1.
Film studio
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The majority of firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies. The largest film studio in the world is Hengdian World Studios, in Zhejiang and he distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The pioneering Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser, the company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world. The first film ever, Million Dollar Mystery, was released by the Thanhouser company in 1914. In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film, the best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles, early movie producers also relocated to Southern California to escape Edisons Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. The first movie studio in the Hollywood area was Nestor Studios, in the same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in such as Culver City, Burbank. Five large companies, 20th Century Fox, RKO Pictures, Paramount Pictures, smaller studios operated simultaneously with the majors. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National, the Big Fives ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, and Walter Wanger. In 1948, the government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court. This decision, reached after years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system. By the 1950s, the components of a typical major film studio had become standardized. Movement in and out of the studio is normally limited to specific gates, Studio premises generally feature multiple sound stages along with an outside backlot, as well as offices for studio executives and production companies. There is normally a studio commissary, which is the term in the film industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria. With the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games, television, theme parks, home video and publishing, instead the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for the films made by their affiliated production companies. With the decreasing cost of CG and visual effects, many studios sold large chunks of their once massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, in most cases portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions
2.
Television studio
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A television studio is an installation in which video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, a professional television studio generally has several rooms, which are kept separate for noise and practicality reasons. These rooms are connected via intercom, and personnel will be divided among these workplaces, the studio floor is the actual stage on which the actions that will be recorded and viewed take place. The on-screen talent themselves, and any guests - the subjects of the television show, a floor manager, who has overall charge of the studio area stage management, and who relays timing and other information from the television director. One or more camera operators who operate the video cameras. Master control is the hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations. Master control is distinct from a PCR in television studios where the such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated. A transmission control room is smaller in size and is a scaled-down version of centralcasting. The master control room houses equipment that is too noisy or runs too hot for the control room. It also makes sure that coax cable and other wire lengths and installation requirements keep within manageable lengths and this can include the actual circuitry and connections between The master control room in a US television station is the place where the on-air signal is controlled. The term studio usually refers to a place where a local program is originated. If the program is broadcast live, the signal goes from the PCR to MCR, a television studio usually has other rooms with no technical requirements beyond broadcast reference monitors and studio monitors for audio. Among them are, one or more make-up and changing rooms a reception area for crew, talent, and visitors, commonly called the green room
3.
Shepherd's Bush
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Shepherds Bush is an area of west London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Although it is residential in character, its focus is the shopping area of Shepherds Bush Green. The main thoroughfares are Uxbridge Road, Goldhawk Road and Askew Road, all containing a number of small and mostly independent shops, pubs. The Loftus Road football stadium in Shepherds Bush is home to Queens Park Rangers, in 2011, the population of the area was 39,724. The district is bounded by Hammersmith to the south, Holland Park and Notting Hill to the east, Harlesden to the north and by Acton, White City forms the northern part of Shepherds Bush. Shepherds Bush comprises the Shepherds Bush Green, Askew, College Park & Old Oak, Kensal Green and White City wards. The areas focal point is Shepherds Bush Green, an area of about 8 acres of open grass surrounded by trees and roads with shops. This position makes it an important node of the bus network and it is also served by five London Underground stations, Shepherds Bush, White City, Shepherds Bush Market, Goldhawk Road and Wood Lane. Originally built in the 1970s with a car park and connecting bridge to the station. The bridge was removed, and the now houses several chain stores, a 12-screen cinema, gym, pub, restaurants, a medical practice. The small shops continue along Uxbridge Road to the west for some distance, many of these establishments cater for the local ethnic minority communities. The Westfield Group opened a centre in October 2008. The same building also houses Escape Studios, an art school providing computer graphics training for the visual effects industry in London. The residential areas of Shepherds Bush are primarily located to the west of the Green, either side of Uxbridge Road and Goldhawk Road to the southwest, and about as far as Askew Road in the west. Much of the housing in this area consists of three- or four-storey terraces dating from the late 19th century, Shepherds Bush is also home to the White City Estate, a housing estate that was originally constructed in the 1930s and further extended after the war in the early 1950s. The name Shepherds Bush is thought to have originated from the use of the land here as a resting point for shepherds on their way to Smithfield Market in the City of London. An alternative theory is that it could have named after someone in the area. Evidence of human habitation can be traced back to the Iron Age, Shepherds Bush enters the written record in the year 704 when it was bought by Waldhere, Bishop of London as a part of the Fulanham estate
4.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
5.
Gaumont Film Company
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The Gaumont Film Company is a French mini-major film studio founded by the engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont, in 1895. It is the first and oldest film company in the world, founded before other studios such as Pathé, Titanus, Nordisk Film, Universal, Gaumont predominantly produces, co-produces, and distributes films, and in 2011, 95% of Gaumonts consolidated revenues came from the film division. The company is becoming a TV series producer with its new American subsidiary Gaumont International Television as well as its existing French production features. Originally dealing in photographic apparatus, the company began producing films in 1897 to promote its make of camera-projector. Léon Gaumonts secretary Alice Guy-Blaché became the motion picture industry’s first female director, from 1905 to 1914, its Cité Elgé studios at La Villette, France, were the largest in the world. The company manufactured its own equipment and mass-produced films until 1907, when World War I broke out, he was replaced by Léonce Perret, who continued his career in the United States a few years later. The company headquarters are in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Gaumont opened foreign offices and acquired theatre chains Gaumont British, which later notably produced several films directed by Alfred Hitchcock such as The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. Along with its competitor Pathé Frères, Gaumont dominated the industry in Europe until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Following the World War I, Gaumont suffered economic losses due to increased competition from American Hollywood productions, in 1925, the studios output had decreased to only 3 films. In addition, Gaumont was unable to pace with the cost of technological changes. Struck by mounting debts in the early 1930s and the effects of the Great Depression, in 1937, the studio ceased production and operated only as a theater and distribution company. The company was purchased by the French corporation Havas in 1938, renamed Société Nouvelle des Etablissements Gaumont, during the later years of World War II, Gaumont was effected by the financial ruin of Frances economy as well as the physical destruction of its facilities. The company ceased production until 1947, the period was to see the return to prominence of Gaumont Studios. On February 2,2000, Philippe Binant, technical manager of Digital Cinema Project at Gaumont, from 1993 to early 2004, Gaumount and Disney made a partnership for producing films for theater distribution. In 2001, Gaumont spun off the division into a joint-venture with Pathé since known as Les Cinémas Gaumont Pathé. Gaumont owns a 34% stake in the entity, which controls a large network in France, Switzerland. As of 2011, this stake is worth €214 million, in 2004, Gaumont continued its development with Pathé to set up another joint-venture, Gaumont-Pathé Archives. Gaumont owns 57. 5% of this entity, which contains newsreels, documentaries, from early 2004 to 2007, the company had a partnership with Sony for producing films and for theater and DVD distribution worldwide
6.
Gainsborough Pictures
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Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regents Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, London. Gainsborough Studios were active between 1924 and 1951, the company was initially based at Islington Studios which were built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway and was later converted to studios. Other films were made at Lime Grove and Pinewood Studios, the former Islington studios were demolished in 2002 and flats built on the site in 2004. A London Borough of Hackney historical plaque is attached to the building, the studio is best remembered for the Gainsborough melodramas it produced in the 1940s. Gainsborough was founded in 1924 by Michael Balcon and was a company to the Gaumont British from 1927. Whilst Gaumont-British, based at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush produced the quality pictures, Gainsborough mainly produced B movies and melodramas at its Islington Studios. The studios opening logo was of a lady in a Georgian era period costume sitting in a frame, turning and smiling. The short piece of music was written by Louis Levy and called the Gainsborough Minuet, after the departure of Balcon to MGM-British, the Rank Organisation gained an interest in Gainsborough and the studio made such popular films as Oh, Mr Porter. By 1937, Gaumont-British were in crisis, and closed their Lime Grove studios. From 1942 to 1946, a series of morally ambivalent studio bound costume melodramas was produced by Gainsborough for the domestic market and they were mostly based on recent popular books by female novelists. Prominent titles included the The Man in Grey, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Fanny by Gaslight, The Wicked Lady, the films featured a stable of leading British actors, among them Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. The studio also made modern-dress comedies and melodramas such as Love Story, Two Thousand Women, Time Flies, Bees in Paradise, They Were Sisters, unhappy with the performance of the studio, Rank closed it down in early 1949. Production was concentrated at Pinewood Studios, although at first films continued to be made there under the Gainsborough banner, this quickly stopped and no further Gainsborough films were released after 1951. The original Lime Grove site was taken over by the BBC in 1949 and used, mainly for TV current affairs and live programmes, the buildings were demolished in the early 90s, and have been since replaced with housing presently called Gaumont Terrace and Gainsborough Court. The buildings began to be cleared in 2002, and apartments named Gainsborough Studios were built on the site in 2004, by architects Munkenbeck and Marshall. Cook, Pam, Gainsborough Pictures, Harper, Sue, Picturing the Past, Gainsborough Pictures at the British Film Institutes Screenonline London’s Hollywood, The Gainsborough Film Studio’s Silent Years article at Brenton Film
7.
