Working in From ATVLAND In Colour is a joy, but the toughest part is that the members are flung all over the UK. Luckily, we don't need all of our team for each filming assignment, and the power of the internet means we can get on with research work and script-writing at home.
Keith Jacobsen - there's a name I mentioned very early on in this blog. Keith is an ex-BBC/ITV cameraman who continues to work in television. He also happens to own Television South Limited. This is the guy who came up with the concept of producing a documentary DVD on the history of ATV/Central's Broad Street studios back in 2006.
Well, Keith's back on board. His recent services have been valuble to us in warding off those aforementioned legal threats. Plus his own knowledge on putting a production together is at an expert level. It's great to have him back.
Here we are at the end of the year, and with Christmas nearly over and done with, we're looking forward to resuming project work in the New Year. While we still have some cold winter months ahead, I can sit at home during the nights, hunched over the iMac, composing music for the DVD, and script-writing.
And now, to blow my own trumpet. I've finished putting together Tiswas Night 2008 for viewing online. It's slightly justified, as I'll be doing a lot of editing and design work on the From ATVLand In Colour DVD. Whilst the camerawork is a bit shaky on this (it is a live event with immense spontaneity after all), it's the production as a whole I'm quite proud of. Thanks must go to Matthew Gulliver for enabling me to put on an almost authentic Central-Television-style presentation!
Tuesday 30 December 2008
Saturday 6 December 2008
The new ATVLAND.productions Facebook Group
Just to let everyone know that ATVLAND.productions has a brand new Facebook Group.
Please feel free to request to join the group. It is just another way of getting across our Productions message.
We look forward to seeing you there too!
Tuesday 18 November 2008
ATVLAND.productions WELCOMES MIKE PRINCE!
In the past few days, I have had the pleasure of talking to Mike Prince over the telephone.
Mike was first in contact with group colleague Matthew Gulliver in April this year. Mike wanted me to say to everyone that follows the project that he is very keen to participate in our film about ATV/Central, and hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to meet the man himself.
Mike is linking our site to his Facebook page, and as a way of saying a big thanks to him, I want to mention www.piemanradio.com, and any of us who are interested in football may well like to email THE PIE MAN! Check it out, it is a fantastic website.
So, lets all give a warm welcome to Mike. Its great to have you on board.
Monday 27 October 2008
Meeting With A Legend
As many of you will know already, we have been trying to get hold of a host of people who worked at ATV and Central in Birmingham over the years, and have already had great interviews with people like Peter Tomlinson, Bob Carolgees, and Debbie Shore. Over the past few months we have been in touch with several personalities who worked there and hope to be able to get back to them pretty soon to arrange a meeting with them, whereby we can record some more great stories for you, about their time at the ATV Centre....
One of the people I have contacted was ATV and Central legend Shaw Taylor M.B.E. Shaw contacted me back and generously agreed to meeting with us to do an interview. So, last week, Lee, Steve and I went to Birmingham and met up with Shaw at the Hyatt Regency hotel where he was staying. I have to say here, what a wonderful experience it was meeting such a great personality as Shaw, who was so generous with his time and so enthusiastic about talking to us about his time at ATV. Many of you will know that Shaw was a big personality for ATV, he was an announcer, a game show presenter, a Royal correspondent, a panel judge on programmes such as New Faces and Miss ATV and of course presenter for 30 years of Police 5. I know that you will all enjoy hearing what Shaw had to say when the programme is finished. What I can say (without giving too much away) is that, as you would imagine, Shaw recounted his fond memories of ATV and some of the people in the organisation with whom he worked, including Lew Grade no less.
I would like to personally thank Shaw again, for his generosity in the time he gave us and the stories he told us which will enhance our programme no end for you the viewers.... Just for now, here is a small taster for you....
One of the people I have contacted was ATV and Central legend Shaw Taylor M.B.E. Shaw contacted me back and generously agreed to meeting with us to do an interview. So, last week, Lee, Steve and I went to Birmingham and met up with Shaw at the Hyatt Regency hotel where he was staying. I have to say here, what a wonderful experience it was meeting such a great personality as Shaw, who was so generous with his time and so enthusiastic about talking to us about his time at ATV. Many of you will know that Shaw was a big personality for ATV, he was an announcer, a game show presenter, a Royal correspondent, a panel judge on programmes such as New Faces and Miss ATV and of course presenter for 30 years of Police 5. I know that you will all enjoy hearing what Shaw had to say when the programme is finished. What I can say (without giving too much away) is that, as you would imagine, Shaw recounted his fond memories of ATV and some of the people in the organisation with whom he worked, including Lew Grade no less.
