Post by Meggzie on Aug 31, 2005 9:59:30 GMT 1
This is a rather long article from the Stage..but mentions the making of Doctors...you may be interested.
Paradise village - BBC Birmingham
Maggie Brown
BBC Birmingham has relocated from Pebble Mill to a picturesque site on the city’s university campus. Maggie Brown investigates the expanded drama unit, which houses production offices, dressing rooms, costume storage, post production and the set for daytime drama Doctors
Will Trotter comes across as a rather unusual BBC official as he looks out across his decked balcony and a view over lawns.
The executive drama producer for BBC Birmingham, who started working for the department in 1986, is a happy man.
In an ad hoc manner, the city’s revived and expanding television drama unit - home of Doctors, Dalziel & Pascoe, The Afternoon Play and now Brief Encounters - has managed to bed down in a new drama village fashioned very much to their liking.
“It’s the sort of place creative people want to come to and work in,” he says, pointing to the newly polished and rescued pitch pine floors. “Not a soulless warehouse.”
While the BBC centrally is agonising over the right development deal for its strategic move for sport, new media and children’s television to Manchester by 2009, the much less high-profile executives in Birmingham have forged a creative partnership with Birmingham University and just got on with it.
They are patently pleased with their “very accessible” new headquarters, on a previously under-used part of Birmingham University’s more far-flung college campus, West Hill, off Bristol Road, in Selly Oak, a £10 taxi ride from New Street station.
“When we heard they wanted to have a drama village we just had to make it happen. We did everything humanly possible to get the partnership going,” says Sue Primmer, the university’s director of communications.
Trotter explains that once the building was found they had to move fast, since the department was set to be homeless after Pebble Mill was sold for redevelopment and vacated last year.
Only The Archers was included in plans for the BBC city centre Mailbox offices, close to the central shopping area. Instead, the BBC’s Midlands team leased, on an initial five-year term, a Grade II listed former mini country house, circa 1920, a characterful long thin building on three floors, which now houses make up and costume on the ground floor, at one end, with editorial offices at the other in the converted ballroom.
It has taken great care over the refurbishment, in a £1.9 million deal. “It was a building in need of a purpose,” says Trotter. Post-production suites, including editing and dubbing, are sited on the top third floor, under the eaves, all in rooms with views. It is an efficient integrated structure, with space to expand to a nearby redundant block. Cabled up with fibre optics, executives can watch live what is being taped on set.
Trotter says he and the team planned ahead, very carefully, seizing the chance to upgrade with purpose-built sets.
No longer is Doctors - an unexpected day time hit with an audience share of 35% - a hand to mouth exercise, scrabbling to make 185 episodes a year in odd corners of Pebble Mill.
Further, “because we have something like Doctors, we can grow, sustain talent, keep it here,” says Trotter.
“It is the bedrock and provides both value for money and quality on screen. We are finding ways to develop. What made me set up Doctors with Carson Black and Mal Young was seeing the decline on screen and off screen of regional talent.”
Although Grease Monkeys has been dropped after two series by BBC3, Trotter says that developing new work and continuing series is the real legacy of Young’s seven-year period as head of drama series.
Doctors involves booking about three or four artists per episode, 700 a year. “That’s a lot of work. Lots of soaps have an ensemble cast but this is different, these are self-contained stories. We try and keep it so as many artists as possible come from outside of the M25. It gives us diversity.”
About 90% of the production staff are regular freelances, keeping it “fresh and exciting”. One episode takes two days, with self-contained crews.
“The great thing about Doctors in terms of format is that it is single episodes, which is a life saver if the Queen Mother dies and schedules change,” Trotter points out.
Also, although it sometimes makes 60 minute specials for the culmination of a big storyline, the fact that the programme requires only limited commitment from actors helps when booking big names, such as Eric Sykes.
The main set, the Doctor’s practice, called The Mill, is in a converted building, a stroll across the car park and next to a canteen shared by all staff on site. The hospital and police station sets are in other warehouses. Trotter says it is not uncommon for local people to queue up outside The Mill after seeing it on television, thinking it must be real.
