BBC Television Centre - Fin

[Stillhomewardbound]

Such a shame to see the BBC shed the finest bespoke television facility ever established. I couldn't count the number of drama productions my father was involved in here.

I would go with him to TVC the odd time and found it to be such an exciting place. Full of industry and programme makers who were intent on making the best they could, rather than pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Gone. All gone. All horribly gone. The fools

To find out why it was special, have a look at this excellent website:

http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/tv%20centre%20history.htm

[mangerton]

That is an excellent website, shb. I found the link a few months ago - can't remember where - and looked at it then. I found it most interesting.

I do remember the song and dance the BBC made (probably literally!) when TVC officially opened in 1960. At that age, I thought it all quite fascinating.

[Ferretfancy]

It was possible to work there and not see half of it. I laboured for some years in the East Tower, like Rumpelstiltskin (or was it Rapunzel ? ) and didn't see bits of it at all.I wonder if there are eels in the little park nearby? I once released a nice live and wriggly one into the pond there.

TVC prided itself in having the quickest studio turn round in the World, it was possible to completely strip scenery and build anew within a few hours.

[Old Grumpy]

I quite enjoyed this article in the Guardian
Complete with this gem:

"high-visibility clothing – you can see it a mile off!"


No sh*t Sherlock!!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I can understand that people associated with the building will be sad, and wistful, but making it headline news really distorts what is essentially an adminstrative matter for the corporation. It's of little interest to the rest of us. When a BBC presenter dies, it's headline news. ("He will be irreplaceable" even though he has alreday been replaced.) When someone much more important dies, he/she may (or may not) get a brief mention in a late night bulletin..

[Alison]

Agreed, Alpie.

In any case, I always thought the BBC news came from wherever their main news centre is

[scottycelt]

I can understand that people associated with the building will be sad, and wistful, but making it headline news really distorts what is essentially an adminstrative matter for the corporation. It's of little interest to the rest of us. When a BBC presenter dies, it's headline news. ("He will be irreplaceable" even though he has alreday been replaced.) When someone much more important dies, he/she may (or may not) get a brief mention in a late night bulletin..

I agree.

Most of us have to face some sort of work displacement in our lives and I don't underestimate the effect this can have on people. After all, it's a bit like moving our personal home in a way, as we spend a lot of our time at work. So I can well understand the 'sadness' of those affected but I'm willing to bet that will soon be forgotten when they encounter fresh new premises!

This move is only really of any interest to BBC employees and families and is hardly worthy of a spot in the main news.

BBC News should concentrate on important events in the world and not imagine any outsider really gives a hoot as to what building in London the news is broadcast.

[Old Grumpy]

I can understand that people associated with the building will be sad, and wistful, but making it headline news really distorts what is essentially an adminstrative matter for the corporation. It's of little interest to the rest of us. When a BBC presenter dies, it's headline news. ("He will be irreplaceable" even though he has alreday been replaced.) When someone much more important dies, he/she may (or may not) get a brief mention in a late night bulletin..

EA, I believe the BBC even has lady presenters now as well as the chaps - even on the Third Programme, damn it!

[amateur51]

BBC News should concentrate on important events in the world and not imagine any outsider really gives a hoot as to what building in London the news is broadcast.

Less of those old blokes in Italy with their red hats setting fire to a chimbley too please

[Old Grumpy]

Less of those old blokes in Italy with their red hats setting fire to a chimbley too please

[Vile Consort]

I neither know nor care what building the BBC's broadcasts are coming from. To make the issue headline news is a complete failure of objectivity. BBC employees have far too great a sense of their own importance. Of course, we already knew that.

[Stillhomewardbound]

If I can invite Vile Consort and Eine thingamy bob to actually visit the link I've posted and peruse that site, in depth, then you might get a better sense of what one is grieving for.

