BBC TV Studio B, Manchester - first txm Look Northwest, Monday 18th May 1981

The last transmission of Look Northwest, the North West of England's BBC regional news programme, from Studio N, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester was the previous Friday. Look Northwest continued years later as Northwest Tonight in Studio B until 2011, when it moved to Media City in Salford..
Here we see the national weather followed by a teaser from Nationwide in Studio E, Lime Grove, London, before the regions opt-out of network and present their own news programmes. This is the first North West news programme from the newly built Studio B in New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester.
Look Northwest was the third programme to be broadcast from Studio B - the lunchtime and afternoon news were the first and second programmes. The studio had what is called a saturated lighting grid which is the norm in most if not all BBC TV studios. ITV studios use an ad hoc lighting grid where lights are placed where needed.
I don't think the production team were happy with the new set as it changed relatively quickly. For the cameramen it did feel it was not suited to the 4:3 television format, but would suit the 16:9 of the present day quite well. The cameras used were brand new Philips LDK 25 which gave pretty good pictures except for comet-tailing - for some reason the OB version, used in the North Region, the LDK 5, didn't exhibit this yet used the same tubes and electronics.
Studio B went on to produce all manner of local and network programmes, including breakfast programmes. It was reasonably large and never felt cramped. It also had an annexe where programmes could have an extension to their floor plan. This was at the north end of the studio, ran across the width of it and as it had direct access to Studio B and a simple lighting grid cameras could be pushed into it and used there. To the east of the annexe was a self-op studio, Studio C, where the regional presenters introduced and ran the weekly regional 30 minute opt-out. This was a smallish room with a vision and audio desk, but no cameras. To the west of the annexe was a lighting store.
Eventually the annexe was converted into a full studio (Studio D) and used by programmes that needed little floor space or couldn't afford Studio B e.g. Religion.

[@mrhammadmossop1988ul-haq]

Thanks so much for uploading this to KZbin Unhban

[@what-uc]

The graphics make it look like Irish Sea Tonight, and when it came to the set they didn't think through what was going to happen to the Isle of Man, so they attached it to Cumbria :)

[@deldirk7123]

Look North West did not have a graphic intro when it was part of 'Sixty Minutes' as I recall, unlike Scene Around Six, Midlands Today and Look North, as it was not as easy to represent the area on a map of the UK as the other regions were

[@Stantheman848]

Love the old weather maps!

[@anthonyperkins7556]

I love the Look Northwest theme music

[@djrxl]

Just want to say thanks for uploading this great series of video clips from BBC Manchester in both Piccadilly and Oxford Road. Having grown up in the North West signal overspill in North Wales, we always had these programmes on, and it is fascinating to look back and also hear the crew talkback from the time. Great that you kept your tapes all these years - I am sure little studio and continuity footage survives in the official archive.

[@unhban]

@treffynnon19 Exactly correct about Studio C. Somewhere I do have footage of it in use for a regional opt-out that went badly wrong. However, John Mundy's quick thinking saved the day..... clip and explanation to follow 'sometime' in the future :)

[@nztv8589]

It was an incredibly well lit, well researched , shot and edited production. puts tv to shame today

[@bazbaabaa]

Dodgy guy, never thought he was clean.

[@davidpoulton2860]

tut tut Stuart Hall.🤪

[@darren2514fv]

Christine Burn, Stuart Hall and Felicity Goodey in the studio the only one that was still there in the late 90s/early 2000s was Felicity Goodey who went on to do North Westminster

[@Properbellend]

Darren Hayward If you look really closely you can see a 12 year old under Stuart Halls desk.

[@peterwilliamskelhorn6675]

+Darren Hayward the only presenter out of them i remember(the old look North West) is Felicity Goodey when she did North Westminster.