From ATVLAND In Colour

Success!

2011-10-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

The DVD is out and doing better than we could ever have imagined. Through word of mouth alone, within the first week on sale, we sold more than we were originally planning to make!

So thank you to everyone who's bought it so far, and we hope you're enjoying it.

Thanks also to ITV Central who have promoted it on Central Tonight (25th & 26th October 2011), WCRfm in Wolverhampton and Trentsound Radio in Derby who have featured it heavily within their programming features (radio press kit available on request), and very special thanks to all of the various online reviews and features who have said so many honest, constructive and overall nice things about it.

Keep in touch with our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fromatvlandincolour for the latest updates.

Still available from www.macearchive.org or if you prefer, you can order from Amazon (Mace are selling new copies there too, very much cheaper than Amazon themselves!!)

From ATVLand In Colour - close to completion.

2011-07-18T03:07:00.000-07:00

And so it comes to pass that we're in the final straight, we're nearly there, it's almost over bar the shouting, the fat lady is getting ready to sing.

Well however you look at it, our wonderful documentary series - "From ATVLand In Colour" is almost complete and what's more we have an intended release date - Monday 19th September 2011.

Join us on Facebook, and 'like' us too: www.facebook.com/fromatvlandincolour

All the latest info, as well as clips and features will be posted on there.

We'll keep this blog active so you can have a read through the bits and pieces we wrote along the way, it's kind of our 'production diary'. We'll probably be adding more to it in time.

True, it's been a long time coming, but we're sure you'll like it.

Plus, it's not the end of the story, if you like what we've done we've got all sorts of other ideas floating around...

"From ATVLand In Colour" is made by ATVLAND.productions for the Media Archive for Central England, distributed in association with ITV Studios Ltd.
"From ATVLand In Colour" (C) ATVLAND.productions. All Rights Reserved.
ATV/ITV footage and associated materials (C) ITV Studios Ltd. Used under licence.
ATVLAND.productions and ATVLAND.net and their associated insignia are trademarks of ATVLAND.productions, an independent production group
www.atvlandproductions.com
www.macearchive.org

Viewing the past

2011-05-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last few days looking at some of the rare archive footage that will be going into the documentary and can tell you, those of you who like to see what places looked like in the past are in for a treat. Thanks to our wonderful partners at MACE we are able to include shots of the studio site in Birmingham before the studios were built and even whilst they were being built.

It would be fair to say that it has exceeded my expectations and will benefit parts of the documentary that cover the sites history. I know you'll enjoy it too...

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT WE'D FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS BLOG!!

2011-05-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

Im probably going to guess that this Blog hasnt really been checked for some time now, but hopefully it will again!

What a year it's been! Last Saturday we took part at the 625 Line television event at the QUAD in Derby. During the Saturday Morning Kids programmes which included fantastic episodes of Catweazle and Jukes of Picadilly (to name two), we showcased a 30 minute trailer of our forthcoming documentary FROM 'ATVLAND' IN COLOUR.

We had a great response to the trailer which will be made available to view shortly for everyone so you can see exactly where we are with the programme. Its basically a very condensed version of our almost 4 hour documentary on the fantastic ATV Midlands which Im sure you are already aware.

This blog, the twitter, the Facebook page, the ATVLAND.net website and our productions website will be updated on a more regular basis now as we aim for a Summer 2011 release on DVD.

Also please keep an eye on the MACE (Media Archive for Central England) website at www.macearchive.org who we are working with. They are the guys who have helped made it happen.

Right must dash now. Please keep an eye on all our webspaces and as news happens you will be the first to know!

A NEW SPLASH OF COLOUR FOR THE BLOG!

2010-05-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Just before we update you all with the latest goings on at ATVLAND.productions I thought I'd send an update to the blog to say a big welcome to the new look!

I decided the old blog was looking a little to much like a template (erm, well it was you all cry!), so I thought it could do with a splash of colour and make it more part of ATVLAND.net.

So now we have Mr Peter Thomas' fantastic background that is evident on the ATVLAND.forum, and just a rejig to freshen it up.

