As Television Centre prepares to close, we published four exclusive interviews from some of those who have worked there over the years: Michael Grade, Sir Terry Wogan, Barry Cryer and Zoe Ball. Their memories and anecdotes provide a fascinating insight into a building that has been at the heart of British cultural life for the last half a century. BBC Four will be celebrating the iconic building on Friday 22 March, before those doors are finally closed on Sunday 31 March.
Blue Peter announced last week it is searching for a new presenter, as the show continues to educate, entertain and inform children from its home in Salford. Dick and Dom will be hosting So You Think You Can Be A Blue Peter Presenter, as for the first time the CBBC audience get to choose who will join the team.
Viewers of The One Show are also being asked to make an important decision, as the programme asks its audience to choose a public figure to be added to the collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The BBC will follow the creation of the portrait for a one-off documentary, which will be shown in autumn 2013 on BBC One.
And there will be yet more voting taking place as the Eurovision Song Contest returns to BBC One in May. On Thursday we announced that this year’s UK entrant would be none other than singing legend Bonnie Tyler. Full details and the video of Bonnie’s song can be found here.
And now a confession: my first Eurovision memory involves Bucks Fizz and having my world torn apart when my parents said they thought the song, and I quote: “wasn’t up to much”. I absolutely adored it and burst into floods of tears. I’m not sure I ever really got over that! I was six.
Of course, I still think they were wrong about the utter genius of Making Your Mind Up, but I do have them to thank for broadening my musical palette a little, so I was very happy to see Thursday’s announcement of BBC 6 Music’s celebration of David Bowie. There will be a host of programming devoted to the Thin White Duke at the end of the month, with a special focus on his productive years in Berlin during the Seventies, which saw the creation of the seminal Low and Heroes albums.
David Bowie (credit Richard Kendal)
Moving onto comedy, last week saw the start of filming on a new show starring David Mitchell, Robert Webb and Keeley Hawes called Our Men. Set in the fictional Central Asian Republic of Tazbekistan, the duo play diplomats juggling the demands of running an under-funded, under-resourced embassy tasked with maintaining an image of Britain as an important global political heavyweight, whilst also trying to keep good relations with a rigid, autocratic local regime with a dubious human rights record.
As I write, my intrepid team are on set talking to Messrs Mitchell and Webb about the show, so we should have some exclusive video to share with audiences shortly.
Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.
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