Islington Studios
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The studios are closely associated with Gainsborough Pictures which was based there for most of the studios history. During its existence Islington worked closely with its sister Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush and many films were made partly at one studio, amongst the films made at the studios were Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, Will Hay comedies and Gainsborough Melodramas. The building was converted into a studio, and production began in 1920. During this era Alfred Hitchcock made his start in films, when he was employed as a writer at Islington. In 1924 the Hollywood company sold off the studios which were bought by Michael Balcons Gainsborough Pictures, the company enjoyed some success turning out silent films during the 1920s, at a time when other British companies were struggling. In the late 1920s Gainsborough merged with the larger British Gaumont which owned the Lime Grove Studios, the conglomerate had ambitious plans to challenge Hollywood and produce more than twenty films a year. The larger Lime Grove complex was selected to make films while Islington was designated the cheaper films. However, during these years it served as an overflow studio, during the Slump of 1937, British Gaumont shut down production. Although it considered giving up filmmaking completely, it was decided to continue Gainsborough Pictures making slightly cheaper films, Shepherds Bush was shut down and all production switched to Islington. The success of some of these late 1930s Islington productions such as The Lady Vanishes helped Gainsborough to keep in business, all production was switched to re-opened Lime Grove. Both studios came under the control of the Rank Organisation when it bought Gainsborough in 1941, following the war, Islington were re-opened. In 1946 Betty Box was placed in charge of the studios when her brother Sydney Box was appointed by Rank to run Gainsborough Pictures, over the next three years the studio turned out a large number of thrillers and comedies. In 1949 both Islington and Shepherds Bush were closed when Rank concentrated production at Pinewood Studios, today a block of flats stand where the studio used to be. List of Gainsborough Pictures films Macnab, Geoffrey, J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry. Realism and Tinsel, Cinema and Society in Britain, 1939-1949, British Film Studios, An Illustrated History. London’s Hollywood, The Gainsborough Film Studio’s Silent Years article at Brenton Film
8.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
9.
Gaumont British
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The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation was a company that produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1898 as the British subsidiary of the French Gaumont Film Company and it became independent of its French parent in 1922 when Isidore Ostrer acquired control of Gaumont-British. In 1927 a leading silent film maker, the Ideal Film Company, the companys Lime Grove Studios made films including Alfred Hitchcocks adaptation of The 39 Steps, while its Islington Studios made Hitchcocks The Lady Vanishes. In the 1930s the company employed 16,000 people, in the USA Gaumont-British had its own distribution operation for its films until December 1938, when it outsourced distribution to 20th Century Fox. In 1941 the Rank Organisation bought Gaumont-British and its sister company Gainsborough Pictures and they also took over many smaller cinemas across the country, eventually owning 343 properties. One such property was the Holderness Hall in Hull, built by the pioneering William Morton in 1912, many of the Gaumont cinemas had a theatre organ for entertainment before the show, in the intervals, or after the show. The name Gaumont was adopted to describe the style of the organ console case. Cinema exhibition in the UK was characterised by alignments between exhibitors and distributors, after the Odeon and Gaumont takeovers, Rank had access to the product of 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Walt Disney, Columbia, Universal, United Artists and its own film productions. Rivals ABC had only Warner Brothers, MGM and its own ABPC productions, with ample supply of product, Rank maintained the separate Odeon and Gaumont release pattern for many years. Some Odeon cinemas were renamed Gaumont when transferred to Gaumont release, as attendances declined during the 1950s many cinemas on all circuits were closed and eventually, the booking power of the Gaumont circuit declined. In January 1959 Rank restructured its operation and combined the best Gaumonts. In 1961, Paramount objected to Rank consigning its Dean Martin comedy All in a Nights Work to the national circuit, with the continuing decline in attendances and cinema numbers, the National release died on its feet and henceforth there were two release patterns, Rank and ABC. There was no reason to perpetuate the Gaumont name and in towns that lost their Odeon, even so, the Gaumont name continued to linger until, in January 1987, the last Gaumont, in Doncaster, was renamed Odeon. A subsidiary of Gaumont British — G. B, equipments Ltd made a number of 16 mm film sound projectors in Britain before and during World War II, including models such as the G. B. -Scope A and B, Grosvenor and G. B. Equipments Ltd decided not to manufacture models of their own — instead they began to manufacture, under license and these models, branded as either G. B. -Bell & Howell or Bell & Howell-Gamount in Great Britain, were identical to the American models except in model number. During the 1950s G. B. -Bell & Howell either manufactured, or distributed, in 1888 Abram Kershaw established a business in Leeds making photographic items, including lanterns and projection equipment. Kershaw produced cinema projectors under the Kalee trade name from the 1910s, later, the company became part of Amalgamated Photographic Manufacturers, forming the Kershaw-Soho Ltd group. The brand Kalee continued to be used until the Kershaw group was acquired by Gaumont British to become G. B. -Kalee Ltd
10.
Rome Express
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Rome Express is a 1932 British thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Esther Ralston and Conrad Veidt. The film won the American National Board of Review award for Best Foreign Film, Rome Express was remade in 1948 as Sleeping Car to Trieste. The films action takes place almost entirely on the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits train the Rome Express, before the journey starts, a valuable painting by Van Dyck has been stolen from an art gallery in Paris. Zurta, a mysterious and sinister character, boards the train with an accomplice to search for the stolen painting, Poole attempts to avoid being found by hiding in his sleeping compartment. The painting is discovered by accident and passes through the hands of people on the train. Attempting to escape, he leaps from the train and is killed, the painting is presumed to be returned to the owners. Jolif Finlay Currie as Sam the Publicist Eliot Makeham as Mills Like the post-war remake of film, Sleeping Car to Trieste. Zurta is assumed to be a criminal who organised the art theft. MacBain also covets the painting and has attempted to buy it. Rome Express at the Internet Movie Database Rome Express at AllMovie
11.
Universal Pictures
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Universal Pictures is an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. The company was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley and its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America and is one of Hollywoods Big Six studios. Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, one story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the days takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons, for Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures, in June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe Stern and Julius Stern. Laemmle broke with Edisons custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers, by naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as The Biograph Girl, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York on April 30,1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley. Eventually all would be out by Laemmle. Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912 the company was focusing its efforts in the Hollywood area. On March 15,1915, Laemmle opened the worlds largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, studio management became the third facet of Universals operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists, Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood, and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns. In its early years Universal released three brands of feature films — Red Feather, low-budget programmers, Bluebird, more ambitious productions, and Jewel, their prestige motion pictures. Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, despite Laemmles role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew and he also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Character actor Lon Chaney became a card for Universal in the 1920s
12.
