Fountain Studios

Fountain Studios

Fountain Studios
Location within Greater London
Former names Associated-Rediffusion Studios
London Weekend Television
Lee International Film and Television Studios
Limehouse Television Studios
General information
Type Television studios
Address 128 Wembley Park Drive,
Wembley,
HA9 8HP
Country England
Coordinates 51°33′40″N 0°16′54″W / 51.5612°N 0.2818°WCoordinates: 51°33′40″N 0°16′54″W / 51.5612°N 0.2818°W
Website
Official Website

Fountain Studios is an independently owned television studio located in Wembley, north-west London, close to Wembley Park underground station. The company is part of the Avesco Group PLC.

A number of companies owned the site before it was purchased by Fountain in 1993. Originally a film studio complex, it was formerly the base for the ITV contractors Rediffusion (1955–68) and London Weekend Television (1968-72).

As of 2014, the studios are best known for being the venue for the live stages of ITV shows The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. Other programmes made at Fountain include The Cube and The British Comedy Awards. Fountain Studios has also hosted Pop Idol, Test the Nation and The Kumars at No. 42.

History

The site was first owned by British Incorporated Pictures[1] in 1927, but various projects were short-lived and the American Fox Film Company[2] leased the studio for the production of their 'quota quickies' at the facility, prior to acquiring the studio outright in 1936. A change in the law in 1938 led 20th Century Fox to use other studios, but they retained ownership and Fox leased their Wembley studios to the military (during the war) and intermittently to independents.[3]

The television studios were built by Associated-Rediffusion and opened in 1960. Their size and unique design attracted worldwide attention. Associated-Rediffusion were ITV weekday broadcasters for London. The first production was An Arabian Night with Orson Welles. Shows such as Ready Steady Go, No Hiding Place and Take Your Pick were to follow. During the 1960s the studios were home to some of the most popular programmes on the ITV network, including The Rat Catchers, Blackmail, At Last, The 1948 Show and The Frost Report. The Beatles appeared on more than one occasion at the studios.

When Associated-Rediffusion lost its weekday ITV franchise in 1968, the television studio entered a difficult period. For a time it became LWT’s broadcast base and was used to record shows such as On the Buses, Please Sir and Upstairs Downstairs. The 1970s through to the 1990s saw the demise and demolition of the film studio complex, and it declined as a television studio under many different owners.

Fountain Television started its existence as a studio and post production facility in New Malden, Surrey in 1985. After hosting shows such as Ready Steady Cook and Wizadora, the company took the opportunity to purchase the badly run down Wembley site in 1993 for redevelopment.

Studio 5 (now known as Studio A & Studio B), is 14,000 sq ft including the firelanes. This makes it the largest fully equipped television studio in Britain – 500 sq ft larger than HQ1 at MediaCityUK in Salford and 2,000 sq ft larger than Studio 1 at BBC Television Centre. Internationally, larger studios exist in Germany and in the United States, although many of these fall into the category of soundstages and are not fully equipped television studios.

By 1993 the Studios in Wembley were closed and badly run-down. Fountain undertook the daunting task of the refurbishment and by 1994 the first shows began to trickle in. Hearts of Gold with Esther Rantzen, Talking Telephone Numbers and The Day Today were amongst the first shows to use Fountain's facilities.

An unusual feature of the studios 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.

Many high profile productions are still produced at Fountain, these include The X Factor, The Cube, British Comedy Awards and Britain's Got Talent.

Notable programmes

Fountain Studios is home to many popular entertainment programmes. List of shows, studio used and network broadcast on below:

Years Programme Channel
2015— Play to the Whistle ITV
2014— All Star Mr & Mrs ITV
Big Star's Little Star ITV
2014 Alan Davies Après-Ski BBC Two
Decimate BBC One
Stoptober Advert ITV
2013 Amazing Greys ITV
Stepping Out ITV
Andrew Lloyd Webber: 40 Musical Years ITV
Reflex BBC One
2012 That Dog Can Dance ITV
My Man Can ITV
Superstar ITV
Let's Get Gold ITV
The Midnight Beast - Live! E4
Marco Pierre White's Kitchen Wars Channel 5
2012-13 The Voice UK: Battle Rounds BBC One
2011— British Comedy Awards Channel 4
2011 A Night with Beyoncé ITV
Red or Black? ITV
The Cube-La Sfida Italia1
Penn & Teller: Fool Us ITV
The Cube–Besiege den Würfel! RTL
Ant & Dec's Push the Button ITV
2010 Must Be The Music Sky1
Over the Rainbow BBC One
The Cube: USA NBC
2010-11 Al Moukaab Saudi TV
2009— The Cube ITV
2009 Britain's Best Brain Five
Sell Me the Answer Sky1
The Susan Boyle Story ITV
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder ITV
2008 Duel ITV
Clone BBC Three
2007— Britain's Got Talent ITV & ITV2
2007 Bremner, Bird and Fortune Channel 4
2006 1 vs. 100 BBC One
Petrolheads BBC Two
2006-07 PokerFace ITV
School's Out BBC One
2004— The X Factor ITV & ITV2
2003 Lenny Henry in Pieces BBC One
19 Keys Channel 5
2003-04 World Idol ITV
2002-07 Test the Nation BBC One
2001-02 Pop Idol ITV
2001-06 The Kumars at No. 42 BBC Two
1999-2004 Winning Lines BBC One
1998 Friends NBC
1994-97 Talking Telephone Numbers ITV
Hearts of Gold BBC

References

  1. Rachael Low (13 September 2013). History of British Film (Volume 4): The History of the British Film 1918 - 1929. Routledge. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-136-20634-4.
  2. Fox Film Company at the Internet Movie Database
  3. Patricia Warren British Film Studios: An Illustrated History, London: B.T. Batsford, 2001, p.182-84

External links