The Newsroom

BBC to move more roles outwith London

Guardian report; all-staff meeting on Thursday morning (March 2021)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LH
lhx1985
Just for the record, I've nothing against Birmingham. Only been there a couple of times and found it to be a perfectly fine place.

But being closest to London, it was the easiest to make the joke with!
BR
Brekkie
RDJ posted:
Birmingham gets a lot of flack as most people still assume it’s the 1960’s concrete jungle that it used to be about 20 years ago.

It’s reinvented itself but with no representation from the media in recent years due to Pebble Mill being demolished then I find it goes under the radar nowadays and no one is familiar of how the city is nowadays.

It’s officially the city with the youngest population across the whole of Europe which is a lesser known fact. So BBC Three being based here is ideal.

Hoping the Commonwealth Games may change people’s perceptions somewhat.

Would hope so - it used to be pretty much neck and neck between Manchester and Birmingham as the unofficial second city but Birmingham has seemingly slipped behind in recent years in public perception. The Commonwealth Games certainly did the job of regenerating Manchester - and I don't think it was perhaps noticed until maybe a decade down the line how much they actually did for the city as a whole.

Also as has been mentioned Birmingham has lost it's spot on the British TV landscape really compared to the last couple of decades of the 90s when you had studio shows from the midlands, Central known as much nationally as Granada and shows like Pebble Mill - arguably Birmingham was the Salford of the 90s for the BBC.
Last edited by Brekkie on 25 March 2021 6:55pm - 3 times in total
JO
Jonwo
Peaky Blinders has helped Birmingham become more of a tourist destination in recent years and they're building new TV studios there that will open in 2022 which will help attract shows that don't want to travel to Dock10.
AN
Andrew Founding member
RDJ posted:
Birmingham gets a lot of flack as most people still assume it’s the 1960’s concrete jungle that it used to be about 20 years ago.

It’s reinvented itself but with no representation from the media in recent years due to Pebble Mill being demolished then I find it goes under the radar nowadays and no one is familiar of how the city is nowadays.

It’s officially the city with the youngest population across the whole of Europe which is a lesser known fact. So BBC Three being based here is ideal.

Hoping the Commonwealth Games may change people’s perceptions somewhat.

Well if Birmingham wanted to shake of that image of being full of 1960s concrete buildings, it’s a good job they did demolish Pebble Mill. It didn’t exactly look pretty whenever they featured the exterior.

That youngest population thing, they say that a lot about Bradford as well, and say it like it’s a good thing, but it could also be spun as a negative (that there is so much deprivation and poor health that too many people die younger than they do elsewhere), I don’t know if that’s the case here
JO
Joe
Well if Birmingham wanted to shake of that image of being full of 1960s concrete buildings, it’s a good job they did demolish Pebble Mill. It didn’t exactly look pretty whenever they featured the exterior.

That and the concrete cancer
SP
Spencer
I always thought the fact that Pebble Mill was in a rather nice, leafy suburban area meant it gave quite a positive image of the city. I don’t think anyone expects TV studio buildings to be especially pretty.
BR
Brekkie
Jonwo posted:
Peaky Blinders has helped Birmingham become more of a tourist destination in recent years and they're building new TV studios there that will open in 2022 which will help attract shows that don't want to travel to Dock10.

Certainly has though not sure much of it is actually filmed in Birmingham.
JO
Jon
Jonwo posted:
Peaky Blinders has helped Birmingham become more of a tourist destination in recent years and they're building new TV studios there that will open in 2022 which will help attract shows that don't want to travel to Dock10.

Certainly has though not sure much of it is actually filmed in Birmingham.

I think they’ve filmed in a few places including Liverpool, I think that may be due to having more buildings left in keeping with the time.

I’m not sure why you’d visit Birmingham after watching the Peaky Blinders, they didn’t feature the modern day attractions of the Bullring shopping centre or the World’s biggest Primark, did they?
IS
Inspector Sands
I always thought the fact that Pebble Mill was in a rather nice, leafy suburban area meant it gave quite a positive image of the city. I don’t think anyone expects TV studio buildings to be especially pretty.

Problem with that is they used to regularly show the not very pretty big concrete building so that's all that people remember.
PA
Parker
Pebble Mill needed some work, new heating system, windows, electrical work but the fabric was fundamentally sound. It would have been much cheaper to refurb the place as its running costs would have been cheaper. There was no concrete cancer found, that was a myth. It went because of the decision to pull departments out of Birmingham and not a little BBC politics. Only after the decision was made did the top brass become aware that they had nowhere to make Doctors as the foyer didn't show up as studio space (again political) studio A didn't show up on the accountants spread sheets as it was closed and officially didn't exist. It didn't even show up as a four waller and there was no internal system to book it.
MarkT76, Spencer and Ghost gave kudos
DT
DTV
Pebble Mill needed some work, new heating system, windows, electrical work but the fabric was fundamentally sound. It would have been much cheaper to refurb the place as its running costs would have been cheaper. There was no concrete cancer found, that was a myth. It went because of the decision to pull departments out of Birmingham and not a little BBC politics. Only after the decision was made did the top brass become aware that they had nowhere to make Doctors as the foyer didn't show up as studio space (again political) studio A didn't show up on the accountants spread sheets as it was closed and officially didn't exist. It didn't even show up as a four waller and there was no internal system to book it.


To be honest, 'cheaper to refurb' and replacing it with insufficient studio space describes an alarming number of BBC building projects of the last 2-3 decades.

Birmingham is particularly hard done by in studio space. I know they are discussing having Newsnight and Marr occasionaly come from outside of London, but can you imagine doing a national current affairs programme from the BBC's mailbox studio? It'd make Breakfast's situation look satisfactory.
MW
Mike W
DTV posted:

Birmingham is particularly hard done by in studio space. I know they are discussing having Newsnight and Marr occasionaly come from outside of London, but can you imagine doing a national current affairs programme from the BBC's mailbox studio? It'd make Breakfast's situation look satisfactory.


They pretty much will never use the Midlands Today studio for national programming like Marr etc.

They tend use the former Politics Show area which is at the far end of the offices behind the studio, in front of the windows overlooking the canal, just above where the temporary One Show set was constructed. Often seen during party conferences.

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