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Behind the scenes at �� Children in Need

2017-11-17T14:00:00+00:00

Ever wondered how �� Children in Need works behind the scenes? �� Studioworks provides full studio and post production services for the annual live fundraising extravaganza and facilitates multiple pre-recorded specials: find out more in this blog, first published on the �� Studioworks website.

�� Studioworks is providing studio facilities and full post production services from Elstree for the annual �� Children in Need Appeal Show for the fifth consecutive year.

The annual charity fundraiser will transmit live from Studioworks’ 11,800 square foot Studio D today, Friday 17 November, in front of a studio audience of 500. Taking up presenting duties, Tess Daly, Graham Norton, Mel Giedroyc, Ade Adepitan and Rochelle and Marvin Humes will guide viewers through a night of dazzling entertainment and aim to raise millions of pounds for grants and projects in the UK which focus on disadvantaged children.

The night will feature an array of stars and show-stopping performances, including Katie Melua, The Vamps, Rita Ora and Craig Revel Horwood as Miss Hannigan from the West End musical Annie.

This external content is available at its source: https://vimeo.com/243292941

Setting the studio

Set assembly in Studio D began on Friday 10 November, as the colossal all-singing-all-dancing stage required 60 hours of building and technical rigging from Studioworks’ crew (watch a time-lapse film of the set up above). Controlled by six lighting desks, more than 170 pieces of lighting equipment have been fitted to illuminate the set and a ten camera set-up has been configured to capture all the action, including Sony 2500 and 1500 cameras, a Technocrane, a jib and hand-held cameras.

Studio D’s Sound Gallery will be the backbone of the Appeal Show’s audio set-up, with a Riedel intercoms system allowing for seamless backstage communication between the crew and a Studer mixing console will capture contributions from both presenter’s and guest’s microphones.

Pudsey Glitter Ball Trophy, EastEnders and the return of Anne Robinson

In addition to the live action in Studio D, a number of one-off specials of popular programmes will be screened. Studioworks’ George Lucas Stage 2 at Elstree was utilised for a Strictly Come Dancing special. Recorded in early November, six legendary Blue Peter presenters from the past 60 years entered the glitz and glamour of the ballroom in a bid to win the Pudsey Glitter Ball Trophy.

Studioworks also facilitated a special celebrity edition of the Weakest Link in Stage 8 at Elstree with seven brave celebrities facing the wrath of Anne Robinson in a bid to win £15,000 for the children’s charity.

EastEnders’ yearly contribution to the Appeal Show has also been pre-recorded by Studioworks. The cast have performed a selection of the most famous songs and dances from the classic musical Oliver!.

Perfecting the Post

On the night of the Appeal Show live feeds from multiple UK locations featuring fundraising and regional stories will be managed in the multiplexer, a bespoke build in Studioworks’ Elstree Post Production Village, that will intercut with performances from the studio. EVS XT3 servers will record this content onto a new Avid Nexis system. All Fundraising, Thank You and Appeal Film VT content will be played into the studio from the Multiplexer during transmission. Highlights montages will also be cut for inclusion into the live programme.

However, not all the post production action takes place on the night of the Appeal Show. Activities began in late October and will run up to the live show, as Studioworks’ Avid Symphony suites cut material for multiple live show features, with Avid Pro Tools used for dubbing and voiceovers. This includes the Strictly Come Dancing special, as well as EastEnders’ performance of Oliver!.

Once the live show ends, Studioworks will continue editing into the night with the turnaround of a 75-minute highlights programme for delivery and broadcast on �� One on Sunday 19 November.

�� Children in Need will air on �� One tonight, starting with The One Show’s Children in Need special at 7.30pm.

On location with Blue Planet II

2017-10-16T09:59:49+00:00

Filming Orcas and Humpbacks on the Fjords of Northern Norway

“You come in to the field with a plan, but ultimately you do what nature tells you.”

Ted Giffords, Cameraman

Humpback Whales

“You come in to the field with a plan,” says cameraman Ted Giffords, “but ultimately you do what nature tells you.”

The plan, for a key sequence in the ��’s forthcoming Blue Planet II, was to try and film an amazing new behaviour. It’s one of countless new behaviours that viewers will see on Blue Planet II, not least because, as series Executive Producer James Honeyborne says, the science has moved on.

“New discoveries have given us a completely fresh perspective on life beneath the waves. What you’ll see across the series are new stories featuring new species, new places, new behaviours, all filmed in new ways. Our USP is very much newness.”

This particular piece of newness consisted of a marine double act featuring both Killer whales and Humpback Whales. More than a decade ago Blue Planet, the ��’s last landmark story of the seas, filmed Orca working Herring. ‘Working’ means corralling the fish, bamboozling them, wrangling them in to a tight ball like a border collie with a flock of sheep. Then the Orca stuns one or two with a flap of its tail and ends up with a meal floating deadweight in front of it.

What scientists have observed in recent years - is that Humpback Whales, all 30+ tonnes of them, have started to get in on the act. Humpback Whales are thought to react to the commotion of the Orcas corralling the Herring. Swooping in and opening up their vast mouths, the Humpbacks swim through the buffet that the Orcas have so generously laid on for them, and gobbling up dozens of fish in a single pass. It’s a smash and grab run of epic proportions.

The plan sounded simple: film this behaviour happening. But in order to locate the whales on the infinite fjords of northern Norway, the crew need to do what nature is telling them.

Nature’s message is relayed by seagulls. The footballer Eric Cantona was mocked when he talked about seagulls following trawlers in the hope of finding fish, but his rationale was sound. The seagulls do indeed follow the trawlers when there are Herring to be had, and it is herring that the Orca, and hence the Humpbacks, will follow.

Today is day 10 of a two week shoot, but it’s also the culmination of two years’ work. Producer Jonathan Smith has been following the herring, and thence the Orca and the Humpbacks, for two years for this sequence. He has done stints underwater, diving with a rebreather (to avoid bubbles on camera) in near freezing temperatures. He has tracked the Herring from out in the open Arctic in to the fjords, where for reasons we still don’t quite fathom they have moved just this last year. The whales have followed. They may not be here next year; they weren’t here when Blue Planet I was filmed. This is Smith’s last shoot. He has yet to see a Humpback pull off its heist.

We are so far north, inside the Arctic Circle, stationed on the remote island of Vengsoya, that the days are hopelessly short. It is deep in to November and every day the sun comes up 20 minutes later. Light is at a premium - it’s workable from about 11am today and it will expire at about 2.30pm. And so a converted fishing boat is readied before sunrise and we head out on to the fjords in the mizzle.

Natural history work takes you to remote places but it is rarely a solitary pursuit. As we run north towards the open ocean Smith is messaging a network of contacts - scientists from the Norwegian Orca Survey, fishermen, guides - all of whom are out on boats of their own already. Cameraman Ted Giffords has his own assistance, in the form of a 1,000 millimetres long lens on a giro-stabilised boom arm, handy for spotting gatherings of gulls at several kilometres. He’s glued to his screen, on look out. And Skipper Torre has an app, naturally, for monitoring marine traffic. It tells him where the boats are, what they are and if they’re fishing. Cantona Theory dictates that boats + seagulls = Herring, and Herring = Orcas. Humpbacks are the final variable in the calculus. You need all of the elements, plus the light and a dab of luck, to be in with a chance of a shot. So far they haven’t got any decent footage of the Humpback bursting through with its mouth open - the money shot - in ten days on the water.

Jonathan Smith promises an abundance of Orcas and so inevitably we start off finding none. There is a slight tension as phones are checked, charts scanned and far off, shadowy surface ripples turn out to be everything but whales. There’s not much time.

The sun, when it does rise, barely makes it above the horizon, a pink bedspread laid on the skyline. But as it does, at around 10.30am, a tip-off comes in, and Smith orders the boat to be turned around. We head to Kaldfjorden. It’s a 300 metre deep, 10 mile-long inlet that cuts south and then south-east between stark snow-topped peaks. We motor there to find trawlers and gulls at the far end and still we see… nothing. Smith remains positive - a requirement of the job, I suspect - “These seas contain the most amazing biomass of animals in the ocean,” he says. “Normally we’d have seen loads of Orcas by now.’”

