Tour round BBC Television Centre

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/televisioncentre.shtml

Yesterday ABJ and I went on a tour around the BBC Television Centre. The tour began at 4.30pm and I'd booked our £7.50 tickets earlier in the week by phone.

We arrived at the reception and waited with the rest of the tour group until our guide arrived. The group consisted of 6 teenage students on a school trip, their two teachers and a mother and young son Zack.

At last our tour guide Kevin arrived and took a roll-call to check everybody was there. He then led us out and to the main entrance where we were subjected to an airport-style security check before being given a "tour pass". We were then led closer to the building and given a short introduction to the tour.

We were shown a large anonymous wall and told that it was the side wall to Studio 1 - their biggest TV studio, about the size of half a football pitch.
We were then shown a TARDIS and encouraged to take photos. Kevin introduced our other tour guide and he showed us into the building and through to the news centre.

We arrived into a conference room which overlooked the news room. Since it was a Saturday the building wasn't fully-staffed and, of the few people we could see working ABJ spied one was on facebook... We were given a few facts and figures about the building. There are usually 8,000 people working on site and 2,000 of them in the news centre (which was a relatively new addition to the complex).

Some points of interest included the planning department, the BBC's own travel agency (which can get journalists anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat) and an area where there at two shifts, both 3 'til 3!

After the news area we were shown out to what used to be the main entrance when the centre was opening in the early 1960s. Since it was a nice sunny day we then left by the "stage door" and stood outside in the middle of the circular centre of the building. Apparently this was "hallowed ground" in the sense that no-one was allowed to drive there. Only 3 people have done do so: the Queen, Jeremy Clarkson and Jennifer Lopez.We heard all about the invention of TV and how the BBC was approached by John Logie Baird to do some test transmissions (since the BBC already broadcast radio). During World War II all TV was put on hold so the BBC could concentrate on radio. Apparently TV transmission stopped in the middle of a cartoon and restarted 6 years later with a woman announcing "We're sorry for the interruption". There were three pretty statues representing Light, Sound and Vision.

We also heard about the design of the television centre. This was to be the world's first dedicated TV centre. The architect was brought into design it was stuck for a while because his building had to fit onto an awkward triangular piece of land. At last he had a breakthrough and designed the building to be question-mark shaped...

The tour continued into a real live TV studio - Studio 4. This was a surreal experience. We walking into the large echoless space which had a dark black floor, immense lighting rig on the ceiling and plenty of control switches on the walls. This type of studio was designed by the architect to be a kind of "television factory". It was the first in the world and was so successful that all subsequent studios worldwide are based on it.The lighting rig had hundreds of lights each one of which could be individually positioned.
For shows with an audience there was seating that came out from the wall. The floor was divided into 2 foot squares with coordinates so that sets could be accurately planned and placed precisely in the right places.
Perhaps the most strange part of the whole place was the fact that for every single show they paint the entire floor, i.e. before a show starts they get huge brushes and paint the floor, they then set up the show, film it, pack away the show and then clean off the paint from the floor. This troublesome-sounding activity is done each time to ensure the floor is totally smooth so that as cameras glide around they don't bump up and down (apparently this would translate to a big wobble on screen even if the bump is small). I was initially shocked by the waste of all the paint and solvent but then they revealed that they convert it into fertiliser and sell it.

We left the studio and went upstairs to the BBC weather centre. Here we heard about how weather forecasters are each trained meteorologists who write there own scripts and have to make as many as 130 forecasts a day (for all all over the world)! It sounded like a lonely life - they film their forecasts in a small automated studio with no other humans around... There was a long corridor with photos of the presenters.While we stood in the corridor Kevin explained the use of green-screen special effects technology. We even had a chance to play with presenting the weather - Zack did a good job telling us about the rain in Hong Kong.

After the weather centre we were led to a celebrity green room - the fancy rooms that hold celebrities before they appear on a TV show. This was fairly plush with nice seating and subdued lighting. We heard all about the fantastic demands some celebrities make - e.g. Madonna wanted a portrait of the Pope. Apparently the stars themselves pay for this afterwards (ABJ and I speculated whether the stars are told they'll be charged before they make their big demands).

The tour finished off in an "interactive studio" where we could play at making a TV show. This was similar to the radio studio at the end of the Broadcasting House tour. Zack had a go at reading the news and three of the students took part in a kind of Weakest Link quiz show. This was a fun end to the tour and Zack and the quiz winners got BBC mugs for prizes.The final stop was the BBC shop where we could buy souvenirs. ABJ and I are now considering being in a TV show audience.