I would like to personally thank Shaw again, for his generosity in the time he gave us and the stories he told us which will enhance our programme no end for you the viewers.... Just for now, here is a small taster for you....
Monday 6 October 2008
PRODUCTION REACHES NEW HEIGHTS
Well there seems to have been a lull over the summer since we interviewed Debbie Shore back in August. That doesn't however mean that the team haven't been working away, behind the scenes, on various aspects of the production. We have been doing plenty, but on their own these bits and pieces may not have been worth including here in the blog.....
One thing we have been doing is arranging to interview more people, who you will recognise, for the programme as well as looking to produce more exclusive material for your enjoyment. We are still looking to hear from anyone who worked at ATV Centre between 1969 ad 1997 who can offer us any information or help in making this programme for the fans of ATV and Central in the Midlands.
In trying to make this programme interesting to the audience, we have been looking to generate as much original material as we possibly can, it is intended that this will be both interesting and entertaining for you all. Recently some of our team were granted access to one of the top floors of the Alpha Tower to photograph the studio buildings from an un paralleled
vantage point. We would like to thank Steve Evans at Dandara (the company responsible for the "V Building" project on behalf of Miller Developments) for allowing us into their suite of offices to get this wonderful view which you will, of course, be able to see in the final programme along with a few more .....
So the nights are drawing in, but rest assured, we are still working away at this, and will keep you informed as we go along. It is a project that we are all working on in our spare time, so please bear with us, One thing we can promise though, you will enjoy it, we promise..... !
One thing we have been doing is arranging to interview more people, who you will recognise, for the programme as well as looking to produce more exclusive material for your enjoyment. We are still looking to hear from anyone who worked at ATV Centre between 1969 ad 1997 who can offer us any information or help in making this programme for the fans of ATV and Central in the Midlands.
In trying to make this programme interesting to the audience, we have been looking to generate as much original material as we possibly can, it is intended that this will be both interesting and entertaining for you all. Recently some of our team were granted access to one of the top floors of the Alpha Tower to photograph the studio buildings from an un paralleled
vantage point. We would like to thank Steve Evans at Dandara (the company responsible for the "V Building" project on behalf of Miller Developments) for allowing us into their suite of offices to get this wonderful view which you will, of course, be able to see in the final programme along with a few more .....So the nights are drawing in, but rest assured, we are still working away at this, and will keep you informed as we go along. It is a project that we are all working on in our spare time, so please bear with us, One thing we can promise though, you will enjoy it, we promise..... !
Thursday 7 August 2008
Well, it finally happened!On Tuesday 5th August, Debbie Shore kindly spent an hour and a half talking to Lee Bannister about what ATV and Central meant to her.
From her being crowned Miss ATV back in March 1979, through to Children's ITV, parts in Brookside, Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm, the Carlton version of Crossroads, her time in panto, the Zippy love story, her current stint on shopping television, plus much more!
Interviewer Lee Bannister, cameramen Stephen Thwaites and Peter Raven, and of course the rest of the ATVLAND Productions crew would just like to say a big thanks to Debbie for giving up her valuable time to talk to us.
Debbie definitely had a few stories to share and was great to listen to. Thanks must also go to Dan Baker (Steves work colleague) and Lorna Moore for helping us get in contact with Debbie in the first place.
A true professional. Many thanks again.
Friday 1 August 2008
Rearching moves on apace!
Recently some members of the production team went to the Birmingham Central Library to do some further research. It's amazing what you can find!
We always knew that the Birmingham Post had produced a special edition on the day of the official opening of the centre in 1970. Indeed, a number of sections of this special edition have been published online over the years, but we wanted to actually go back to the original newspaper. This we did and we discovered that it really is an eyeopening piece. It includes excellent articles on the reasons behind the centre being built, the construction process, as well as a great deal of trumpet-blowing from ATV too (it really was a big thing at the time you know). You'll hopefully be able to see bits of this special edition, as well as the original report of Princess Alexandra's visit to the studios (published in the following day's edition) within the final programme.
Peter Thomas concentrated on looking into the Geography of the area around the ATV Centre. He was able to look back to the 19th Century when the area was very different indeed. Pete managed to trace what happened on the site over the course of 100 years, and much of what he discovered can be found on the ATV Forums: Click Here
Did you know that if you take the train into Birmingham from the direction of Wolverhampton, you'll pass directly underneath the exact spot where "Central House" used to stand?
Peter Raven and Stephen Thwaites managed to get hold of some great information and photographs of the area to illustrate just how the Centre came into being, and what the "Broad Street Corner" looked like all those years ago.
While we were there, we also took the opportunity to look up the best way to make a TV programme. We found a number of nice picture books such as "The Complete Guide To Making a Video". I seem to remember reading it when I was at school aged 8. An invaluable tome indeed! Must keep it handy at all times...
