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°W / 51.5612; -0.2818Coordinates: 51°33′40″N 0°16′54″W / 51.5612°N 0.2818°W / 51.5612; -0.2818
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 from 1955 to 1968, and London Weekend Television from 1968 to 1972.

More recently, 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.

In January 2016, it emerged that the studios have been sold for £16 million to a property developer and will be demolished.[1][2]

History

The site was first owned by British Incorporated Pictures[3] in 1927, but various projects were short-lived and the American Fox Film Company[4] 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 it retained ownership. During the war the studios were leased to the military, with intermittent rental to independents.[5]

The television studios were built by Associated-Rediffusion and opened in 1960. Their size and unique design attracted worldwide attention. Associated-Rediffusion was the ITV weekday broadcaster 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 studios entered a difficult period. For a time they became LWT’s broadcast base and were 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 the decline of the television studios 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 the UK – 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.

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 its own independent control facilities.

Many high profile productions are still produced at Fountain Studios; these include The X Factor, Play to the Whistle, 1000 Heartbeats 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 Series
2015–2016 Play to the Whistle ITV 2 series
2015 1000 Heartbeats ITV 2 series
2015 Rebound ITV 1 series
2015 Home Win ITV Pilot episode
2014 All Star Mr & Mrs ITV 1 series
2014— Big Star's Little Star ITV 3 series
2014 Alan Davies Après-Ski BBC Two 1 series
Decimate BBC One 2 series
Stoptober Advert ITV N/A
2013 Amazing Greys ITV 1 series
Stepping Out ITV 1 series
Andrew Lloyd Webber: 40 Musical Years ITV One-off programme
Reflex BBC One 1 series
2012 That Dog Can Dance ITV One-off programme
My Man Can ITV 1 series (not broadcast)
Superstar ITV 1 series
Let's Get Gold ITV 1 series
The Midnight Beast - Live! E4 One-off programme
Marco Pierre White's Kitchen Wars Channel 5 1 series
2012–2013 The Voice UK: Battle Rounds BBC One 2 series
2011–2014 British Comedy Awards Channel 4 4 episodes
2011 A Night with Beyoncé ITV One-off programme
Red or Black? ITV 1 series
The Cube-La Sfida Italia1
Penn & Teller: Fool Us ITV 1 series
The Cube–Besiege den Würfel! RTL
Ant & Dec's Push the Button ITV 1 series
2010 Must Be The Music Sky1 1 series
Over the Rainbow BBC One 1 series
The Cube USA NBC Pilot episode
2010–2011 Al Moukaab Saudi TV
2009–2015 The Cube ITV 9 series
2009 Britain's Best Brain Channel 5 1 series
Sell Me the Answer Sky1 1 series
The Susan Boyle Story ITV One-off programme
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder ITV 1 series
2008 Duel ITV 1 series
Clone BBC Three 1 series
2007— Britain's Got More Talent ITV2 9 series (as of 2015)
2007— Britain's Got Talent ITV 9 series (as of 2015)
2007 Bremner, Bird and Fortune Channel 4
2006 1 vs. 100 BBC One 1 series
Petrolheads BBC Two
2006–2007 PokerFace ITV 1 series
School's Out BBC One
2004— The Xtra Factor ITV2 12 series (as of 2015)
2004— The X Factor ITV 12 series (as of 2015)
2003 Lenny Henry in Pieces BBC One
19 Keys Channel 5
2003–2004 World Idol ITV
2002–2007 Test the Nation BBC One
2001–2003 Pop Idol ITV
2001–2006 The Kumars at No. 42 BBC Two
1999–2004 Winning Lines BBC One
1998 Friends NBC
1994–97 Talking Telephone Numbers ITV
1988–96 Hearts of Gold BBC One

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, February 11, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.