The Newsroom

The morning of the 'Great Storm' (1987)

(October 2007)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
RW
Robert Williams Founding member
I remember absolutely nothing about the television of 16th October 1987 since we didn't have any power for a week following the storm... Crying or Very sad
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Inspector Sands posted:

Quote:
As I remember it, it was a plain white studio with some chrome and black leather chairs and a glass coffee table... and it was a studio at Elstree.


Are you sure it was at Elstree? I'd have thought that getting the presenters and crew up to Elstree in those sort of conditions would have been very problematic. Having seen the video on YouTube my guess is that they are in one of the Pres studios which were in the same area of TV Centre as the presentation suites (these were used for school holiday CBBC, Old Grey Whistle Test and before computers, the weather). I don't think Breakfast Time came from TV Centre in those dayst


The non-sync cut from the Breakfast Time titles to the studio makes me curious. If Pres A or Pres B had been powered, surely they would have used that rather than NC1 Con for Nick Witchell?

Could it have been somewhere obscure like TV Theatre or Riverside? For a long time these were serviced by a scanner truck rather than permanent galleries, and the scanner would have generators on board.
IS
Inspector Sands
Steve in Pudsey posted:

The non-sync cut from the Breakfast Time titles to the studio makes me curious. If Pres A or Pres B had been powered, surely they would have used that rather than NC1 Con for Nick Witchell?


Maybe not, NC1 Con needed no extra staff and very little power, Pres A needed both. Before the power was restored and staff were arriving/ being assembled they wouldn't have had a choice.

I noticed the non-sync cut after writing the above post., it could be that it was the VT machine that wasn't in sync with pres! (in the clip you don't see the transition to the titles). This could be very likely in the days when the pres area had no VTs (AIUI except for a few Umatics for OU programmes) and all the machines were in the basement. It could have been that the titles were played from a machine there or in news and weren't synced to pres for whatever reason

Quote:

Could it have been somewhere obscure like TV Theatre or Riverside? For a long time these were serviced by a scanner truck rather than permanent galleries, and the scanner would have generators on board.


Could well have been, or if Breakfast Time wasn't normally in Lime Grove it could have moved from TVC back to there for the day
EB
exquisite burden
nok32uk posted:
This should probably go in requests but this reminds me of a promo that aired around 1991 on TVS (ITV South) and all I seem to remember is, a policeman struggling to stand up in the storm and the music Storm in a Teacup by The Fortunes. Confused I think it was for a book about news items in the south or something can't find a clip of it anywhere. Anyone (i.e. Asa) know what I'm talking about or have I gone mad?


Here's the book - produced by TVS in the southeast, not the south.
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3334416/-Coast-to-Coast-1982-92/Product.html?cm_mmc=Froogle-_-Books-_-Misc-_-Coast+to+Coast++1982-92&source=5064&engine=froogle&keyword=Coast+to+Coast++1982-92
SP
Spencer
Inspector Sands posted:
[Are you sure it was at Elstree? I'd have thought that getting the presenters and crew up to Elstree in those sort of conditions would have been very problematic. Having seen the video on YouTube my guess is that they are in one of the Pres studios which were in the same area of TV Centre as the presentation suites (these were used for school holiday CBBC, Old Grey Whistle Test and before computers, the weather). I don't think Breakfast Time came from TV Centre in those dayst


As it was so long ago, I can't be certain - that's just what I remember from the time. Although if the regular Breakfast Time presenters were actually in TV Centre, surely one of them would have presented from the Broom Cupboard instead of Nicholas Witchell.
PT
Put The Telly On
exquisite burden posted:
nok32uk posted:
This should probably go in requests but this reminds me of a promo that aired around 1991 on TVS (ITV South) and all I seem to remember is, a policeman struggling to stand up in the storm and the music Storm in a Teacup by The Fortunes. Confused I think it was for a book about news items in the south or something can't find a clip of it anywhere. Anyone (i.e. Asa) know what I'm talking about or have I gone mad?


Here's the book - produced by TVS in the southeast, not the south.
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3334416/-Coast-to-Coast-1982-92/Product.html?cm_mmc=Froogle-_-Books-_-Misc-_-Coast+to+Coast++1982-92&source=5064&engine=froogle&keyword=Coast+to+Coast++1982-92


Brilliant, so I wasn't going mad. Thanks.
BU
buster
nok32uk posted:
nezza posted:
I remember Nick Witchell presenting from a small studio with yellow stripes across the back with i think it was John Kettley squeezing himself into view. I didn't kniow it was the "broom cupboard" until later.


Is this it? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2mDt1cYkoc4 (1987 storm coverage..) Nick Witchell at 00.38.

Michael Buerk digging at Ian McCaskill at the end is almost comedic.


I've heard about that for years but never seen any of it so thanks for pointing that out. The decor in there without the drawings is horrible!
DC
Dupont Circle
Inspector Sands posted:
Spencer For Hire posted:

I guess with the Broom Cupboard having also been the BBC1 continuity booth at the time, it would have been one of the few areas of TVC to be able to operate on backup power, hence why they broadcast from there.


Yep it was also very basic and required very little power. When BBC 1 and 2 moved out of that area in the mid-90s the new area included a little 'Broom Cupboard' type fixed-camera studio for such eventualities (and in case of failiure in the CBBC studio). Don't think it was ever used though.


I've got a memory of Noel Edmonds broadcasting from the Broom Cupboard in an emergency once. Something to do with the House Party not being broadcast due to a bomb scare? Was that before or after the move?
PT
Put The Telly On
Noel in Broom Cupboard 1993 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo67fQCIvx0
DE
deejay
Blimey - YouTube is an amazing thing! Yes, Noel there in vision in the Broomcupboard - aka the announcer's booth in the old manual NC1. In the year that broadcast was going out, the new automated control rooms for BBC1 and 2 were certainly being planned (if not being built). At that time, it was still assumed that some Children's BBC output would come from a single camera IVC studio. As a result the automated transmission area that eventually took over from those manual control rooms in 1996 did have a single camera studio. It was known as Studio-P (presentation). As far as I know, it was never actually used on air, as by 1996, all CBBC presentation was done from Presentation Studio A (ironically back upstairs in the same area as the then defunct manual network control rooms!). I do however recall Studio-P being used routinely for recording announcements for BBC Prime and the Learning Zone. And right up until the end of anaogue BBC1 and 2 being originated from that TX area, Studio-P had a standby backdrop for CBBC just in case TC9 (as it was by then) failed.

The pres suites that took over from the first generation of automated control rooms never had such a facility. The Broadcast Centre didn't either as built, but one or two of the continuity booths there were certainly big enough (and high enough) to handle a simple lighting grid and camera...

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