Finally a trawl through many old copies of TV Times has revealed a number of interesting features on both ATV and Central during their time at the Centre.
All very useful information, and the whole thing's shaping up nicely.
By the way, there are some very interesting things in the pipeline too at the moment. Watch this space...
We always knew that the Birmingham Post had produced a special edition on the day of the official opening of the centre in 1970. Indeed, a number of sections of this special edition have been published online over the years, but we wanted to actually go back to the original newspaper. This we did and we discovered that it really is an eyeopening piece. It includes excellent articles on the reasons behind the centre being built, the construction process, as well as a great deal of trumpet-blowing from ATV too (it really was a big thing at the time you know). You'll hopefully be able to see bits of this special edition, as well as the original report of Princess Alexandra's visit to the studios (published in the following day's edition) within the final programme.
Peter Thomas concentrated on looking into the Geography of the area around the ATV Centre. He was able to look back to the 19th Century when the area was very different indeed. Pete managed to trace what happened on the site over the course of 100 years, and much of what he discovered can be found on the ATV Forums: Click Here
Did you know that if you take the train into Birmingham from the direction of Wolverhampton, you'll pass directly underneath the exact spot where "Central House" used to stand?
Peter Raven and Stephen Thwaites managed to get hold of some great information and photographs of the area to illustrate just how the Centre came into being, and what the "Broad Street Corner" looked like all those years ago.
While we were there, we also took the opportunity to look up the best way to make a TV programme. We found a number of nice picture books such as "The Complete Guide To Making a Video". I seem to remember reading it when I was at school aged 8. An invaluable tome indeed! Must keep it handy at all times...
Finally a trawl through many old copies of TV Times has revealed a number of interesting features on both ATV and Central during their time at the Centre.
All very useful information, and the whole thing's shaping up nicely.
By the way, there are some very interesting things in the pipeline too at the moment. Watch this space...
Friday 18 July 2008
How did this programme come about?
You might be surprised to learn that this project has a slightly longer history than you think.
The original idea was formulated between a number of members of the ATV Forums in early 2007, and an early meeting was convened between those forum members, who all remain current members of the production team, and TVS Television to thrash out some plans. TVS Television (yes, *THAT* TVS!) had been revived as a production company by a BBC Producer, and it was intended that this programme would be its launch production.
Following that initial meeting, some people will recall various announcements for the programme, which at that stage was going under the working title: "Give My Regards To Broad Street". However, as sometimes happens, various stars and planets aligned, and the project was put on the back burner as the TVS company moved overseas. Eventually it was decided, quite amicably (don't read anything unusual into this - everything's cool!), that TVS would be unable to contribute further to the project and they very reluctantly pulled out.
The members of the production team remained very keen to continue with the project though, and in early 2008, I sounded them out about how best to "reboot" the project. Following some very productive meetings and discussions, the project hit the road once more under a new production banner - ATVLAND.productions
Each member of this 'new' production team has something very valuable to bring to the project, from professional experience to a real passion for the subject. After some discussion, we concluded that the programme should now take on a new name. We wanted something that was truly evocative of the programme we are wanting to produce. My initial suggestion was along the lines of "In Colour: The Story Of ATV Land". Thwaity then refined this into the much more snappy sounding "From ATV Land In Colour".
Apart from sounding like an ATV-produced Bond film (no bad thing!), "From ATV Land In Colour" is so much more evocative of the subject. The ATV Centre is still affectionately known as "ATV Land" in many circles, and the "In Colour" legend will forever be linked to ATV by way of its inclusion in the famous ident at the beginning of colour ATV programmes. Indeed the Colour aspect is all the more important to mention as the ATV Centre was, at the time of its building, the best equipped custom-built television 'factory' in Europe.
Over time, as Pete mentioned, I had gathered together a good amount of behind-the-scenes footage of the ATV Centre 'in action' back in the day, filmed and kindly provided to us by a number of visitors and (dare I say it) fans of ATV and Central over the years. Also, when I visited the ATV Centre in February 2005 to participate in a Central News report about the old studios and the launch of a certain Tiswas related website (Tiswas... Online... surely not!!), I carried with me a camcorder and obtained a good amount of contemporary footage of the place. Then a group of BBC Engineers undertook an official visit to the building in 2006, and have happily given us permission to use the footage which they shot as well at that time.
Over the course of this project, we have been speaking with various figures about conducting further filming inside the studio complex, and we remain hopeful that we may still be able to do so. Though it has to be said that now demolition has begun, which so far has taken away the original Central House frontage, this may prove slightly more difficult... but we'll keep trying.
