Bill Jenkin
Where were the first “Dad’s Army”s (1968) recorded?
David Brunt
All the “Dad’s Army” books list them as all being recorded at TVC. Studio 3 or 6, usually.
Phillip Tyler, Mike McCarthy
The Pilot episode/Show 1 of Series 1 was recorded on Monday 15th April in the relatively capacious Studio 4 at Television Centre before an audience of approximately 320 people’.
The discussion had started as there had been a suggestion that “Dad’s Army” had been telerecorded at Lime Grove.
Dave Plowman
I don’t remember any sit com ever being made at Lime Grove in my time at the BBC – late 1962 onwards. Did they even have suitable audience seating there? It would be a big job to move it from TC.
David Brunt
Didn’t Lime Grove Studio H have audience seating? Albeit set up for concerts.
They must have had audiences for “Hancock” episodes in the 1950s. Whatever studio that was at LG.
Bill Jenkin
H was the experimental colour studio from the earlyish 1960s certainly until the main studios were colourised. Then it became TMS.
They used studio G mid to late 1960s for some audience shows but I don’t remember any sitcoms (“Twice a Fortnight”, “How it Is” etc -Tony Palmer type arts shows – and there was “Talkback” which was where people could complain about programmes to the makers with David Coleman in the chair, that used an audience rostrum.
In fact I remember watching that at home and spotted Al Thorpe in the audience and wondered what he was going to comment on. At that point someone started talking behind him and his hand came up holding a rifle mike which he proceeded to point over his shoulder!
Dave Plowman
Yes – I can remember some audience shows in LG too. But a sit-com really needs a decent sized audience, since its purpose is to get the reaction. Before the days of dubbing, of course!
Bernie Newnham
“Dee Time” was in G with audience, but I would have thought that the studio was too narrow for use on sitcoms – lots of the action would have had to have been in a second row of sets.
Dave Plowman
There could also be the problem of where a large audience is going to queue and then actually getting them into the studio. LG wouldn’t be ideal for this if there were alternatives.
Geoff Fletcher
I worked on “Twice a Fortnight” in Studio G with Dave Mutton’s Crew 14 every Sunday from 15 October 1967 to 17 December 1967. There was an audience on each show. Tony Palmer directed all but one. Here is part of my diary entry for the first one:-
| Sunday 15th October 1967 | Notes | ||
|
… Work – a new comedy show directed by Tony Palmer – quite a funny programme. We had to be part of it all and wear costumes so we each got our name on the end captions. Sadly, the audience was terrible, a very po faced lot. Bill Oddie and the rest of the company were very depressed at the end and we all went down to S8 for wine and ‘widges to cheer up. … |
0 Miles G: “Twice a Fortnight” Crew 14 – Dave Mutton Camera 5 |
Chris Eames
I certainly remember “Dee Time” in G, but I also remember doing a sit-com in TVT. It was called “Meet the Wife”, and starred Thora Hird and Freddie Frinton. It was early in 1964, and I was a very new trainee on crew 15 (Ian Gibb in command). I remember it, even with my limited experience at the time, as very fraught. The mole was replaced by a ped for Cam.1, but Cam 2 was still in the stalls on a motorised Vinten. The sets had to be built on either side of the proscenium arch, with the main set well upstage, because of the safety curtain. I don’t think that the audience saw very much! Apparently the reason for using the theatre was the director, John Paddy Carstairs, well known for his Norman Wisdom films, wanted a theatre location. Unfortunately, he also had difficulty coping with multi-camera techniques. I don’t think that that the theatre was used for sit-coms again.
Also, don’t forget R1. This was used frequently for situation comedies, with a TC3 or 4 sized audience rostra. I do not however know when it first came into use.
Graeme Wall
I remember doing “Harry Worth” in R1 in 1969: Crew 3 with Dave White as Sen Cam and Shirley Coward vision mixer.
We’re Doomed!
A 60-minute scripted comedy drama about how the legendary creators of “Dad’s Army” – Jimmy Perry and David Croft – overcame BBC management scepticism, focus groups and cast constipation to get the much-loved legend onto air.
Ian Hillson
Very entertaining – but still a bit of work needed on that Beeb logo.
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Roger Bunce
It was the STRAIGHT corridors that saddened me. The signage all pointed to TV Centre, even the right font, but they couldn’t find a building with the correct curvature of corridors! (Not to mention cameras at outside rehearsals, camera on a tripod, and all the other techie bits.) But I enjoyed it, especially Roy Hudd as Bud Flanagan. It was interesting to see Tom Sloan portrayed slightly more sympathetically that usual, and Paul Fox less so. But it’s just sad that they can’t shoot this type of stuff at TV Centre any more.