Almost there with the new style. I've also added an Amazon search and some Google ads (all public service announcements atm), but will monitor these if people get annoyed by them!

Also, outside of ATVLAND.productions, you may or may not be aware of the new ATVLAND.net website which is now online. New parts coming soon. Watch this space!

AUTUMN BURSTING WITH COLOUR

2009-10-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Summer time has again been a washout from a weather point of view, however the team have been beavering away with various aspects of the production, which continues to gain contributions from people who were involved with the ATV Centre throughout its life.

As the leaves on the trees change colour, we have been crossing the country again in search of more stories. Last month Jim Bowen, fresh from a gig on a cruise ship, spoke to the team at his home in north Lancashire. As you may expect some hillarious anecdotes came about, including the fascinating history of Bullseye, from it's inception at ATV to it's demise at Central in Nottingham 15 years later. We learned of how the Bendy Bully came about as well as the contribution to the show of the programmes first director Peter Harris. Jim was incredibly generous (as all the interviewees have been) and he contacted Peter Harris for us and passed over the phone! As a result our next interview was arranged.

Peter Harris was a big player in the history of ATV and Central working on some iconic shows from the start of his career as a floor manager and then later as a programme director including, Tingha & Tucker, Tiswas, Bullseye, The Muppet Show... It was a pleasure to meet him last week along with his former P.A. Barbara Bradbury, in the Midlands. They both recalled many great aspects of working at the ATV Centre over the years on the afore mentioned programmes and others, it was clear that they (along with all our other interviewees so far) enjoyed their time there.

Following on from those contributions we have arranged an interview with Spitting Image stalwart Steve Nallon former ATV / Central news and current affairs presenter Reg Harcourt, to be completed in the coming weeks. So as things move on, this programme is going to be bulging with stories from the people who worked at the ATV Centre for the viewers enjoyment.....

As always the team are overwhelmed by the generosity of the people we have met, and are very grateful to them for their contributions to this labour of love.

Further work has been going on in the editing department with substantial sections being put together in anticipation of interviews being completed. Where there are gaps we are working to fill them. What has become fairly obvious to us, is that we have amassed so much material for certain areas that we could do some special separate programmes offering fuller length clips of the interviews we have done, so look out for that......

Mid-Summer Movements!

2009-08-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

The Headlines:

ATVLAND.Productions recently caught up with... Chris Tarrant at the studios of Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire for an in depth chat about Tiswas, ATV Today, Stop Look Listen and his very happy memories about the ATV Centre (thanks to Tony Clegg for organising this). See previous blog entry for more on this.
Gary Terzza gave us plenty of behind the scenes gossip about life as a Continuity Announcer for Central in the 80s... (thanks to Matthew Gulliver for organising this).
Wendy Nelson told us about life on ATV Today and Central News and what it was like to switch between the two companies with such differing outlooks... (thanks to Roddy Buxton for organising this).

All to be seen in the forthcoming documentary "FROM ATV LAND IN COLOUR".

We've reached a stage where we've got many core shots for the documentary. Roddy Buxton (Writer) and Pete Raven (Script Editor & Director) have come up with the second part of the script. Peter Thomas (Co-Exec Prod & Co-VT Editor, alongside Stephen Thwaites) has been placed in charge of the Tiswas bits, as you might expect, and he's rather happy about this! He'll also be working on various other parts of the documentary including the opening titles and music.

We've produced a couple of 'internal' edits of various segments, both to see how well the footage we've gathered so far works in context, such as Pete T's Tiswas segments, and as a showreel to send to professional interested parties, produced by Pete R. All of this material has so far been well received, indeed it's already been mooted that some of this material could make up additional stand-alone programmes, such as a stand-alone Tiswas programme to begin with. However, that's something to look at for the future, just to whet your appetite.

Looking back how far we've come, this time last year we were celebrating having conducted our first interview specifically for this programme, with former Miss ATV and CITV presenter Debbie Shore. This was the start of what has become a fascinating journey into the stories of the people who worked at the ATV Centre. Travelling around the country speaking to the people who spent part of their life in that concrete box on Bridge Street has become a big part of the teams spare time activity.

