centre. Britain is a small place with a whopping great world-class city in its bottom right-hand corner. It therefore makes sense to me that every head office, every government department, every newspaper and, most of all, every television and radio show is based there. copyright Jeremy Clarkson - Sunday Times
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Copyright information: As on the rest of this website - please do not use or ask permission to use any of these images in books or other publications or on TV programmes or commercially run websites. Many of the illustrations are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders according to the original copyright or publication date as printed on the artwork or publication and are reproduced here for historical reference and research purposes. If you do own the copyright to any image displayed here and wish it to be credited or removed, please contact me and I shall of course be happy to oblige.
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An apology - firstly for all those errors which are almost certainly still sprinkled throughout the above. I shall do my best to put them right when I discover them or when somebody contacts me with the facts! Secondly - I am very aware that I have almost completely ignored sound in all my comments about studio equipment. It's not that I'm not interested, rather that I am far better informed about cameras and lighting and frankly there is very little information out there about which sound mixer was installed in what studio and when. That's my excuse anyway. |
Many of the above images are taken from old out of print books and documents. However, I am particularly grateful to Bernie Newnham and his superb BBC tech ops history site on www.tech-ops.co.uk. Many happy memories have been rekindled by reading it I have shamelessly 'borrowed' a few stills from the site but I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the operational history of TV It's much more interesting than this one!