It's promising to be a very good programme, concentrating on what it was like to work in such a 'television factory' and we hope it'll be a fitting tribute for people to look back on, once the studios have finally disappeared.
The original idea was formulated between a number of members of the ATV Forums in early 2007, and an early meeting was convened between those forum members, who all remain current members of the production team, and TVS Television to thrash out some plans. TVS Television (yes, *THAT* TVS!) had been revived as a production company by a BBC Producer, and it was intended that this programme would be its launch production.
Following that initial meeting, some people will recall various announcements for the programme, which at that stage was going under the working title: "Give My Regards To Broad Street". However, as sometimes happens, various stars and planets aligned, and the project was put on the back burner as the TVS company moved overseas. Eventually it was decided, quite amicably (don't read anything unusual into this - everything's cool!), that TVS would be unable to contribute further to the project and they very reluctantly pulled out.
The members of the production team remained very keen to continue with the project though, and in early 2008, I sounded them out about how best to "reboot" the project. Following some very productive meetings and discussions, the project hit the road once more under a new production banner - ATVLAND.productions
Each member of this 'new' production team has something very valuable to bring to the project, from professional experience to a real passion for the subject. After some discussion, we concluded that the programme should now take on a new name. We wanted something that was truly evocative of the programme we are wanting to produce. My initial suggestion was along the lines of "In Colour: The Story Of ATV Land". Thwaity then refined this into the much more snappy sounding "From ATV Land In Colour".
Apart from sounding like an ATV-produced Bond film (no bad thing!), "From ATV Land In Colour" is so much more evocative of the subject. The ATV Centre is still affectionately known as "ATV Land" in many circles, and the "In Colour" legend will forever be linked to ATV by way of its inclusion in the famous ident at the beginning of colour ATV programmes. Indeed the Colour aspect is all the more important to mention as the ATV Centre was, at the time of its building, the best equipped custom-built television 'factory' in Europe.
Over time, as Pete mentioned, I had gathered together a good amount of behind-the-scenes footage of the ATV Centre 'in action' back in the day, filmed and kindly provided to us by a number of visitors and (dare I say it) fans of ATV and Central over the years. Also, when I visited the ATV Centre in February 2005 to participate in a Central News report about the old studios and the launch of a certain Tiswas related website (Tiswas... Online... surely not!!), I carried with me a camcorder and obtained a good amount of contemporary footage of the place. Then a group of BBC Engineers undertook an official visit to the building in 2006, and have happily given us permission to use the footage which they shot as well at that time.
Over the course of this project, we have been speaking with various figures about conducting further filming inside the studio complex, and we remain hopeful that we may still be able to do so. Though it has to be said that now demolition has begun, which so far has taken away the original Central House frontage, this may prove slightly more difficult... but we'll keep trying.
It's promising to be a very good programme, concentrating on what it was like to work in such a 'television factory' and we hope it'll be a fitting tribute for people to look back on, once the studios have finally disappeared.
Thursday 17 July 2008
Writing about the History
Where do you start in telling the story of one of the most iconic places in British television history? Reading other peoples works, looking in the history pages of the books in the library, talking to people who know different bits of things, and then compiling it into some sort of order, I suppose that's how to start.... There has been a lot written over the years about the history of ITV in the midlands, and about ATV, one thing we don't want to do is simply copy what other people have already written.
To that end we will use the available works and documents to supplement what we already know about the move from black and white beginnings at Aston, to the new purpose built studios on Bridge Street. The plan is to complement the words that we create with some interesting visuals which won't be the 'standard' clips that have been used in similar programmes. We aim to bring to the screen a story which will, for the first time, be told by those involved in it, using exclusive footage from various sources, and supplement that with archive material if we can.
Back to the story then, and it has been an interesting voyage of discovery for me, looking into the history of not only ATV in the midlands, but of the site in Birmingham used to build the ATV Centre. It continues to throw up more surprises, the further you look into it.... The books I have looked at contain a wealth of interesting pictures, but we are looking for more original pictures where possible, which will show the site before, during and after construction, and if possible moving film footage too... We are constantly trying to add to the story of how the place which brought us some of the finest programmes in the 70's and 80's came into being, so if you can help get in touch....
To that end we will use the available works and documents to supplement what we already know about the move from black and white beginnings at Aston, to the new purpose built studios on Bridge Street. The plan is to complement the words that we create with some interesting visuals which won't be the 'standard' clips that have been used in similar programmes. We aim to bring to the screen a story which will, for the first time, be told by those involved in it, using exclusive footage from various sources, and supplement that with archive material if we can.