We have also had valuable contributions from other people aside from interviews and have a whole host of new and originally generated material to work with. What has been frustrating is finding the time to get everything together and that is why we keep the 'deadline' for the end of production fairly open ended. Much work is still to be done, and of course this depends on the individual team members being able to work in their spare time. Not that this will compromise quality, with professional advisors guiding aspects of the production, we are confident the result will be worth waiting for.

As mentioned, the writing is fairly well advanced, but because the writer is spending more time at work in his day job (in professional TV Production) this has slowed for a while. Other aspects have however been going on behind the scenes, many technical improvements have come about which will make the team's work easier, enabling instant access to the footage we have amassed by each member of the team.

Some of the team have recently had the pleasure of viewing the Timeslip documentary DVD which was released recently having been 4 years in the making. As you may know, we've been in contact with the Timeslip team for quite a while and we're happy to report that the results are very impressive. We hope to be able to produce something equalling that quality, with the same passion.

So, we'll be carrying out further interviews in August and beyond. We're discovering plenty of interesting information about the Broad Street building all the time. We'd love this documentary to be cherished by British TV historians. We've put a lot of love into chasing this dream, and the outstanding generosity of former ATV/Central staff continues to fuel that passion.

This is what they want!

2009-05-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

We've just spent some time with a major ITV name who owes his career to ATV. Arguably the biggest modern-day presenter to have come from the Broad Street studios, Chris Tarrant gave us revelations, anecdotes and frank opinions.

We couldn't have asked for more, but we got more any way! Yesterday's interview went so smoothly with the former Tiswas host, that we all went over the allotted time!

Naturally, Chris gave us plenty of stories about Tiswas to talk about, but we also obtained backstage stories about Crossroads, Stop Look & Listen, OTT and more. Plenty of fond memories about various ATV personnel, such as Shaw Taylor, Noele Gordon, Sally James, Paul Henry, etc.

We've had this interview planned for ages now, thanks to Tony Clegg who did the necessary contact work to make it possible. We didn't envisage being given space at Elstree Studios to carry it out! We also found being given guest spots to that afternoon's recording of 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' to be the cherry on the cake! A massive thanks to my colleague Tony, who not only put us up for the night, he drove us down to Borehamwood and back. We couldn't publicly announce this interview in advance. Security is naturally a very big issue at Elstree.

We also managed to find time to have a look at the outside of BBC Elstree Centre. This is just a few minutes walk away, and although we had no planned visit, we had an interesting walk around the outside of the place, observing an ATV marking on the building that gave an indication to its former history as ATV's London-based studios.

For me, this little trip was an extension to the work I was doing on Monday, where I trudged around a very humid London, getting some shots of ATV-related buildings.

Wednesday was an incredibly productive day out for us, and we're very grateful for Chris Tarrant being so welcoming and enthusiastic about our project. We've got more planned interviews as you'd expect. It's getting busier for us, and we're having an ATVLand meet up pretty soon! Stay tuned to the ATVLand forums for details!

ATVLAND.productions has a new website!

2009-04-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well I thought it was a good time to let you all know the new ATVLAND.productions website is online.

Although it is still in its infancy (lots of stuff to be added), we have set up a page which comes complete with the latest video trailer and links to both the blog and Facebook group.

The website will be the central hub for all news and information about the team, press releases, and updates about our first production 'FROM ATVLAND IN COLOUR'.

Please bookmark www.atvlandproductions.com and keep watching for further news.

IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT PRESENTATION....

2009-04-12T06:35:00.001-07:00

This last couple of weeks have been fairly busy, with another 2 interviews and a location shoot in Nottingham...

On April 1st we had the pleasure of heading into deepest Cheshire to meet with a former ATV continuity announcer, Diana Mather. What a pleasure this was, as Diana is the perfect hostess. This is not really surprising, because nowadays she runs finishing schools and etiquette classes, and calls herself an "etiquette guru". Diana fondly remembered her time there and was able to recount many stories from her time at ATV which will be featured in the programme.

Thanks to Diana we were able to meet up with another former announcer the following week, this time former Central presenter Jo Wheeler. Jo was also very talkative about her time at Central as presenter of The Magic Micro Mission and later as continuity announcer. These days Jo can be seen on the Sky News channel at the weekends where she presents the weather.

