- The Fountain Studios
The Fountain Studios is an independently owned
television studio located inWembley , north-westLondon , close to Wembley Park underground station. Originally film studios and then the base of London ITV stationsAssociated Rediffusion and laterLondon Weekend Television the studios fell into disrepair when the latter vacated to new facilities in central London in the early 1970s. A number of independent companies owned the site until Fountain purchased the site in the early 1990s. Much of the original studio complex was demolished. This included Studio's 1 through to 4, leaving only Studio 5 standing.Studio 5, at over 130 × 90 metric feet within the firelanes, is the largest single fully-equipped television studio in Britain, some 30% larger than Studio 1 at
BBC Television Centre . Recent productions to have been made there include "Pop Idol " and "The X Factor", and the London wedding storyline of "Friends ", "Britain's Got Talent " for ITV, "Test the Nation " for the BBC, as well as many sitcoms and audience shows, including "The Kumars at No. 42 ".An unusual feature of the facility is a soundproof double door which can be lowered in 30 minutes to reconfigure the space into two separate studios, each with their own independent control facilities.
History
Once the main production centre for the London weekday
ITV contractor Associated-Rediffusion, the studios were home to some of the most popular programmes on the ITV network during the 1960s. These included "Ready, Steady, Go!", "No Hiding Place", "The Rat Catchers ", "Blackmail", "At Last, The 1948 Show " and "The Frost Report ". In mid 2008 "Bremner, Bird and Fortune " The "Britains Got Talent " semi-finals were filmed at the studios inMay 2008 .Whilst under the ownership of London Weekend they were used to record shows such as "
On the Buses ", "Please Sir " and "Upstairs Downstairs ".External links
* [http://www.ftv.co.uk/ The Fountain Studios] official site
* [http://www.theproductionguide.co.uk/comp_foc_fount.aspx The Production Guide] profile
* [http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/studio%20history.htm#wembley%20rediffusion Wembley Studios] an unofficial history
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.