The sets, including exteriors, are authentic, light and modern, the work of the series’ long-standing designer Francis Boyle, a far cry from Pebble Mill, where the set of a bar was fashioned in an audience reception area.
Birmingham has also recently added to its range by developing a major eight-part new detective series, with the working title The Gilmayo Mysteries, set in Leamington Spa. As a BBC production, it will be shot and edited in high definition. A new five-part series of Dalziel & Pascoe is also in production. A third run of five low budget - at £150,000 - single Afternoon Plays are planned, with a mix of new and established writers, including Alan Plater. Each take eight days to film and again are attracting well-known stars.
Of this prolific output, Trotter says: “It’s a bit like a virus. We have a passion for making drama.”
There are also ten Brief Encounters in production, with a notional budget apiece of £15,000. These ten minute slots use new writers and the BBC’s daytime controller, Jay Hunt, is looking at how they can be broadcast this autumn, to make maximum impact.
“I get a lot of short films from new directors out there. I thought ‘let’s try and bring them in, with new writers, use the skills, keep the production small but not esoteric’,” says Trotter.
“There are a lot of BBC initiatives for new writers but there is nothing like getting it made. It has been tough but by and large we are getting results.” His hope is that the process will bring on fresh people, who can graduate to bigger Birmingham productions, perhaps over five years.
“I look at Paul Abbott, Russell T Davies, who came via Coronation Street in Manchester, Tony Jordan and other writers from EastEnders.”
It is not all sweetness and light though. The budget for Doctors is pegged at £45,000 per episode, at a standstill for three years but the BBC wants to cut even this by perhaps 8% as part of the overall 15% cost cuts imposed centrally.
Another way out of the problem is to make multi-purpose drama which can be given several outings. For example, the BBC is currently looking at co-commissioning, so an Afternoon Play might be played during daytime, then given an airing on BBC2.
“From my point of view, it is all down to the channel controller,” says Trotter pragmatically. “What we’re doing here is bums on seats - aspirational, feel-good stuff.”
Paradise village - BBC Birmingham
Maggie Brown
BBC Birmingham has relocated from Pebble Mill to a picturesque site on the city’s university campus. Maggie Brown investigates the expanded drama unit, which houses production offices, dressing rooms, costume storage, post production and the set for daytime drama Doctors
Will Trotter comes across as a rather unusual BBC official as he looks out across his decked balcony and a view over lawns.
The executive drama producer for BBC Birmingham, who started working for the department in 1986, is a happy man.
In an ad hoc manner, the city’s revived and expanding television drama unit - home of Doctors, Dalziel & Pascoe, The Afternoon Play and now Brief Encounters - has managed to bed down in a new drama village fashioned very much to their liking.
“It’s the sort of place creative people want to come to and work in,” he says, pointing to the newly polished and rescued pitch pine floors. “Not a soulless warehouse.”
While the BBC centrally is agonising over the right development deal for its strategic move for sport, new media and children’s television to Manchester by 2009, the much less high-profile executives in Birmingham have forged a creative partnership with Birmingham University and just got on with it.
They are patently pleased with their “very accessible” new headquarters, on a previously under-used part of Birmingham University’s more far-flung college campus, West Hill, off Bristol Road, in Selly Oak, a £10 taxi ride from New Street station.
“When we heard they wanted to have a drama village we just had to make it happen. We did everything humanly possible to get the partnership going,” says Sue Primmer, the university’s director of communications.
Trotter explains that once the building was found they had to move fast, since the department was set to be homeless after Pebble Mill was sold for redevelopment and vacated last year.
Only The Archers was included in plans for the BBC city centre Mailbox offices, close to the central shopping area. Instead, the BBC’s Midlands team leased, on an initial five-year term, a Grade II listed former mini country house, circa 1920, a characterful long thin building on three floors, which now houses make up and costume on the ground floor, at one end, with editorial offices at the other in the converted ballroom.