Rank Organisation
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The Rank Organisation is or was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated company in Britain. It also diversified into the manufacture of radios, TVs and photocopiers, the company logo, the Gongman, first used in 1935 by the groups distribution company General Film Distributors and seen in the opening titles of the films, became an iconic film emblem. From these modest origins, the British film company emerged in 1937 as Rank sought to consolidate his film-making interests, the company grew quickly, largely through acquisition. 1939 - UK sites of Paramount Cinemas purchased 1941 - Purchase of the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, which also owned Gainsborough Pictures,251 cinemas and the Lime Grove Studios. In the mid-1940s Two Cities Films became part of the Rank Organisation producing key films such as Odd Man Out, Hamlet, Vice Versa and The Rocking Horse Winner. 1946 - Bought for £1 million+ a 50 per cent share in a chain of 133 cinemas from New Zealander Robert James Kerridge, many of the waning film company assets were hastily converted and pressed into Rank Xerox service. The Company of Youth, the Rank Organisation acting school often referred to as The Charm School, was founded in 1945 and it launched several careers including those of Donald Sinden, Dirk Bogarde, Diana Dors and Christopher Lee. Also under contract to Rank was the Canadian actor Philip Gilbert, despite backing some excellent films, Rank was in crisis by 1949, having built up a debt of £16 million. And reported a loss of £3.5 million, Managing Director John Davis cut staff, reduced budgets. Other studio facilities were closed, sold or leased, the Rank Organisation closed Independent Producers Ltd. In 1949, the company bought the Bush Radio manufacturing facility, in the early 1960s Rank took over Murphy Radio to form the Rank Bush Murphy Group. In 1956 Rank began a partnership with the Haloid Corporation to form Rank Xerox, Rank was also a significant shareholder in the consortium which became Southern Television, the first ITV television contract holder for the south of England. In the late 1950s, Rank set up Rank Records Ltd. in 1960, Top Rank was taken over by EMI, and in 1962 they replaced it with Stateside Records. Top Rank artists included Gary U. S. Bonds, the Shirelles, bumble and the Stingers, Wilbert Harrison, Skip & Flip, Andy Stewart, Craig Douglas and John Leyton. Rank Audio Visual was created in 1960, bringing together Ranks acquisitions in multimedia, including Bell and Howell, Andrew Smith Harkness Ltd, subsequent acquisitions included Strand Electric Holdings and H. J. Leak & Co. In the mid and late 1970s Rank Audio Visual made a 3-in-1 stereo music centre, the production of the classic Rank TV ran in the mid to late 70s, some interim models appeared and the modern Rank TV appeared in the early 80s. The NEC badge did not appear in the PAL/ 220/240 volt countries until the mid-1980s, J. Arthur Rank had stepped down as managing director of the Rank Organisation in 1952, but remained as chairman until 1962
13.
The Wicked Lady
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The Wicked Lady is a 1945 film starring Margaret Lockwood in the title role as a noblemans wife who secretly becomes a highwayman for the excitement. The film has one of the top audiences ever for a film of its period,18.4 million It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas, the film was loosely remade by Michael Winner as The Wicked Lady in 1983. Caroline invites her beautiful, green-eyed friend Barbara to her wedding to wealthy landowner. A scheming Barbara soon has Sir Ralph totally entranced, Caroline, wishing only his happiness, stands aside, and even allows Barbara to persuade her to be the maid of honour so as to lessen the scandal of the abrupt change of brides. At the wedding reception, Barbara meets a stranger, Kit Locksby. It is love at first sight for both, but too late, married life on a rural estate does not provide the new Lady Skelton with the excitement she expected and craves. A visit by her detested sister-in-law, Lady Henrietta Kingsclere, Henrietta wins Barbaras jewels, including her most-prized possession, her late mothers ruby brooch, in a game of Ombre. A chance remark about the notorious highwayman Captain Jerry Jackson gives Barbara an idea, masquerading as Jackson, Barbara holds up Henriettas coach and takes her brooch. Intoxicated by the experience, she keeps on waylaying coaches, until one night, she, after they relieve the passengers of their valuables and ride away, Jackson is amused to find his competitor is a beautiful woman. They become lovers and partners in crime, Barbara learns of a valuable gold shipment from a former tenant farmer of Skeltons, Ned Cotterill, who is employed as one of the guards. Jackson is against the idea of stealing the gold, as the coach will have double the usual protection, however, the robbery does not go smoothly. When Cotterill pursues them, Barbara aims for his horse, however, her conscience is not disturbed for long. Hogarth, a family servant, finds out about Barbaras double life. However, his religious fervour to save her and her lies about repenting keep him from revealing what he knows. Barbara tries to him with poison and, when that is not quick enough. She then goes to visit Jackson after the prolonged absence caused by Hogarth, infuriated, she anonymously betrays him to her husband. Jackson is captured and sentenced to be hanged, in London, Barbara goes to view the execution with Caroline, terrified that he will name her as his accomplice. However, he only mentions her indirectly before his hanging, when a riot breaks out afterward, the two ladies are rescued by none other than Kit, who turns out to be engaged to Caroline
14.
Television Centre, London
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Television Centre in White City, West London was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it is one of the most readily recognisable facilities of its type, parts of the building are Grade II listed, including the central ring and Studio 1. Live television events from studios and routing of national and international sporting events took place within the Television Centre before being passed to the Broadcast Centre for transmission and it was announced on 21 September 2010 that the BBC would cease broadcasting from Television Centre in 2013. BBC Worldwide moved into space in the Stage 6 building following extensive refurbishment in 2015. The radio and television news departments moved to Broadcasting House in central London, the building is 4 miles west of central London, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The nearest Underground stations are White City and Wood Lane, London broadcasts at the time came from Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove Studios. It was to be the largest television centre in the world, riverside Studios in Hammersmith were used from 1954. It was planned to be 6 acres, but turned out to be twice as big, on 24 August 1956 the main contract was awarded to Higgs and Hill, which also built The London Studios for ITV in 1972. The building was planned to cost £9M, when it opened, the Director of BBC television was Gerald Beadle, and the first programme broadcast was First Night with David Nixon in Studio Three. In 1997 the BBC News Centre was opened, in a new complex at the front of the building, the building featured a central circular block around which were studios, offices, engineering areas and the News Centre. In the centre of the block was a statue designed by T. B. Huxley-Jones of Helios. At the foot of the statue were two reclining figures, symbolising sound and vision, the components of television, even though there was a foundation stone marked BBC1956 in the basement of the main building, construction began in 1951. With the migration of staff and functions to complexes in Salford and London W1, the overall design from the air appeared to resemble a question mark in shape. The architect, Graham Dawbarn CBE, drew a question mark on an envelope while thinking about the design of the building, an article in The BBC Quarterly, July 1946, proposed a circular design, several years before Dawbarn drew up his plans. The building was commissioned in 1949 with work starting in 1950, work resumed in 1953 on the TVC scenery block and work began in 1954 on the canteen block, which doubled as a rehearsal space. Work on Stage 3, the central office block and studios. The shells of TC1, TC6 and TC7 were constructed around the same time, BBC Television Centre officially opened with TC3 operational on 29 June 1960. Arthur Hayes worked on the building from 1956 to 1970 and was responsible for the creation of the iconic BBC Television Centre lettering on the façade of Studio 1, the lettering was later used all over the building, even in tile work outside lift entrances
15.
White City, London
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White City is a district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and forms the northern part of Shepherds Bush. Today, White City is home to the BBC Television Centre and BBC White City, and Loftus Road stadium, the area now called White City was level arable farmfields until 1908, when it was used as the site of the Franco-British Exhibition and the 1908 Summer Olympics. In 1909 the exhibition site hosted the Imperial International Exhibition and in 1910, the final two exhibitions to be held there were the Latin-British Exhibition and the Anglo-American Exhibition, which was brought to a premature end by the outbreak of the First World War. During this period it was known as the Great White City due to the marble cladding used on the exhibition pavilions. The White City Stadium in the north of the area, known as the Great Stadium, in 1931, a 440yd running track was installed for the Amateur Athletic Association Championships, held there from 1932 to 1970. It hosted one match during the 1966 World Cup, the stadium was demolished in 1985 to make way for the BBC White City building. The Marathon from these London Olympics played an important part in the development of the marathon race. In the early years of international sport, the long distance marathon race did not have a standard set distance. The distance run at the first seven Olympics from 1896 to 1920 varied between 40km and 42.75 km, the starting point of the race at the 1908 Olympics was at Windsor Castle creating a distance of 26 miles 385 yards to the finishing line at White City stadium. In 1921 this was adopted as the standard distance, to house the growing population of Shepherds Bush, a five-storey housing estate was built in the late 1930s, which also took the name of the White City. Streets were named after countries that had featured in the exhibitions, in 2001, BBC Television Centre was damaged by a car bomb attack by the Real IRA. The bomb went off on Wood Lane, in front of the Television Centre news building, on 30 October 2008, Westfield shopping centre was opened. Westfield Group has built a new shopping centre, bounded by the West Cross Route and this centre has been branded Westfield London. Shepherds Bush on the West London Line, to the east of the adjacent to the Holland Park roundabout. It is also a walking distance from Shepherds Bush tube station served by the Central line. In 2007, it was announced that the BBC would sell its landmark Television Centre as part of a cost-cutting programme, in 2008 English Heritage announced its recommendation to list parts of TV centre as an excellent example of 20th-century architecture. Following the sale of the Television Centre, White City has become a key area within Central London. A strong partnership between White City Living by St James, Westfield London, Stanhope and Imperial College London, has created a vision for the future of White City area
16.