Summary: Good fun. The best bit was the TV studio.

Tour round BBC Broadcasting House

Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/details/details_bh.shtml

Today I went on a tour around BBC Broadcasting House. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me.

To go on a tour you have to book in advance so I already had my £4.40 student ticket with me when I set off. I arrived just before my 2.10pm tour and was told to take a seat with the other people in the group. I sat in the plush waiting area and started to look through the BBC in-house magazine: Ariel. One particularly interesting story was by a novelist trying to encourage the BBC to do more to promote science. He said "I know only a tiny bit of science and nobody holds it against me... Maybe they should". Well... I hold it against you. But anyway...

At the start time for the tour we were welcomed by our two tour guides: Sarah and Adrian. They checked us off a list and then got us to write our names on a sheet of paper "in case there is an evacuation". We were then taken back outside by Adrian and stood on the steps of All Souls Church to face the Broadcasting House building.

He ran through the history of the nice art-deco building from it's official opening in 1932 to the present redevelopment. Above the main entrance stands a prominent statue of Ariel and Prospero from the Shakespeare play the Tempest:This was sculpted by Eric Gill (who also made the typeface for the current BBC logo: Gill Sans) and there were suggestions that it was really depicting God and Son. The sculptor apparently told people that there was a secret in the work that would not be discovered until the building was knocked down. Well, too bad for him but during some restoration work they put a camera behind the statue of Prospero and found a hidden carving of a woman's face. Weird.The building has been likened to a top hat (with the rim being the pavement) or a ship sailing down Regent Street.

We finished looking at the outside and then went back to reception. Here we got to see the original octagonal BBC logo made as a mosaic in the floor. Originally the BBC stood for British Broadcasting Company before it became British Broadcasting Corporation. I'm not too clear on the difference. We then set off through security, to the toilets and then on our way...

First stop was the Radio Theatre. This sits in the centre of the building with offices wrapped around its outside. In the past few years it's been renovated to make it more accessible. This involved raising the floor by about 2 metres. We all sat in theatre-style seats and looked at the stage which had a few plain chairs on it. Everywhere microphones and speakers hung from the ceiling. We were told that most radio shows are pre-recorded now and a lot of them are recorded in the Radio Theatre. We saw a photo of the theatre being used as a bomb shelter during World War II - with men and women separated by a big curtain at night time. The building was actually hit by a bomb in WWII during a news announcement...

The next stop was by the (renovated but original) lifts. Here we saw a huge tapestry that had been given to the BBC by France to honour the BBC for it's help to the French resistance. We then visited the plush Council Chamber where all the BBC's decisions are made.

We then took the stairs up to some recording studios. This was my first time inside a recording studio and I was impressed. Although it wasn't as flashy as I'd imagined (if anything it was a bit cramped when all our group was in there) it looked like it was used by people who know how to do their job well. The walls were designed to avoid reverberating sounds and there were synchronised clocks everywhere you looked so people can announce the correct time-check on air. The studio we were in is where "Woman's Hour" and "You and Yours" are recorded. We visited another recording studio (where "Poetry Please" is recorded) before arriving at a bigger studio that had a piano and "enough space for a small orchestra".

We then went to the top of the building and out onto a little roof terrace. This was really nice and had a fantastic view. We were told about how the BBC was in Phase One of the redevelopment of the area. This included, for example, a Persian and Arabic broadcasting building next door. Unfortunately it began to rain so we went back inside and were told in more detail about the "Breathing Sculpture" on the roof:This was made as a memorial to all the journalists and crew that have been killed in war-reporting. The text that spirals down the cone says:

life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body

silence is a voice, our voice
silence is a body, our body

life turns and turns on the crystal glass
breathing in our body

I invite you to breathe
I invite you to listen to the silence

We then went down to the most fun part of the tour. Our group got to record a mini radio drama. Six volunteers were chosen to either read parts of a script or do electronic or physical sound-effects (e.g. corks popping or gongs bonging). The story of the drama was about a couple breaking down on a dark country road and walking to a spooky country house for help. The butler ominously welcomes them in, gives them champagne and then says "It's time for dinner... and the dinner is YOU!".

We watched them perform it and then listened to it again. It sounded impressively professional on the played back version - apart from some mix-ups with the sound effects and some badly delivered lines. The star of the show was the "Annoucer/Butler" played by a deep-voiced German man. He sounded very professional and really delivered his lines well.

We then returned to the reception, returned our customer satisfaction forms and departed.

Summary: Very interesting - would recommend to anyone who's ever listened to the BBC radio stations.