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.