bbc elstree stage d back in use

[paul welsh]

when the world was young i used to often go and watch tv shows recorded at atv in borehamwood on stage d with the fixed seating. plus would go when the bbc first took over for recordings of 'allo, allo' etc.
then for years the seating was curtained off and the floor space used for eastenders. it is nice to see it is now back in use for it's orginal purposes and being hired out to tv companies wanting an excellent light entertainment stage with fixed tiered seating.
for nostalgia sake i went to a recording of the sky show 'wall of fame' at what is now the bbc elstree centre yesterday. what a load of dross ! the studio looked good but this kind of junk tv makes me dispair. hundreds queued up to be in the audience and were mainly under 30 who seemed to like it but then again they have been raised on junk tv. at least when i went in the atv days the shows were entertaining

[Arfur Teacake]

You might not have seen a doc called The Dream Machine 1964 which features a day in the life type thing of producer Francis Essex? but if I recall correctly it is centred around the ATV Elstree complex with marvelous shots of people like Miilicent Martin being tracked in a car by a big heavy electronic camera - the things they did to entertain us ?

[Bernardo]

......for nostalgia sake i went to a recording of the sky show 'wall of fame' at what is now the bbc elstree centre yesterday. what a load of dross ! the studio looked good but this kind of junk tv makes me dispair. hundreds queued up to be in the audience and were mainly under 30 who seemed to like it but then again they have been raised on junk tv. at least when i went in the atv days the shows were entertaining

I often wonder how Sky does so well but then with papers like the Sun, Star, Mirror etc. plus our tolerant education system we produce a ready made audience. Only puzzle is you mention a queue to get in. They actually rose from their couches and initiated action which could be promising.

[paul welsh]

why i dispair is apparently that show has about 8 writers !! plus when i think what it costs to produce and i doubt gets a million viewers tucked away at 10pm on a fri eve , yet tv companies are either not interested or say can't afford to do a decent documentary on our film studios like elstree . pitched at the film buffs and older audiences and can be reshown time and time again , i would think that a better use of resources

[Merton Park]

In reply to Bernardo: Without Sky Sports it would be a dead duck. There is no other reason to subscribe, as people here have said the programmes are awful. How right they are.

[ivorwallison]

I agree - when the world was young - I remember back in 68 visiting ATV Studio D as an audience member for one of Lew Grades international colour productions. The Tremelos were on and I was asked to vacate my seat on the studio floor portion of the seating to allow one of the group to sit between my mother and brother in a skit with the presenter. Fortunately I spent most of the show by the studio scene dock doors with the studio crew, a spot I was to return to 40 years later when I was involved as freelance on aa BBC Training OB. Oh joy of joys and its nice to see that a great studio with so much tv history has been brought back to life as a superb facility - I shall be keeping an eye on the studio resources web site to see what productions have been shot there. Well done BBC now they have an alternative to TC studio 1 or going outside.

[paul welsh]

i fear the bbc have plans to sell the studio off for housing development in 3 or 4 years time as they divest themselves of owning production facilities and to raise money. they have already spoken to the local planning authority. personally with the closure of the london bbc centre i think they should make it their major london/home counties studio