TV Forum Meetup! - THE RESULTS

While I live in North Manchester am happy to meet anywhere easily accessible on public transport so I believe a date should be set and plans drawn up. There will always be people who can and can't meet up but that's life

I'm up for anything - BUT just a thought - I'd quite like to go to one of those Kaleidoscope events they tend to have in Birmingham - any of those coming up?

I must warn you that involves a trip to Birmingham.

Indeed, and I would suggest that choosing Birmingham or London would turn the trip from affordable to out of the question for some.

So if we say Manchester, do we propose booking a BBC Tour at MediaCityUK?

From what I've heard of the old TV Centre tours many people who knew a bit about the history of telly or the technology found the tour underwhelming and that the guides didn't really know their stuff.

I haven't seen reviews of the Salford tours but I wonder if we might be disappointed.

That's certainly the case with the NBH tours. You don't really see anything of interest (no studios for example). It's more about the history of broadcasting/television, which most of us already know, and interactive stuff.

At least at the TVC tours you went to studios/the newsroom and there was a greater sense of television history and magic.

I attended a recording at the Radio Theatre in BH/NBH recently. For that you are held for an hour or so prior to the performance in a bar area, with windows directly behind the 'trundle cam' on the newsroom balcony.
To be honest, that's quite good, you can stand and take in rehearsals for Outside Source, look into the glass box studio, and look down at Huw Edwards sat at his desk. There's also in that bar area, the old BBC 1 globe/mirror ident box, and the mechanical BBC 2 motorised box (both from the 'Noddy' era)

I agree the bar/cafe is good. But you can go in there for free - as a holding area, that's the highlight of the tour imo.

The NBH tour guides did their best with what there was to see at NBH (the tours actually no longer happen in NBH) but the radio and tv studios are pretty busy all day. As I understand it, the One Show studio was usually included and places in that night's audience could sometimes be available to those on a tour. I believe it was also usual for tours to include the Radio Theatre unless it was being used for recordings. The view from the Media Cafe is, as has been described here, actually very good and there are windows alongside the Trundle Cam down into the newsroom. Most visitors are pretty satisfied with that. There was a screen in the cafe showing a camera pointing at the gallery for the news channel (and possibly talkback?) so visitors could get an idea of how telly is made. The tour also included a radio sound effects workshop where visitors were given a script and invited to slam doors, ring bells etc. A bit cheesey, but fun.

Feedback from people I've seen on tours was always very positive, and in the main people were fascinated to simply see inside the building, see the great Art Deco reception hall and council chamber in old BH and so on and were less bothered that they didn't get to see a gallery in action (which would obviously be impossible).

This was the account I was referring to

http://www.dirtyfeed.org/2013/02/tv-centre-tour/

Written by somebody who works in playout.

I'm sure the experience is fine for the average punter, but for those with a more anoraky or professional interest, not so much.

Sounds similar to when I went on the tour in 2005 (on the day Jean Charles de Menezes got shot, which meant the news department was fairly busy that day), right down to the Red Dwarf inaccuracies. Sets visited then included the old National Lottery draw location (pre Fathers for Justice!) and parts of the Dick & Dom In Da Bungalow set were wheeled out for the kids.

I enjoyed it, but I was only about sixteen at the time so just being there was a fun experience.