You have to be prepared. Ted Giffords is in charge of the Cineflex camera that will get us the shot, if only the sea life would oblige. The Cineflex allows the boat to be bobbing all over the place while the shot remains still and composed. There are between five and ten Cineflexs of this type in the world - they’re hard to track down because they were originally designed for the American military and they can’t be moved from country to country without specific security clearance. This one has a 4K camera inside its sealed, counter-weighted housing and it can shoot in slow-motion; previous series like The Hunt couldn’t, and they weren’t filmed in such high definition. But higher definition requires more light. Giffords notices that his technical explanations are losing me:

“Basically it’s harder to do but the end result is better. People will notice a difference.”

You can’t not notice an Orca, especially in these flat, calm waters - their dorsal fins can be up to 6ft high on a male, and they travel in pods, usually five or more. Their stately silhouette is unique. Smith and his crew are seasoned spotters, and a tap on the shoulder alerts me to our first sighting, with one, two, then three spouts as the Orcas blow, several hundred metres away. We chug in their direction and on the way spot our other cast members - Humpback ‘blows’ are bushier and more spread out, I’m told. The sight of the Humpbacks’ magnificent tails rising, fluking and slipping away has me excited, but the crew are unmoved: they’re just ‘logging’ or relaxing, not feeding.

Suddenly there are Orca wherever you look down the Kaldfjorden, carving elongated Ms through the surface, while humpbacks rise and dive in tandem. With the sun now up and the mountains glistening it is an awesome spectacle – but it’s a distraction, and I fail to notice what’s happening on our other side, right up by the shore. It’s a group of Orcas, swimming back and forth in formation, so close to the water’s edge it’s as if they’re on watch. Smith is excited. “They’re definitely working fish. This could be about to kick off.”

And then it kicks off.

“Halve the distance between here and the shore,” Smith calls to skipper as he grabs his binoculars. “Pick them up at one o’clock so we can keep the view… Humpbacks at 10.’

It sounds like he’s expecting the animals to arrive on a pre-arranged schedule, until I realise that the hands of a clock are the shorthand amongst captain, producer and cameraman for target location.

The Orca swim away but there’s a shadow visible beneath the surface, heading directly towards where they were. Smith tells Giffords to bring the camera to three or four, Giffords thinks they need to be on the other side, but Smith tells him there’s no time, something is going to happen now, and right on cue small fish start leaping out of the water, churning it up like it’s coming to a fierce boil. The sound makes me spin round just in time to catch sight of 36 tonnes of Humpback whale arcing out and then back down through the surface. I cannot believe what I have just seen.

But the team know instantly that they have not seen enough: Smith and Giffords take a look at what they just filmed, and even though it’s all there in stunning close-up the humpback’s immense mouth only occupies the left of the picture.

“To get that magic it needs to be full frame,” says Smith.

The captain turns the boat around. They know by now that a hungry Humpback will take several passes at a hearty fish supper, and even better, the Orca are back, pushing the Herring even closer to the shore, driving the fish in to the shallows where they can’t escape. With a silvery slick of fish at the surface, the Humpback must surface too. We wait, but not for long. The Cineflex camera hangs over the edge of the boat, and again the whale’s shadow ghosts towards us. This time Giffords is ready and the spectacle is centre stage: as the whale surfaces the water becomes pockmarked and froths with fleeing fish. And then the whale breaks the surface, mouth gaping open, an epic parabola of baleen-plate teeth, humped back, small dorsal and disappearing fluke, before a colossal crash; the vast shadow recedes quietly in to the deep.

The crew holler and celebrate. “We have one!” says Ted Giffords as Smith congratulates his men. It is the first major behaviour shot they have got on this stint, the culmination of a new piece of scientific observation that it’s hard to credit as real until it’s been filmed and shown. And yet still the light remains the most precious commodity, and so minutes later we’re off again in search of another piece of ‘magic'. The ocean is boundless and there’s always more to see. The Blue Planet film crew just have to find it.

“It’s a cliché,” says Jonathan Smith, still with binoculars in hand, “but the only time you don’t get something is when you stop looking."

And that’s a theme that goes not only for this shoot but for the whole Blue Planet II series.

“We’ve completed 125 expeditions to 38 countries around the world, and our camera teams have worked in every continent and across every ocean,” says James Honeyborne, back in the UK. “One of the things that has really fascinated me during the making of this series is the extent to which we’re on the front line: we’re not just reporting these scientific stories, we’re actually help uncovering new scientific stories. So much so that at least 15 scientific papers are being written on behaviours we’ve filmed. That’s the levels of newness we’re at, that is the great opportunity of being in the sea, and that’s the great excitement for us.”

Blue Planet II starts Sunday 29 October at 8pm on �� One. To find out more about the series read the full media pack or watch the prequel on iPlayer now.

W1A - Nothing worthwhile is easy

2017-09-18T08:11:56+00:00

John Morton, writer and director of Twenty Twelve and W1A discusses how he came to set his sights on the �� for the hit series, and how he tried to avoid writing a follow-up to Twenty Twelve.

It’s Autumn 2012. Perhaps not surprisingly Twenty Twelve, a show about the organisation of the London Olympics, has come to an end and I’m cycling across London (on a fold up bike bought from the set) on my way to a meeting to discuss any ideas I might have for taking the show or the characters further.

Of course I haven’t got any ideas. I’d said from the outset that unusually for a television show Twenty Twelve had its own end built into it from the start: once the Olympics had come and gone it was dead. The clue was in the title. ‘Yes but will you at least come and talk about possibilities’ was the gnomic and in retrospect very W1A response. Of course I was too weak to say no.

Looking back now I realise that if anything is going to clear the mind and liberate the creative juices in unexpected ways, an hour’s pedalling through central London traffic on a child sized bike isn’t it. But at the time I didn’t know that and I arrive at the appointed Italian restaurant with nothing .

Over fizzy water and some sort of pesto affair Jon Plowman (Twenty Twelve Exec Producer) and Mark Freeman (the ��’s then Head of something) do their best to prod me gently in various benign ways. Was there somehow a way of transplanting the characters lock stock and barrel to a new situation somewhere else? That’s an easy one. No, there wasn’t. Could they believably be recruited one by one to help with next Olympics in Rio perhaps? Again I was ahead of them. No they couldn’t.

This was going better than I thought. I seemed to have got involved in a sort of anti-pitch process and was beginning to be think that if I stuck to my principles for once I was probably capable of making it out of the building without any kind of commission at all. And the thing is I nearly made it, but then over coffee I made a really basic mistake.

At some point during the life of Twenty Twelve I remember saying, again under intense questioning, that the only kind of future life for the show might be to take Hugh Bonnevilles’s character Ian Fletcher, drop him somewhere else, and start all over again with all the other characters. I’d briefly thought about the �� as a possible place to drop him and for some reason I reminded them of this now.

I thought it was safe to mention it. With the �� having just gone through a really tough time, this was surely an even worse idea now than it had been at the time. But it was already was too late. I should never have had the pudding. They’d played the long game and they’d won.

By the time I’d managed to unfold the bike on the pavement outside the restaurant the course of the next four years of my life were set. But really I shouldn’t complain.

When I was first trying to get started as a writer I had a Post It note stuck to my computer screen: Nothing worthwhile is easy. I can’t remember who said it now, but it’s helped me ever since. Back then when rejections came - regularly, often, in fact always for a few years - it was a reminder that no one said this was going to be easy, that most people who are trying to get going probably end up folding at some point, and that not folding was about the only part of the process that was within my control.

These days it’s even more applicable. Confronted with the prospect of writing a third and probably final series of W1A at the start of last year my first thoughts are all to do with the familiar weight of responsibility I feel to the actors, the viewers, the ��, to the characters themselves who don’t even exist for Christ’s sake. In the attempt to make these six new half hours a bit the same, at the same time different, and crucially better than everything that’s gone before, the daily battle with the writer’s (for me) natural feelings of inadequacy are in some ways even harder to win than they ever were. To remind yourself that it’s never been easy, it’s not supposed to be easy, and that if you were finding it easy the chances are it wouldn’t be any good is an essential part of the process.

Is it all worthwhile? It’s not for the writer to judge ultimately and in the case of W1A it’s too late now anyway, it’s out there.

