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Watchdog

The programme you can probably afford to miss (November 2016)

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LL
London Lite Founding member
That's Life also did consumer issues with a touch of satire.
TR
TROGGLES
This programme is a great advert to show the BBC is on its uppers. We now have got to the point where a consumer show has to squat in a tent in the front of Broadcasting House. Sadly and somewhat ironically for all those homeless people outside the BBC HQ in City of Culture Hull, they were evicted for doing the same thing - with the help of Jeremy Kyle no less.
SW
Steve Williams
This programme is a great advert to show the BBC is on its uppers. We now have got to the point where a consumer show has to squat in a tent in the front of Broadcasting House.


I find this a bit overstated, they were broadcasting Watchdog from the production office and the atrium in the Media Centre when TV Centre was still a going concern. And TV Centre is being refurbished so there is going to be a bit of a shortage of studio space. In the late eighties when they were doing up BBC Manchester, On The Waterfront came from a warehouse in Liverpool, UP2U came from the production office and The 8.15 From Manchester from the props store. Was the BBC "on its uppers" then?

Some programmes do have bright ideas and want to broadcast from somewhere unconventional. I wonder if, were the Broom Cupboard to launch today, people would suggest it was awful because they should be doing it from a proper studio. Of course, I bloody loved it at the time because it was so exciting.

I think it looks pretty cool on screen, actually. The only thing that's a bit of a shame is that we don't get the One Show team nipping over to the Watchdog dome, or vice versa, on Wednesdays at eight. But they can't because it's pre-recorded, alas.
IS
Inspector Sands
It was obviously on its uppers throughout the 70s and 80s when they broadcast for an hour every weekday from a foyer in Birmingham too
LL
London Lite Founding member
Put it this way, it's a lot better than the Crimewatch mobile studio.

26 days later

LL
London Lite Founding member
The mics on tonight's Watchdog are really tinny.
TV
TVMan
The mics on tonight's Watchdog are really tinny.

I think the sound desk may have crashed, although taped segments are fine
LL
London Lite Founding member
The sound quality is as bad as a That's TV local set-up.
MD
MrDexB
The sound quality is as bad as a That's TV local set-up.


OK. I watched it tonight and I think you're overexaggerating it a little bit.
JO
Jon
The sound quality is as bad as a That's TV local set-up.


OK. I watched it tonight and I think you're overexaggerating it a little bit.

It was certainly very bad when started watching it about half way through.
LL
London Lite Founding member
The sound quality is as bad as a That's TV local set-up.


OK. I watched it tonight and I think you're overexaggerating it a little bit.


Watch a clip from That's Oxfordshire and it's as rough as any of their local tv set-ups.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
UP2U came from the production office


Off topic, but I thought it used the studio.

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