Studio Sets, Infrastructure and General Technical

Wow! Really? I’d honestly never have guessed that.

So how would the cameras work then? Would the cameras also need to be on two levels to be at the correct eyeline if the contestants are layered?

In fact, I guess the same question applies to Celebrity Squares. How did they level the cameras to be at the right elevation for the third level?

🤔

No, that's true, but most of the questions are so obscure to most of the viewers, most of the time, that I don't find it very entertaining or educational to watch.

But hey, if you enjoy it......

Presumably either a platform cam (dig out the Blue Peter tour of TC1 You Tube clip), or a camera at the back of the audience seating?

Like Chris Tarrant says they're easy if you know them.
And anyway it's University Challenge, you don't earn your PHDs or Doctorates or Batchelor Degrees or whatever else by flopping down in front of Stranger Things every night and learning the words to Justin Bieber "songs".

If you can track down an IBA Television and Radio Yearbook from the mid 70's, there's a wide shot of Studio D at Elstree which shows you.

The cameras looking across to the squares, one is on the studio floor, mostly for the 9 box shot, and close ups of the bottom and middle row celebs, and there's another two cameras on a same height platform just left to the left side contestant (as you look at the contestant and host podium) which do the middle and top row close ups, and 2 / 3 shot boxes for the in game 'banter'.

Just to the right of the boxes, were another two cameras, raised to the same level of the contestants podium, for the Bob and contestantants 1, 2, and 3 shots.

The clever bit was in the set design. It looked like Bob was straight infront of the boxes, but they were actually off set at an angle. That allowed the cameras shooting the celebs to get close to the eyeline as possble.
If you look very closely, you are actually looking up at the top row, and in some cases down at the bottom row, rather than a straight ahead framed shot.

Interesting article. Episodes were recorded in a variety of studios - 1, 3, 6 and 8. Having been in two of those studios, I could see them fitting all the sets into TC1 but it must have been a real squeeze having them all in TC3, even with the first floor behind the ground floor set. Of course, in The Germans we get a quick peek beyond the edge of the set when Basil is running through the dining room into the kitchen. 😂

The recording studios for each episode of Fawlty Towers is here:
http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/tv%20centre%20history.htm#studio%20summary (click and scroll up a bit)

Only The Builders was done in TC3, but that episode used the lobby for the bulk of its interiors, with a brief look at the bar and the dining room. The only other "set" was a brief look at a hotel room where Polly went to sleep, but that could have probably been tacked on anywhere for the amount of hotel room we saw, it wasn't a particularly demanding episode set wise.

The Anniversary was done in TC1 but if you consider that episode makes large use of the bar, the kitchen, the lobby, the upstairs landing and "Sybil's room", its hardly surprising it needed the bigger studio. The Germans was done in TC6.

Yes, that's where I got the info. 😀



I daresay the allocation of studio had a lot to do with the number of sets required. I haven't seen the episodes for a while but I suppose some episodes maybe didn't even use all of the ground floor. It was quite surprising to see that they only had 90 minutes for recording each episode of the first series - I suspect sitcoms get a bit longer nowadays.