As Siobhan Sharpe herself would say and in fact has said in the past - "We are where we are with this guys. And that’s never a good place to be."

Judge for yourself whether it was all worthwhile or not as W1A series 3 begins at 10pm on Monday 18 September on �� Two.

Series two of 'The Met: Policing London'

2017-06-21T07:05:44+00:00

Back in July 2013 �� Studios’ Documentary Unit gained unprecedented access to The Metropolitan Police - Britain’s largest busiest police service. It was the first time they'd let the cameras in to make an observational documentary series. Now, in its second series the team take another look at the scale of different police units across London. Filmed over a year, the team go behind the scenes of police work, giving viewers an in-depth look at how the Met works.

The Met: Policing London follows officers of Britain’s biggest and busiest police service as they deal with life, death, crime and its victims, all across the capital. We wanted to make a second series, as there were many areas of The Met and London that we hadn’t seen in the first one. It had been a huge success for �� One, both critically and as a ratings hit. Feedback from our audience showed that they felt they’d had an opportunity to see this massive and sometimes hard to penetrate organisation in a more human way.

Although we had done it once, it didn’t make it any easier to make a second series! We wanted to replicate the feeling of breadth and scale, capturing the enormity of what the police do every day across the city, but it was important to try and look at some different areas of policing and London. So access conversations had to start from scratch again so we could meet new officers and take our audience to other parts of London we hadn’t been in before.

We were very lucky to have an incredibly committed production team who worked for over a year and a half to make this series.

One of the officers featured in 'The Met - Policing London' - PC Paris Smith

A big part of police work is responding to the thousands of 999 calls they receive a day. This time, we followed officers from Newham, Hackney and Westminster as they dealt with anything from multiple stabbings to an argument over a car parking space. Part of the challenge for the police and us, was never knowing what you were going to find, until you turned up at the scene of the call. Seeing officers dealing with people in a crisis or just trying to establish what was going on was always interesting and sometimes darkly funny.

One of the new units we worked with for this series was the Sexual Offences Unit, who deal with and serious sexual assault. It was important for us to include these crimes as they are incredibly serious and the victims have to live with the ordeal and humiliation for the rest of their lives. They’re also very difficult and sensitive crimes for the detectives to deal with and conviction rates are low.

Jim Read and Commander, BJ Harrington in episode 4

We also looked at London’s busiest custody suite in Brixton. The team spent countless nightshifts in the unpredictable and at times, chaotic environment to capture the relationship between custody sergeants and their detainees.

On one hand, filming was easier as the police understood what we were trying to achieve and we had support from people who’d been involved in the first series. But at times it was still difficult to find people on the ground, who wanted to be filmed. The terror threat means many police officers don’t want to draw attention to themselves by appearing on television.

One of the most astounding stories we covered was a case that can’t be shown in the series, due to reporting restrictions. It involved a child who hadn’t been seen for 10 years and his remains were found in a shed in his mother’s garden. His mother was arrested and we followed Homicide detective who worked for days to try and understand what had happened.

We were shocked at the number of teenagers and young adults carrying knives and how everyday it is for police to attend to stabbings in some boroughs. We found it depressing at times at the lack of cooperation between the police and the victims, due to fear of reprisals and a lack of faith in the justice system.

Firearms Officer Derek

We were also with Firearms Officers when they carried out an armed stop, a controversial tactic used as a final attempt to stop a car when they think there’s a gun in it. It’s a tactic that’s gone wrong in the past and a cause of much distrust between the police and some communities.

Making any police series means you have to work within the constraints and timescales of the justice system and sometimes this can mean that your stories don’t make it to air in time. Frustratingly, we lost some of our favorite and most important stories because of this.

The stories of crime may be ones that tap into our deepest fears and at times show the worst of humanity, but there are social issues at the heart of most of them and we hope these narratives have the power to change things for the better.

Shona Thompson is the series producer of 'The Met - Policing London'.

'The Met - Policing London' is broadcast on Wednesdays at 9pm on �� One with previous episodes available to watch on �� iPlayer

Telling the story of Three Girls on �� One

2017-05-16T08:01:19+00:00

Three Girls is on �� One, Tuesday 16 May 2017 at 9pm

‘Three Girls’ is the true story of the 2012 Rochdale Grooming case, in which 9 men were successfully prosecuted for offences including rape, trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.

It was the first case of its kind to come to national attention and the first successful prosecution for sex trafficking within the UK. The story has been widely covered in the press, most notably by Andrew Norfolk in The Times, and there exists a huge amount of information in the public domain.

As we were researching the story grew in national significance as other arrests were made and it became clear that there were many cases throughout the country with thousands of victims. It’s a story that has shocked the nation and changed the way that social services and police think about and handle cases of child sexual exploitation.

If so much is known and has been covered already by the media why tell this story again as a drama? What could possibly be more powerful than the documentary truth? It’s a good question and one that’s not always easy to answer.

There are many true stories that an audience might be interested in reliving through drama but the ones that really resonate and arguably deserve to be made are those which can change an audience’s perception of the victims because, for all the media noise, their true voices haven’t yet been heard.

The way in which Jimmy McGovern’s ‘Hillsborough’ changed the perception of the behaviour of Liverpool football fans is a good example. Or the way in which the audience was put into the shoes of the girls hunted down by the Ipswich serial killer in ‘Five Daughters’.

Similarly the voices of the children abused and exploited in Rochdale had not been heard. Who were these young girls, why were they out on their own day and night, how did they get to know these men in the first place and how could they have been raped repeatedly without anyone in authority putting a stop to it? Crucially how did they feel while all this was happening to them and how do they feel now?

The team behind ‘Three Girls’ has an impressive track record in producing powerful factual drama.

Executive Producer Sue Hogg, producer Simon Lewis and director Philippa Lowthorpe were also responsible for ‘Five Daughters’. Writer Nicole Taylor wrote the screenplay to ‘The C Word’ which Sue and Simon also produced.

This was a close knit team that had the commitment to stay the course over the four year period it took to research, write and produce the three hour series. Gaining the trust of the three girls that the drama focuses on was of course key.

Simon, Nicole and later Philippa carried out multiple interviews with the girls and their families in an effort to get to know them and relive with them their experiences from four years previously. The pace and timing of the interviews had to be dictated by the girls themselves for whom talking about what happened was both painful and cathartic.

At the same time for Nicole and Philippa it was important for the veracity of the drama that they retained some distance on what they were being told. Every experience described by the girls needed to be backed up by at least one other source.

As well as the volume of information in the public domain especially from the trial itself the team also had invaluable input from the two whistle-blowers at the heart of the story; Sara Rowbotham who worked for the NHS as a sexual health worker and Maggie Oliver, a police constable with Greater Manchester Police. These two women worked tirelessly to change the perception of these young girls in the eyes of the authorities just as we have tried to do for audiences through the drama.

A perception that the girls were simply displaying a lifestyle choice and didn’t need or want protection. Never mind that they were 13, 14, 15 years old at the time and had such low self-esteem that free chips and alcohol would turn a grubby room at the back of a kebab shop into the equivalent of a clubhouse.

Sara and Maggie have remained close to the girls and were key in helping us gain their trust and support them emotionally at every stage. The real girls and their families, and our other contributors, were involved throughout the process from beginning to end, including being on hand during filming and post production for their advice. We couldn’t possibly have done it without them.

Hilary Salmon is �� Studios’ Head of Drama, England

Three Girls will be available to watch on �� iPlayer from Saturday 16 December, 2017
Watch Three Girls at 9pm on Tuesday 16 May 2017 on �� One
Three Girls is a �� Studios production in association with Studio Lambert

Let It Shine: It's all about the talent

2017-01-05T14:10:32+00:00

So it’s back to work after the Christmas holidays. Somehow it’s got colder, darker and, to add insult to injury, dentists have suggested that we should stop eating cake in the workplace. Thank heavens then, that the first Saturday night of 2017 will unleash �� Studios’ new light entertainment show Let It Shine to brighten up the weekends.

In the tradition of recent Saturday night telly, it is a talent show, but the prize is a little different. Instigated by songwriter Gary Barlow, the series will follow his search to fill five lead roles in a new musical featuring the songs of his band Take That. We don’t need to know much about the musical according to Mr Barlow, other than the boys selected needn’t be carbon copies of Robbie, Howard, Jason, Mark and himself. Instead he’s interested in finding a group that can convey the “energy of the 1992 version of us”.

