All plans for the "redevelopment" of the former BBC Television Centre on Wood Lane have been approved.
Main studios TC4 to TC8 and all the other smaller studios will be demolished, making way for hotels, houses and retail. The East tower will be replaced by a newer version. In order to maintain a BBC presence on the site and to give an acknowledgement to its former use, BBC Studios & Post Production and BBC Worldwide will move back in and rent space at either end of the site. Namely TC1 thru TC3 and Stage 6.
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| The Main Reception will become the hotel lobby. |
Okay, television of sorts will still be made there, but the whole ambiance of the place has died. No more trips down to stores to plead for a bit of kit. No more quick visits to the bar whilst the lights are tweaked. No more television village.
Management and former management have all stated to the press that TV Centre was passed it's sell by date, and everything needed replacing.
Really?
Why, then, has most of the studio kit been sent to Elstree to fit out the studio spaces there? Why, then, were the studios at TC always in demand by productions inside and outside of the BBC?
TC 8 was the last big studio built and was the home to some of the best UK comedies and audience shows. Producers loved the place. It was always busy, however, it will soon be a memory... and a couple of dozen 3 bedroom houses.
The studios generated money for the BBC and I'm sure when TC1 to 3 are reopened they'll do the same again. I'm no mathematician but surely 8 studios generating an income is better than 3?
I can only assume that John Birt is laughing so much at the demise of television production at the BBC that he is sat in a pool of his own piss. He was the man who brought in Producer Choice and priced the BBC out of its own studios. He's the man who charged different BBC directorates to work in BBC buildings. He's the man who created a charging system for BBC producers to borrow material from the BBC music library... making it so expensive that those BBC producers just went out and bought the CD from HMV instead. He came close to destroying the BBC. Mark Thompson succeeded in hammering down the last few nails in its coffin. I should also remind people here that it was Greg 'The Saviour' Dyke who approved the idea that all the newsrooms should move back across London to BH.
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| When I was at school I was called a specky four eyed twat. This has nothing to do with the picture above and if any similarities are noticed then it's purely coincidental. |
The BBC was big, it did need to be pruned but not at the expense of its main core product.Television.
The selling of Broadcasting House in Central London would have made much more money for the BBC. The moving of its network radio stations across to TV Centre would have cost a fraction of the billion pounds spent building the NBH extension and moving News there. NBH is ugly. It's like an ultra modern conservatory bolted to the side of a nice looking Art Deco manor house.
The BBC just doesn't seem bothered about making television anymore. It's main concern is its news division - the new DG was a major part of that 'minor' division - which is probably the main reason why it's TC that's been sacrificed rather than BH.
News doesn't make money. Programme sales do. Indies make most of the BBC output nowadays, and the BBC want them to make more. Therefore will the potential income generated by selling BBC programmes start reducing? Is the BBC destined to become like Channel 4 - a publisher/broadcaster?
If you've ever loved television, I mean really loved it, the way it was crafted, the way it was crewed, the way it was edited, then you'll appreciate what a really big loss to UK television the closure of this site is. It's not just the bricks and mortar, it's the whole feel of the place. It was television. I've worked in other studios, like Teddington, Granada and TLS, and they just didn't have the same atmosphere.
Maybe I'm just biased because of my BBC connection, but one thing is certain. We will never see another television building as well designed, loved, loathed, used, cared for and mistreated like this.
BBC Television Centre, 1956-2013