Nowhere, on any one site was there such a versatility of television studios. From the esteemed NO.1 studio, equal to a medium sized film stage, down to the mini-studios occupied by the likes of the weather and continuity departments. Truly, it was unique, and we are not talking here a sentimentality about some bricks and mortar, because there does come a point where something special is built up and it achieves a being in a physical sense.

It's an argument, alas, that I am making too late in the day. The letters B-B-C are merely an affixable label, now. Yes, you can slap it on a televisual waste bin, but what difference does that make. It was that which went on within the walls of Television Centre that made it the special place it was.

There was such an amazing concentration of talent there, and, as Alan Bennett has noted, he could delivera script to Innes Lloyd of a morning and six week's later have been sat at home of an evening watching his words rendered as a dramatic reality.

Well, that was only possible because of a unique, bespoke factory that rested close by the A40 in West London. Alas, it will go the way now of other notable, one time greats.

Indeed, isn't it on that same carriageway that you'll pass by the old Hoover building? Now backed by a supermarket, though I haven't a clue which supermarket, be it Tescos, Sainsburys or the Co-OP. Anyway, it's just a supermarket now, and yet, so successful and dependable did Hoover become in the UK & Ireland, that the very name entered our lexicon as a generic term for vacumning. Literally, it was unbeatable. They even had the slogan to prove it ... It beats, as it sweeps, as it cleans.

You see, supermarkets are only traders of other producers' commodities, whereas it was the ingenuity and industry behind the Hoover facade on the A40 that produced an unbeatable product. That's why we should lament the decommissioning of Television Centre. Great things were made here. Moments that touched us deeply, kept us laughing through dark days and provided us with broadcasting that reflected and gave us an inherent sense of who we were as a people.

You don't get that from a supermarket. You don't get that from a generic product with a BBC tag slapped on the front.

It's what went on behind the facade that mattered and now that's gone and our culture will be the poorer for it.

[salymap]

It may not matter to the general public and perhaps the closure was over-hyped but I agree with Ferret and SHB- for anyone interested in music and tv productions there is special 'something' about these buildings.

I've never worked for the BBC, but had quite a lot of contact with them in my working life, usually the music departments. And visiting BH, Bush House, and the Maida Vale studies I could feel the history of these places.

I expect a lot of people feel the same if they work in an historic or old building. It's not confined to the Beeb.

I hated it when Augener moved from the very old 18 Gt Marlborough Street, with the original Salle Erard upstairs to a grotty little place in the Charing Cross Road and the old building was pulled down.

[scottycelt]

Nowhere, on any one site was there such a versatility of television studios. From the esteemed NO.1 studio, equal to a medium sized film stage, down to the mini-studios occupied by the likes of the weather and continuity departments. Anyway, it's just a supermarket now

You see, supermarkets are only traders of other producers' commodities ...You don't get that from a supermarket.

You appear to grossly underestimate the value of supermarkets.

Manufacturing and retail depend on each other. No point in making things if there is no slick and competitive distribution system, which requires its very own expertise. That even applies to some forms of Art. like concerts and plays.

There is not much you can't buy from supermarkets these days and they are essential to most of us, not least the poorer in society. If supermarkets suddenly ceased to exist most of us would probably starve to death as the remaining rump of small retail shops couldn't cope.

If the BBC ceased to exist that would be a huge blow to many of us but we would survive and very likely a new company would eventually emerge in any case.

I can well understand those with long and happy memories of a particular venue are sad at its passing. However, if there is no more need for its existence it doesn't make much sense to keep it going, that is the reality.

If supermarkets are popular (which they appear to be) they will spring up all over the place just like the cinemas of the early 20th Century. Maybe that is also the reality?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

EA, I believe the BBC even has lady presenters now as well as the chaps - even on the Third Programme, damn it!

I wasn't being sexist. It was just an example.

My general point is that what happens internally at the BBC is not headline news, but I do think the BBC itself is a fine institution (apart from Tweets) and should be supported.