Barlow will not be alone in seeking out the right guys for the job. He has enlisted the help of three other judges, themselves each experienced in holding the gaze of large audiences. Dannii Minogue, Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet) and Amber Riley (Dreamgirls, Glee) will be casting their scores (anonymously) along with Gary,in the hope their favourites will accrue enough ‘stars’ to get through to the next round.

The judges, Amber Riley, Gary Barlow, Dannii Minogue and Martin Kemp

Just before Christmas I attended a screening of the first episode of Let It Shine, 'hot out of the edit suite'. �� Studios’ Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, Kate Phillips introduced the programme as irreverent, funny and emotional and that if the show were a stick of rock, it would have �� running through it.

Having watched it, I can quite happily agree with Phillips’ introduction. The dry humour that presenters Graham Norton and Mel Giedroyc bring gives respite from the nerves and anticipation of the auditions. The family-friendly entertainment combined with the chemistry between the judges and presenters makes Let It Shine a real ensemble piece.

Applicants are treated with respect, with each performer given feedback and encouragement, whether they were chosen to go through to the next stage or not. The show is refreshingly self-aware and respectful of the talent it is unearthing, as Barlow notes: “It’s the one thing, when we’re planning a show like this, what we can’t anticipate is the talent…now we’ve seen those performances, all of a sudden the show has come to life… with these programmes it is all about the talent”.

Dannii, Mel, Gary and Martin at the post screening Q and A

Presenters and judges (minus Amber Riley, due to some small matter of a press night for Dreamgirls) participated in a Q and A at the end of the press conference. I confess to being easily starstruck, and although I am very much a 'grunge' girl at heart, the thought of being in the same room as bona fide popstars Kemp, Minogue and Barlow was highly exciting, but the real treat was seeing Mel Giedroyc having been a huge fan of Mel (and Sue) since their Light Lunch days. The camaraderie between Giedroyc and co-host Graham Norton is a beautiful thing. Listen to their experiences working on the show, in the clip below:

Presenters Mel Giedroyc and Graham Norton talk to �� Studios' Kate Phillips

Oh yes, and Kate’s introduction mentioned the show was emotional. Now, I’m not the least cynical of people but I definitely welled up watching episode one. At least twice. In a good way.

Be prepared for a goosebumpy ride.

Jen Macro is Digital Content Producer for About the ��.

Let It Shine begins on Saturday 7 January at 7pm, on �� One.
Read more about Let It Shine on the �� Media Centre.

New structure for �� Studios Factual to drive creativity

2016-08-26T11:17:17+00:00

�� Studios makes an extraordinary range of factual content - from Natural History and science landmarks like Africa and Brian Cox’s Forces of Nature to thought-provoking factual drama and documentaries such as Don’t Take My Baby and Life and Death Row and much loved daytime and primetime features and formats like Countryfile and The One Show. We win awards for our specialist factual and we are renowned for the quality of our arts, history, religious and ethics programming. When I look at the range and depth of our in-house output I’m so proud to be here.

I believe it’s incredibly important that we protect and nurture our factual programme-making heritage through this charter and the next, for audiences and licence fee payers. So my job is to ensure the health of �� Studios Factual for the future and make it a brilliant place to work.

There are a number of areas I want to focus on in order to achieve this. Firstly, I want to remove obstacles and complexity wherever possible, make it easier for Factual teams to collaborate and build a confident culture, reflective of our world-class skills and creatively. I also want to give the Factual creative heads greater autonomy, so they can be accountable for their businesses and have the freedom to create and deliver what they do best.

Finally I want to create a structure that enables our customers to clearly see what we have to offer. We are going to continue to work across our UK bases in order to be best positioned to successfully deliver to the �� and ,subject to regulatory approval the wider market, giving talent the opportunity to work with us wherever they live. But it’s important that we are not simply one big Factual division, hard to navigate and too broad to define.

With all of this in mind, last week I announced a new structure for �� Studios Factual, to empower our creative talent, play to the strengths of the team and establish navigable production units that will, over time, have a distinctive style and tone of content.
The creative business units are:

Factual Scotland: A cross genre creative business unit with proven skills to deliver a wide range of factual content. �� Studios Factual Scotland will produce local and network Arts, Daytime, Docs, and History. This is an exciting business, founded on the reputation of recent titles such as the award winning Handmade, What Artists Do All Day and the highly successful Landward produced out of Aberdeen.
Popular Factual (working title): Based across Bristol, Northern Ireland and Wales, this unit will focus on building new returning lifestyle and features series, spanning the genres and offering an opportunity to work differently with talent on screen and off, bringing teams together from different genres and bases, to encourage collaboration and creativity.
Natural History Unit: With a global reputation and rich heritage, it is our ambition to build on that reputation, driving innovation, broadening our offer and deepening our storytelling skills.
Documentaries: Bringing together Arts, History and Documentaries and building on the success of the existing London team, this unit will supply reputational, popular, and critically acclaimed factual television, from observational access series through to history, arts, factual drama and feature length singles. At the heart of this unit will be a commitment to brilliant story-telling and high production values.
Science: We will look to build on the success of programmes such as Forces of Nature with Brian Cox and Trust Me I’m A Doctor. With our global reputation and important co-production partnerships we are confident that we can continue to excel.
Topical and Live: Based across London and Salford, �� Studios Topical and Live is a new creative business unit that encompasses The One Show, Consumer and Live and the topical unit based in Salford. Our aim is to make this unit a powerhouse in it's field, with credibility and expertise unmatched elsewhere in the market.

Religion and Ethics will continue to operate as they currently are, based in Salford, with Sunday Morning Live coming from Northern Ireland.

As you can see, overall we are moving away from a rigid genre structure, with Popular Factual, Factual Scotland, Documentaries and Topical and Live being cross-genre hubs, with a broad remit. Each of these units has a distinct purpose and will give real focus to Factual from both a creative and business perspective as we move into a more competitive landscape.

We face significant challenges over the next few years as we adapt to the new world we are entering but it is enormously exciting that �� Studios is on track to become a wholly-owned subsidiary, able to seek out opportunities to make programmes for other UK and global broadcasters, as well as the �� and deliver even greater value to the �� Group. We have secured support in principle from PACT, Government, the �� Trust and OFCOM. The regulatory approval process in underway and we expect to hear the outcome by the end of the year.

We have an opportunity to do things differently and better, to ensure �� Studios Factual continues to be a production powerhouse, imbued with the �� values and attributes of creativity, risk-taking and quality. We have an amazing heritage and now we want to set ourselves up for a successful future.

Lisa Opie is Director of Factual, �� Studios.

�� Studios - thinking outside the box

2015-12-18T13:02:35+00:00

It's been a week full of good, old-fashioned heroism - when astronaut Tim Peake became the first Brit on the International Space Station, an event covered masterfully by our in-house �� Science team. That countdown puts the �� Studios launch in April into perspective, I suppose.

We’ve done lots of thinking about the future and what it might bring, but amidst all that production teams have found time to keep making gripping content - like Luther's return to �� One just this week. It's been a year when some of the nation's favourites reinvented themselves to massive audiences - from EastEnders’ innovative live 30th anniversary episodes to the 13th series of Strictly –the final just round the corner -for my money one of the best series ever. And we produced some unforgettable live moments - and not just from space -like Steve Backshall losing his cool at the sight of a blue whale on Big Blue Live, the historic flypast for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and Adele's return to the stage for ��1's unforgettable special.

It’s that range that makes �� Studios such a special thing – the ability to move effortlessly from hard-hitting to laugh-out-loud, from global fandoms to local stories, music to drama. In the end it’s a question of thinking outside the box too – and that’s what our new plans for �� Studios should be all about as part of the ��'s commitment to the UK creative sector in Charter Renewal.

We all get trapped in boxes – they can hem us in and hamper our imagination, and we have to keep forcing ourselves out of them. The box could be a London-centric mindset – until you think about the incredible breadth of content being made by �� teams across every part of the UK. It could be the linear broadcast box-in-the-corner-of-the-living-room – until you see the ground-breaking digital innovation bubbling up throughout our production teams. The box could even just be the office – and getting out and about, talking to the writers and producers, on set, in the mixing studios and make-up rooms, is always the best way to broaden our horizons.