Steptoe and Son
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Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business. They live on Oil Drum Lane, a street in Shepherds Bush. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965 and its theme tune, Old Ned, was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find Britains Best Sitcom and it was remade in the US as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert and in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon. In 1972 a film adaptation of the series, Steptoe and Son, was released in cinemas, followed by a sequel Steptoe, the series focused on the inter-generational conflict of father and son. Albert Steptoe, a dirty old man, is an elderly man, set in his grimy. By contrast, his 37-year-old son Harold is filled with social aspirations, the show contained elements of drama and tragedy, as Harold was continually prevented from achieving his ambitions. To this end the show was unusual at the time for casting actors rather than comedians in its lead roles, the show had its roots in a 1962 episode of Galton & Simpsons Comedy Playhouse. The fourth in the series, The Offer, was both out of writers block and budgetary constraints. Earlier shows in the series had cost more than expected, so the writers decided to write a set in one room. The idea of two brothers was considered but father and son worked best, ronald Fraser was second choice for Harold, which would have produced a totally different character. Galton and Simpson were not aiming to make a pilot for a series, Galton and Simpson were reportedly overwhelmed by this reaction, and the first of what became eight series was commissioned, the first four of which were transmitted between 1962 and 1965. The last four series were broadcast between 1970 and 1974, now in colour, at the peak of the series popularity, it commanded viewing figures of some 28,000,000 per episode. In addition, the early 1970s saw two films, two 46-minute Christmas specials. In 2005, the play Steptoe and Son in Murder at Oil Drum Lane, written by Ray Galton and John Antrobus, the series was one of the first UK situation comedy programmes to employ actors rather than comedians in the principal roles. Galton and Simpson had decided that they wanted to try to write for performers who didnt count their laughs, the series title music, Old Ned, won its composer Ron Grainer his second successive Ivor Novello award. The series had no set of opening titles but the opening sequences would often feature the Steptoes horse. Steptoe and Son is the Steptoes trading name, but as established in the first episode, the name dates from when he and his mother—Mrs
17.
Doctor Who
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Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called The Doctor and he explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by a number of companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilisations, the show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series, the programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot. The programme was relaunched in 2005, and since then has been produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff, twelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The conceit is that this is a Time Lord trait through which the character of the Doctor takes on a new body, each actors portrayal differs, but all represent stages in the life of the same character and form a single narrative. The time-travelling feature of the means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. The current lead, Peter Capaldi, took on the role after Matt Smiths exit in the 2013 Christmas special The Time of the Doctor, in 2017, Capaldi confirmed he would be leaving at the end of the tenth series. Doctor Who follows the adventures of the character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He fled from Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS – Time and Relative Dimension in Space – a machine which allows him to travel across time, the TARDIS has a chameleon circuit which normally allows the machine to take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise. However, the Doctors TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box due to a malfunction in the chameleon circuit, the Doctor rarely travels alone and often brings one or more companions to share these adventures. His companions are usually humans, as he has found a fascination with planet Earth, as a Time Lord, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate when his body is mortally damaged, taking on a new appearance and personality. The Doctor has gained numerous reoccurring enemies during his travels, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master, another renegade Time Lord. Doctor Who first appeared on BBC TV at 17,16,20 GMT, eighty seconds after the programme time,5,15 pm. It was to be a weekly programme, each episode 25 minutes of transmission length. Discussions and plans for the programme had been in progress for a year, writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to the development of the series
18.
Nationwide (TV programme)
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Nationwide is a former BBC News and current affairs television programme which ran from 9 September 1969 until 5 August 1983. It was broadcast on BBC1 each weekday following the early evening news and it followed a magazine format, combining political analysis and discussion with consumer affairs, light entertainment and sports reporting. It began on 9 September 1969, running between Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6,00 pm, before being extended to five days a week in 1972, from 1976 until 1981 the start time was 5,55 pm. The final edition was broadcast on 5 August 1983, and the following October it was replaced by Sixty Minutes, the long-running Watchdog programme began as a Nationwide feature. The light entertainment was similar in tone to Thats Life. Eccentric stories featured skateboarding ducks and men who claimed that they could walk on egg shells, after the introduction and round-up, the BBC regions opted out for a twenty-minute section of local news round-ups. Once they had handed back to Lime Grove Studios in London, for all of its run, Nationwide provided the regional news for the BBC London/South East region, as this region was the only BBC region not to have its own dedicated regional news team. When other regions had their news programme, the Nationwide presenters provided the latest news and weather for the London. The programmes brass and strings theme music, The Good Word, was composed by Johnny Scott, the show was used in an influential cultural/media studies project at the University of Birmingham, known as The Nationwide Project. In May 1983, during an election special of its On the Spot feature. Diana Gould, a teacher from Cirencester, persistently challenged Margaret Thatcher about her ordering of the sinking of the General Belgrano when it was sailing away from the Falklands. When Thatcher asked her whether she accepted that the Belgrano had been a danger to British shipping when it was sunk, Thatcher was extremely angry about the BBC for allowing the question. Thatchers husband Denis lashed out at Roger Bolton, the editor of the programme, in the entertainment suite, saying that his wife had been stitched up by bloody BBC poofs, consequently, only a few complete editions exist in their original form. He wrote, Already virtually doomed is material held on early domestic tape formats manufactured by Sony, Shibaden, the pictures from these tapes are very poor - indeed, the Sony and Shibaden reel-to-reel tapes are monochrome only - but some unique collections exist on these formats. Most significant is a complete collection of the BBC magazine programme Nationwide from 1971 to 1980, mostly on Sony and Shibaden. This collection is held by the NFA and represents the only copies of the programmes in existence. The BBC has all the reports and a small selection of pre-recorded video inserts. The British Film Institute website stated in 2003 so far we have successfully dubbed 500 N-1500 as part of an HLF-Funded Nationwide preservation project. 5m of National Lottery funding
19.
Top of the Pops
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Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1 January 1964 and 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC1, except for a period on Fridays in mid-1973 before being again moved to Fridays in 1996. Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that weeks best-selling popular music artists, additionally, there was a special edition of the programme on Christmas Day, featuring some of the best-selling singles of the year. With its high viewing figures the show became a significant part of British popular culture, although the weekly show was cancelled in 2006, the Christmas special has continued. It also survives as Top of the Pops 2, which began in 1994, in the 1990s, the shows format was sold to several foreign broadcasters in the form of a franchise package, and at one point various versions of the show were shown in nearly 100 countries. Editions of the programme from the 1970s are being repeated on most Thursdays and Fridays on BBC Four, Top of the Pops was created by BBC producer Johnnie Stewart, inspired by the popular Teen and Twenty Disc Club which aired on Radio Luxembourg. It was first aired in 1964 and was based on the Top 20. By 1970 the Top 30 was being used and the show was extended from 30 to 45 minutes duration, the show was also now shown in colour following the BBC1 upgrade in November 1969. A switch to the Top 40 was made in 1984, the show saw many changes through the decades, in style, design, fashion and taste. It periodically had some aspect of its sequence, logo and theme tune, format, or set design altered in some way. The programme had several executive producers during its run, in charge of the production of the show. When Stewart left the show in 1973, after nearly 10 years in charge, both Stewart and Nash made brief returns to the show as producer after they left, in 1976 and 1981 respectively. Stewart devised the rules which governed how the show would operate, the programme would end with the number one record. The show would include the highest new entry and the highest climber on the charts, tracks could be featured in consecutive weeks in different formats. For example, if a song was played over the chart countdown or the closing credits, when the programmes format changed in November 2003, it concentrated increasingly on the top 10. Later, during the BBC Two era, the top 20 was regarded as the main point, with the exception made for up. Singles from below the top 40 were shown if the band were up, if a single being performed was below the top 40, just the words New Entry were shown and not the chart position. Top of the Pops was first broadcast on Wednesday,1 January 1964 at 6,35 pm and it was produced in Studio A on Dickenson Road in Rusholme, Manchester
20.
