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48-668: Fountain Studios was an independently owned television studio in Wembley Park , northwest London , England. The company was last part of the Avesco Group plc. Several companies owned the site before it was bought by Fountain in 1993. Originally a film studio complex, as Wembley Studios it was formerly the base for the ITV contractors Rediffusion from 1955 to 1968, and London Weekend Television from 1968 to 1972. More recently,

96-469: A Cuttin' Headz showcase. That was followed on 10 May 2018 by an appearance from Paul Kalkbrenner. Some photos of the current state at that time can be found online. A press release was issued on 23 May 2018 stating that the studios would open in the latter half of 2018 as a flexible 1,000- to 2,000-seat theatre by Troubador Theatres (the same company that owns Wembley Park Theatre Ltd) as well as bar and restaurant. Television studio The studio floor

144-473: A US television station is the place where the on-air signal is controlled. It may include controls to playout pre-recorded television programs and television commercials , switch local or television network feeds, record satellite feeds and monitor the transmitter(s), or these items may be in an adjacent equipment rack room. If the program is broadcast live, the signal goes from the PCR to MCR and then out to

192-609: A counterpart in the American version; and, in another significant change to the storyline, Stan worked at the lost property office at the bus depot rather than being a driver. After a pilot was made, the sitcom ran for one series of 22 episodes in 1973–74. It was not a success, and has never been screened in Britain. In 1990 there were plans to revive the series as Back on the Buses , and the original cast appeared on Wogan to promote

240-437: A holiday camp. On the Buses became Britain's top box office film of 1971. The films were set in a different canon to the series – in the films, Arthur and Olive manage to have a child despite their apparently sexless marriage and Arthur's 'operation' – the exact nature of which was never explicitly revealed. Arthur's operation is mentioned in the first film, but later Olive gives birth to their baby son. The three films follow

288-536: A job as a clippie on the buses as they are short of money. Stan takes a job in the north of England in a car factory in the "Goodbye Stan" episode, and the inspector takes Stan's old room as a lodger. In addition, two five-minute Christmas specials were made by LWT as part of an All Star Comedy Carnival in 1969 and 1972, ITV's answer to the BBC's Christmas Night with the Stars programme. The 1969 edition has been lost, but

336-424: A loose story arc which shows their son (Little Arthur) growing up. Olive is pregnant with a second child at the end of Mutiny , but no mention of this was made in the third film, Holiday , set mainly in a holiday camp . The bus depot becomes that of The Town & District Bus Company instead of The Luxton & District Traction Company. The buses in the films are mostly red ones, with one green one (not including

384-528: 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 (1,300 m) including the firelanes. An unusual feature of the studio is a soundproof double door which can be lowered in 30 minutes to reconfigure

432-421: A temporary basis as an event space (primarily concentrating on theatrical use). The multi-functional venue will be predominantly focused on a main auditorium which will be designed for use in a number of layouts. This will be formed from the 1,340 m (14,400 sq ft) former studio space. In addition, various parts of the building will be used in a number of layouts and for a number of functions, including

480-540: Is in Lille , France, the other in Los Angeles, California . In the first episode of series 6, former London Transport bus Leyland Titan PD2 RTL1557 (OLD 666) is featured and burnt out. The original series was repeated on Granada Plus in 1996 and until the channel closed in 2004, and was later repeated on UK Gold and then from 2004 onward on ITV3 , where it was still seen as of November 2023. Fox Classics on

528-448: Is occasionally also called a studio control room (SCR) or a "gallery" – the latter name comes from the original placement of the director on an ornately carved bridge spanning the BBC 's first studio at Alexandra Palace , which was once referred to as like a minstrels' gallery . The vast majority of devices in a PCR are interfaces for rack-mounted equipment that is located in

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576-596: Is supposed to be in Essex, and actual Essex towns including Southend-on-Sea, Basildon, Braintree and Tilbury are all mentioned. One of the bus route termini was "Cemetery Gates", for which LWT used the entrance to Lavender Hill Cemetery . A different Lavender Hill in Battersea also features in the last episode of the last series, featuring the town hall (now the Battersea Arts Centre ). The fourth series

