Alec Bray
From “The Times” Friday 17th January 2017.
So, obviously, the BBC is the home of British television. Of course it is!
And, for my first job, I called it “home”…
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Roger Bunce
I have everything in hand. I plan to buy the old Allocations Office, on the fourth floor.
I already have a large glossy, hardback brochure, all about the building.
My son gave it to me as a Christmas present (he also bought me a Doctor Who scarf! What more could an old BBC Granddad ask for?) . He had cheekily gone into a posh estate agent, trying to look rich, and made enquiries. We had a guided tour Saturday 25th February 2017, three generations of Bunces posing as eccentric millionaires seeking to expand their property portfolio. Here are some photos from the visit to TV Centre.
The final photo shows the model of the basement ‘Hub’ – the former VT area, turned Studio Ops Allocations office – now to become a gym, complete with swimming pool.
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Nick Ware
Good idea putting a swimming pool in the basement. Somewhere for the water to go when the fountain starts leaking again. Should have done that decades ago!
Geoff Fletcher
It looks a lot smaller than I remember it …
Ian Hillson
… everywhere looks smaller, the older you get!
Mike Jordan
Passing by this evening after dark (on the way back from town on the A40 and then turning off into Acton to avoid the queue at Savoy Circus) – I see there is finally something being built on the site of the Savoy Cinema – see there are still loads of lights on in the ET. Not only some in offices but a whole load of very bright ones on the top floor and the roof. Never mind, I am sure the developers can pay the leccy bills!
TVC even gets into Ealing Gazette!
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Tony Crake
How Ghastly ! The Beeb sold the Centre for £200M .. and probably have paid more than that to “re – furbish” those 3 Studios which probably didn’t need it . Anybody explain the Maths to us all?
Roger Bunce
It’s a different budget! Silly boy.
All can be explained by the word “Accountants”. These are people you employ if you want to prove to the Shareholders that you’ve made a massive profit while, simultaneously, proving to the Taxman that you’ve made a massive loss. (We just slide all the money from Account ‘A’ into ‘Account ‘B’, the day before the audit, then we slide it all back again the day before the tax returns are due, meanwhile we’ll turn Studios into a completely separate, but wholly owned, company, so that we can conceal expenditure for . . . etc.)
All very good for fiddling and money-laundering, but not so good for accurate adding up!
Dave Plowman
Was it total costing I remember coming in in the ’60s?
An accountant found it was cheaper to make a prog on film at Ealing. So a studio and crew were left blank at TC while Ealing struggled to fit it in with lots of overtime.
The said accountant then found it was cheaper to make it outside. So not only was the TC crew and studio dark, but so was the Ealing one. All, of course, still being paid for.
Bit like having a store man on duty 24/7 to issue a penny floor marking crayon – with paperwork, to make sure someone doesn’t have two where one would suffice.
Nick Way
The BBC is not the Beeb we joined. I have always called it home for the sixteen years I was there. I bought a flat twelve minutes walk from Frithville Gate – half of the walk undercover through the market if it was raining!
Perhaps we all should reflect on how privileged we are to be in this family and to have worked with each other on such programmes with such professionals. TVC RIP.
Dave Mundy
Hear, hear, Nick, well said. ‘Money is the root of all evil’ goes the old saying, how true it is, especially where the Tories and Murdoch are concerned.
Geoff Fletcher, Graeme Wall
The original quote was “The love of money is the root of all evil” (according to a book of quotations), which actually makes a lot more sense.
Peter Cook
‘Arrogance and Ignorance and Greed’, live on “The Andrew Marr Show” Sunday 6th February 2011
is worth a listen.
‘Arrogance and Ignorance and Greed’ was written and performed by Show of Hands, an excellent folk band from Exmouth. OK so I am biased, my wife is from Exmouth and has known Phil and Steve since they were teenage friends of her brother. I last heard them in concert at the old Tithe Barn in Great Coxwell, a massive barn with cathedral like atmosphere and acoustics.
Geoff Fletcher
I agree with Nick’s comments regarding “our” BBC TV – it was like a second home and/ or a wonderful extended family – a rewarding and happy place to work. I was part of it for seven years (1963 – 1970) and still feel privileged to have been a member of that happy band.
Another apt quote comes to mind re the money men who have ruined a great institution – they knew the cost of everything but the value of nothing. Destroyed on the altar of political expediency, incompetence, lack of imagination, and greed.
Dave Mundy
Don’t forget that our colleagues in ITV also suffered under Thatcher’s rule! Many of the best ITV companies lost their franchises when they had to bid for their own jobs. I have just been downloading the great drama series “Chancer” from Central TV, where are they now? Granada did some great work as did Thames and LWT – all gone thanks to her and the money worshippers.
Geoff Fletcher
And don’t forget little old Anglia TV which punched well above its weight, especially in dramas and nature series- TO TU, P D James’ “Dalgliesh”, loads of other dramas and “Survival”. Anglia also pioneered O B drama shooting – “Weavers Green” – and footy coverage with “Match Of The Week”.
Graeme Wall
Similarly Southern/TVS, our OB drama was “Dick Barton”!
Dave Plowman
Thatcher hated ITV – main reason being their strong unions, even when many of those same union members were supporters of her.
But it was probably “Death on the Rock” which caused the end of Thames. That and Carlton TV being a big contributor to Tory party funds – and employing Cameron – who was by then a rising star behind Tory lines.
I’d hoped it would come out by now just how Carlton managed to put in a bid just slightly higher than Thames.
Ah well – all water under the bridge now.
Graeme Wall
Main reason being ACTT was initially the chosen target to break a union “pour encourage les autres“, turned out a dismal failure. Scargill proved an easier target.
David Denness
I heard a major influence on Thatcher’s plan to attack the ACTT was a Thames crew turning up to interview her at Downing St comprising seven people with one camera followed by an NBC crew of three. In those days the ACTT, NATKE and ETU had a stranglehold on the ITV companies.
Dave Plowman
Yes. Thames would certainly have gone in mob handed for such an important interview. To NBC, she was simply a minor foreign politician.
I’d guess if Thames had gone abroad to interviewed a minor foreign politician, they’d have sent a minimum crew, while the local broadcaster went in mob handed.
Anyone remember those Royal visits to see a BBC show? Standby crew everywhere.
Pat Heigham
The story about Thatcher – I was contracted to Thames at Euston at that time, and the rumour went round, that when she came into the studios there to be interviewed, a number of office staff wanted to get a look at the UK’s first lady PM, and stood quietly at the back. Madam spotted them and inquired what they were doing there. The story goes that Management also wanted to reduce the union power, and told her that it was ‘Union requirements’, thus instilling in Thatcher the determination to bust ACTT.
Things were not helped later by ACTT amalgamating with ABS and morphing into BECTU. Instead of more strength, it seemed that all the weaker elements were retained. In subsequent years, as far as I am speaking from the film industry and freelance TV work, decent overtime rates after 8hrs a day were eroded, as were enhanced rates for weekend and Bank Holiday work.