Back to the story then, and it has been an interesting voyage of discovery for me, looking into the history of not only ATV in the midlands, but of the site in Birmingham used to build the ATV Centre. It continues to throw up more surprises, the further you look into it.... The books I have looked at contain a wealth of interesting pictures, but we are looking for more original pictures where possible, which will show the site before, during and after construction, and if possible moving film footage too... We are constantly trying to add to the story of how the place which brought us some of the finest programmes in the 70's and 80's came into being, so if you can help get in touch....
Wednesday 16 July 2008
Here, there and everywhere...
You'd think doing a documentary about a television studio complex in Birmingham would mean staying confined within the West Midlands.
How wrong you'd be, as this project isn't just about filming the outside and inside of the actual building, it also has to include contributions from folk who worked there - in front of, and behind the cameras. This means travelling extraordinary lengths up and down Britain to interview folk. We're even involving those who appeared in the audience for some of the seminal shows shot there, as long as they have a worthy story to tell.
I've spent the odd weekend well out of the midlands in order to get some exclusive footage for From ATVLand In Colour. Memorable moments include having a pub dinner with Bob Carolgees up in Cheshire, chatting with a friend's dad in Sheffield about his time as an extra in the Aston studios and how he got his son onto Tiswas using his contacts at ATV.
Moments I'd rather forget, would include spending an hour locating the former Central Television studios in Nottingham, for just a few seconds of footage. It wasn't the expensive taxi ride to the desolate industrial estate that deterred me, but I was disappointed at how it's nearly impossible to get a decent shot of the place. Okay, so we're only using it for a matter of seconds to illustrate how Central gradually moved out of Broad Street during the 1980s, yet it took ages wandering right around a soulless block of warehouses to pick the best angles I could find.
Back in Birmingham, things seem much better. The studio complex is right in the centre of the metropolis, so it's nice to pop over to a nearby pub (The relatively cheap Solomon Cutler serves as a nice mobile production base) and we don't have the hassle or expense that you'd have in London.
Popping over to Brum only costs me a tenner, and it's always an interesting experience. There's still stuff to be shot, like the old Aston studios just up the road, and some angles of ITV Central's current HQ in Gas Street. Again, these are only to illustrate points in the history of the midlands broadcaster.
Last time we were in Birmingham, we were larking with custard pies about in Bridge Street - where the main entrance to ATV was - all for a daft photoshoot for the ATVLand.net website. We flanned one of the younger members (the 14 year old son of forum regular Gill) which was caught on video camera. Playing it back revealed how close it was to recreating Tiswas, as they too used the exact same outdoor area for occasional sketches. Not that we're going to recreate classic ATV/Central shows for this DVD, as we're poor actors, but it'd serve as something useful for a trailer, an extra or something.
How wrong you'd be, as this project isn't just about filming the outside and inside of the actual building, it also has to include contributions from folk who worked there - in front of, and behind the cameras. This means travelling extraordinary lengths up and down Britain to interview folk. We're even involving those who appeared in the audience for some of the seminal shows shot there, as long as they have a worthy story to tell.
I've spent the odd weekend well out of the midlands in order to get some exclusive footage for From ATVLand In Colour. Memorable moments include having a pub dinner with Bob Carolgees up in Cheshire, chatting with a friend's dad in Sheffield about his time as an extra in the Aston studios and how he got his son onto Tiswas using his contacts at ATV.
Moments I'd rather forget, would include spending an hour locating the former Central Television studios in Nottingham, for just a few seconds of footage. It wasn't the expensive taxi ride to the desolate industrial estate that deterred me, but I was disappointed at how it's nearly impossible to get a decent shot of the place. Okay, so we're only using it for a matter of seconds to illustrate how Central gradually moved out of Broad Street during the 1980s, yet it took ages wandering right around a soulless block of warehouses to pick the best angles I could find.
Back in Birmingham, things seem much better. The studio complex is right in the centre of the metropolis, so it's nice to pop over to a nearby pub (The relatively cheap Solomon Cutler serves as a nice mobile production base) and we don't have the hassle or expense that you'd have in London.
Popping over to Brum only costs me a tenner, and it's always an interesting experience. There's still stuff to be shot, like the old Aston studios just up the road, and some angles of ITV Central's current HQ in Gas Street. Again, these are only to illustrate points in the history of the midlands broadcaster.
Last time we were in Birmingham, we were larking with custard pies about in Bridge Street - where the main entrance to ATV was - all for a daft photoshoot for the ATVLand.net website. We flanned one of the younger members (the 14 year old son of forum regular Gill) which was caught on video camera. Playing it back revealed how close it was to recreating Tiswas, as they too used the exact same outdoor area for occasional sketches. Not that we're going to recreate classic ATV/Central shows for this DVD, as we're poor actors, but it'd serve as something useful for a trailer, an extra or something.