624-417: Is the actual stage on which the actions that will be recorded and viewed take place. A typical studio floor has the following characteristics and installations: While a production is in progress, people composing a television crew work on the studio floor. The production control room is the place in a television studio in which the composition of the outgoing program takes place. The production control room

672-658: The Australian Fox cable network and New Zealand's Jones channel on Sky regularly show the series. As of August 2018, the series is broadcast by Dutch 'oldies' cable channel ONS. Visual Entertainment released On the Buses: The Ultimate Collection , an 11-disc box set featuring the complete series on DVD on 12 September 2006. Network released On the Buses: The Complete Series box set on DVD on 13 November 2006 for

720-494: The Central Apparatus Room (CAR). The central apparatus room (CAR) houses equipment that is too noisy or runs too hot to be located in the production control room (PCR). It also makes sure that coax cable , SDI cable , fibre-optic cable or other wire lengths and installation requirements keep within manageable lengths, since most high-quality wiring runs only between devices in this room. This can include

768-702: The South Bank of the River Thames ; here the outside doors to the main and secondary studios were too small to accommodate the double-decker buses used in the series. Therefore, single decker buses were used and a plywood mock-up of an upper deck was lowered from a lighting rig . Filmed external shots were part of the series. LWT arranged with the now defunct Eastern National Omnibus Company to use its buses at Wood Green bus garage in North London. They were shown as belonging to Luxton and District. Luxton

816-676: The Windsor Safari Park tour bus in Mutiny On The Buses ). The format of On the Buses was sold to America, where it was remade by NBC as Lotsa Luck , starring Dom DeLuise as Stanley Belmont with Kathleen Freeman as Iris Belmont, his mum, Wynn Irwin as Arthur Swann, Beverly Sanders as Olive Swann and Jack Knight as Bummy Pfitzer, his best friend. Episodes based on the original On The Buses scripts were adapted by such American writers as Carl Reiner , Bill Persky and Sam Denoff . Inspector Blake did not have

864-567: The 1972 edition – featuring a goose that the cast are chasing for Christmas dinner – exists in the Thames Television archive, which is now owned by FremantleMedia . Reg Varney undertook a PCV driving test in order to be filmed driving the bus for the exterior scenes. The earlier series were recorded at London Weekend Television 's original studios in Wembley (later Fountain Studios ). In late 1972, LWT relocated to new studios on

912-472: The TV series' often bawdy humour was diluted for a younger audience. A board game of On the Buses was released by Denys Fisher games in 1973. Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse did several sketches using the characters of On the Buses to lampoon the humour of the show. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton created a fake episode titled "Hold On Tight!" for their anthology series Inside No. 9 that

960-664: 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. Many high-profile productions were still produced at Fountain Studios up until its closure in February 2017; these include The X Factor , Play to

1008-472: The Whistle , 1000 Heartbeats and Britain's Got Talent . In January 2016, it was confirmed that the studios had been sold for £16 million to a property developer, Quintain. The lease (at present up to eight years) for the site is still available and several parties have expressed an interest. The most likely use will be to retain the building and turn it into a 1,000-seat theatre and that may start after

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1056-470: The actual circuitry and connections between: Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks . Master control is distinct from a PCR in television studios where the activities such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated. A transmission control room (TCR) is usually smaller in size and is a scaled-down version of centralcasting . The master control room in

1104-563: The biggest and best-equipped studio centre in Europe, British Talking Pictures engaged with Dynamics Corporation of New York to develop and supply a new improved Electromagnetic horn driver known as the Type 1 for its state of the art studio. Sheridan sold his lease to British Talking Pictures a few months later. In September 1928, British Talking Pictures formed a subsidiary, British Sound Film Productions, to make films at Wembley. Wembley Studios

1152-512: The decommissioning of the studio equipment for sale by auction in February 2017. The site was leased from Quintain by Wembley Park Theatre Ltd in September 2017 for a 'meanwhile use' of the site until the site is demolished to make way for new developments. The duration of this use was for up to seven years as submitted by Quintain in November 2017. The existing buildings to be repurposed on