With that mantra in mind, I went off for a day of exploration with my leadership team – destination: Birmingham. It's not always been the trendiest of television locations but these days there are signs of real creative revival.

Great things started at �� Birmingham – Top Gear and The One Show for example – and big things are happening there now too. At the Drama Village we examined the marvellous Doctors, serving up a dose of daytime drama to the nation day in day out. It’s a real petri dish for talent too – working with over 800 actors a year and nurturing new writers – often from the Midlands – who go on to the likes of Land Girls and EastEnders. The global success of its stable-mate Father Brown, as well as newcomer The Coroner shows the appeal of the quintessentially British stories that �� Studios does so well.

We also visited the ��’s Digital Guerrillas in their base in trendy Digbeth, and heard about their own mission to think beyond the confines of traditional TV – whether it’s the inventive #ramadaninaday that got young people talking on social media about what Ramadan means to them, or the exciting interactive project for one of the ��’s hottest upcoming dramas, Thirteen. Together with the Digital Storytelling Team in London, who are working on exciting new short form projects with �� Three and VR work with Science we are starting to see a different way to make content and connect with the audience. You can see some more highlights from our digital year in the video below:

After hearing about the central role that Birmingham will play in the ��’s Shakespeare season in 2016, we had a bit of a cultural change of pace and finished the day at the huge �� Music Awards at Birmingham’s NEC – screaming along with the teenage girls as One Direction took the stage in a massive production from �� Entertainment and Events.

The story of �� Studios in Birmingham is one of entrepreneurialism – teams finding ways to get things done against the odds and outside the traditional means - stuff we will need aplenty in the new world. It’s also part of the case for a uniquely distributed in-house production – one that doesn’t just make programmes all around the country but is truly woven into the fabric of British places and British life, reflecting all our stories to the nation and the world. But we can’t take this for granted – these local ties are often delicate, and without the regeneration that �� Studios will bring, the whole enterprise could unravel.

�� Studios is more than the sum of its parts, but every part is precious – and every part will be spreading a bit of festive joy across the UK this Christmas: Mrs Brown’s Boys from Glasgow, the Christmas Big Sing from Salford, Still Open All Hours from Doncaster and London, as well as Doctor Who and the epic War and Peace, from �� Wales - the latter launching in the new year, a masterpiece in period drama.

Linear or digital, serious or light-hearted, local, regional, national or global – I hope there's no box big enough to contain the creative ambition for �� Studios. And as we head towards our launch in 2016, that’s something to celebrate.

Peter Salmon is Director, �� Studios.

Salford, England and �� Studios

2015-07-20T09:20:43+00:00

When I was growing up, I wanted to be the editor of the Burnley Express. To a teenage boy in a small Lancashire town, running the local paper, and getting the inside scoop from Turf Moor, seemed just about the best way to earn a living. A dream job, if you like.

In the intervening years, I’ve been fantastically lucky in my career. I never made it to the editorship of the Express back in Burnley but I’ve had some brilliant jobs - running �� One and �� Sport, working in senior roles at ITV and Channel 4. I've just got another one, running �� Studios. But what’s turned out to be the dream job is the one I’ve been doing for seven years now. I became director of �� North when MediaCityUK was just not much more than a scrap of land by the old Salford docks. The dream was to better serve all our audiences and keep the �� relevant to everyone in the digital age -very much our mission now, as we battle for a strong Charter.

So we’ve built the most advanced broadcasting centre in Europe where the docks once stood. And now we’ve been joined by some of the biggest names in the industry – ITV, Shine, Red - in what’s now an internationally important hub, home to 7,000 media professionals. If you’d imagined that a decade ago, people would have said you were dreaming.

Some cynics scoffed at the suggestion the �� could ever build a thriving base on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal. Some said moving big departments and popular programmes outside London would be a nightmare. But now The Voice UK, our big Saturday night ��1 show is filmed in the studios and every single morning �� Breakfast is broadcast from here.

We hear much about creating a Northern Powerhouse – but we’ve already done it and now we’re powering ahead. By the end of 2015, the �� will have more than 3,000 staff in Salford, once Children in Need and even more digital developers have moved in. Each year, 39,000 hours of output reaching 100 million people worldwide is produced on site in Salford. We’ve made the dream a reality.

�� North is the ��'s second biggest creative hub, the biggest news centre outside of London, home to half of the ��’s digital products and base to some of the ��’s best programmes including Match of the Day, Dragon’s Den, You & Yours, Blue Peter and CBeebies shows.

From Car Share to Clangers, Happy Valley to Wolfblood, we’re making more new �� hits right across the north than ever before and better reflecting areas once badly under-served by the national broadcaster.

And we’re not confined to our canal-side buildings in Salford. �� North’s reach stretches out to the Humber, the Mersey, the Tyne and the Wear – and even some parts of the region without major waterways.

Last year I was given an expanded role to export some of the Salford spirit of creativity and collaboration to the �� in other parts of England. There’s still more we can do in Bristol and Birmingham but we’ve been making progress.

So it feels like a good time to bow out. I’m moving on to a new challenge running an exciting new venture for the �� (sounds familiar). �� Studios will help reinvent television production to make great UK-owned content for an era of global competition in the age of the internet. It’s a new venture to put our programme-making on a sound-footing for the future, with 2,000 creatives producing great work, from David Attenborough's natural history landmarks to Strictly Come Dancing.

There’s already been a lot written about the future of the �� and a lot more will be written soon as we fight to continue our mission. But the success of �� North will never be written out of the script. The north is now in the ��’s DNA. In fact, it is the digital developers based in MediaCityUK who are probably dreaming up our future and the future of media technology - from the iPlayer to the �� Sport App.

I’m enormously proud of what we’ve achieved in seven years. It’s been a dream, actually. I know those achievements will continue as we seek to build a new ��.

Read the press release announcing Peter Salmon as Director of �� Studios on the Media Centre website.

One last look around: Television Centre 18 months on

2014-09-26T09:20:10+00:00

Refurbishment progress on Stage 6 at Television Centre (Credit: Marcus Haydock)

For 27 years my mother was a newsagent in the town where we lived. Every day after the end of school, I’d wait in the back office watching the comings and goings until Mum shut the shop and we could go home. I listened in on the moans and groans of the town as the last customers of the day paid for their magazines and newspapers. It was busy, noisy and I loved being a part of it.

When my parents announced they were not only keen but going to sell the business, I felt an impending sense of loss. I was to be denied access to what I saw as my second home. They hadn’t consulted me about what I wanted. I was left to pick up the pieces. In my own (almost certainly self-indulgent) way, I mourned the sale of it. I denied the necessary post-sale handover of keys and convinced myself that the shop’s new owners were brusque and unfeeling as they moved into the space which hitherto had been mine.

I was thinking about my Mum’s newsagents in the final weeks �� staff were moving out of Television Centre last year. I was prepared for it for this time. I was thorough: I set about ‘saying goodbye’ to the building, using any spare hour I had available to stroll around the site. I shot some video along the way too.

The repeat visits around the newsroom, ‘Doughnut’, Drama building and East Tower reminded me of just how big the Television Centre site really was. I must have lost half a stone in the weeks I’d wandered around there getting footage and saying goodbye. Painful though that goodbye seemed, the site’s sheer scale made it also appear anachronistic and unsustainable in comparison to my day to day working experience. That insight alone suddenly made the goodbyes seem a whole lot easier.

“It was basically a small town,” says facilities manager Mike Eaton as me and a colleague toured the building late last week. “You could spend days on the �� site and not even venture out. Everything was provided here.”

IT equipment soon to be auctioned stored in one of TVC's television studios

Mike explains this in one of the studios currently used for storage of the last remaining TVC items to be auctioned. Row upon row of servers, PCs and other IT equipment - itself an unhappy reminder of my own IT support career past - illustrates Mike’s point: I’ve never seen quite so much IT equipment all in one room before. Television Centre was a considerable site with an equally large footprint both geographically and technologically. It was its own ecosystem. As technology gets smaller, so the need for space decreases and the cost of maintaining it increases. With total savings achieved by ��’s sale of TVC estimated at more than £600m (the sale alone raised £200m and occupancy costs of at least £30m per annum are being saved from 2015 onwards), the sale of the site has an entirely different context.

