Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

I've never understood why the BBC make so many programmes outside of London, but pretend they're made in London. A prime example of this is the Sarah Jane Adventures. Why do they pretend the house they shoot it at is in Ealing, London? If you're going to all the effort of filming it in Cardiff, then you may as well set the action in Cardiff too and tick that box. Same goes for Casualty, etc.

I agree with Moz on most points really; it is easier (and cheaper) for promoters to arrange visits to all the major media outlets in one city. Sure it'll be nice if loads of stuff moves to Salford, but the BBC are the only people investing there, ITV are downsizing their Manchester operation and there's no other big media outlets in Salford - and none plan to move there either. The BBC haven't announced any other 'big' stuff moving to Salford either; just BBC Three, which is all indie-commissioned documentaries anyway.

So you can either travel to Salford for a day and appear on Blue Peter (which nobody watches), BBC Breakfast and Radio5 live, or you can stay in London for a day and appear on The One Show, Radio1, Radio2, Daybreak, T4, MTV News, Capital Radio, The Wright Stuff, Loose Women, OK!TV, This Morning AND do a 'down the line' for BBC Breakfast.

As for travelling to Salford to do the 'local media circuit', I don't think it's worth the travel to pick up an extra dozen sales appearing on Salford FM. If you've got something to promote, it's the big hitters you want.

Firstly ITV are definitely not downsizing. The Manchester Quay Street studios are closing and investing heavily in Salford's MediaCityUK. Yes they are going to be BBC's neighbours! As well as Salford University residing in the same areas with regards to their Media studies.

It sure sounds to me that you honestly do not know the North West or the Salford/Manchester area that very well. You mention Capital FM, but Key 103 is as big, if not bigger than Capital FM (or Capital FM Manchester) - there again the biggest commercial radio station is Birmingham's BRMB - but of course Capital is London and as such HAS to be bigger than any other "metropolitan" radio station.

Thing is, this is the problem, London-centric minded do not believe that there is a media-circus outside the capital, because, as mentioned earlier by another poster, these people have become lazy in the way they do things. As already mentioned, again, by another poster during the 80's and 90's there was no such problem in getting guests to Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham or Manchester - so why should there be a problem now?

A good casing point was the songstress Katherine Jenkins who was on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday. During Monday she was, guess where????, in Manchester at the Trafford Centre and a couple of other places in the north west. She had to be driven from Manchester to London and got to her hotel at about 1am and be up at 4am to appear on the show. How much easier would it have been if she could have stayed in Manchester?? and its not the first time that this has happened.

Another casing point was the world premier of the highly acclaimed Ghost Musical - which happened in Manchester. the starts of the show had to be driven down to London, stay in a hotel for a couple of hours sleep to appear on BBC Breakfast, then be driven back up to Manchester to appear on stage that evening!

So, see there is a media-circus outside London which is healthy and thriving and needs to be shouted about, rather than being quiet and let London get all the praise!

Russell T Davies was quite vocal about wanting to use London and it's landmarks in Doctor Who when it came back in order to help the international sales potential (and Moffatt has reversed a lot of that). Torchwood on the other hand was completely the opposite, proudly Welsh. I guess they based SJA in London as there would have to be a reason invented as to why Sarah Jane Smith had moved to Wales! All a bit academic now anyway.

ITV are leaving their enormous Quay Street office block and are going to rent three floors of a the Orange building at Media City. They are downsizing enormously .

That assumes they're using the whole of the Quay Street complex currently, it's not a great secret that it's been far too big for their modern needs for some time. In terms of what is produced in Manchester nothing is changing (although I'm happy to be corrected), you could even argue with Countdown it's gone up in the last few years.

Unless you just meant literally downsizing property-wise, in which case fine...

Bauer Radio have quite a few national pop music radio shows from Manchester, most notably In Demand which is networked across large parts of England in the evening and does manage to get high profile musical guests to go to Manchester. And while they are there, guests can also record an interview for The Hits radio (national digital service), as well as Key (local) and maybe other stations too. I certainly recall Dappy (from N-Dubz) tweeting about doing that when promoting his first solo single

Obviously Breakfast, nor Radio 5 Live doesn't have that many pop acts as guests. But it does again show that those with something to promote will go up to Manchester, and certainly some of those who are doing the musical promotional rounds would be suitable for Breakfast/5 Live/CBBC

And it's not just those with something to promote that would visit Manchester/North West England. Those on tour as well - I'm thinking musicians but I'm sure this applies to theatre productions as well. Think of those performing at the MEN Arena for example who maybe suitable studio guests

I'm sure some people will say no to a trip to Manchester, but I'm sure Breakfast, 5 Live and CBBC can still get high profile guests to visit. The only issue I could possibly see is with A-List movie stars who maybe in the UK a matter of hours for a Leciester Square premier. But the BBC can send an entertainment corrrespondent to do the interview instead in those instances

Where is In Demand for the old SRH stations done from? I presume Clyde 1. Do the guests come up there or is it down the line or a train ride to Manchester for this?

Well, Casualty is in the fictional city of Holby which is meant to be in the South West (by Bristol where it was filmed for the last 25 or so years), but other than that I agree with your point.

They will though and new companies or new branches of old ones will spring up in and around MediaCityUK as it develops, but someone has to move there first to encourage that.

There are already indies in the North West and as mentioned, quite a collection of radio stations. Quite a lot of the BBC is in Manchester already too of course, 5 Live, 6 Music have daily shows from there as does Radio 4. Religious programmes have been there for many years too.


You & Yours was announced last week and there will be more. BBC Three does show in-house productions but you are right in that there isn't much to move, it's just commissioning. However i think you'd be surprised how much is moving up there, for example what's left of their presentation department (media planning) is in the process of moving up

The opposite of my experience! Every time I've visited London I've met good people who are helpful and polite. The provinces in my experience are full of dead-end losers. And chavs.

BRMB isn't even the biggest commercial radio station in Birmingham.
This countries biggest commercial radio stations are all based in London; Kiss, Heart, Capital, Magic etc are all bigger than any station based anywhere in the country.



I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them for both show are done from Bauer in London.

She was actually on The One Show on Monday and Breakfast on Wednesday.....