1200-456: The episodes. It spawned three spin-off feature films and a stage version. Despite the writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife with the BBC , the corporation rejected On the Buses , not seeing much comedy potential in a bus depot as a setting. The comedy partnership turned to Frank Muir , head of entertainment at London Weekend Television (LWT), who loved the idea;

1248-452: The first time, then again on 25 May 2008 in a new repackaged version. It has also released each series individually. Beyond Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in seven series sets between 2 July 2007 and 8 April 2009. Between 2008 and 2009 Series 1 to Series 5 were repacked into standard DVD cases as original releases were in gatefold digipaks with a slip box. In 2010 they released The Complete Series 11-DVD box set. In 2010,

1296-475: The former offices, restaurant, storage areas and car parks. Work started in September 2017 with minor modifications to the scene dock area and the addition of extra fire doors. It is expected that the first productions will start in the early part of 2018 Brent Council has various documents relating to the Theatre use. London promoter LWE hosted a club night on 6 May 2018 featuring The Martinez Brothers headlining

1344-399: The ground, they discover a rival company has set up in the town, owned by Blakey. The comedy would have come from the conflict between the two businesses, as Stan and Jack attempt to battle Blakey's bigger and more professional company. Look-in , a UK children's magazine, serialised On the Buses in comic strips from August 1971 to May 1974. They were drawn by cartoonist Harry North and

1392-455: The individual series were re-released through ITV Studios. Season 1 and Season 2 were released separately (previously released together) on 5 September 2012, and Seasons 4 and Season 5 on 6 February 2013; it is unknown whether remaining seasons will be issued. The complete Series was repackaged and re-released on 7 August 2013. On 21 November 2018, On The Buses: The Complete Collection was reissued and distributed by Shock Entertainment. Despite

1440-658: The intention of creating an American-style studio complex in the former British Empire Exhibition 's Palace of Engineering. They bought a lease at Wembley in June 1927, though it was for the Lucullus Garden Club Restaurant site, not the Palace of Engineering. Their financial backing fell through and in May 1928 the lease was sold to Victor Sheridan. Sheridan announced that £500,000 was to be spent on developing

1488-404: The new series. Reg Varney also discussed plans for the pilot episode on This Morning . However, although the pilot script was written, it was not made. The premise was to be that Stan Butler, having run his own business for some years and made some money, was now starting his own bus company in the newly deregulated market, and hiring Jack to work with him. As they attempt to get the company off

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1536-441: The popularity of On the Buses with sections of the public, TV reviewers and historians have generally held the show in lower regard. In its section on situation comedies, The Guinness Book of Classic British TV describes On the Buses as ITV's "longest running and most self-consciously unfunny series". TV reviewer Victor Lewis-Smith later criticised the then head of London Weekend Television , Frank Muir , for green-lighting

1584-412: The programme, which Lewis-Smith called "the wretched On the Buses ". The Daily Telegraph journalist Max Davidson, discussing 1970s British comedy, listed On the Buses as one of the "unfunny sitcoms of the time", while The Guardian ' s David Stubbs referred to On the Buses as "a byword for 70s sitcom mediocrity". On The Buses is sometimes used as an example of the sort of sexism that

1632-401: The release of the first film in 1971, were 55 and 39 respectively). Some episodes of the show also featured a black character humorously referred to as Chalky , which would be construed as racist by modern standards. The three spin-off films were produced by Hammer Film Productions . They are On the Buses (1971), Mutiny on the Buses (1972), and Holiday on the Buses (1973), set in

1680-419: The series became "one of the most popular British comedy series of its era, if not all time." A total of 74 episodes of On the Buses were broadcast over seven series. Three spin-off films were also released. All episodes and films of On The Buses were set in the fictional town of Luxton. At the beginning of the seventh series Arthur, who is not seen, has left Olive and they are divorced. Olive again gets

1728-478: The series, entitled "Happy Harry", was written by Tony Russell. The red Town & District buses were Bristol KSWs with Eastern Coach Works bodies. These were former Eastern National. Stan's and Jack's "regular" bus appeared to be VNO 857. The green Luxton & District buses were Bristol Lodekkas with bodywork by Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft . In reality these were Eastern National buses (in some episodes buses could be seen with Eastern National on