Refurbishment progress on Stage 6 at Television Centre (Credit: Marcus Haydock)

I’ve charged Mike with giving us a tour of the building one last time ahead of Open House last weekend - four hundred tickets were sold “just like that,” says Mike as he snaps his fingers. We spend time in the Doughnut where he points to the Studios 1, 2 and 3 the former and future home of �� Studios and Post Production, the ��’s commercial studios, post production and digital media services company. Here demolition and infrastructure works have started - early building work is due to begin next year, ahead of the company’s return in 2017.

It seems like such a long way off, until I realise that with all the other building work going on on site to meet the vision for the new Television Centre, TV programme makers would definitely prefer to wait until the builders have completed their work. We swing round and look behind us to what was Television Centre reception and �� News. “Stage 6 remains – �� Worldwide will move back in there in 2015. Stage 5 behind it will be rebuilt more in the style of the main Television Centre.”

Refurbishment progress on Stage 6 at Television Centre

There’s a sense of excitement in Mike’s voice. This is almost certainly his style of delivery combined with his well-practised patter. But that excitement is infectious. Being back on-site after eighteen months with familiar sights still functioning- like the automatic swing doors at reception and the familiar whirring sound whenever they’re activated –stir happy memories and a longing for the past in the way I thought it might. However, a protective spirit stirs, as though we’re looking at a distant relative recovering from rather aggressive treatment. TVC seems vulnerable to me. I’m eager to see its full ‘recovery’. Not only that, I’m also reminded once again of its immense scale in comparison with the significantly smaller space I’ve now become accustomed to working at Broadcasting House in central London. Stripped of its industry, equipment and people, Television Centre's size is even more striking.

Refurbishment progress on Stage 6 at Television Centre

That excitement for the refurbishment to be completed as quickly as possible is fuelled no doubt by Stanhope’s fly-through video and master-plans detailing how the site should look after work is completed. So too, the progress photography on the refurbished offices for �� Worldwide’s HQ – a milestone in the development of the building and a suitable home with an iconic backdrop for a business selling the ��’s brand to the world. I’m surprised (and perhaps a little relieved) at myself about how eager I am for other people to benefit from the site – those who’ll stay in the 40 room hotel, move into the 950 new residences created or just walk through the eventual public spaces. It appears I have found a way of moving away from home.

Elsewhere on our visit, Mike takes us to the Drama Building. Eighteen months ago I saw an old Blue Peter set, a Dalek and Andrew Marr’s set. Eighteen months later, there’s just equipment – monitors, server cabinets – destined for the final auction of equipment next month. “Follow me,” says Mike excitedly, “I’ve got something to show you I’m sure you haven’t seen.”

Painting a picture in Television Centre's Drama Building

He’s right. During my wandering around TVC in March 2013, there were some doors in the Drama Building which were disappointingly locked, mysterious spaces behind doors I couldn’t open. Up a narrow set of stairs and through an equally narrow (now unlocked) door and we’re inside a high roofed room, standing on a suspended floor with a flight of stairs disappearing away from us. It feels like a stage. It could easily be the TARDIS set I wanted my Dad to build me as a kid (but he didn’t because the local wood store ‘apparently’ didn’t have enough material available). Here was my own special TV set where I could for a moment or two, in my head at least, play out my own imaginary TV drama.

Mike explains that this is the scenery dock. The paint on the wall is from a time when scenery painters created backdrops for various TV programmes. “When they’d finished painting one part of the backdrop and needed to get a bit higher up, they’d use this lever here.” Powered up, there’s a sudden whirr and the frames hanging at either side start moving up and down. If the TARDIS really was real, this would be it. And I was in it.

The sense of sadness didn’t kick in here either. Instead I stand there trying to work out when we last made painted backdrops for sets? Wasn’t that years ago? And why did we stop making them? Something to do with TV dramas largely being made on location, technology making it possible for realistic locations to be used in TV production. Suddenly the impact of technological advances on ‘traditional’ crafts – the greater sensitivity of cameras, freeing directors from the constraints of a controlled studio environment and the need for sets, for example – is plain to see. The scenery dock is no longer a destination for nostalgia lovers, but a place where the impact of technological advances on traditional crafts is apparent . And how such advances suddenly make such locations anachronistic. More than any other location on the Television Centre site, this feels like a real goodbye. Timely. Necessary. Healthy.

The fourth floor in Television Centre.

Eager to test out my transformed thinking, I ask Mike if we can squeeze in one extra destination. On the way to theold �� club– now missing all of the familiar furniture, covered in builders dust and the balcony sporting weeds that have grown in between the patio slabs – we stop off at Room 4099, the one office I worked in whilst I was based at Television Centre. Bottles labelled “Fake Tan” have been left on the shelf from the time Strictly Come Dancing had offices here in Entertainment Production. My time goes back to Any Dream Will Do, and the night of Eurovision pre-selection when Andy Abraham was selected to represent the country.

Standing in the office now remembering those memories, I’m reminded how distant this office was from proceedings we were covering online during the live broadcast four floors below. How the distance seems unfathomable now in comparison to proximity of studios and programme making in nearly every other �� building I’ve been in since. Scale has reduced dramatically. Things can be done in less space in closer proximity to production space. It takes returning to a former home to realise just how much things have changed and how much they needed to change too.

Our visit has gone on longer than I realise. My colleague looks at his phone saying he is already ten minutes late for his 11 o’clock. We walk at speed along the 4th floor corridor in search of a working lift (there are only one or two in the building ‘switched on’ now) and head for the audience foyer – now a canteen and office for the builders working onsite. The buzz remains in this part of the building just as it was shortly before it was finally vacated. It’s the sound of the buzz that casts me back. Memories stir. A dangerous moment. I grab my bag and coat from the office and make for the barriers.

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the �� website and blog

Read Facilities Manager Mike Eaton's blog detailing progress on the Television Centre refurbishment published earlier this week.
Discover more about the iconic Television Centre on the History of the �� website.

TVC past, present and future

2014-09-22T13:05:19+00:00

A significant milestone will be reached at the end of this month when the �� formally hands over the iconic Television Centre site to its new owners, Stanhope plc, six months ahead of schedule.

Since July 2012, when the �� sold the site for £200 million, we have been working in partnership with Stanhope to ensure that Television Centre emerges as a great public space for people to live, work and visit, which pays homage to its past, whilst securing its future as a key destination in West London.

Once described as the Taj Mahal of television, Television Centre stands on what was part of the 1908 Great Exhibition. The �� acquired the site in 1949, and it became home to the �� when it opened in 1960. Designed by Graham Dawbarn, it was the world’s first purpose-built centre for television production. In its heyday, half of all �� television transmitted was made at Television Centre.

I have spent the past 37 years at the �� working predominantly as part of the Duty Facilities Management team at Television Centre and as such, have been privy to many of the stories that make up its great past. I remember the time, for instance, when the rapper 50 Cent arrived for his appearance on Top of the Pops with an entourage of 13 people carriers. And then there were the unusual demands made by the stars. One time we had to install a fridge just to house Lady Gaga’s wigs. On another occasion, when Madonna requested a life-size picture of the Pope for her dressing-room, the �� Studios team managed to obtain his waxwork model from Madame Tussauds. These requests often posed their own set of problems. When Janet Jackson asked for 50 lit candles in her dressing-room, we had to position a fire officer outside her door!

The set of Top of the Pops in 1987

This weekend, Television Centre was on show to the public for the last time under the ��’s possession, as part of this year’s Open House London 2014. Some 400 people booked onto one of the 13 tours with Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the lead architects for the Television Centre Masterplan for one last chance to look around the White City site before it is transformed into a mixed-use development that combines office and studio and post production space for the ��’s commercial operations, with a range of other uses including entertainment and leisure facilities, a public open space, a new hub for creative industries and new businesses, 950 new homes, and a new boutique hotel. When complete, the iconic listed buildings, including the famous forecourt and façade, Studio 1 and the central Helios Plaza will be preserved and opened up to the public for the first time.