It was a pleasure to meet both of them and their stories will be enjoyed by viewers of 'From ATVLAND In Colour' I am sure....

In addition to all of that, some further filming took place last week at the former Central studios at Lenton Lane,Nottingham - home of Blockbusters, Price is Right and many other big productions in the 1980's and 90's. Of course the story we are telling is about Broad Street, so you may wonder what we were doing filming at a different site. Well the answer is simple, we will mention these studios as a part of the story of Broad Street, but much of the footage we have shot will probably be used in a future project, so watch this space....

Now that all that is completed, we are looking forward to more interviews coming up in the next few weeks, including Gary Terzza whom Matthew has been in contact with.... But as the title of this blog says - it isn't all about presentation - oh no - we will be having people from all areas of programming and production from Broad Street featured in our programme.

Sticking the pieces together

2009-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-03-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

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!!

The 2009 Shuffle

2008-12-30T09:29:00.001-08:00

Working in From ATVLAND In Colour is a joy, but the toughest part is that the members are flung all over the UK. Luckily, we don't need all of our team for each filming assignment, and the power of the internet means we can get on with research work and script-writing at home.

Keith Jacobsen - there's a name I mentioned very early on in this blog. Keith is an ex-BBC/ITV cameraman who continues to work in television. He also happens to own Television South Limited. This is the guy who came up with the concept of producing a documentary DVD on the history of ATV/Central's Broad Street studios back in 2006.

Well, Keith's back on board. His recent services have been valuble to us in warding off those aforementioned legal threats. Plus his own knowledge on putting a production together is at an expert level. It's great to have him back.

Here we are at the end of the year, and with Christmas nearly over and done with, we're looking forward to resuming project work in the New Year. While we still have some cold winter months ahead, I can sit at home during the nights, hunched over the iMac, composing music for the DVD, and script-writing.

And now, to blow my own trumpet. I've finished putting together Tiswas Night 2008 for viewing online. It's slightly justified, as I'll be doing a lot of editing and design work on the From ATVLand In Colour DVD. Whilst the camerawork is a bit shaky on this (it is a live event with immense spontaneity after all), it's the production as a whole I'm quite proud of. Thanks must go to Matthew Gulliver for enabling me to put on an almost authentic Central-Television-style presentation!

The new ATVLAND.productions Facebook Group

2008-12-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Just to let everyone know that ATVLAND.productions has a brand new Facebook Group.

Please feel free to request to join the group. It is just another way of getting across our Productions message.

Click on:- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42376897142

We look forward to seeing you there too!

ATVLAND.productions WELCOMES MIKE PRINCE!

2008-11-18T01:37:00.000-08:00

In the past few days, I have had the pleasure of talking to Mike Prince over the telephone.

Mike was first in contact with group colleague Matthew Gulliver in April this year. Mike wanted me to say to everyone that follows the project that he is very keen to participate in our film about ATV/Central, and hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to meet the man himself.

Mike is linking our site to his Facebook page, and as a way of saying a big thanks to him, I want to mention www.piemanradio.com, and any of us who are interested in football may well like to email THE PIE MAN! Check it out, it is a fantastic website.

So, lets all give a warm welcome to Mike. Its great to have you on board.

Meeting With A Legend

2008-10-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

As many of you will know already, we have been trying to get hold of a host of people who worked at ATV and Central in Birmingham over the years, and have already had great interviews with people like Peter Tomlinson, Bob Carolgees, and Debbie Shore. Over the past few months we have been in touch with several personalities who worked there and hope to be able to get back to them pretty soon to arrange a meeting with them, whereby we can record some more great stories for you, about their time at the ATV Centre....