Soap opera
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A soap opera, soap, or soapie, is a serial drama on television or radio that examines the lives of many characters, usually focusing on emotional relationships to the point of melodrama. The term soap opera originated from such dramas being typically sponsored by soap manufacturers in the past, the first serial considered to be a soap opera was Painted Dreams, which debuted on October 20,1930 on Chicago radio station WGN. The first nationally broadcast radio soap opera was Clara, Lu, and Em, a crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the features that makes a television program a soap opera. While Spanish language telenovelas are sometimes called soap operas, telenovelas have conflicts that get resolved, but with soap operas each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode. You spend more time even with the characters, the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous. Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments, each episode may feature some of the shows current storylines, but not always all of them. Soap operas rarely bring all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time, when one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger, evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode, and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger, the article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, the storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. These elements may be found across the gamut of soap operas, Due to the prominence of English-language television, most soap-operas are completely English. In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working class environments. Many of the soaps produced in two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare, UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting reality or purport to have a realistic style. Romance, secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines, in US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and the most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels. Crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and even murder may go unpunished if the perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story, Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the romantic quality of criminal and/or oligarch life, in soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate the set of relationships examined by the series
21.
Led Zeppelin
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Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, after changing their name from the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with Atlantic Records that afforded them considerable artistic freedom. Their fourth album, which features the track Stairway to Heaven, is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, Page wrote most of Led Zeppelins music, particularly early in their career, while Plant generally supplied the lyrics. Jones keyboard-based compositions later became central to the catalogue, which featured increasing experimentation. The latter half of their career saw a series of record-breaking tours that earned the group a reputation for excess, in the decades that followed, the surviving members sporadically collaborated and participated in one-off Led Zeppelin reunions. The most successful of these was the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London, Led Zeppelin are widely considered one of the most successful, innovative, and influential rock groups in history. They are one of the music artists in the history of audio recording. With RIAA-certified sales of 111.5 million units, they are the band in the US. Each of their nine studio albums placed in the top 10 of the Billboard album chart and they achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums. Rolling Stone magazine described them as the heaviest band of all time, the biggest band of the Seventies, and unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, in 1966, London-based session guitarist Jimmy Page joined the blues-influenced rock band the Yardbirds to replace bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. Page soon switched from bass to guitar, creating a dual lead guitar line-up with Jeff Beck. Following Becks departure in October 1966, the Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, Page wanted to form a supergroup with him and Beck on guitars, and the Whos Keith Moon and John Entwistle on drums and bass, respectively. Vocalists Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project, the group never formed, although Page, Beck, and Moon did record a song together in 1966, Becks Bolero, in a session that also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones. The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968 at Luton College of Technology in Bedfordshire, Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Pages first choice for the singer was Terry Reid, but Reid declined the offer and suggested Robert Plant. Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending former Band of Joy drummer John Bonham, Jones inquired about the vacant position at the suggestion of his wife after Dreja dropped out of the project to become a photographer. Page had known Jones since they were both musicians and agreed to let him join as the final member
22.
Julie Felix
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Julie Ann Felix is an American born, British-based folk recording artist who achieved success in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She continues to perform and releases albums on her own record label and she graduated in 1956 from high school in Westchester, Los Angeles, California. The same year that she arrived in the United Kingdom, she became the first solo folk performer signed to a major British record label, within a decade she had a well-established career. In 1965 she was reportedly the first folksinger to fill the Royal Albert Hall, in 1966 Felix became the resident singer on the BBC television programme The Frost Report, presented by David Frost. She hosted her own shows for the BBC from 1968 to 1970, among those featured on her show were The Kinks, Leonard Cohen and Led Zeppelins lead guitarist, Jimmy Page, who played the White Summer and Black Mountain Side guitar solo pieces. On 1 May 1967 she appeared on the German TV show Beat-Club and she performed at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. She had two UK Singles Chart hits in 1970, the first was with the song entitled If I Could, while the second, marginally less successful, was called Heaven is Here. 1990 saw the release of a new album, Bright Shadows, on 24 March 2008, she appeared on a BBC Four programme in which stars of The Frost Report gathered for a night celebrating 40 years since Frost Over England, Felix sang Blowin in the Wind. She has appeared at the Wynd Theatre, Melrose, Scottish Borders, Felix now lives in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, England, and is still recording and performing, appearing on stage on her 70th birthday in 2008
23.
Shepherd's Bush Empire
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Shepherds Bush Empire is a music venue in Shepherds Bush, London, run by the Academy Music Group. It was built in 1903 as a hall and in 1953 became the BBC Television Theatre. Since 1994, it has operated as a music venue and it is a Grade II listed building. The Shepherds Bush Empire was built in 1903 for impresario Oswald Stoll, ashlys Circus performed at Shepherds Bush Empire and presented to George Strong a trophy for riding The Bucking Mule Sloper on 8 September 1905. The first performers at the new theatre were The Fred Karno Troupe including Charlie Chaplin, the Empire staged music-hall entertainments, such as variety performances and revues, until the early 1950s, by which time the popularity of these forms of entertainment was declining. During World War II, the Shepherds Bush Empire narrowly escaped being hit by a flying bomb, the Pavilion did not re-open until 1955. In 1953, the Empire was sold to the BBC, which put it to use as a television studio–theatre, among the programmes produced there were Crackerjack, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Thats Life. In 1985, the theatre was turned over for use by Wogan. The BBC vacated the building in 1991 and it was taken over again, this time in 1993 by entrepreneur Andrew Mahler, who invested over £1m in the building in improvements and refurbishments. In 1994 the building re-opened under its name of the Shepherds Bush Empire, since when it has hosted gigs. In November 2007 Amy Winehouse recorded I Told You I Was Trouble, in addition to this, Transatlantics third live release, Whirld Tour 2010, Live in London, was recorded and filmed at the venue. Folk rock band Mumford & Sons recorded their album Live from Shepherds Bush Empire there, in the dance music community it is also known to host raves and hard dance events, such as Frantic or Heat. The Empire has a capacity of only 2,000, but it has chosen as a venue for small gigs. Prior to their 1999 tour, the Rolling Stones put in a performance, with Sheryl Crow as support, dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines made a famously controversial remark about George W. Bush at the club in 2003. Italian singer-songwriter Elisa performed on February 23rd,2017, history of Shepherds Bush Shepherds Bush Palladium Shepherds Bush Pavilion Denny, Barbara, Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush Past, Historical Publications Ltd, London, ISBN094866732 X
24.
