I stumbled across this whilst looking for something for the sidebar but its just too cool so here it is on the blog proper.
FAB1 in the Blue Peter studios back in summer 1968.
Its HUGE! They're all in it! Noaksy, Peter and Valerie! Maybe Shep as well!
What do you think? Do you remember this on TV?
I don't remember seeing it on TV, at the time, but watching FAB 1 drive into studio TC4 (Television Centre 4) at the BBC in London brought a nostalgic tear to my eye, as I used to work there regularly, in the late 80s and 90s, as a staff member.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Television Centre still exists, with three working studios, it is no longer owned by the BBC and most of it, including TC4, has been converted into a housing complex.
Glad it brought back nostalgic memories Mish. What did you work in the old Television Centre 4?
DeleteStudio TC4 was one of eight studios at the BBC Television Centre, in White City, in London.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I worked, setting up and executing a wide variety of special effects, in all eight of them, as well as at the BBC's other London studios (Lime Grove, Shepherds Bush and Ealing) and it's regional studios in Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow Birmingham (Pebble Mill) and Bristol.
Most of my time was spent building models, props and effects rigs, for different TV programmes, at the BBC Visual Effects Department workshops in North Acton, which is in West London.
Sounds fabulous Mish! How did you get into it as a career and do you miss it?
DeleteMish, that's all so fascinating. We need a memoir!
ReplyDeleteYes!
DeleteI don't remember that actual sequence, but I remember FAB1 in that studio setting, with the hydraulic platform rising out of the boot.
ReplyDelete-or was that false childhood memory sydrome?
I've had a look Looey and sorry, can't find a hydraulic platform in the boot clip on YT. I don't recall it either. Had a look at the full FAB1 1968 clip, which does show the boot open but its not a hydraulic platform inside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44qGwA1t58
DeleteNot sure I'm up to a memoir guys, but if you want to know more about my old workplace, then check out the coffee table book " VFX : The Story of the BBC Visual Effects Department " written by my colleagues and friends Mat Irvine and Mike Tucker.
ReplyDeletePublished by Aurum Press in 2010, it's a comprehensive guide to the effects department and the work we carried out there between its creation in 1954, to its closure in 2003. I was there from 1987 to 1999.
Though it's no longer in print, I'm sure there will be copies on Ebay and in second hand bookshops.