Good god. What horrendous background music!

Nice to see the senior cameraman Ron Green at the start, a BBC legend and also Roger, mentioned by the director which must be Roger Fenna….

This video makes me so upset as I remember my last interview with the bbc to get into the tv camera department but was refused based on the inept interviewer. I was asked to describe the parts of a camera and when I said “viewfinder” the senior engineer looked at me with a frown and replied, “oh no son, it’s a monitor” I was so upset as I knew the correct terminology and this idiot has just put a stop to my dream career/job. I’ll never forget this or his name.😡😡

Brings back so many memories, especially hearing the talkback. I worked doing many of those camera jobs at TVC, including swinging the mole, pulling peds to help the cameraman - even being the cameraman. Started there when only some of the studios were colour (EMI2001) - but left in the 70s to work in radio.

BBC Grooming centre.

That's numberwang.

Love those chords.

amazing those cameramen don't bump into each other they look so heavy.

Hello from 2024 - On the Top of the Pops bit when the director said ‘cue applause’ that was for the sound op to play the cheering crowd audio on the Akai sampler. That is the cheering you hear. They then cut to studio where the floor manager had already cued to crowd to start cheering / clapping. The actual crowd watching the acts was very small and just moved between acts.

Ridiclous sized cameras.

I've always wondered why the number counting... I get camera numbers but what's with the others 😁

Does anyone know the name of the music track at the start of the video?

I can remember using them heads at BBC Wales, along with the peds.

I worked in radio and television as a technician. I could go anywhere and used to spend hours in production control rooms. I never tired of the excitement. International live satellite hookups were real adrenaline generators.

So modern. Still lowkey wanna do lighting for the bbc.

Thanks for posting this

What on earth is that ghastly woman rabbiting on about?

I always had the greatest admiration for the Director's assistants, sometimes called Production Sectretarys fortheir ability to call the shots and count the music bars at the same time.

I'd have heard that woman's counting in my sleep if I'd worked there...

When Cameras were heavy!

The music is absolute torture!

I was on Children's BBC in 1986 on a game show and me and my dad managed to have a good look round TVC in its heyday! I was always going to be an engineer and my favourite night of BBC1 was always Thursdays. Top of the pops and Tomorrow's World. I had lunch in the fabled BBC canteen and on the next table was Tomorrow's World and I was dying to go and say hello but they were going out live that night. The last thing they'd was a spotty youth accosting them all! Some great memories. Paul Daniels and Janice Long were on my show that day and Mike Smith was the presenter. All sadly now gone.

Thanks for uploading this very interesting stuff any more?

That silly woman directing the cameras did my head in!

It would have been a much better world if television had never been invented.

3:50 what’s with the bingo caller ?

Lots or people were raped in that building.

BBC TELEVISION CENTER................

What's the song playing at 3:30 please?

What was the reason they closed television centre? Now you walk right through the grounds as you head to the football ground next door.

Way too much chatter on intercom

beatiful

What's the music playing in the background from 4:17 to the end?

STEVE WINWOOD!

Great BBC Television Centre postcards here! @t

All just a memory. Such a shame loosing Terry Wogan, saw him on the steps outside the old theatre talking to some women one afternoon years ago, saw That’s Life there.

TV Theatre became Shepherd's Bush Empire, when productions from there transferred to TC1

Bor€£¥ ￦₹៛¤

It's one of the great regrets of my life that I never got to have a proper look around TV Centre before they needlessly destroyed it.

Great filming of Shepherds Bush from above and when the camera looking out of the East Tower, pans from the roof of Television Centre across to the TV Theatre, you can just make out the high buildings of the BBC Lime Grove studios, which back onto the railway line. The only good thing to come from Television Centre being sold, is that TC1, TC2 and TC3 have at least survived and been retained. Looking from Wood Lane, the entire frontage of the revamped Television Centre, hasn't changed that much good and the new building that has replaced the Spur, is probably a lot better to look at and at least all of the bricks match this time.

Nonce headquarters

The BBC did official tours, but of course you only saw a very small part of the centre, basically what they wanted to you see. My partner's mother had a friend who actually worked in the BBC newsroom. She invited us in to see how everything worked, and with our passes, we were able to wander around TV Centre freely as long as we didn't actually interrupt any filming.

What is the music from 0:00?

Songs name please I'm loved bbc tvc plz guys BEFORE 301 :-)

For Jaworskij, Dan Cepeda, and TroysVisualArts, the BBC in the United Kingdom and the ABC in Australia have a unique method of planning and executing precisely cut shots in a music production. Every shot is planned and "timed" down precisely. But the methodology of the timing is quite unique. The Director's Assistant is calling out the progress of the "bars-of-music". She is counting the music bars, so the Director and Vision Switcher, or Technical Producer know exactly when the next scheduled shot is required to be switched in. The Director is working from his planned Shot List he has rehearsed with the crew earlier, in collaboration with the Director's Assistant and her bar-counting. The Director's Assistant is also alerting the camera crew members which camera shot is coming up next, in between her counting the bars-of-music. It's actually a much more efficient way than trying to physically time the shots with a stopwatch. You will hear her say "two of four" meaning it's up to the second beat in a "four-beat bar of music", and then you will hear "Three next" meaning Camera Three will be on air when the vision is next switched. As stated they do that at the BBC, and ABC in Australia. I worked as a studio cameraman at a major city commercial station in Australia and my station and others in the marketplace amongst the commercial stations did NOT employ the bar counting method. I also believe that even in the USA, bar counting is mostly not practised. Some music programme Directors in the USA actually do the vision switching themselves, particularly at smaller tv stations, and some shows are directed and switched off-the-cuff. If they time shots in the USA it's usually on the stopwatch. Remarkably though, the results are often still outstanding, when they have experienced and talented camera operators, particularly where up to five or more cameras are used. In the BBC clip, in the Shepherd's Bush TV Theatre music sequence, Camera Five was the handheld camera, with Camera One the Mole Crane mounted camera, with Camera Two, Three, and Four being pedestal mounted. The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) teach bar-counting for music programme production planning and execution.

Those Mole Cranes at TV Theatre look pretty ancient, even then!

Steve Winwood at number 14 makes it the 17th July 1986 edition of Top Of The Pops.

2:10: - the EMI 2001, the definitive BBC camera. It's a pity the Link 110s weren't featured in this video as well.

Don't get me wrong, Broadcasting House is a fantastic place to be and it looks superb but that TVC magic has gone in my opinion. Was a pretty remarkable place Television Centre. Hopefully the BBC can use Broadcasting House in an equally creative way. :) Great video!

after watching the history of the television centre last night on bbc4.and being old enough to remember the iconic progs made there,its time to stand up keep this peice of our history