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.