Sticking the pieces together

The sun's out, the clocks have changed and we're out of 'hibernation'! As a cameraman, one of the frustating things about winter is the short amount of daylight you get. One of my plans for the documentary was to spend a day in London filming relevant places to illustrate key points in the history of ATV/Central.

Obviously, we're still focusing on the Broad Street studios in Birmingham, but it does help to have a few shots here and there of external influences. So, ATV's old HQ in Great Cumberland Place and the transmission centre in Foley Street are just two places I'll be filming.

Then we have some offbeat locations. Shopping channel QVC's current home - Marcopolo House in Chelsea - may not seem like an obvious priority, but a few seconds of that will be needed, as it was the former home of BSB - a broadcaster that commissioned sci-fi opera Jupiter Moon from Central, itself made at Broad Street.

Let's not forget that Marcopolo House was also home to the ill-fated ON Digital. Thankfully that's a footnote in broadcasting history, something we'll give the briefest of mentions to when it comes to wrapping up the post-active years of Broad Street's studios. We do aim to give a concise look at how television has changed since the last pictures were TX'ed out of the place. Maybe it'll come off as a little pessimistic, what with the modern-day ITV system looking very much different, even when compared to Broad Street's final active year, 1997.

It's quite easy to take a dim view of the way the media world is now, where there's 57 channels and nothing on. Not that we're bidding to be the new Grumpy Old Men. There's still quality around if you look for it.

I've spent the winter break collecting up pieces of footage. With an incredibly massive hard drive, an Apple iMac and several evenings to spare, I dumped down various stuff I've shot over the past four years. Admittedly, a lot was filmed for usage on the TiswasOnline website, but the vast majority of it has still never seen the light of day, and is truly relevant to the Broad Street documentary.

My other colleagues - Stephen Thwaites and Pete Raven - have been just as busy. We collated all our footage at the recent ATVLand meeting in Birmingham, so I can say I've had the privilege of viewing their interviews in full. Plenty of astonishing revelations about how ATV/Central/Carlton worked, from the 1950s, up to the point of Carlton-era Crossroads crashing and burning at Lenton Lane in the early Noughties. There's some jaw-dropping stuff in there, ranging from the warm friendly atmosphere of Sir Lew Grade's operation, to the catastrophic 'bean-counter' days of Carlton. I learnt that Crossroads basically kept Central going as a major player in the 1980s, and whatever you think of the soap, you only have to look at Central's output post-1988 to see how its force had diminished.

As a mark of respect to Crossroads, it's featuring a fair bit throughout our tribute to the Broad Street studios. It's a show that began before a single slab of concrete formed B1 2JP, and resurfaced in a zombie-like fashion years after the shutters came down on Broad Street.

Those of you who never enjoyed the goings on at King's Oak, fear not, as our documentary delves into plenty of other shows. We're not just talking of Tiswas, as we have a plethora of other shows that are already covered by the interviews we've accumulated!

The recent meet was also good, as ATVLand.productions members saw the final draft of the 'early years' script. This was put together by Roddy Buxton and Pete Raven, and it's been intensively researched. Every paragraph is laden with facts and there's clearly passion driving this mission-to-explain. I'm glad we're seeing the script at last, as this gives us direction.

As I read the script for the first time, I could already 'see' the documentary in my mind's eye. My Mac was switched off, but I was already doing an edit in my head! I instinctively felt which bits of my interviews could fit where. There's also the need to shoot new scenes. The jigsaw is coming together.

While the story of the early era from Roddy and Pete easily satisfies the 'anoraks', we'll also weave in some entertaining views of ATV and Central. Stuff like soap opera stars ad-libbing with a bunch of wigs, Hue & Cry causing an upset on live children's television and Lew Grade deliberately not copyrighting an ATV production so other regions could copy it in the name of public service.

Well, I began this blog post by opining how the sunny days are more than welcome, and I hope April is free from downpours as I'm off to London to do a few shoots, and there's also some other places down south where we're doing some interviews. We can't mention any names yet, but they're really impressive!

Production at a Crossroads?

Now that Christmas (and all the fun and games that entails) is over, the team have been getting on with things, firstly with an improved script being written mainly by Roddy Buxton, who has a vast knowledge of the ATV Centre and of broadcasting in general. Roddy is a lighting man by trade, and has worked on plenty of programmes including Ashes to Ashes and the forthcoming drama Red Riding. Roddy's knowledge of the ATV centre has already led to some feature articles on the Transdifusion website www.transdiffusion.org and so he has taken over where I left off with writing the story of this great television complex, enhancing the original draft with plenty of details.

The team as a whole have a new sense of direction, and as time and discussions have gone on, the focus has been more on how we can make this programme as interesting and informative to the viewer as possible and remind them of the fabulous contribution to British television made by the people who worked at the ATV Centre.

To that end we have been arranging more interviews with people you will recognise from over the years, the latest generous interviewee being a star from a particular Motel soap opera - I am not going to say too much as yet, but I can promise you that it was a fabulous and informative interview. In addition we have recently made arrangements to speak to one or two other famous faces from the presentation department of ATV and Central about their time there. More will hopefully be following and we will be busying ourself right through the spring and summer getting as many contributions 'in the can' as possible.

So lots to do still, but we are making great progress. Next week some of us are off again, filming in the midlands, it is certainly keeping us busy!!