One of the people I have contacted was ATV and Central legend Shaw Taylor M.B.E. Shaw contacted me back and generously agreed to meeting with us to do an interview. So, last week, Lee, Steve and I went to Birmingham and met up with Shaw at the Hyatt Regency hotel where he was staying. I have to say here, what a wonderful experience it was meeting such a great personality as Shaw, who was so generous with his time and so enthusiastic about talking to us about his time at ATV. Many of you will know that Shaw was a big personality for ATV, he was an announcer, a game show presenter, a Royal correspondent, a panel judge on programmes such as New Faces and Miss ATV and of course presenter for 30 years of Police 5. I know that you will all enjoy hearing what Shaw had to say when the programme is finished. What I can say (without giving too much away) is that, as you would imagine, Shaw recounted his fond memories of ATV and some of the people in the organisation with whom he worked, including Lew Grade no less.

I would like to personally thank Shaw again, for his generosity in the time he gave us and the stories he told us which will enhance our programme no end for you the viewers.... Just for now, here is a small taster for you....

PRODUCTION REACHES NEW HEIGHTS

2008-10-06T11:20:00.001-07:00

Well there seems to have been a lull over the summer since we interviewed Debbie Shore back in August. That doesn't however mean that the team haven't been working away, behind the scenes, on various aspects of the production. We have been doing plenty, but on their own these bits and pieces may not have been worth including here in the blog.....

One thing we have been doing is arranging to interview more people, who you will recognise, for the programme as well as looking to produce more exclusive material for your enjoyment. We are still looking to hear from anyone who worked at ATV Centre between 1969 ad 1997 who can offer us any information or help in making this programme for the fans of ATV and Central in the Midlands.

In trying to make this programme interesting to the audience, we have been looking to generate as much original material as we possibly can, it is intended that this will be both interesting and entertaining for you all. Recently some of our team were granted access to one of the top floors of the Alpha Tower to photograph the studio buildings from an un paralleled vantage point. We would like to thank Steve Evans at Dandara (the company responsible for the "V Building" project on behalf of Miller Developments) for allowing us into their suite of offices to get this wonderful view which you will, of course, be able to see in the final programme along with a few more .....

So the nights are drawing in, but rest assured, we are still working away at this, and will keep you informed as we go along. It is a project that we are all working on in our spare time, so please bear with us, One thing we can promise though, you will enjoy it, we promise..... !

2008-08-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it finally happened!

On Tuesday 5th August, Debbie Shore kindly spent an hour and a half talking to Lee Bannister about what ATV and Central meant to her.

From her being crowned Miss ATV back in March 1979, through to Children's ITV, parts in Brookside, Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm, the Carlton version of Crossroads, her time in panto, the Zippy love story, her current stint on shopping television, plus much more!

Interviewer Lee Bannister, cameramen Stephen Thwaites and Peter Raven, and of course the rest of the ATVLAND Productions crew would just like to say a big thanks to Debbie for giving up her valuable time to talk to us.

Debbie definitely had a few stories to share and was great to listen to. Thanks must also go to Dan Baker (Steves work colleague) and Lorna Moore for helping us get in contact with Debbie in the first place.

A true professional. Many thanks again.

Rearching moves on apace!

2008-08-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

Recently some members of the production team went to the Birmingham Central Library to do some further research. It's amazing what you can find!

We always knew that the Birmingham Post had produced a special edition on the day of the official opening of the centre in 1970. Indeed, a number of sections of this special edition have been published online over the years, but we wanted to actually go back to the original newspaper. This we did and we discovered that it really is an eyeopening piece. It includes excellent articles on the reasons behind the centre being built, the construction process, as well as a great deal of trumpet-blowing from ATV too (it really was a big thing at the time you know). You'll hopefully be able to see bits of this special edition, as well as the original report of Princess Alexandra's visit to the studios (published in the following day's edition) within the final programme.

Peter Thomas concentrated on looking into the Geography of the area around the ATV Centre. He was able to look back to the 19th Century when the area was very different indeed. Pete managed to trace what happened on the site over the course of 100 years, and much of what he discovered can be found on the ATV Forums: Click Here

Did you know that if you take the train into Birmingham from the direction of Wolverhampton, you'll pass directly underneath the exact spot where "Central House" used to stand?

Peter Raven and Stephen Thwaites managed to get hold of some great information and photographs of the area to illustrate just how the Centre came into being, and what the "Broad Street Corner" looked like all those years ago.