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Press Release (from June 2008)
Press Release from ATVLAND.productions
Classic television, remembering the ATV Centre in a brand new documentary.
A brand new documentary is being produced to mark the end of the road for a Midlands television landmark which is due for demolition soon.
The ATV Centre (aka Central Studios) on Broad Street in Birmingham has been closed for a decade and demolition work finally began in 2008 to make way for a proposed leisure and entertainment complex. During its heyday of the 1970s and 1980s it was a hub of activity for the high-profile Midlands television company ATV, and later Central Television until the company moved out of the premises and round the corner to their current home on Gas Street.
Many classic TV shows were made at the ATV Centre, and are so fondly remembered today that a number of their fans wanted to come together to produce a fitting tribute programme which will remember the old studios with pride. Shows such as Crossroads, Tiswas, The Golden Shot, Boon, Bullseye, Blockbusters and of course ATV Today and Central News, were made at the centre over a period of almost 30 years.
The team from ATVLAND.productions will tell the story of the ATV Centre from its beginnings as Europe’s most advanced Colour Television Production Complex at the end of the 1960s, through to its closure in the late 1990s, and final demolition which is currently going on. There will be brand new interviews from people closely associated with the Centre, including some familiar faces, as well as images and film from the archives and numerous private collections. The production team are keen to hear from anyone who may be able to contribute to the making of the programme.
The programme’s Producer, Lee Bannister, said: “We’re looking for anyone who ever had anything to do with the ATV Centre / Central Studios as a TV production complex! From producers to researchers to directors to cleaners to performers and artistes to visitors and audience members, we’d love to talk to as many people as we can! As long as they’re willing to share their memories, we’re happy to listen!”
Executive Producer, Stephen Thwaites said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for one of the most loved studio complexes in the UK. To see the place in such a sorry state nowadays really makes this the right time to remember all those fantastic programmes that were made in there, as well as all those talented people who helped create them all.”
More information on the programme will be available at www.atvland.net where visitors can also visit the partner websites www.tiswasonline.com and www.crossroadsfanclub.co.uk
The programme will be available by the end of the year from each of the above partners’ websites – with exclusive extras!
The programme’s production team can be contacted via email: projects@atvland.net
Monday 14 July 2008
Phoenix from the fame
So, a programme about a lump of old concrete in Brum? Well, it's so much more than that. ATV Centre was the home of the finest shows to come from the midlands, and these programmes are much-loved, not just in the centre of England, but all over the UK, and the world.
Britain's second city now has no major television studios. It's a side-effect from a couple of things that have revolutionised the media world, for better or worse.
The low-cost of modern technology means that you can get broadcast-quality hand-held camcorders, thus making outdoor filming much more attractive than the hassle of booking a studio, rigging up lights, constructing a set, organising an audience, etc.
Added to the woes of traditional broadcasters, is the fact that multichannel television is no longer the laughing stock it was in the early 90s. Gone are the jokes about the Sky TV dustbin lids on a council house, as BSkyB are now the country's biggest commercial TV business. Plus, the Freeview success story means you can pop down your supermarket to get a £15 box to add 40 channels to your telly, forever (theoretically).
With so much competition for your eyeballs, the traditional terrestrials have been emulating their digital rivals.
Reality TV, the antithesis of scriptwriting and the saviour of many a Z-list celeb's career, is ubiquitious as it takes over the schedules. You'd have thought seeing Christopher Biggins eating kangaroo testicles on primetime ITV would have been straight out of a Roger Melly comic strip.
Those cheap hand-held cameras, have created an incentive for lifestyle shows where a viewer's home becomes the 'studio'.
So where are the shiny floors, illuminated steps and roaring audiences of the TV studio? Since the merger of Granada and Carlton, the beautiful patchwork quilt of ITV regions has become decimated in the quest to make savings, and to go virtually national, leaving only the 'necessary' studios behind, and to place a lot of staff at regional outposts, on the dole queue.
In the chase to become more like Sky, ITV has squandered millions on football in a futile digital project (OnDigital) and all the conventional channels are also guilty of seeking the same cost-effective business model found from digital-only channels.
When you strive to be like Living, Bravo or Sky One, be prepared to have those kind of audience figures. In the late 1990s, Noel's House Party was a much-mocked ailing series, previously a flagship must-see show, but audiences had declined to 6 million, so it was axed. These days, any show reaching those figures on any of the five main channels, is hailed as a success.
Recently, an observation was made. If you took off Coronation Street and Emmerdale from ITV1, the ratings for the channel were almost identical to that of Channel Four. That's all the channel really has going for it at the moment.
