A trip to the Dream Factory...

As you can guess by now if you've been reading the blog from day one, I do like my television. Nothing wrong with that at all, I'm sure you like sitting down in front of it after a hard day. But the workings have always fascinated me, so much so I wrote to the BBC asking if I could be in the testcard even going as far as sending a photo of myself. But when reciving a bog standard letter basically saying 'No, you can't' and sending me some stickers for various shows such as Saturday Superstore etc. Which I duly put at the end of my bed so I could see the double striped BBC1 logo when I went to be bed and woke up every morning.

"Well, its hardly C3-PO isn't it?"

Though this didn't put me off at all, as when bored during the 1989 Summer Holidays thinking what could I do with myself, I thought I would write off to TVS, the local ITV company just cheekly asking if I could have a look around their studios. This was July and I didn't think much about it at all, almost giving up on it as a busted flush. But one day in early August this was going to change, I got a enveloped stamped with the TVS logo on it. Thinking it was going to be another knock back, I braced myself for disappointment. Then I opened it, it was from their press officer Mr Simon Theobolds, later I learned that he had co-written the Southern drama Spearhead as well. I had a look and it said yes...

What, I couldn't believe my eyes at all! They said yes, this never happens to me at all. OK I might have used the disability angle with as well, but I didn't expect even that was going to sway them. So after some more communication with Mr Theobalds it was arranged that me, my father and my brother would be allowed to go Northam and take a look around.

The Dream Factory...

So on the 1st September 1989, it came to the day of the visit and we all arrived after lunch at the studios wondering what we were about to see, we met Mr Theobalds in the reception and after the niceties of saying who were and all that, he led us Willy Wonka like around the studios. Viewing the props department and make-up, through the galleries we came to a studio. Now we were told they were going to record a piece for a programme and we were allowed to look in on it. Wondering what is it was going to be, then a young man who I found out later to be Graham Rogers, then a young lady came into the studio... I recognised her! It was Michaela Strachan! I knew her off TV-AM and also knew she did The Hitman and Her with Pete Waterman. But what was she doing here?

Really wild...

It turned out she was recording an interview for 'Late Night Late' TVS' own late night programming strand, at that time she was branching out into a musical career and had just released a single. Well, working with Mr Waterman, it seemed obivious... But this wasn't the highlight, but during the interview we were meant to keep quick... I dropped something which made a clang, the looks were like daggers at me! I know now it was wrong, but the one person who didn't seem to care I had done that was Michaela herself... She giggled actually and if it wasn't for that I think we would have got turfed out there and then...

Documentary evidence m'lord...

So the tour went on, we went around the other studios which weren't recording but in the main studio where they made the entertainment programmes, we met a man with white-ish grey hair and glasses. He said his name was Alan, I thought he must make some of the programmes, he asked us what we liked on TVS. I just said eveything and he said 'Good boy' in a Scottish accent. I thought what a strange man...

The tour ended and they gave me some stuff like pens, a Motormouth T-shirt and something special...

Here is the news...

A news script from that afternoon's news bulletin, fresh from the newsreader's hands...

I treasure that now as a memory of that day and that white haired Scottish man?

It was only Alan Boyd, Generation Game and Game For A Laugh producer and then Head of Programmes at TVS...

Strange who you meet whilst going out for a daytrip....