While we were there, we also took the opportunity to look up the best way to make a TV programme. We found a number of nice picture books such as "The Complete Guide To Making a Video". I seem to remember reading it when I was at school aged 8. An invaluable tome indeed! Must keep it handy at all times...

Finally a trawl through many old copies of TV Times has revealed a number of interesting features on both ATV and Central during their time at the Centre.

All very useful information, and the whole thing's shaping up nicely.

By the way, there are some very interesting things in the pipeline too at the moment. Watch this space...

How did this programme come about?

2008-07-18T01:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Writing about the History

2008-07-17T07:18:00.000-07:00

Where do you start in telling the story of one of the most iconic places in British television history? Reading other peoples works, looking in the history pages of the books in the library, talking to people who know different bits of things, and then compiling it into some sort of order, I suppose that's how to start.... There has been a lot written over the years about the history of ITV in the midlands, and about ATV, one thing we don't want to do is simply copy what other people have already written.

To that end we will use the available works and documents to supplement what we already know about the move from black and white beginnings at Aston, to the new purpose built studios on Bridge Street. The plan is to complement the words that we create with some interesting visuals which won't be the 'standard' clips that have been used in similar programmes. We aim to bring to the screen a story which will, for the first time, be told by those involved in it, using exclusive footage from various sources, and supplement that with archive material if we can.

Back to the story then, and it has been an interesting voyage of discovery for me, looking into the history of not only ATV in the midlands, but of the site in Birmingham used to build the ATV Centre. It continues to throw up more surprises, the further you look into it.... The books I have looked at contain a wealth of interesting pictures, but we are looking for more original pictures where possible, which will show the site before, during and after construction, and if possible moving film footage too... We are constantly trying to add to the story of how the place which brought us some of the finest programmes in the 70's and 80's came into being, so if you can help get in touch....

Here, there and everywhere...

2008-07-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

You'd think doing a documentary about a television studio complex in Birmingham would mean staying confined within the West Midlands.

How wrong you'd be, as this project isn't just about filming the outside and inside of the actual building, it also has to include contributions from folk who worked there - in front of, and behind the cameras. This means travelling extraordinary lengths up and down Britain to interview folk. We're even involving those who appeared in the audience for some of the seminal shows shot there, as long as they have a worthy story to tell.

I've spent the odd weekend well out of the midlands in order to get some exclusive footage for From ATVLand In Colour. Memorable moments include having a pub dinner with Bob Carolgees up in Cheshire, chatting with a friend's dad in Sheffield about his time as an extra in the Aston studios and how he got his son onto Tiswas using his contacts at ATV.

Moments I'd rather forget, would include spending an hour locating the former Central Television studios in Nottingham, for just a few seconds of footage. It wasn't the expensive taxi ride to the desolate industrial estate that deterred me, but I was disappointed at how it's nearly impossible to get a decent shot of the place. Okay, so we're only using it for a matter of seconds to illustrate how Central gradually moved out of Broad Street during the 1980s, yet it took ages wandering right around a soulless block of warehouses to pick the best angles I could find.

Back in Birmingham, things seem much better. The studio complex is right in the centre of the metropolis, so it's nice to pop over to a nearby pub (The relatively cheap Solomon Cutler serves as a nice mobile production base) and we don't have the hassle or expense that you'd have in London.

Popping over to Brum only costs me a tenner, and it's always an interesting experience. There's still stuff to be shot, like the old Aston studios just up the road, and some angles of ITV Central's current HQ in Gas Street. Again, these are only to illustrate points in the history of the midlands broadcaster.

Last time we were in Birmingham, we were larking with custard pies about in Bridge Street - where the main entrance to ATV was - all for a daft photoshoot for the ATVLand.net website. We flanned one of the younger members (the 14 year old son of forum regular Gill) which was caught on video camera. Playing it back revealed how close it was to recreating Tiswas, as they too used the exact same outdoor area for occasional sketches. Not that we're going to recreate classic ATV/Central shows for this DVD, as we're poor actors, but it'd serve as something useful for a trailer, an extra or something.

Press Release (from June 2008)

2008-07-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

Press Release from ATVLAND.productions

Classic television, remembering the ATV Centre in a brand new documentary.