An Adventure in Space and Time
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An Adventure in Space and Time is a British television drama produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the science fiction series Doctor Who. It tells the story of the creation with emphasis on the actor William Hartnell who portrayed the First Doctor. It is written by the Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss, the TV programme was shown in a pre-screening at the British Film Institutes Southbank centre on 12 November 2013. In 1966, William Hartnell is in his room at the BBC. He insults a stagehand who calls him to the set, where the delay caused by his absence is noticed, Hartnell enters in costume, ready to film his last moments as the First Doctor and stands in front of the TARDIS console. Three years earlier, BBC executive Sydney Newman is asked to create a show that will fill the gap between Grandstand and Juke Box Jury and he has an idea for a science-fiction series with the central character being a doctor, although he does not know of what. When he tells his colleague Verity Lambert she is hesitant to join the project and she changes her mind when Newman asks her to be the producer, not his assistant. Lambert and the director, Waris Hussein, meet William Hartnell to offer him the lead role in what will eventually be titled Doctor Who and, despite some trepidation. During rehearsal, Hartnell is dissatisfied that the TARDIS lacks an interior set, Newman then compliments Hartnells acting ability to save his producer from a troublesome conversation. However, Newman has misgivings about Lamberts handling of her job and this inspires Lambert to become more assertive and she forces the set designer to finally create the TARDIS interior. He does so effortlessly, impressing Lambert, the recording of the pilot episode is beset with difficulties, Newman dislikes the result and orders a re-shoot. Following this, he is contented and schedules a transmission date. Lambert and Hussein are nervous as the broadcast of the first episode occurs the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and its potential audience is diminished. For the next serial, Newman expresses his concern about the Daleks, referring to them as bug-eyed monsters, following the transmission of the first Dalek story, Lambert realises its popularity when she spots children impersonating the creatures catchphrase, Exterminate. Newman is pleased to tell her that the programme achieved a viewership of 10 million and continued production is now assured. As most of the original cast and crew move on to other projects, Hartnells health declines, leading him to forget lines. Hartnell meets with Newman and asks for a reduced workload, Hartnell has grown to embrace playing the Doctor and struggles with his emotional attachment to the character, with little choice, he reluctantly accepts the situation. He breaks into tears as he informs his wife Heather of the news, before his final scene, Hartnell shares a brief exchange with his successor, Patrick Troughton
25.
Wimbledon Studios
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Wimbledon Film & Television Studios is an English film and television production company and facilities provider, located in Colliers Wood, between Mitcham and Wimbledon in south London. Wimbledon Studios was established as the Merton Studios, the studios were previously a wine-distribution warehouse, which was acquired by Thames Television as a replacement for their Barlby Road base in North Kensington in the early 1990s. The studios were used for the Channel 5 soap opera Family Affairs. An exterior street set was built for the programme, which has also since been used by other productions and is available for hire. Thames – which later became Talkback Thames – stayed at the studios until 2010 when The Bill, by then the show produced there. After the cancellation of The Bill by ITV, Talkback Thamess owners, FremantleMedia, the facility has three studios, two large studios of approximately 8,000 square feet and one 5, 000-square-foot studio. In August 2014, it was announced that Wimbledon Studios had entered administration with several employees being made redundant as a result, marjan tv network currently holds the lease on the building Enquiries for studio hire are handled by The Location Collective
26.
BBC Television
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BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927 and it produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television broadcasts is dated to 2 November 1936. The BBCs domestic television channels have no advertising and collectively they account for more than 30% of all UK viewing. The services are funded by a television licence, the BBC operates several television networks, television stations, and related programming services in the United Kingdom. As well as being a broadcaster, the corporation also produces a number of its own programmes in-house. The simultaneous transmission of sound and pictures was achieved on 30 March 1930, by late 1930, thirty minutes of morning programmes were broadcast from Monday to Friday, and thirty minutes at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays after BBC radio went off the air. Bairds broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932, the BBC began its own regular television programming from the basement of Broadcasting House, London, on 22 August 1932. Ally Pally housed two studios, various stores, make-up areas, dressing rooms, offices, and the transmitter itself. BBC television initially used two systems on alternate weeks, the 240-line Baird intermediate film system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system. The use of both made the BBCs service the worlds first regular high-definition television service, it broadcast from Monday to Saturday between 15,00 and 16,00, and 21,00 and 22,00. The two systems were to run on a basis for six months, early television sets supported both resolutions. Television production was switched from Bairds company to what is now known as BBC One on 2 August 1932, regularly scheduled electronically scanned television began from Alexandra Palace in London on 2 November 1936, to just a few hundred viewers in the immediate area. The first programme broadcast – and thus the first ever, on a dedicated TV channel – was Opening of the BBC Television Service at 15,00, the first major outside broadcast was the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1937. The service was reaching an estimated 25, 000–40,000 homes before the outbreak of World War II which caused the service to be suspended in September 1939. Also, many of the services technical staff and engineers would be needed for the war effort. According to figures from Britains Radio Manufacturers Association,18,999 television sets had been manufactured from 1936 to September 1939, BBC Television returned on 7 June 1946 at 15,00. Jasmine Bligh, one of the announcers, made the first announcement, saying. Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh, the Mickey Mouse cartoon of 1939 was repeated twenty minutes later
27.
Stations of the BBC
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This is a list of national, regional and local television and radio stations owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. BBC One HD BBC Two - A range of programming including current affairs, BBC Two HD BBC Four - Focuses on documentaries and serious programming. BBC Four HD BBC News - Rolling news and current affairs, BBC News HD BBC Parliament - Parliamentary coverage. BBC Alba - Scottish Gaelic language channel, CBBC - Programming for children over the age of six. CBBC HD CBeebies - Programming for children under the age of six and these channels are not funded by the television licence. These services are not to be confused with the stations operated in the United Kingdom. BBC America - United States, a mixture of comedy, drama, BBC Canada - Canada, a mixture of comedy, drama and lifestyle programming. BBC Entertainment - Light entertainment programming, BBC First - Comedy and drama programming. BBC Brit - Factual entertainment programming, BBC Earth - Premium factual programming and documentaries. BBC HD - High-definition television channel, BBC Kids - Canada, programming for children. BBC UKTV - Australia, and New Zealand, best of British entertainment programming, CBeebies - Programming for children under the age of six. BBC Radio 1 - Current hit music, dance and rock, BBC Radio 2 - Adult contemporary, oldies, country, jazz, soul and funk. BBC Radio 3 - Classical, jazz, world music, arts, culture, BBC Radio 4 - Spoken-word programming, news, current affairs, drama and philosophy. BBC Radio 1Xtra - Urban music, hip-hop, grime and dancehall, BBC Radio 4 Extra - Archive programming. BBC Radio 5 Live - News, current affairs, discussion, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra - Additional sports coverage. BBC Radio 6 Music - Alternative music, rock, reggae, BBC Radio Asian Network - Station for the British-Asian community. BBC World Service - International radio station for current affairs
28.