If you missed out on getting tickets for the Open House tour, there is still a chance to own a bit of �� TV history as the final online auction of Television Centre memorabilia gets underway next month. Some 4,000 items are being auctioned, including memorabilia from �� TV shows, a range of IT and broadcast technology equipment, posters and signage.

So what does the future hold for this much-loved building? The masterplan prepared by the ��/Stanhope partnership ensures that the long history of creativity and programme-making at Television Centre continues long into the future.

So remember, when the latest iteration of the �� logo that has adorned the flank wall of Studio 1 for the last 50 years finally comes down later this month, it is simply an intermission; the �� will be returning and be very much a part of this vibrant and unique new media site. With the return of �� Studios and Post Production in 2017, and �� Worldwide’s move to its new headquarters at the site early next year, we can look forward to having a presence at Television Centre for many years to come.

Mike Eaton is a Project Manager at Television Centre, �� Commercial Projects

Relocating �� Studios and Post Production

2014-06-06T11:35:57+00:00

�� Studios and Post Production is a commercial subsidiary of the �� which provides studios, post production and digital media services to the broadcast industry. In this post, technical development manager Danny Popkin writes about his work on one of the biggest projects he’s been involved with at �� S&PP.

I am in charge of studio technology projects at �� S&PP, including technology upgrades or moves. In this post, I wanted to explain how we've gone about moving equipment and services from Television Centre to Elstree, and give a sense of what's on offer to the �� and other production companies and broadcasters at our new base.

Why we refurbish studios

First though, it's worth explaining some things about our work which may come as a surprise to some. Television studios don't maintain themselves and given that they are a part of a fast-moving technological environment, they're frequently in need of refurbishment and technical upgrades. This was the case at Television Centre where we were refreshing, on average, one studio every year. Across 8 studios it was about a 7-year cycle of partial or complete refurbishment. On top of that were standard upgrades and change of technology - for example, the movement from tape to disc-based technology or the move to different IT systems. Over the 30 years I've been involved in TV, we've moved from 4:3 to 'widescreen', standard definition to HD for example. Originally everything captured in a TV studio could be sent easily down half a mile of copper wire. As we've moved to digital and now HD, the capacity of those copper cable links have got shorter and shorter. We can't send it down the same length and expect it to come out the other end. So even that core element – the copper ‘wire’ has had to be upgraded to something which is fit for purpose.

For many years the �� had to develop its own technology and the �� used to have departments that would build and test things. The expansion of the media market and the consumerisation of goods has meant the �� doesn't have to do that anymore. Commercial organisations are developing new technology all the time. All we have to do is buy the equipment based on our need and what’s best for us. In that way, we have to follow fairly rapidly the movements of manufacturers because the organisation wants to get the benefits of efficiencies the industry can provide us with. �� Studios and Post Production has been recognised as being at the forefront of that for the �� over many years – it’s an important part of our work for our clients.

Moving to Elstree

Last year when �� Television Centre was closed for redevelopment, �� S&PP’s CEO Anna Mallet wrote about our plans to move to Elstree and our longer-term return to a refurbished TVC, to re-open Studios 1-3.

We already had a base at �� Elstree - it’s where we provide studios and post production services for EastEnders and operate our Elstree Studio D, similar in size to Studio 1 at Television Centre and home to shows like Sky’s A League of their Own, which we make for CPL Productions.

Whilst Television Centre is being redeveloped, we needed to find new studio spaces to offer our production customers, so we approached Elstree Studios across the road and it was agreed that we would run Stage 8, Stage 9 and at times the enormous George Lucas stages. Stage 8 and Stage 9 were effectively film stages, built in the 1960s and they had barely had anything done to them since, so would require considerable work to get them ready for our TV clients.

The refurbished Stage 8 at Elstree

Fast refurbishment – turning film stages into TV studios

I was heavily involved in the move from TVC to Elstree and the upgrade of our new site. It was the single biggest project I've been involved in, one which was completed relatively cheaply and really quite fast. But it was a project which came with some unusual demands. For example, we didn't get formal confirmation that TVC was closing until about nine months before it actually shut. Although we'd done some preliminary work on plans for the move, we couldn't get cracking on the rest of it until we knew for sure that we were leaving and when that would be. Once we knew, we started in earnest in August 2012. The budgets were roughly set very quickly and we were underway.

Unfurnished film stages (like Stage 8 and Stage 9 that we were moving into) are effectively just empty boxes and have nothing in them. They also tend to have wooden floors. We needed to upgrade the floors so TV cameras could run smoothly over the top. Lights and hoists needed fitting out too (film stages tend to light scenes from the floor up, whereas TV studios light from the ceiling down), so we needed to install what we call a ‘saturated lighting grid’. We decided to make use of a monopole hoist system (this helps us easily flex the lighting arrangement, and turn studios around faster in between productions) but that in itself meant that hardware needed sourcing to kit out the studio. Additionally and very importantly we needed to install TV production galleries (film stages don’t have these installed!).

We worked in partnership with Elstree Studios, who co-funded the works, which also included improving facilities for production teams and talent – for example refurbishing dressing rooms, green rooms and production office space.

At the same time as the Elstree Studios refurbishment works, we also upgraded our own �� Elstree Studio D to support large live event shows such as 2013’s Children in Need and most recently �� News election 2014 coverage.

Election coverage at �� Elstree

How we’ve re-used equipment

In terms of equipment we decided to basically lift and shift production galleries and technical kit from TVC to Elstree. Most of the equipment was moved apart from our ageing glass monitors and SD kit, so that made us entirely flat screen and fully HD, bringing the spec of the equipment production staff could use really up to date. We re-used equipment wherever possible - we brought a number of gallery desks with us for example and reassembled them at Elstree and we even brought across make-up mirrors and the dressing room key fob system! We also used the move as an opportunity to enhance the systems as well, standardising our system layouts and configurations making it easier to move staff between stages, and simpler for freelance staff to understand. All of our sound galleries now boast the same Studer Vista 8 desks, upgraded to the latest hardware and OS, utilising stageboxes to minimise studio box wiring.

For me, one of the most impressive elements about the project was the speed at which we worked. We had confirmation that the move would go ahead in summer 2012 and �� Studios and Post Production was fully up and running in Elstree by March 2013 at the same time as maintaining studio services at Television Centre right up until it closed, making shows like Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, When Miranda Met Bruce and Madness Live: Goodbye Television Centre. We sometimes take these things for granted, but in short, that’s running three different studio sites, with a limited staff base, while two of them are going through significant refurbishment and the other is gradually closing down. No easy feat!

New HD production galleries

A few months after we were up and running at Elstree Studios, we also installed new HD production galleries alongside the George Lucas Stage 1 and 2 – making it the biggest studio space in Europe with permanent HD galleries. It’s since successfully hosted big entertainment shows like Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice.

With all of the refurbishment works, by using our own in-house technical and engineering expertise we were able to repurpose and reuse technology and equipment from Television Centre and save on cost.

What programme makers say

Moving to Elstree was unlike anything else we’d delivered in my time at the ��. What was essential was lots of planning and a pragmatic approach in order to carry it through. This resourcefulness is something Anna picked up in her blog post in Christmas of last year.

It’s been a big success though. Since we started operating here, we have supported over 45 different programme titles, including shows like Pointless, Children in Need, ITV’s The Chase and even Channel 4’s Winter Paralympics coverage, which amounted to nearly 80 hours!

You can hear from Pointless Series Producer John Ryan about his experiences at Elstree in this short video.

John Ryan, Series Producer of Pointless talks about the show's move from TVC to Elstree

Returning to Television Centre

Looking ahead, we’ll be going back to three studios at Television Centre and I’m looking after the technical fit out for that.

The priority that remains for us is to install equipment which is, as far as we possibly can make it, future-proofed. So, another important part of my work is to look carefully at the industry and see where the trends are going and what's going to get bigger - for example, 4K (or correctly Ultra High Definition TV). Future generations of TVs will be considerably 'more' than the current 4K, offering the viewer a far better experience than just more pixels, with better colour rendition, higher dynamic range and higher frame rates as well as smart TV features. So anything we buy in will need to take into account that increased consumer need. We’ll also need to think about how we’ll deliver UHDTV in the future. The industry hasn’t as yet settled on a solution for that yet, but when it has �� Studios and Post Production will be there, making sure we’re making the very best available for our clients and for the audience.

