I really need to get back to watching Orange is the New Black, you know. I got bogged down at the end of Season 4. Is she gonna shoot him? Is she? IS SHE?
So in order to get back on track, recently I… erm, watched an old IBA Engineering Announcement from 1990 instead.
I feel I’m supposed to be nostalgic for the Engineering Announcements – those hidden, weekly 10 minute programmes on your local ITV station, giving the trade all the latest news and transmitter information. I’m supposed to say that I watched them through my childhood, that they got me interested in how telly works, and are responsible for me working in the industry today. Truth be told, I don’t think I ever actually saw one as a kid. If I did, it left no impression on me whatsoever. I was rather more interested in Central Television idents instead. (Well, I had to show my TV geek credentials at that age somehow.)
Which means that watching them online now is a faintly bizarre experience. Broadcasting ephemera that I feel I should have seen, but never did. For example, take this one, broadcast on Tuesday 26th April 1990, at 5:45am. I would have been eight years old. Why didn’t I just get up early? I didn’t need sleep at that age, surely?
This edition, however, is a particularly interesting one. Because this is the week that British Satellite Broadcasting – or BSB – officially launched its service in the UK. So the Engineering Announcements team decide to take us on a tour of the brand new Marco Polo House in Wandsworth, the headquarters of BSB, to see what’s what.
At which point, my Red Dwarf fan credentials start to show. Because Marco Polo House was also where location footage for the Red Dwarf VI episode “Legion” was recorded – three years later, in 1993. So when the IBA take us through to see the main atrium (left), it’s instantly recognisable as the space station the Dwarfers land on (right):
Meanwhile, for our main interview with BSB’s marketing guy, while we can’t be sure that it’s exactly the same lift entrance as seen in Dwarf, the similarities are clear:
All of which is exciting enough, I’m sure you’ll agree. But what’s really interesting is how Red Dwarf took the design of Marco Polo House to heart, even in its studio scenes.
The only location scene in “Legion” is at the beginning of the episode, where Lister and the rest of the crew first enter the space station. The rest of the episode was shot at Shepperton Studios, and takes place in a dining room and bedroom on the station – and the set design for those rooms contains some very familiar elements. In particular, the blue metal frameworks in the studio sets are clearly inspired by the real ones on location:
But that’s not even the best part. Take a look at the shape of the arched windows in Marco Polo House… and then compare them with the model shot of the interior of the space station in Dwarf:
What is particularly interesting about the above is that those arched windows in Marco Polo House never even show up in the final version of “Legion” – the model shot is referencing a piece of architecture which never actually makes it to air in the location sequences of the episode. Clearly, the visual effects team were working from a recce of some sort – either they visited the location themselves, or were working from photo or videos that the main production team took.
Clearly, a great deal of effort was made to match the location, studio sets, and model shots in the episode, in order to sell the space station effectively. It works brilliantly. And we haven’t even got onto how the sculpture and patterned floor of the model tie in with the dining room set. All aspects of the production working together, led by what you can only assume was some very strong direction by Andy De Emmony.
* * *
BSB failed, of course.
I mean, you can dress it up how you like. However, in November of 1990 – yes, the same year it was launched – BSB merged with Sky. And the use of the word “merged” is extremely generous – in most respects, it was simply a Sky takeover.
And I find something very melancholy about Red Dwarf using the abandoned headquarters of BSB for a location shoot. Especially given the story of “Legion”, about a gestalt entity floating around a space station, who used to have dreams and ambitions that reached for the, erm, sky.
LISTER: But what about the sculptures and the masterpieces and the technology? Where does that come from?
LEGION: My first incarnation. I was host to the five most brilliant minds of their generation. They were experimenting in collective intelligence. I was the product of that research.
KRYTEN: Heideger, Quayle and the others – the composite of their genius? Your mind must have been extraordinary.
LEGION: But all too soon old age began to kill them, and as each one died, I became less, until I was nothing, just a mindless essence swirling around the remnants of my achievements, waiting to exist again.
An episode about faded glories, shot in a real abandoned television empire. A failed future, representing another failed future.
And if we’re given to sarcastic remarks, when the Dwarfers first arrive at the station, perhaps they represent BSB’s eventual merger partner:
RIMMER: Hmm. Anything we can salvage?
LISTER: There must be something we can swipe.
RIMMER: Well gentlemen, our strategy is clear. Let’s tool up and go shopping.
* * *
“Legion” was shot in Marco Polo House at the start of 1993. By the end of that year, QVC had launched from the site. But this was clearly too much of a success; ONdigital/ITV Digital also launched from the building in 1998… and stayed there until it entered administration in 2002.
QVC moved from the site to new headquarters in Chiswick in 2012. And in 2014, the building was demolished. That familiar blue structure, towering upwards for one final time.
25 years is no life for a building like this. But at least it lives on in a pretty damn good episode of sitcom… oh, and BUGS. And really, isn’t that every architect’s dream?
Well, no. But it’s better than nothing.
With thanks to Russ J Graham.