BBC Radio
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BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The service provides national radio stations covering the majority of genres, as well as local radio stations covering local news, affairs. It also oversees online audio content, of the national radio stations, BBC Radio 1,2,3,4 and 5 Live are all available through analogue radio as well as on DAB Digital Radio and internet services through RealMedia, WMA and BBC iPlayer. The remaining stations, BBC Radio 1Xtra,4 Extra,5 Live Sports Extra and 6 Music, all of the BBCs national radio stations broadcast from bases in London, usually in or near to Broadcasting House in Marylebone. However, the BBCs network production units located in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, the BBCs radio services began in 1922. Today radio broadcasting still makes up a part of the corporations output - the title of the BBCs listings magazine, Radio Times. On 1 January 1927 the British Broadcasting Company was succeeded in control of the airwaves by the British Broadcasting Corporation. John Reith, who had been the managing director of the commercial company. He expounded firm principles of centralised, all-encompassing radio broadcasting, stressing programming standards and these he set out in his autobiography, Broadcast Over Britain, influencing modern ideas of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate, although no other broadcasting organisation was licensed in the UK until 1973, commercial competition soon opened up from overseas. The English language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earliest commercial radio broadcasting to Britain. The IBC began leasing time on transmitters in continental Europe and then reselling it as sponsored English-language programming aimed at audiences in Britain and it was an important forerunner of pirate radio and modern commercial radio in the United Kingdom. The onset of World War II silenced all but one of the original IBC stations, at the start of the Second World War it was renamed The Overseas Service but is now known as the BBC World Service. Beginning in 1964 the first in what became a fleet of 10 offshore pirate radio stations began to ring the British coastline, by 1967 millions were tuning into these commercial operations and the BBC was rapidly losing its radio listening audience. The British government reacted by passing the Marine Offences Act, which all, One of the stations called Radio London was so successful that the BBC was told to copy it as best they could. This led to an overhaul by Frank Gillard the BBCs Director of Radio of the BBC output creating the four analogue channels that still form the basis of its broadcasting today. The creator of BBC Radio One told the press that his family had been fans of Radio London, the BBC hired many out-of-work broadcasting staff who had come from the former offshore stations. Tony Blackburn who presented the very first BBC Radio One morning show had previously presented the morning show on Radio Caroline
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BBC Online
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BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBCs online service. The website has gone through several branding changes since it was launched, originally named BBC Online, it was then rebranded as BBCi before being named bbc. co. uk. It was then renamed BBC Online again in 2008, however the service uses the branding BBC, the web-based service of the BBC is one of the most visited websites and the worlds largest news website. As of 2007, it contained two million pages. On 2 March 2010, the BBC reported that it cut its website spending by 25% and close BBC6 Music. On 24 January 2011, the cuts of 25% were announced leaving a £34 million shortfall. This resulted in the closure of several sites, including BBC Switch, BBC Blast, 6-0-6, and this led to the official launch of BBC Online at the www. bbc. co. uk address in December 1997. Later, BBC Online launched licence fee funded web sites for Top of the Pops and Top Gear, Beeb. com was later refocussed as an online shopping guide, and was closed in 2002. Beeb. com now redirects to the BBC Shop website, run by BBC Worldwide. In 1999, the BBC bought the www. bbc. com domain name for $375,000, previously owned by Boston Business Computing, as of 2005, www. bbcnc. org. uk no longer exists. In 2001, BBC Online was rebranded as BBCi. the website launched on 7 November 2001, the BBCi name was conceived as an umbrella brand for all the BBCs digital interactive services across web, digital teletext, interactive TV and on mobile platforms. The navbar was designed to offer a similar system to the i-bar on BBCi interactive television. Interactive TV services continued under the BBCi brand until it was dropped completely in 2008, the BBCs online video player, the iPlayer has, however, retained an i-prefix in its branding. The widget-based design was inspired by such as Facebook and iGoogle. The new homepage also incorporated the design used in the 1970s on the BBCs television service into the large header. The new BBC homepage left beta on Wednesday,27 February 2008 to serve as the new BBC Homepage under the same URL as the previous version. On 30 January 2010, a new design became available as a beta version. This homepage expanded on the idea and the customisation theme
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BBC Red Button
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BBC Red Button is a branding used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBCs analogue teletext service, the service can be accessed via Digital terrestrial television, satellite television and cable television. The service was launched in September 1999 as BBC Text and it was relaunched in November 2001 under the BBCi brand and operated under this name until late 2008, when it was rebranded as BBC Red Button. The red button name refers to the interface on remote controls for digital televisions and set-top boxes. Although initially marketed as a new form of television, by 2008 this had given way to positioning iTV as ‘everyday’. This was due in part to the landscape of television in the UK. BBC Text originally launched on terrestrial services in September 1999. In the first phase, the service was created using content migrated from the existing analogue teletext service, BBC Text was considerably more advanced than Ceefax, in that it offered a richer visual interface, with the possibility of photographic images and designed graphics. The original text service had no return path, this being made available in later phases, BBC Text pioneered an early form of on-demand interactive television, called Enhanced TV. According to the BBC, the i in BBCi stood for interactivity as well as innovation, the various services all took on a common interface device, an i-bar branded with the BBCi logo, which sought to emphasise the brand across different technologies by providing similar navigation. Interactive TV services continued under the BBCi brand until late 2008, today, the broadcasters online video player, the BBC iPlayer, reflects the branding legacy by retaining an i-prefix in its branding. From 2008, the BBC gradually began to drop the BBCi name from its digital interactive TV services also, the BBCi logo continued in on-screen presentation for some time. In November 2008, the BBC celebrated 10 years of the digital interactive TV service, BBC Connected Red Button launched in December 2012 on Virgin TiVo and on some Freeview and Freesat Smart TVs in December 2013. The service is a composite IP and broadcast service and may be the future of Red Button on internet connected televisions, the service was renamed BBC Red Button+ in April 2015. It launched with an updated brand and it is also available in Ireland through Sky. On Freeview interactivity does not permit users to submit data, as the platform does not provide a return path. BBC Red Button currently provides one video stream to all platforms, the BBC have the ability to increase the amount of streams during major events and have done so on numerous occasions. Additional online streams could also be accessed through the internet-connected BBC Red Button+,2016 Olympics, eight red button video streams were broadcast to all platforms during the 2016 Olympics
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Ceefax
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Ceefax was the worlds first teletext information service. It was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended at 23,32,19 BST on 23 October 2012, the service then ceased after 38 years of broadcasting. During the late 1960s, engineers Geoff Larkby and Barry Pyatt, at the Designs Department of the BBC and its object was to transmit a printable page of text during the nocturnal close-down period of normal television transmission. Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, then Director General of the BBC, was interested in making farming, the remit received by BBC Designs Department was the equivalent of one page of The Times newspaper to be transmitted during shut-down. Their system employed a modified, Alexander Muirhead designed, rotating drum, facsimile transmitter and this printer used pressure-sensitive till-roll paper passing over a drum with a raised helix of steel wire. The drum was synchronised with the drum by means of the Start of Page. The combination of rotating helix and oscillating moving blade, with the till-roll paper moving linearly between them, enabled a raster to be drawn on the paper. This early electro-mechanical system was nicknamed BEEBFAX – Beeb was the popular name for the BBC. Initial tests were conducted by sending scans of Christmas Cards over the telephone system from London to Bristol in 1969. The system was less popular in the Designs Department laboratory, due to the clatter of the Muirhead facsimile. Messrs Larkby & Pyatt went on to several improvements using digital technology. Developed by BBC engineers who were working on ways of providing televisual subtitles for the deaf, james Redmond, the BBCs Director of Engineering at the time, was a particular enthusiast. Other broadcasters soon took up the idea, including the Independent Broadcasting Authority, before the Internet and the World Wide Web become popular, Ceefax pages were often the first location to report a breaking story or headline. The display format of 24 rows by 40 columns of characters was adopted for the Prestel system. The technology became the standard European teletext system and replaced other standards, in 1983, Ceefax started to broadcast computer programs, known as telesoftware, for the BBC Micro. The telesoftware broadcasts stopped in 1989, a similar idea was the French C Plus Direct satellite channel which used different, higher speed technology to broadcast PC software. For example, early receivers cannot process the FasText coloured-button hyperlinking data, until 2012, the BBCs Ceefax service was still providing information on topics covering News, Sport, Weather, TV Listings and Businesses. The pages were kept up to date until the UK digital switchover was completed on Tuesday 23 October 2012
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BBC iPlayer