A brand new documentary is being produced to mark the end of the road for a Midlands television landmark which is due for demolition soon.

The ATV Centre (aka Central Studios) on Broad Street in Birmingham has been closed for a decade and demolition work finally began in 2008 to make way for a proposed leisure and entertainment complex. During its heyday of the 1970s and 1980s it was a hub of activity for the high-profile Midlands television company ATV, and later Central Television until the company moved out of the premises and round the corner to their current home on Gas Street.

Many classic TV shows were made at the ATV Centre, and are so fondly remembered today that a number of their fans wanted to come together to produce a fitting tribute programme which will remember the old studios with pride. Shows such as Crossroads, Tiswas, The Golden Shot, Boon, Bullseye, Blockbusters and of course ATV Today and Central News, were made at the centre over a period of almost 30 years.

The team from ATVLAND.productions will tell the story of the ATV Centre from its beginnings as Europe’s most advanced Colour Television Production Complex at the end of the 1960s, through to its closure in the late 1990s, and final demolition which is currently going on. There will be brand new interviews from people closely associated with the Centre, including some familiar faces, as well as images and film from the archives and numerous private collections. The production team are keen to hear from anyone who may be able to contribute to the making of the programme.

The programme’s Producer, Lee Bannister, said: “We’re looking for anyone who ever had anything to do with the ATV Centre / Central Studios as a TV production complex! From producers to researchers to directors to cleaners to performers and artistes to visitors and audience members, we’d love to talk to as many people as we can! As long as they’re willing to share their memories, we’re happy to listen!”

Executive Producer, Stephen Thwaites said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for one of the most loved studio complexes in the UK. To see the place in such a sorry state nowadays really makes this the right time to remember all those fantastic programmes that were made in there, as well as all those talented people who helped create them all.”

More information on the programme will be available at www.atvland.net where visitors can also visit the partner websites www.tiswasonline.com and www.crossroadsfanclub.co.uk

The programme will be available by the end of the year from each of the above partners’ websites – with exclusive extras!

The programme’s production team can be contacted via email: projects@atvland.net

Phoenix from the fame

2008-07-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

So, a programme about a lump of old concrete in Brum? Well, it's so much more than that. ATV Centre was the home of the finest shows to come from the midlands, and these programmes are much-loved, not just in the centre of England, but all over the UK, and the world.

Britain's second city now has no major television studios. It's a side-effect from a couple of things that have revolutionised the media world, for better or worse.

The low-cost of modern technology means that you can get broadcast-quality hand-held camcorders, thus making outdoor filming much more attractive than the hassle of booking a studio, rigging up lights, constructing a set, organising an audience, etc.

Added to the woes of traditional broadcasters, is the fact that multichannel television is no longer the laughing stock it was in the early 90s. Gone are the jokes about the Sky TV dustbin lids on a council house, as BSkyB are now the country's biggest commercial TV business. Plus, the Freeview success story means you can pop down your supermarket to get a £15 box to add 40 channels to your telly, forever (theoretically).

With so much competition for your eyeballs, the traditional terrestrials have been emulating their digital rivals.

Reality TV, the antithesis of scriptwriting and the saviour of many a Z-list celeb's career, is ubiquitious as it takes over the schedules. You'd have thought seeing Christopher Biggins eating kangaroo testicles on primetime ITV would have been straight out of a Roger Melly comic strip.

Those cheap hand-held cameras, have created an incentive for lifestyle shows where a viewer's home becomes the 'studio'.

So where are the shiny floors, illuminated steps and roaring audiences of the TV studio? Since the merger of Granada and Carlton, the beautiful patchwork quilt of ITV regions has become decimated in the quest to make savings, and to go virtually national, leaving only the 'necessary' studios behind, and to place a lot of staff at regional outposts, on the dole queue.

In the chase to become more like Sky, ITV has squandered millions on football in a futile digital project (OnDigital) and all the conventional channels are also guilty of seeking the same cost-effective business model found from digital-only channels.

