Television Centre at 60

What does Television Centre mean to you?

Which BBC programmes does it bring to mind, and do you remember the big events such as Children in Need, or Roy Castle’s record breaking tap dance routine? Did you ever attend a big audience show at Television Centre, such as Strictly, or The Two Ronnies? Let us have your thoughts and ideas.

Your memories

TV Centre was a huge part of my life as I vividly remember the old CBeebies and CBBC studios and used to think they were magical!

Ethan, Ballymena, Northern Ireland

I once had a lucky opportunity to visit BBC TV Centre in the summer of 1982.

I was thirteen years old and lived in a village in Oxfordshire many miles from London. I had only been to London once before on a school trip in the late 1970s.

In the early 1980s a BBC production assistant moved in to our village and befriended myself and my parents. She was called Sue and was a lovely lady. She had a small dog which I loved. Me and my friends would walk the dog around the local fields.

I would talk with Sue for hours about her job and what it involved. She was always busy and would commute to TVC nearly every day.

I remember that she was a Production Assistant on a BBC drama called Beau Geste.

She talked about the show a lot. She then arranged to take me to TVC for a day. I was so excited and could hardly sleep the night before. The day arrived on a hot summers day in June and we drove up to the amazing Television Centre. Sue had to do some work and then promised me a behind the scenes tour. We first went to some production offices where Sue used a vintage Shibaden video tape recorder to view some monochrome video footage. She took timings and wrote notes. I’m sure the Shibaden was very state of the art at the time.

Sue showed me round every studio. I think there were seven or eight and everyone seemed to be buzzing with activity. I was lucky enough to visit the gallery of the huge studio one, and go to one of the video suites in the basement.

I was in total awe!

Then we visited the canteen for lunch. I think there were maybe two or three different canteens.

We ended up in one of them and saw many famous people. At the time I went they were recording Hi-de-Hi! and I saw the actor Paul Shane and his wife having lunch. I can’t put names to anyone else but I used to like Paul Shane because he was loud and funny.

I was in total awe and will never forget my visit to Television Centre.

Sue moved away from our village around 1984. I never saw or heard from her again but I hope she is well.

Jonathan Hawes, Oxford

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