1776-614: The show was accepted, and despite a poor critical reception became a hit with viewers. The series is centred on the working-class life of Stan Butler and Jack Harper, who are the crew of the Number 11 bus at the Luxton and District Motor Traction Company. The action mostly takes place at the Butler home and at the bus depot. Network On Air describes the show as having a "bawdy, comic postcard humour and resolutely working-class outlook", and notes

1824-582: The side), although as mentioned earlier, the later interior depot shots were in fact 'dummy' buses. Some 'dummy' buses were real single-deck buses with a wooden frame on top, such as in the Series 3 episode "Radio Control", when the bus has crashed into the bridge. The most commonly used bus in the series was AVW 399F. In later episodes the ENB symbol appears next to Luxton & District. Stan's usual buses, AVW 399F and AEV 811F, are both still extant; one

1872-568: The space into two separate studios, each with its own independent control facilities. When used as a single studio, it was the largest fully equipped television studio in the UK – 500 sq ft (46 m) larger than HQ1 at Dock10 , MediaCityUK in Salford and 2,000 sq ft (190 m) larger than Studio 1 at BBC Television Centre . Internationally, larger studios exist in Germany and in

1920-467: The studios were best known for being the venue for the live stages of ITV British shows The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent . The last show to be broadcast live (and recorded) at the studios was The X Factor on 4 December 2016, after which the studio was closed, and the site sold to property developer Quintain. It is now known as Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre . In 1927, Ralph J. Pugh and Rupert Mason founded British Incorporated Pictures with

1968-542: 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 began its existence as

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2016-496: The transmitter. A television studio usually has other rooms with no technical requirements beyond video monitors and studio monitors for audio. Among them are: [REDACTED] Media related to Television studios at Wikimedia Commons On the Buses On the Buses is a British television sitcom that was broadcast on ITV from 1969 to 1973. It was created by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe , who wrote most of

2064-499: The war the studios were leased to the military (the Army Kinematograph Service and RAF Film Unit ), with intermittent rental to independents. Ealing Studios filmed Ships with Wings at Wembley in 1941. There was a fire at the studios in 1943. In the 1950s the studios were used by Mercia Film Productions, who made feature films, and Rayant Pictures, who made shorts and adverts. The last film made at Wembley

2112-573: Was Britain's first purpose-built sound studios. Its three sound stages were officially opened in September 1929. Perhaps because of a major fire, the studio was never as successful as had been hoped. They were taken over by the American Fox Film Company, who leased the site and then bought it outright in 1936. Fox used the studio for the production of their ' quota quickies '. A change in the law in 1938 led 20th Century Fox to use other studios, but it retained ownership. During

2160-476: Was Ealing Studios' The Ship That Died of Shame (US: PT Raiders , 1955). Wembley Film Studio was taken over by Associated-Rediffusion , ITV's weekday broadcasters for London, in January 1955. Two of the existing studios were fully converted by the time commercial television began in September 1955, with the other two by the end of the year. An expansion on the site, the newly built Studio 5, opened in 1960. It

2208-694: Was affected by the ITV Colour Strike , with seven of the 13 episodes being made in black and white. Characters from On The Buses appeared in two other series. A spin-off, Don't Drink the Water (1974–75), ran for 13 episodes, featuring Blake retiring to Spain with his sister Dorothy ( Pat Coombs - who also played one of the female bus drivers in the first On The Buses film). Anna Karen reprised her role as Olive in LWT's revival of The Rag Trade , which ran for two series in 1977–78. The theme music for

2256-409: Was rife in society in the 1960s and 1970s, occurring after the freedoms of sexual liberation , but before the rise of feminism ; in particular, the derision towards one of the main female characters (Olive Rudge) for being unattractive, and the fact that younger attractive bus staff would be regularly looking to have sex with the two main middle-aged male characters (Varney and Grant, who by the time of

2304-526: Was the largest television studio in Europe, and could be split into two parts for separate productions when required. 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

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