It has taken great care over the refurbishment, in a £1.9 million deal. “It was a building in need of a purpose,” says Trotter. Post-production suites, including editing and dubbing, are sited on the top third floor, under the eaves, all in rooms with views. It is an efficient integrated structure, with space to expand to a nearby redundant block. Cabled up with fibre optics, executives can watch live what is being taped on set.
Trotter says he and the team planned ahead, very carefully, seizing the chance to upgrade with purpose-built sets.
No longer is Doctors - an unexpected day time hit with an audience share of 35% - a hand to mouth exercise, scrabbling to make 185 episodes a year in odd corners of Pebble Mill.
Further, “because we have something like Doctors, we can grow, sustain talent, keep it here,” says Trotter.
“It is the bedrock and provides both value for money and quality on screen. We are finding ways to develop. What made me set up Doctors with Carson Black and Mal Young was seeing the decline on screen and off screen of regional talent.”
Although Grease Monkeys has been dropped after two series by BBC3, Trotter says that developing new work and continuing series is the real legacy of Young’s seven-year period as head of drama series.
Doctors involves booking about three or four artists per episode, 700 a year. “That’s a lot of work. Lots of soaps have an ensemble cast but this is different, these are self-contained stories. We try and keep it so as many artists as possible come from outside of the M25. It gives us diversity.”
About 90% of the production staff are regular freelances, keeping it “fresh and exciting”. One episode takes two days, with self-contained crews.
“The great thing about Doctors in terms of format is that it is single episodes, which is a life saver if the Queen Mother dies and schedules change,” Trotter points out.
Also, although it sometimes makes 60 minute specials for the culmination of a big storyline, the fact that the programme requires only limited commitment from actors helps when booking big names, such as Eric Sykes.
The main set, the Doctor’s practice, called The Mill, is in a converted building, a stroll across the car park and next to a canteen shared by all staff on site. The hospital and police station sets are in other warehouses. Trotter says it is not uncommon for local people to queue up outside The Mill after seeing it on television, thinking it must be real.
The sets, including exteriors, are authentic, light and modern, the work of the series’ long-standing designer Francis Boyle, a far cry from Pebble Mill, where the set of a bar was fashioned in an audience reception area.
Birmingham has also recently added to its range by developing a major eight-part new detective series, with the working title The Gilmayo Mysteries, set in Leamington Spa. As a BBC production, it will be shot and edited in high definition. A new five-part series of Dalziel & Pascoe is also in production. A third run of five low budget - at £150,000 - single Afternoon Plays are planned, with a mix of new and established writers, including Alan Plater. Each take eight days to film and again are attracting well-known stars.
Of this prolific output, Trotter says: “It’s a bit like a virus. We have a passion for making drama.”
There are also ten Brief Encounters in production, with a notional budget apiece of £15,000. These ten minute slots use new writers and the BBC’s daytime controller, Jay Hunt, is looking at how they can be broadcast this autumn, to make maximum impact.
“I get a lot of short films from new directors out there. I thought ‘let’s try and bring them in, with new writers, use the skills, keep the production small but not esoteric’,” says Trotter.
“There are a lot of BBC initiatives for new writers but there is nothing like getting it made. It has been tough but by and large we are getting results.” His hope is that the process will bring on fresh people, who can graduate to bigger Birmingham productions, perhaps over five years.
“I look at Paul Abbott, Russell T Davies, who came via Coronation Street in Manchester, Tony Jordan and other writers from EastEnders.”
It is not all sweetness and light though. The budget for Doctors is pegged at £45,000 per episode, at a standstill for three years but the BBC wants to cut even this by perhaps 8% as part of the overall 15% cost cuts imposed centrally.
Another way out of the problem is to make multi-purpose drama which can be given several outings. For example, the BBC is currently looking at co-commissioning, so an Afternoon Play might be played during daytime, then given an airing on BBC2.
“From my point of view, it is all down to the channel controller,” says Trotter pragmatically. “What we’re doing here is bums on seats - aspirational, feel-good stuff.”
