Children in Need 2013

People aren't stupid. They've chosen the weekend that it goes to Blackpool or Wembley in the past to be the Children in Need weekend for logistical reasons.

So it is coincidental Strictly was at Blackpool this week?

Strictly was in Blackpool because in previous years TC1 at TV Centre was in use by CiN and couldn't be cleared and set up in time for the huge Strictly set (so somebody, probably noggin or the Inspector, once said on here). I guess they wanted to keep the tradition going.

I thought the show itself was much better this year, moving the West End acts to before 10pm for example, Fearne Cotton seemed to have calmed down, Mr Bumble (Terry) didn't seem to be as flustered with losing camera and what was coming up next. No awkward bucket shaking around the audience and no getting the acts to try and read out the phone number... a vast improvement and in the whole, still raised over £30m!

Yes - pretty much. AFAIK no major logistical reasons why it had to be out of the studio. Strictly comes from the George Lucas Stage at Elstree Film studios (confusingly operated by BBC Studios and Post), Children in Need came from Studio D at BBC Elstree studios (also operated by BBC Studios and Post…).

For info The One Show came from a SIS Live truck working into the studio that the Queen Vic interior set was in. This was using the EastEnders cameras, but because EastEnders don't have a standard gallery, a truck was needed to provide the right production facilities. (The same truck that has been on the road with The One Show all week)

The EastEnders music sequence in the Square was live (apart from the opening interior shot - Letitia Dean couldn't be in two places at the same time!) and produced using a CTV truck.

Lots of generators on site to provide resilient power...

Also, for those interested, it is only in recent years that Strictly had to decamp for logistic reasons when Children in Need was in TC1.

One of the previous Strictly sets could be cut down and was set in TC4 instead of TC1 at least once, leaving TC1 free for CiN, allowing CiN and Strictly to both come from TVC over the same weekend. It was quite a compromise for Strictly.

Well what a great night of entertainment CIN 2013 was. I watched it off-air from 7pm to midnight Friday evening, and saw the rest on video yesterday evening circa 9:30pm to 11:30pm. An amazing show, with loads of musical performances, and a bit of Strictly Come Dancing, Torvill v Dean. All I can say is CIN 2013 was a million times better than dull, dull, dull RND 2013 back in March.

Well done CIN, you've set the benchmark on a great night's entertainment. Can you equal or better it next year. As for RND, you need to follow in the footsteps of CIN 2013 for 2015.

Hardly fair to call Studio D at BBC Elstree an 'old shed'.

It may not have been purpose built for TV, but instead was a film stage converted for TV by 1960, by ATV, but it is a perfectly good TV studio (and has been for 50 years), and is a long way from being a shed. They've done a pretty good job of converting it to HD, and it has huge benefits over the Elstree Film Studio operation (better fast turnaround lighting, and much better connectivity)

You can tell Troggles spent 7 hours on Friday praying and hoping for something to go wrong so he could have his regular ' TVC shouldn't have been sold' rant.
In reality it was probably the best show in a few years.

Not to mention it's the famous Muppet Show studio.

Always worth a link to this:-

http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/studio%20history.htm#bbc%20elstree