When you strive to be like Living, Bravo or Sky One, be prepared to have those kind of audience figures. In the late 1990s, Noel's House Party was a much-mocked ailing series, previously a flagship must-see show, but audiences had declined to 6 million, so it was axed. These days, any show reaching those figures on any of the five main channels, is hailed as a success.

Recently, an observation was made. If you took off Coronation Street and Emmerdale from ITV1, the ratings for the channel were almost identical to that of Channel Four. That's all the channel really has going for it at the moment.

Critics may scoff at studio-based programming, with cheesy hosts, swimsuited glamour girls draped over prize cars, house bands and sycophantic chat shows. Yet television studio shows are the ones that remain in your head. Yes, they're expensive, but that's part of the attraction. When a blonde bimbo snogs some dweeb on Big Brother, that's in the nation's conscience for only a week at best, becoming yesterday's Heat magazine.

ITV in their present format have really stripped themselves to the bone. Sensibly, they've kept open the Manchester and Leeds operations, because they know it's Corrie and Emmerdale keeping them going. In a way, I bet some ex-Central management have regretted their decision to kill off Crossroads by death of a thousand cuts.

So, going back to Birmingham, it's been home to Family Fortunes, Blockbusters, Bullseye, The Price Is Right, Spitting Image, Crossroads, and my own personal favourite, Tiswas. No matter what you think of these shows, each of them have made a mark in television history, and are more fondly remembered than current dross such as Who Dare Sings or SoapStar SuperStar.

What really spurred us on to do this project, is that the former ATV/Central studios themselves are to be literally gone pretty soon. The place is to swept under Birmingham's ongoing modernisation, to become another swish shopping centre, not unlike the Mailbox.

Earlier this year, when the Central House was undergoing demolition, we decided to re-ignite this project, in fear that the studios themselves were going to face the wrecker's ball. We've had the idea of creating a DVD about the studio complex from back in 2007, thanks to former BBC staffer Keith Jacobsen, who planted the seed for this, in the form of 'Give My Regards To Broad Street'.

In a strange twist of fate, it seems that the credit crunch has kept the studios standing for the meantime. We don't know if they'll be reduced to rubble by Christmas, but we are aiming to have our DVD out by then anyway!

Having been involved with the TiswasOnline website since founding it back in 2004 (with some healthy interest from ITV Central and BBC West Midlands at our launch), I've acquired some second-hand knowledge from folks such as Bob Carolgees, Gordon Astley and behind-the-scenes workers. We've filmed interviews with such folk, and rather than keep them confined for us to transcribe, we've found it best to use for this DVD project. Other material comes from us filming the building over the years, including the time I went on the Birmingham Wheel (think of the London Eye but much smaller!), grabbing some previously unobtainable camera angles that look practically like aerial shots.

Since the project has been reopened, I've been up and down the country doing specially filmed material. With Stephen Thwaites being a very talented designer, and my background in editing and research, we're off to a great start. But we can't take all the credit either. Local boy Lee Bannister has got his hands on some rare footage shot inside the studios in its dying days of 1997, plus we have tonnes of ATV/Central publicity material courtesy of TV memorabilia collector Matthew Gulliver.

It doesn't end there, we have photography on a professional scale from Alex Fryer, and TV enthusiasts such as Peter Raven, and Crossroads Appreciation Society's Mike Garrett on board. Dave Jefferies, a designer and animator who has worked for ITV in the past, is also helping us out.

While the irony is we're using the same low-cost hand-held technology that killed off many much-loved ITV regions, we're doing it with a sense of style. It's not a bunch of anoraks wondering round the outside of the studios for an hour with a wobbly camcorder out of the specials bin at Argos. A lot of us have been inside on official invitations in the past few years, and there's a magical atmosphere there that we're doing our best to put across in our DVD, using professional software and a contacts book that includes a lot of big names from Central and ATV.

Stay with us for the ride!

Peter Thomas
co-editor/researcher
ATVLand.productions

Welcome to the ATVLAND.productions Blog!

2008-07-13T15:15:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well this is the new ATVLAND.productions minisite blog which will keep you all informed about the forthcoming production entitled FROM ATVLAND IN COLOUR.

Please keep checking for further updates.

Regards

Stephen

atvland.productions group member