New Wimbledon Studios

Starting to get out there and establishing itself! Former home of The Bill and Family Affairs, 20 and 7 years respectively. Used for The Iron Lady, Dead Boss/Life Story, Episodes, Cardinal Burns, 360, Misfits and 10 o'clock Live. Lots of different sets that wouldn't be found anywhere else!

Looks like an up and coming London television base!

http://www.wimbledonstudios.com/

Feel free to discuss any of the shows filmed here, or the sets in this thread!

Or just go to the existing Bill thread to discuss a TV complex that's 10 a penny. Waste of an SQL entry.

Its not for The Bill? I only put it up because it's the studios 1st year and it could become as big as other TV complexes?

Actually, I found this interesting, how the sets are still standing and being marketed to their full potential.

I was surprised that they had 50 standing sets.

I didn't realise that the court scenes were also in a set: I'd just wrongly assumed that they'd used a local court - but given their frequency of use in the storylines for the Bill then perhaps it was sensible to make their own.

http://www.wimbledonstudios.com/images/sets/99/448/Commons116.jpg
House of Commons Film Set London - Wimbledon Studios

Isn't that the same House of Commons set that was formally housed at Granada TV back in the 1980s and 90's,
made originally for the TV adaptation of "First Among Equals", and often used on "The New Statesman" ... ?

I believe when they got it they said it was found in a warehouse (was that the word? ) on a farm somewhere, and they bought it and stored it at SW19.

Didn't Paul Abbott buy the set off Granada to use for State of Play?

I don't know, what I said was what Wimbledon said when they acquired it?

The houses of parliament set was used for the Granada Studios Tour, I remember sitting on the government side when we visited there in 1998. They definitely used the same set for The New Statesman, although I'm not sure whether they shipped the set to Leeds for that, although there is an episode where you see Parliament being filmed with plenty of YTV cameras "on set"

I think it was much more likely they came over to Manchester and recorded House Of Commons scenes while the
set was at Granada TV. There was an episode were Alan B'Stard visited Maggie, and the 10 Downing Street set
(which was also used part of the Granada Studios Tour at the time) was used for part of that episode.

It would certainly have been easier for the New Statesman production team and actors to come to Granada TV
in Manchester, than transporting a scale replica of the House Of Commons over to YTV's studios in Leeds.

IIRC Paul Abbott had the Granada set stored following State of Play, and when the Meryl Streep film 'The Iron Lady' was made last year, it was brought out of retirement, refurbished with extra rows of seats, and set up at Wimbledon.