Danny Popkin is Technical Development Manager, �� Studios and Post Production.

For more information please visit the �� Studios and Post Production website.

�� Studios and Post Production at Elstree

2013-12-17T10:57:58+00:00

Since I last wrote on the About the �� Blog back in March of this year, �� Studios and Post Production has had a busy time of it at its new base here in Elstree. Now at the end of 2013, I wanted to use this post to explain what we've been up to, give some insight into how we've made our migration out of Television Centre work and take a peek into plans for our return.

But first, an explanation of what �� Studios and Post Production is and does:

�� S&PP is a ��-owned commercial company, providing facilities to make programmes and manage media. Very simply we operate studios - 'the boxes' - where TV programmes are made. We carry out post production, making sure the content 'comes together' in the right way. Our Digital Media Services also do quality checking and prepare and deliver content for transmission or distribution. Very often programmes have another life after broadcast and they also take material from deep in a broadcaster's archive and help re-purpose it for a future digital life. In short, �� S&PP is involved in nearly all of the TV production process - following the entire lifecycle of the media asset, from creation to archive.

Working with independent media companies and other broadcasters

As well as providing studios and post production for some of the ��’s flagship shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, EastEnders and Children in Need, we also work with a range of independent production companies making programmes for other broadcasters – for example CPL Production’s A League of Their Own for Sky and ITV’s Your Face Sounds Familiar - and with content owners – like Imperial War Museums, helping them preserve and maximise the value of their material.

We're based at �� Elstree, where we help make EastEnders and have our Elstree Studio D (larger than Studio 1 at Television Centre), and at Elstree Film & TV Studios, where we've worked hand in hand with Hertsmere Council, who own the business, to transform the site. We’re also in Bristol at The Bottle Yard Studios, where we help Endemol make Deal or No Deal for Channel 4 and our Digital Media Services team are in South Ruislip in West London. This blog focuses on what we’ve been up to at Elstree.

Working hard to make something brilliant

At Elstree, there's a real sense that we're at the heart of making television: there is an air of glamour about the place with EastEnders recording 50 weeks of the year, plus a constant stream of other shows in production. [At the time of penning this post, C��'s Friday Download is shooting its Christmas special in the same studio episodes of That Puppet Game Show was recorded, Pointless (pictured above) is in Stage 8, House of Fools is in Stage 9 (pictured below) and Strictly is in the George Lucas Stage].

In November when the live Children in Need show came from �� Elstree the whole site came alive: there was a huge buzz, lots of creativity, lots of celebrities, lots of concerts, lots of humour and lots of teams working together to really pull the whole thing off. For me, that is the reality of television: lots of people coming together and working hard to make something brilliant.

Migrating to Elstree and transforming the site

Even though we were of course sad to leave Television Centre back in March (we've already started planning our return to the site in 2015), what �� Studios and Post Production has achieved on the Elstree site is impressive. Working closely with Hertsmere council, we've turned two medium size stages into professional TV studios with laser-levelled floors and purpose built galleries, we've installed production galleries alongside the supersize George Lucas Stages and refurbished all the dressing rooms, green rooms, make up and wardrobe areas. We've really made it work for creating television here, bringing big shows previously produced at Television Centre and transferring them to an entirely different site and in many cases, improving facilities for production teams. And what's inspiring for me is that every day of every week I see this site come more alive and be more energised because we're here doing what we do.

Over the next few weeks, you'll be able to read in more detail about what we've done at Elstree and how we're preparing for our return to Television Centre from Technical Development Manager Danny Popkin. But in this post I wanted to introduce how we've made the move to Elstree work.

The project for 'migrating' to Elstree started a year ago. Moving a business that had been in Television Centre for 30 years was a massive undertaking and it wasn't until quite late on that we knew the details of when and how we were going to move. The move happened while we were still operating TVC studios and doing big shows like Strictly, Later with Jools Holland and Goodbye Television Centre right up to the last minute. The organisation was also going through a restructure (necessitated by leaving TVC) so there was a lot going on.

So, in setting up services here at Elstree there was a large degree of pragmatism. People came together and said to one another, 'this is where we are: a lot of us are sad to be leaving Television Centre for a bit but we're up for the challenge of Elstree; we're up for creating something really good here. And that is reflected in our solutions: the way some of the technology has been refurbished and repurposed; how equipment originally installed at Television Centre has been moved to Elstree and used with other existing equipment and made to work at a new location. And it's not just what you see in the studio, it’s what you see 'at the back' - wiring, technology and facilities. It was an extremely complex thing to deliver and is testament to the creativity and ingenuity of the teams that work at �� S&PP. They're passionate about what they do. And that work was completed on time and on budget too.

Making Strictly in Elstree

From day one of the migration planning phase we were thinking about Strictly Come Dancing. It's one of those productions we've had the privilege to work on for many years. It galvanises everyone within �� S&PP. So front of mind was the need to really deliver for the Strictly production. Strictly is not a programme where you want there to be any risks taken at all. As well as making the stage look wonderful for the cameras, we also had to consider all the backstage facilities and the technical provision for production teams. There's been a huge amount of planning which has gone into that to make sure that all of those elements are in place. We spent some time with members of the Strictly production team in the last few weeks of the 2013 run. You can see what Executive Producer Louise Rainbow and Lighting Director Mark Kenyon made of their Elstree experience in the video below.

Louise Rainbow and Mark Kenyon talk about making Strictly Come Dancing at Elstree.

Many of these considerations are the kind of thing TV audiences wouldn't necessarily see or think about when they watch the programme, like the state of the dressing rooms or creating TV galleries for what is now the largest studio in Europe with permanent TV galleries. But they are crucial to a well-run show and a quality end product. We were constantly thinking, 'how can we make this sing' in terms of production facilities? Being at Elstree Film & TV Studios gave us an opportunity to think about how we could offer the very best facilities and when Strictly is on there's a palpable sense of vibrancy and an energy there now. I really do think that since we've been here we've brought something to the site working very collaboratively with the other organisations based here.

Returning to Television Centre in 2015

Beyond 2013 and 2014, we are returning to Television Centre. Planning is already underway and we're getting excited about what the refurbished site is going to be like. It will, of course, be very different from how we left it. It will be a multi-use site which in itself brings opportunities and challenges in equal measure. We started the planning work on this months ago, working very collaboratively with the new owners Stanhope, the �� and �� Worldwide to ensure what we go back to is going to be fantastic.

As I wrote back in March, we'll be going back to Studios 1, 2 and 3, but what we're having to do is completely re-imagine how that section of Television Centre is going to work. Before we had a broader footprint across the entire site. Now, everything is going to be part of our 'zone' - all the areas around those studios. So we're having to spend a lot of time thinking about how we can optimise those areas of the building to include dressing rooms, production offices, TV galleries and audience areas, all the time making sure there's a real sense of 'flow' on the site. Most importantly we want to make sure that when people come back they feel they're returning to something great rather than coming back to something where we've just closed the door and opened it again. It's also an opportunity to really take forward the Television Centre site. We'll be putting new technical equipment into the galleries and also refurbishing a lot of the other 'ancillary' production areas.

The galleries will be upgraded: right now we're thinking about what the future TV standards are going to be and how we can create facilities with that flexibility for the future. You should see very flexible, configurable galleries bringing together existing equipment we already have and supplementing that with new technology.

An inspiring place to work

Even when the studios are quiet or there aren’t high-profile shows being made, there’s an air of excitement along my route into the office, down the corridor which lines the many studios here.

It’s then I see all the pictures on the wall of all the films and TV programmes that have been made here – the heritage of Elstree. A place associated with the greats of both media. For me, that brings a little glamour to my day.

�� Studios and Post Production is a fantastic company staffed by a group of people with huge energy and a real 'can-do' attitude, who have grown up with the �� and care passionately about all our customers. I feel privileged to work with people who really care about what they do. That is really inspiring.

Anna Mallett is CEO, �� Studios and Post Production

Visit the �� Studios and Post Production website
Read Ann Mallet’s blog �� Studios at Television Centre from 2015
Read also Television Centre in the ��’s own words
And 'That's Entertainment': bringing Strictly 2013 to our screens

About the �������� Feed

Behind the scenes at �������� Children in Need