Critics may scoff at studio-based programming, with cheesy hosts, swimsuited glamour girls draped over prize cars, house bands and sycophantic chat shows. Yet television studio shows are the ones that remain in your head. Yes, they're expensive, but that's part of the attraction. When a blonde bimbo snogs some dweeb on Big Brother, that's in the nation's conscience for only a week at best, becoming yesterday's Heat magazine.
ITV in their present format have really stripped themselves to the bone. Sensibly, they've kept open the Manchester and Leeds operations, because they know it's Corrie and Emmerdale keeping them going. In a way, I bet some ex-Central management have regretted their decision to kill off Crossroads by death of a thousand cuts.
So, going back to Birmingham, it's been home to Family Fortunes, Blockbusters, Bullseye, The Price Is Right, Spitting Image, Crossroads, and my own personal favourite, Tiswas. No matter what you think of these shows, each of them have made a mark in television history, and are more fondly remembered than current dross such as Who Dare Sings or SoapStar SuperStar.
What really spurred us on to do this project, is that the former ATV/Central studios themselves are to be literally gone pretty soon. The place is to swept under Birmingham's ongoing modernisation, to become another swish shopping centre, not unlike the Mailbox.
Earlier this year, when the Central House was undergoing demolition, we decided to re-ignite this project, in fear that the studios themselves were going to face the wrecker's ball. We've had the idea of creating a DVD about the studio complex from back in 2007, thanks to former BBC staffer Keith Jacobsen, who planted the seed for this, in the form of 'Give My Regards To Broad Street'.
In a strange twist of fate, it seems that the credit crunch has kept the studios standing for the meantime. We don't know if they'll be reduced to rubble by Christmas, but we are aiming to have our DVD out by then anyway!
Having been involved with the TiswasOnline website since founding it back in 2004 (with some healthy interest from ITV Central and BBC West Midlands at our launch), I've acquired some second-hand knowledge from folks such as Bob Carolgees, Gordon Astley and behind-the-scenes workers. We've filmed interviews with such folk, and rather than keep them confined for us to transcribe, we've found it best to use for this DVD project. Other material comes from us filming the building over the years, including the time I went on the Birmingham Wheel (think of the London Eye but much smaller!), grabbing some previously unobtainable camera angles that look practically like aerial shots.
Since the project has been reopened, I've been up and down the country doing specially filmed material. With Stephen Thwaites being a very talented designer, and my background in editing and research, we're off to a great start. But we can't take all the credit either. Local boy Lee Bannister has got his hands on some rare footage shot inside the studios in its dying days of 1997, plus we have tonnes of ATV/Central publicity material courtesy of TV memorabilia collector Matthew Gulliver.
It doesn't end there, we have photography on a professional scale from Alex Fryer, and TV enthusiasts such as Peter Raven, and Crossroads Appreciation Society's Mike Garrett on board. Dave Jefferies, a designer and animator who has worked for ITV in the past, is also helping us out.
While the irony is we're using the same low-cost hand-held technology that killed off many much-loved ITV regions, we're doing it with a sense of style. It's not a bunch of anoraks wondering round the outside of the studios for an hour with a wobbly camcorder out of the specials bin at Argos. A lot of us have been inside on official invitations in the past few years, and there's a magical atmosphere there that we're doing our best to put across in our DVD, using professional software and a contacts book that includes a lot of big names from Central and ATV.
Stay with us for the ride!
Peter Thomas
co-editor/researcher
ATVLand.productions
Britain's second city now has no major television studios. It's a side-effect from a couple of things that have revolutionised the media world, for better or worse.
The low-cost of modern technology means that you can get broadcast-quality hand-held camcorders, thus making outdoor filming much more attractive than the hassle of booking a studio, rigging up lights, constructing a set, organising an audience, etc.
Added to the woes of traditional broadcasters, is the fact that multichannel television is no longer the laughing stock it was in the early 90s. Gone are the jokes about the Sky TV dustbin lids on a council house, as BSkyB are now the country's biggest commercial TV business. Plus, the Freeview success story means you can pop down your supermarket to get a £15 box to add 40 channels to your telly, forever (theoretically).
With so much competition for your eyeballs, the traditional terrestrials have been emulating their digital rivals.
Reality TV, the antithesis of scriptwriting and the saviour of many a Z-list celeb's career, is ubiquitious as it takes over the schedules. You'd have thought seeing Christopher Biggins eating kangaroo testicles on primetime ITV would have been straight out of a Roger Melly comic strip.
Those cheap hand-held cameras, have created an incentive for lifestyle shows where a viewer's home becomes the 'studio'.