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BBC iPlayer is an internet streaming catchup television and radio service in the United Kingdom. The service is available on a range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers. Neither the iPlayer services nor the individual TV programmes display any commercial advertising, the terms BBC iPlayer, iPlayer, and BBC Media Player all refer to the same services. BBC Redux was developed as a proof of concept for a cross-platform, BBC iPlayer left beta and went live on 25 December 2007. On 25 June 2008, a new-look iPlayer was launched, originally as a beta-test version alongside the earlier version, the site tagline was Catch up on the last 7 days of BBC TV & Radio, reflecting that programmes were unavailable on iPlayer after this time. The BBC state on their website that this is due to copyright reasons, the marketing slogan was later changed to Making the unmissable, unmissable. In May 2010 the site was updated again, to include a recommendations feature, the feature was added to the search function and the channels function. When users click on a programme by another broadcaster, they are redirected to the relevant broadcasters catch up service, in April 2014, BBC iPlayer was once again relaunched with a new look and a different user interface. From October 2014, the BBC extended the availability for programmes on iPlayer from 7 days to 30 days. However, due to legal reasons, most news bulletins are available for 24 hours after initial broadcast. Some archive programming is availabily for the term, such as Timewatch. Specific applications for mobile platforms were launched in February 2011 and these were initially for iOS and Android devices, where the launch would have the biggest impact. In 2015, the BBC reported that it was moving towards playing audio, the original iPlayer service was launched in October 2005, undergoing a five-month trial by five thousand broadband users until 28 February 2006. The iPlayer was heavily criticised for delay in its launch, rebranding, a new, improved iPlayer service then had another very limited user trial which began on 15 November 2006. At various times during its development, iPlayer was known as the Integrated Media Player, Interactive Media Player and this was done reportedly to allow British ISPs and the BBC to gauge the effect of the iPlayer traffic on the Internet within the UK. However, it was only to users of Windows XP. This was a decision by the BBC, which led to a petition against the decision being posted on 10 Downing Streets e-petition website. The petition reached 16,082 signatures on 20 August 2007, the response from the Government was
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David Clementi
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Sir David Cecil Clementi is an English business executive and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. He is currently Chairman of the BBC, Clementi holds a number of board positions including Chairman of International Payments business World First and Vice Chairman of Investment Manager Ruffer Group. In March 2008, he was announced as Warden of Winchester College and was Master of the Mercers Company, David Cecil Clementi was born on 25 February 1949. His father, Cresswell Clementi, was an Air Vice-Marshal in the Royal Air Force and his grandfather Cecil Clementi was Governor of Hong Kong from 1925-30 and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements from 1930 to 1934. His great-great grandfather was Italian-born English musician Muzio Clementi and he was educated at Winchester College, where he was captain of athletics and a distinguished footballer. He then went to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, after graduating, he qualified as a chartered accountant. He graduated MBA from Harvard Business School in 1975, after graduating from Harvard Business School, Clementi commenced a career in the finance industry, which culminated in his appointment as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. In June 2002, he told the Treasury select committee that a price crash was a virtual certainty. He said, I said in April that the level of house price inflation, since then weve seen something of an acceleration. And the longer it goes on, the sharper is likely to be the eventual adjustment, in October 2011 he became Chairman of Virgin Money and he is currently the Chairman of International Payments business World First. In January 2017 he was confirmed as the chairman of the newly established BBC Board
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BBC News
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BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the worlds largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, the service maintains 50 foreign news bureaux with more than 250 correspondents around the world. James Harding has been Director of News and Current Affairs since April 2013, the departments annual budget is in excess of £350 million, it has 3,500 staff,2,000 of whom are journalists. BBC News domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in Millbank in London. Through the BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England, as well as national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland, all nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. As with all media outlets, though, it has been accused of political bias from across the political spectrum. The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922, on Easter weekend in 1930, this reliance on newspaper wire services left the radio news service with no information to report. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, however, it could not broadcast news before 6 PM until World War II. Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, a weekly Childrens Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The publics interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth IIs coronation in 1953 and it is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radios audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission and that year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a commentary by John Snagge. It was revealed that this had been due to producers fearing a newsreader with visible facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On-screen newsreaders were finally introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall, Robert Dougall, mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherds Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953. On 28 October 1957, the Today programme, a radio programme, was launched in central London on the Home Service. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs and he set up a BBC study group whose findings, published in 1959, were critical of what the television news operation had become under his predecessor, Tahu Hole
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BBC Sport
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BBC Sport is a department of the BBC North division providing national sports coverage for BBC Television, radio and online. Results, analysis and coverage is also added to the BBC Sport Website, the BBC has broadcast sport for several decades under individual programme names and coverage titles. Grandstand was one of the more notable Sport programmes, broadcasting sport since the launch in 1958. This practice continued throughout the two decades. Upon the launch of the BBC News website in 1997, sport was included in the BBCs online presence for the first time, in May 2007, the BBC Trust approved plans for several BBC departments, including BBC Sport, to be moved to a new development in Salford. The new development at MediaCityUK marks a major decentralisation of BBC departments from London, the department moved into Quay House, MediaCityUK gradually in late 2011 and early 2012 with the first Sports bulletins being broadcast from the new BBC Sport Centre on 5 March 2012. The BBC shares the rights to the FIFA World Cup with ITV, a near equal split of group stage and knockout stage games are shown, including a semi final and the final is shown on both networks. The BBC shows highlights of the Premier League on Match of the Day which has been hosted by Gary Lineker since 1999, Match of the Day 2 and Match of the Day 2 Extra, are presented by Mark Chapman. Dan Walker hosts Football Focus every Saturday lunchtime before Jason Mohammad presents Final Score every Saturday afternoon, the BBC also broadcasts live coverage of the FA Cup and will do so until 2018. BBC Sport currently holds the rights to broadcast the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, the Wimbledon contract has been held by the BBC since 1937 and the current contract lasts until 2017 making it the longest such contract in the world. The BBC produce over 900 hours of footage that is distributed to broadcasters in 159 different countries, BBC Wimbledon coverage is presented by former British number one and 1976 French Open Champion Sue Barker. Matches are broadcast live on BBC One, BBC Two, the Red Button, highlights are also shown on the long-running Today at Wimbledon, presented by Clare Balding, who replaced John Inverdale in 2015. The same year, the programme was renamed Wimbledon 2day, with a new lighthearted magazine format, but after one year. Regular tournament weather updates are provided by Carol Kirkwood, the BBC also broadcasts two traditional Grass warm up events in the fortnight before the Wimbledon Championships. First is the AEGON Championships from Queens Club, which takes two weeks before Wimbledon. Coverage is led by Sue Barker with commentary by Andrew Castle, Andrew Cotter, the following week is the WTA AEGON International event from Eastbourne. In 2015, coverage was introduced by John Inverdale and Lee McKenzie with commentary from Andrew Cotter, Sam Smith, both events are primarily shown on BBC Two. The BBC also shares broadcasting coverage of the ATP World Tour Finals with Sky Sports, showing one afternoon match per day including one semi-final and the final which are usually shown on BBC Two
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BBC Weather
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BBC Weather is the BBCs department in charge of preparing and broadcasting weather forecasts and is now part of BBC News. The broadcast meteorologists are employed by the Met Office, the longest-serving BBC weather forecaster is Michael Fish, who appeared for 36 years between 1974 and 2010 and still occasionally forecasts for South East Today. On 23 August 2015, the BBC announced that the Met Office will lose its contract as the BBC is legally obliged to ensure that licence fee payers get the best value for money. MeteoGroup will take over in 2017, although the on air presenting team is not expected to change, and Met Office severe weather warnings will continue to be used by BBC Weather. The first BBC weather forecast was a shipping forecast broadcast on the radio on behalf of the Met Office on 14 November 1922, in 1936, the BBC experimented with the worlds first televised weather maps, which was brought into practice in 1949 after World War II. The map filled the screen, with an off-screen announcer reading the next days weather. On 11 January 1954, the first in-vision weather forecast was broadcast, in an in-vision the narrator stands in front of the map. At that point, the maps were drawn by hand in the London Weather Centre, before being couriered across London, the forecasts were presented by the same person who had composed them, and had relatively low accuracy. The London Weather Centre which opened in 1959 took the responsibility for the national radio weather broadcasts, radio forecasters were chosen by a BBC audition from the forecasters at the London Weather Centre. In 1962, the installation of a fax machine and a computer in the Met Office led to more accurate. Satellite photography was available from 1964, but was of a quality and was given on paper. This did not change until 1973 with the installation of a new computer, increasing processing power of the Weather Centre greatly, as computational capability improved, so did graphics technology. Early magnetic symbols tended to adhere poorly to the maps, and occasional spelling errors marred some broadcasts, the symbols were designed to be self-explicit, allowing the viewer to understand the map without a key or legend. These were phased out in 1985 for computer graphics, although the design of symbols was kept the same. These forecasts were widely acclaimed for their simplicity, winning an award from the Royal Television Society in 1993, on 2 October 2000 BBC Weather underwent a more significant change. Whilst there was not much change to the existing weather symbols new symbols giving information Pollen, a new more detailed map of Britain was used based on satellite data. Possibly the most famous of the forecasters is the now semi-retired Michael Fish, famous for his informal manner and eccentric dress sense, he was a viewer favourite despite an unfortunate comment before the Great Storm of 1987. Well, if youre watching, dont worry, there isnt, cloud cover is indicated by the brightness of the map, while rain and snow are indicated by animated blue and white areas respectively
