Casualty Filming

Nothing has been stated definitively about Holby leaving Elstree. A couple of years ago, when EastEnders was SD, there were plans at quite an advanced stage to relocate EastEnders to somewhere like Pinewood, allowing a new, HD-friendly, set to be built, which would have allowed them to dispose of the Elstree site (which the BBC own)

However other issues stopped the sale, so EastEnders refurbed (to a degree) for HD at Elstree.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Beeb looked at a disposal of the site in a couple of years though. (They seem to be wanting to flog all of the property they own - apart from BH - for short-term cash injections...)

The 'production centre' containing the interior sets has, since 1986, been in warehouse units on the Midland Road trading estate just on the edge of Bristol city centre. The exteriors used to be recorded at the back of the old Brunel technical College buildings in Bristol, but I have no idea where they're currently shot - although presumably still in Bristol.

Towards the end of this year production switches to the BBC Wales Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay, and this site will contain both the interiors and exterior of the ED.

S

The interior shots are done inside a unit here... http://goo.gl/maps/uqFn with the exterior shots done at http://goo.gl/maps/1Wgh - the yellow hatched area marking the entrance to A&E.

Yes, if you look at the site plan for the Olympics, it's fairly isolated, in fact IIRC the house was actually very likely to be lost in the Olympic Park. It's one of the few existing buildings that side of the Lea Navigation that survived

For those of us of a certain age Holby City will always be Grange Hill! Neptune House was the exterior of GH in the late 80's. Later the exteriors were shot around the back of the main block and the school looked a lot smaller

Yep - Grange Hill in the Elstree days was produced in quite a strange way as well.

Unlike Casualty and Holby - which were shot single-camera (or possibly now multiple camcorder), Grange Hill in that era was shot multi-camera (as EastEnders is today) and each scene was cut and recorded as-live.

However Elstree still didn't have full galleries for every studio (it still doesn't) so for Grange Hill, a small-ish BBC Outside Broadcast(s) truck (aka scanner) was parked up and spent a couple of weeks/months acting as a gallery and recording.

Having now had a chance to check on Google Earth, the imagery for Elstree is dated January 2000 - whereas the Olympic Park / BB House is June 2010.

Also of interest (though still off-topic) is Fassett Square in Hackney, which might look familiar to EastEnders fans: http://goo.gl/maps/RqoD

Having read TV Studios History through again it's been recently updated - it would appear that due to a series of bookings for audience shows that are to be made at Elstree, in 2010 they have updated the long-disused auditorium in Studio-D. Apparently the thing that sparked off the replacement of the seating was an ITV series called Odd One In.

Before:
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/images/elstree%20d%20seating%20450p.gif
After:
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/images/elstree%20d%20new%20seating%20oli%20lifely%20450p.jpg

Studio D is apparently an excellent Sitcom and Entertainment production space and is being more aggressively marketed. TV Studio History makes reference to the BBC deciding not to sell Elstree until 2014, but it wouldn't at all be unlike the BBC to spend vast sums of money on it's production centres then sell it off (or even close it - cf Pebble Mill, Oxford Road Studio-A).

And for those of us of another certain age, it will also be remembered as the exterior of 'Harlington-Straker' film studios in the Gerry Anderson production 'U.F.O.' Here's the title sequence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TQUdcYk82U showing Straker's car pulling up into what is now the ambulance drop-off point of Holby's Wyvern wing!

S

from what I have read on the TV history site, ten years ago the BBC / ITV sold off all their regional studios in order to centralise everything in London. Had them all demolished and turned into Tescos, claustrophobic housing estates or urban parks, only to decides a decade later to become less London Centric and build new studios in different locations to replace they ones they previously demolished

ITV still have leeds and Manchester, Can there not hire: Maidstone? and Nottingham?

STV uses BBC next door in glasgow for big studios

Not really, the bigger driving factor to them getting rid of studios is that they just don't need as many studios any more. Even in London the TV studio centres are rarely full

Improved technology allows programmes that were once studio bound to be made perfectly well on a location rather than a studio... in fact they normally look better. Some of the biggest TV programmes of the last decade have been done without a TV studio. It's also possible to get decent results from a studio in converted office space, low heat lighting has allowed this.

Secondly using a traditional TV studio is very expensive. Many production companies have found it cheaper to build a studio to their needs in the long term than hire one - Cactus (Richard & Judy/Saturday Kitchen), Princess (RI:SE/The Wright Stuff/Something For The Weekend) and Endemol (Deal or No Deal) being 3 notable examples. Even for broadcaster-producers it's cheaper to hire studios.

In ITV's case it's consolidation reduced the need for so many centres. Once Granada had it's studios for it's programmes, Central for theirs etc. But now they're the same company, why do they need 2 big studios in Birmingham, 3 in Nottingham, 4 in Manchester and 2 in Leeds? The backroom functions are also a factor, an ITV company HQ also had their own sales, HR, finance etc. departments. All those have been merged so the large buildings just aren't needed.

Apart from Salford, there's not really been much studio building in an area where the BBC/ITV have previously abandoned.... and even there both had a big presence in manchester