The Show Must Go On

Mention on another thread of that Dutch football show carrying on despite a power cut got me pondering other examples of broadcasting carrying on in trying circumstances. Obviously we had Nicholas Witchell's Broom Cupboard Breakfast and BBC and ITV News decamping to Millbank on various occasions, plus the strikes that led to Blue Peter being broadcast from the Doctor Who set or a completely empty studio, but can anyone think of any more?

One that always stuck with me from when I was younger came from Take Two, the long-running show where kids were invited to offer their views on TV. Pip Schofield presented it for many years and in the late eighties I'm pretty sure it was made by presentation rather than the children's department and recorded in Pres A or B, it certainly had a very small set. One series had an extremely minimalist set design where Pip and the displays of kids drawings were lit by spotlights but everything else was very dimly lit, and I recall in one episode that series they had to have a bucket in the middle of the set as the roof was leaking. I don't think it was a gag and I think the pres studios were on the top floor, weren't they? The sparse set just attracted more attention to it. A very strong memory, in any case.

Another kids one was the short-lived ITV Saturday morning show Wow in 1996, which was live from Maidstone, where there waas a power cut before the second show and the first hour or so had to be presented from the car park. Great fun it was, too, Simeon Courtie and Sophie Aldred ad-libbed their way through expertly. The runing order went all awry, though, and I remember they had to show the whole of the video for a Peter Andre song he was later perfoming live to replace a feature they could no longer do. They managed to get the power back on by later in the show, though.

Another half-remembered memory is that one morning Simon Parkin, I think, on CBBC pointed out there was a fruit bowl on the table because the previous night Wogan had had to be broadcast from the CBBC birthday set in Pres A, minus studio audience, because the TV Theatre was flooded. I think this was in the summer of 1989 (which is why I was able to watch CBBC in the morning, it was the school holidays).

And we've also got the week or so in 1988 when TV Centre's studios were closed due to asbestos being discovered, so Top of the Pops had to be presented from the gallery, as seen here -

Anyway, any more?

That TOTP clip doesn't look remotely like a Gallery! Anyway I remember three particular incidents. One was in 1958 when a dispute by lighting technicians meant BBC-tv's 'Tonight' programme came from the roof of TVC (the daylight wasn't on strike!!) and very strange it looked. Then there was an edition of STV's "One O'Clock Gang" that came from in front of the Safety Curtain. STV had adapted the Theatre Royal to create studios, and the Gang came from the old auditorium which still had a pros. arch - and a Safety Curtain. The mechanism to lift the curtain had failed and the show had to be performed from in front of it, with no sets. And of course in 1968, when LWT launched, there was an ACTT dispute and an entire edition of 'Frost on Sunday' came from the single-camera continuity studio.

Indeed, and you can see that on the Frost On Sunday DVD, and quite bizarre it is too. Though not as bizarre at the 1970 BAFTAs, on the same DVD, which ends with that obvious climax, Best Soundtrack, presented by Bob Hope where there's much comic crosstalk and banter between him and Frost, before the winner is announced and someone comes on stage so say he's collecting in on their behalf because they're in prison, which is clearly news to everyone.

I recall an edition of the BBC's 'Holiday' show, that in the 70s was a live Sunday Teatime programme.

There was an industrial dispute and the TVC studio(s) were closed. This edition had its links filmed (and I mean filmed) in a travel agent shop ! Cliff Michelmore and John Carter (I think) were sat at desks in the shop
and the end credits consisted of the camera panning over Letraseted characters on the shop's window !

There have been quite a few examples from sports broadcasting over the years.

A very famous one was Grand National Grandstand in 1997, during which Desmond Lynam and the BBC team had to evacuate Aintree due to the bomb scare. Lynam presented from behind the OB trucks for a while, before handing over to a very young and inexperienced Gary Lineker to do the vide-printer.



Another example that springs to mind was an episode of Sunday Grandstand in, IIRC, May 2001, being broadcast from the Belfry for the golf. A big storm came over the course near the end of the programme and the last ten minutes of the programme were out-of-vision, with slides and inserts from London. I think the end of the programme was a racing result slide straight into the credits. Not the most serious incident, but it sticks in the memory for some reason.

Actually, there have been many occasions where live sports OBs have ended up in cupboards, tents, VIP suites etc because of bad weather.

Nowhere near as serious, but I seem to recall Scottish Television's Hogmanay Show live from Edinburgh being abandoned as the weather cancelled the entire event. It resulted in news studio being commandered late in the day for a far less exciting 'through the bells'.

I always wondered why broadcasters didn't just take the Edinburgh event live until that year. You're so dependent on the weather, whereas if it's bad BBC Scotland can just carry on in Pacific Quay.

Not sure I agree Tony. Think it was well dressed, but could easily have been one of the larger TVC galleries (probably not TC1 which was surprisingly small!).

You can see operational lighting fixtures in the ceiling in some of the shots. Some of the TVC galleries were/are pretty big. For example, TC7's had a reasonably large production office that was just off the VCR and PCR that could also have done some service, though whether it was arranged like that in the late 80s I don't know.

Wasn't TOTP from Elstree in 1988?

No, it moved there in 1991. It was still at TV Centre. And when I say "gallery", I mean "technical bit in TV Centre that isn't a studio".

He said it was the first time he had done a live show, or the first time he'd hosted Grandstand - one of the two. He was watching the football coverage in prep for MOTD and somebody ran in and told him to get ready to go on air.

Indeed, the first time he'd hosted a typical Saturday Grandstand involving football latest/Final Score etc, which naturally would require a certain amount of skill and experience. He'd already done live stuff by then - Euro 96, the Olympics, and was by that stage the regular presenter of Football Focus.

Anyway, I digress. In terms of 'the show must go on', admittedly it didn't on that occasion. They stayed on air with football news until around 4.10pm, then went off the air until the start of Final Score. I can't remember the name of the programme that filled the gap, but it was a documentary regarding Borg v McEnroe IIRC.

There was an edition of Points West which was presented from the Comms Room at BH Bristol when the power failed and took out the studio. It's a single camera job with 2 presenters with lolipop mics with guests (correspondents) walking through the main door to be interviewed! Not sure if it's on YouTube anywhere ...