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BBC Television Centre

"Sale looks unlikely" (March 2008)

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NG
noggin Founding member
jay posted:
noggin posted:
cylon6 posted:
It's a shame they can't make the studios bigger. I remember years ago that they were going to knock 7 and 8 into one studio. But that won't happen now because 7 is used for news programmes.


Not a huge call for large studios outside the major Saturday night shows (TC1, TLS Studio 1 and Fountain at Wembley kind of cover those)- in fact splitting existing large studios into two smaller ones might be a smart move. ISTR that TC6 was conceived to work like this when first built - and TC5 used to be splittable (as it has two galleries) but the current set is too big.

The original plans for TC9 - which was due to be a replacement for the BBC TV Theatre (aka the Shepherds Bush Empire) - in what is now the News Centre would have created a very nice large audience show venue which would compete with TC1 and TLS Studio 1- particularly as TC1 isn't that audience seating friendly in layout terms.


Just a random bit of information, but Fountain is actually 2 small studios with a movable wall splitting them, which is removed to make one big studio for X Factor / Britain's Got Talent / Grease Is The Word etc.


I don't think it is fair to describe the two half-studios at Fountain as "small" though... The two studios are both much larger (twice the size I think) than the small main-block studios at TV Centre (TC2/5/7) and are only a bit smaller than the medium-sized studios in main-block (TC3/4/6/Cool

AIUI Fountain studios at Wembley were originally built by Rediffusion (the original London weekday ITV franchise holder before Thames) - and the door is controlled by a very large electric motor originally designed to rotate gun-turrets on warships!
JA
jay Founding member
noggin posted:
jay posted:
noggin posted:
cylon6 posted:
It's a shame they can't make the studios bigger. I remember years ago that they were going to knock 7 and 8 into one studio. But that won't happen now because 7 is used for news programmes.


Not a huge call for large studios outside the major Saturday night shows (TC1, TLS Studio 1 and Fountain at Wembley kind of cover those)- in fact splitting existing large studios into two smaller ones might be a smart move. ISTR that TC6 was conceived to work like this when first built - and TC5 used to be splittable (as it has two galleries) but the current set is too big.

The original plans for TC9 - which was due to be a replacement for the BBC TV Theatre (aka the Shepherds Bush Empire) - in what is now the News Centre would have created a very nice large audience show venue which would compete with TC1 and TLS Studio 1- particularly as TC1 isn't that audience seating friendly in layout terms.


Just a random bit of information, but Fountain is actually 2 small studios with a movable wall splitting them, which is removed to make one big studio for X Factor / Britain's Got Talent / Grease Is The Word etc.


I don't think it is fair to describe the two half-studios at Fountain as "small" though... The two studios are both much larger (twice the size I think) than the small main-block studios at TV Centre (TC2/5/7) and are only a bit smaller than the medium-sized studios in main-block (TC3/4/6/Cool

AIUI Fountain studios at Wembley were originally built by Rediffusion (the original London weekday ITV franchise holder before Thames) - and the door is controlled by a very large electric motor originally designed to rotate gun-turrets on warships!


That certainly wouldn't surprise me, there is what looks like a big metal 'zip' inbedded into the floor!
JK
JayKingDoire
I have heard that the new massive media centre extension to be opened in the BBC Broadcasting House will contain some brand new television studios. Some websites have said this will be new studios where tv shows for BBC1 will be used e.g. entertainment shows as well as news. Meaning that when TVC is sold off they will have studios in the new central location for entertainment/sitcoms etc to compete with London Studios, Teddington, Fountain Studios etc.

Is this true as I thought the new extension at BH was only for News and Current Affairs for TV and Radio?
JA
jay Founding member
JayKingDoire posted:
I have heard that the new massive media centre extension to be opened in the BBC Broadcasting House will contain some brand new television studios. Some websites have said this will be new studios where tv shows for BBC1 will be used e.g. entertainment shows as well as news. Meaning that when TVC is sold off they will have studios in the new central location for entertainment/sitcoms etc to compete with London Studios, Teddington, Fountain Studios etc.

Is this true as I thought the new extension at BH was only for News and Current Affairs for TV and Radio?

I wouldn't have thought it would be big enough to be honest.
NG
noggin Founding member
JayKingDoire posted:
I have heard that the new massive media centre extension to be opened in the BBC Broadcasting House will contain some brand new television studios. Some websites have said this will be new studios where tv shows for BBC1 will be used e.g. entertainment shows as well as news. Meaning that when TVC is sold off they will have studios in the new central location for entertainment/sitcoms etc to compete with London Studios, Teddington, Fountain Studios etc.

Is this true as I thought the new extension at BH was only for News and Current Affairs for TV and Radio?


I would be VERY surprised if there were any decent sized studios for general non-news production built on the BH site. I've heard of no plans - and don't think there is space for anything of TC3/4/6/8 size. They've got to house the whole of the News Centre and Bush House there, along with the current BBC Arabic, imminent BBC Farsi, and soon BBC London operations as well.
CY
cylon6
Fountain Studios is a large space and when Friends came to London it was actually filmed there.
BH
Bvsh Hovse
noggin posted:
JayKingDoire posted:
I have heard that the new massive media centre extension to be opened in the BBC Broadcasting House will contain some brand new television studios. Some websites have said this will be new studios where tv shows for BBC1 will be used e.g. entertainment shows as well as news. Meaning that when TVC is sold off they will have studios in the new central location for entertainment/sitcoms etc to compete with London Studios, Teddington, Fountain Studios etc.

Is this true as I thought the new extension at BH was only for News and Current Affairs for TV and Radio?


I would be VERY surprised if there were any decent sized studios for general non-news production built on the BH site. I've heard of no plans - and don't think there is space for anything of TC3/4/6/8 size. They've got to house the whole of the News Centre and Bush House there, along with the current BBC Arabic, imminent BBC Farsi, and soon BBC London operations as well.


Arabic already has 2 floors of Egton, Persian TV is getting one Egton floor (leaving Persian radio staff at Bush for the time being - unless they can find room to share with Arabic) so I guess LDN is getting the other 2. BTW: I've just found confirmation on the BH refurbishment site that MHS will be closed in early 2009, so they must be moving to Egton as the main section will still be under construction then.

I broadly agree that it is highly unlikely that a TC3 size studio would fit, but the plans of the new bit of BH don't seem to be in general circulation yet - so anything could be in there. If it is just News & Current Affairs and World Service going in, then maybe there will be room to shoehorn something into the basement somewhere. There are some pictures taken during demolition showing the huge basement area here. But more likely, if we get any non-news studios, will be that we end up with something like the current One Show studio placed somewhere with a scenic view of All Souls out the window behind.

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