Good Morning Britain

The Big Breakfast dared Keith Chegwin to get on GMTV in 1995 and he got as far as reception. At 2.22 in this clip, Gaby tells Keith he needs that lift to get to GMTV but they can't go up because of the camera cables.



Isn't the area Keith enters what was the audience entrance?

What I remember most about that entrance was for a long time it had a giant "GMTVisitors" logo above the door.

I may have misremembered this but I'm sure there was a story that GMTV used to use LWT's switchboard and one day Eamonn started ranting about football, causing a deluge of calls. LWT's switchboard crashed and GMTV were banned from using it. So the person on the GMTV reception desk ended up doubling up as an operator.

They did replace the lift's motors and they were pretty fast, the problem was the building only had 5 of them to serve hundreds of people across 22ish floors and it was impossible to install any more. They would speed up to your floor when you were in them but if you were waiting for one you'd often have to let a few of them go as they'd already be full when the doors opened on your floor. Getting lunch from the 2nd floor and then going back up to your desk was nightmarish to say the least.

I remember Fiona doing a food item in the canteen, then returned back to the studio late, berating the fact that "the lift doesn't stop on floor 2".

Sounds like what I've had to put up with in some busy hotels over the years.

I remember going past that reception desk on the way in as an audience member. That set storage area Keith walks past would be familiar to anyone who's been to see something there, always tried to spot if there was anything recognisable in there.

I guess it was probably the early 2000s (?) that they started to put handprints of stars (well, stars and Justin Lee-Collins) on the outside wall on the left side, by the truck with the "bags of money".

What kind of cable would cameras like that be using back in the day? Triax surely too fat? GMTV could have just got a pair of shears to em

Unless you knew where the 'other' lift was - F lift.

Triax, latterly fibre optic.

GMTV/Daybreak's production offices were located on the 4th Floor with some additional space on the 5th floor. You could easily walk between the two floors using the internal tower block fire escape stairs.

There was (is!) a dedicated and enclosed, heated staircase from 4th floor to the Studio areas which was installed as part of TLS's construction of the facilities to house GMTV from 1992 onwards This staircase was mounted externally to the tower block but of course only had to 'drop' one floor.

There was never an issue getting from the 4th floor to the studios. I know of no presence of GMTV/Daybreak on the 18th floor.

Penny Smith referred to "that lot on the 18th floor" many a time.

But either way, it was a facetious remark and I wasn't really expecting so much analysis. Point being, the distance from the GMB studio to White City Place is a 5 minute stroll. It could take you just as long, if not longer, to walk from Studio 5 to GMB's offices.

Its more like 30 seconds from St5 to the office, our the studio, a turn or two...up the stairs and sorted.