So where are the shiny floors, illuminated steps and roaring audiences of the TV studio? Since the merger of Granada and Carlton, the beautiful patchwork quilt of ITV regions has become decimated in the quest to make savings, and to go virtually national, leaving only the 'necessary' studios behind, and to place a lot of staff at regional outposts, on the dole queue.
In the chase to become more like Sky, ITV has squandered millions on football in a futile digital project (OnDigital) and all the conventional channels are also guilty of seeking the same cost-effective business model found from digital-only channels.
When you strive to be like Living, Bravo or Sky One, be prepared to have those kind of audience figures. In the late 1990s, Noel's House Party was a much-mocked ailing series, previously a flagship must-see show, but audiences had declined to 6 million, so it was axed. These days, any show reaching those figures on any of the five main channels, is hailed as a success.
Recently, an observation was made. If you took off Coronation Street and Emmerdale from ITV1, the ratings for the channel were almost identical to that of Channel Four. That's all the channel really has going for it at the moment.
Critics may scoff at studio-based programming, with cheesy hosts, swimsuited glamour girls draped over prize cars, house bands and sycophantic chat shows. Yet television studio shows are the ones that remain in your head. Yes, they're expensive, but that's part of the attraction. When a blonde bimbo snogs some dweeb on Big Brother, that's in the nation's conscience for only a week at best, becoming yesterday's Heat magazine.
ITV in their present format have really stripped themselves to the bone. Sensibly, they've kept open the Manchester and Leeds operations, because they know it's Corrie and Emmerdale keeping them going. In a way, I bet some ex-Central management have regretted their decision to kill off Crossroads by death of a thousand cuts.
So, going back to Birmingham, it's been home to Family Fortunes, Blockbusters, Bullseye, The Price Is Right, Spitting Image, Crossroads, and my own personal favourite, Tiswas. No matter what you think of these shows, each of them have made a mark in television history, and are more fondly remembered than current dross such as Who Dare Sings or SoapStar SuperStar.
What really spurred us on to do this project, is that the former ATV/Central studios themselves are to be literally gone pretty soon. The place is to swept under Birmingham's ongoing modernisation, to become another swish shopping centre, not unlike the Mailbox.
Earlier this year, when the Central House was undergoing demolition, we decided to re-ignite this project, in fear that the studios themselves were going to face the wrecker's ball. We've had the idea of creating a DVD about the studio complex from back in 2007, thanks to former BBC staffer Keith Jacobsen, who planted the seed for this, in the form of 'Give My Regards To Broad Street'.
In a strange twist of fate, it seems that the credit crunch has kept the studios standing for the meantime. We don't know if they'll be reduced to rubble by Christmas, but we are aiming to have our DVD out by then anyway!
Having been involved with the TiswasOnline website since founding it back in 2004 (with some healthy interest from ITV Central and BBC West Midlands at our launch), I've acquired some second-hand knowledge from folks such as Bob Carolgees, Gordon Astley and behind-the-scenes workers. We've filmed interviews with such folk, and rather than keep them confined for us to transcribe, we've found it best to use for this DVD project. Other material comes from us filming the building over the years, including the time I went on the Birmingham Wheel (think of the London Eye but much smaller!), grabbing some previously unobtainable camera angles that look practically like aerial shots.
Since the project has been reopened, I've been up and down the country doing specially filmed material. With Stephen Thwaites being a very talented designer, and my background in editing and research, we're off to a great start. But we can't take all the credit either. Local boy Lee Bannister has got his hands on some rare footage shot inside the studios in its dying days of 1997, plus we have tonnes of ATV/Central publicity material courtesy of TV memorabilia collector Matthew Gulliver.
It doesn't end there, we have photography on a professional scale from Alex Fryer, and TV enthusiasts such as Peter Raven, and Crossroads Appreciation Society's Mike Garrett on board. Dave Jefferies, a designer and animator who has worked for ITV in the past, is also helping us out.
While the irony is we're using the same low-cost hand-held technology that killed off many much-loved ITV regions, we're doing it with a sense of style. It's not a bunch of anoraks wondering round the outside of the studios for an hour with a wobbly camcorder out of the specials bin at Argos. A lot of us have been inside on official invitations in the past few years, and there's a magical atmosphere there that we're doing our best to put across in our DVD, using professional software and a contacts book that includes a lot of big names from Central and ATV.
Stay with us for the ride!
Peter Thomas
co-editor/researcher
ATVLand.productions
Sunday 13 July 2008
Welcome to the ATVLAND.productions Blog!
Hello everyone!
Well this is the new ATVLAND.productions minisite blog which will keep you all informed about the forthcoming production entitled FROM ATVLAND IN COLOUR.
Please keep checking for further updates.
Regards
Stephen
atvland.productions group member
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)