Television Centre Redevelopment

I was of course referring to long running series as they are what will establish the bases as Drama/Childrens bases. Eventually the rest of the industry will follow. I can guarantee you that with BBC Childrens based in Manchester, most indies that specialise in kids TV will eventually relocate (or establish themselves) in Manchester.

Seeing as you use it as an example, Red was established in Manchester as it specialised in Northern dramas. It was able to do this with a lot of help from Granada, and was based at Granada's offices during its heydey. The reason was because that was a hub of northern programming, buzzing with creativity and talented people. Would Red have had the same opportunities these days? Unlikely. Would a similar, but Cardiff based company be better placed now? Almost definitely.

Babycow was able to base itself in Brighton largely because of the already established names behind it and other talent was willing to travel there for meetings etc.

The industry is all about networking and talent, and what the BBC has done is segregated certain types of talent to certain parts of the country. I don't think that should have been the way forward.

Drama these days is mainly shot on location, and has been for many years. I can't think of any drama shot in a multi-camera TV studio in recent years. The same goes for comedy, a lot of that has moved from the TV studio to location... although studio based is seeing a comeback


That's not what the BBC have done

You're right that lots of drama is no longer shot multi-camera, but significant amounts are still shot in studios (i.e. film sound stages)

The BBC have their main operation for this in Cardiff (and some space in Birmingham on the university campus for Doctors etc.)

It is, it's a spralling site spread over a wide area.... it's even got a building just for the telephone exchange! It's needed pruning for years


Bookings are plentiful now because everyone's cramming in productions before closure. The studios have been underutilised for years... though that's not totally because the work's not there, the oddities of production accounting have caused a lot of that.


It doesn't need more studios! They're not using the ones it's got!


I'm pretty sure they don't own Centre House any more. Besides it seems an odd idea to put an outside set even if it was a big enough site - between a tube line and a motorway!?


It's not a point of refitting them, the ones in the older parts of TV Centre are small by modern standards and not very flexible. If you want a department of 50 people working together you can't! If you need to make an office area bigger you can't. The modern way is for big open plan spaces.

The lack of flexibility was the main reason that the Presentation department (as was) moved out - in TV Centre if the BBC wanted to start a new channel or other service they had to squeeze it in or knock down walls or locate it in a spare room at the other side of the complex. It was a very bizarre setup, split across several floors.

The industry is very different to when TV Centre was built - it's not a cosy, static 2-channel TV factory any more. It was built for the days when VTs took up whole rooms, now you can make a programme on a laptop


A silly argument. He not only worked there in a different time, he would have had one by himself as he was management... you can't give everyone a management office.


I agree that BH shouldn't have had all the other departments sent there.... but they're not big enough to fill TV Centre.


And they still will have 2 sites. Owned isn't necessarily cheaper.... I'm sure they're glad to sell off TV Centre for rebuilding rather than having to pay for it to be rebuilt. I know you don't think it's full of asbestos... but it is!


Is the point to have 'northern programming'? Surely it's just to make the BBC less London-centric. As a born and bred Londoner it's something I welcome.

Purpose built for the 1960's!

I'm not sure what that's got to do with it, it's there to contribute financially not 'support'



The movement of things to BH and Salford is partially the cause of TV Centre's redundancy, not the other way round. The reasons for the moves are separate considerations - political, ideological and logistical

Yep - the site is bigger than it needs to be.


Hmm - not sure that's actually the case. TCs 3,4,6 and 8 have been pretty busy for quite a while now. TC2 surprisingly so as well. TC5 was mothballed after Sport moved out (and only really used for BBC News Election VR) and TC7 is still in News.

There was a time a few years ago when it was quiet - but the resurgence in daytime quiz shows, panel shows, and studio sitcom have generated quite a lot of business. It's a lot busier than it used to be that's for sure.


Think they do - after all R&D are based in a large chunk of it. The rest is, I think, leased to Ugli, who in turn lease it to smaller operations.



Yep - this is a significant issue. The 60s office space is not really fit-for-purpose - and in lots of areas its almost imposible to run in new cables (as the cable trays are full)

They've attempted to open-up some of the doughnut offices to allow more open-plan working (Entertainment and Sport had some of these) but they weren't great.

The studio space is very good, the galleries are very good, but the rest of the office space isn't brilliant - and a new lick of paint isn't going to solve that.


Yep - it's not a good playout centre. The News Centre is probably the best office accommodation on the site, and that's why Worldwide are moving into that area. It has proper suspended office-flooring with space for decent aircon and network cabling etc.



And a studio show that needs TC4 is still a studio show that needs TC4...



Quite.



No - but moving them to W1 isn't a great solution - and to be honest having some production departments in W12 still makes a lot of sense.



Yep - the asbestos is the elephant in the room. The building is absolutely full of the stuff. It's only been removed from the areas where people could be exposed to it. Apart from the bits that they missed. (It was only a few years ago that they realised the wallboxes they thought were sealed weren't...)



Think you've both made good points. But the reality is that the studios at TVC are in regular use, are to a high standard. The reality is also that the BBC can't afford the site because the rest of it is pretty poor and not fit for what the BBC needs for wider production requirements. When a large chunk of the programmes made there are not BBC productions or BBC commissions, the BBC effectively ends up subsidising the wider industry...

I suspect that part of the problem is that when the ball started rolling on BH and Salford, it wasn't. Certainly when I worked there it was a bit of a ghost town, especially when you discounted kids and news


I think that sums up the big problem. Architecturally the place was a good design for it's time and purpose but once it needs to change that - to become a facilities house rather than a production centre - that's where the problems arise. The offices along with other space in need of redevelopment is integrated with or around the studios.

Compare TVC to Teddington where they managed to keep all their studios and tech block but seperate and sell off the office space. It's an advantage of the way the site is laid out.


Although it will be happy in TC3.

I do agree that they are throwing away some good studios, probably too many. I suppose no-one can really forecast how many will be needed. Three probably is too few, but they couldn't keep all 8 and certainly couldn't justify building more


Quite, I do wonder where all those people up at White City are going to go

Though it also looks like Teddington is going to close. They never really kept their facilities up to scratch AIUI.


If it can get in...



It's not really three though. TC2 is too small to be useful for most studio shows. Watchdog will fit in - but not many other BBC studio shows (outside possibly of some daytime stuff)

TC1 is too big, so unless it is priced based on size of floor-area used it will be out of the budget range of most shows.

So effectively you're left with one useful studio. TC3/4/6/8 are the workhorses, and definitely the busiest studios. Once you drop to only having one studio that size, you have a scheduling nightmare.



Home. Or Starbucks.

Will be interesting to see if the rumours surrounding another TVC studio being kept but non-BBC owned are true. Would presumably help ease the potential studio problem.

If "other talent was willing to travel there for meetings" for Baby Cow in Brighton, why wouldn't they be willing to travel to the BBC in Salford, Cardiff or wherever they go?

Madness will be seeing TVC off in style, according to Ariel today
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/21601250

Part of "BBC Four's night of celebration of the building and its 53 years of programme making."

If they do some of the projection stuff they did at Buckingham Palace it should be wonderful.

Baby Cow was founded by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. In its infancy, many of the talent behind their programmes were all friends, and they would go to Coogan's house and pre-produce programmes in very informal circumstances (drinks, dinner parties etc). It's worth noting that Baby Cow is now based in London.

In this industry, you can't keep producing programmes by popping in every now and again. It's all about networking and indies will flock to where there is influence in its particular genre.