For Fun Friday this week I went on a tour of the BBC - that's the British Broadcasting Corporation or "The Beeb" as it's known here in Britain. They recently completed a 10 year project to expand their original building and bring all the little London offices under one roof. 6000 people work here to bring news and entertainment to the world.
Behind these revolving doors is one big newsroom studio (although not the biggest in the world - that studio is in China). We were able to go in but this was the one area where we could not take pictures.
One thing I learned on this tour was that the BBC is funded by TV Licenses! Have I mentioned these before? In Britain everyone who watches live TV has to pay a license fee (which is something like 200 pounds.) We have a TV but we can only use it for the dvd player since we moved to London because the only connections to the antennae are in the bedrooms and we want the TV in the living room. It really wasn't worth the fuss for the little TV viewing we do. I can watch all my shows on line after they are broadcast. So when we moved I had to go on line and submit an exception form to say that we did not need a TV license fee. It seemed like highway robbery to charge every household a fee to watch their TV but now I know it pays for all the BBC TV and Radio stations which are commercial free so I begrudge them a little less.
They have lots of pictures and memorabilia of the entertainment side of business - like this Dalek.
And of course, where there are Daleks there is the Tardis.
Dr. Who is not the only jewel in the crown…the first televised coronation, Morecombe and Wise, and my favorite - The Archers - are all part of the BBC history time line.
This microphone was used by countless celebrities and royals. They made a replication of this particular mic for the movie The King's Speech.
And now the fun begins. This is a studio for radio drama. Several of us took roles while another worked some of the sound effects.
Clinking tea cups, feet walking on gravel, doorbells etc.
I played Francis in a strange horror drama. There were four others on this drama but I didn't get a picture until after the recording. They played it back so we could hear ourselves with the sound effects and it was surprisingly good despite the fact that I was the only native English speaker.
But wait - it gets better!!! Somehow I got on the tour that was otherwise 100% Slovenians and only one of them volunteered to read the English news. So here I am with my co anchor. We did about 5 minutes of news broadcasting using the teleprompter. I was a little nervous at first but it was very fun.
Here we are on screen. My big story was about sea foam taking over Australia. I just googled it - I missed this story completely last month. After a storm the town of Mooloolaba was completely covered in foam. Lucky for me they did not put the name Mooloolaba on the teleprompter.
And now the weather….
This woman was at a disadvantage because I don't think they gave her a teleprompter and she just had to wing it while moving her arm in front of the green screen. Of course, with UK weather it's usually just safe to say "It's raining" and be done with it.
Last stop - the shop. I bought an Archers mug and keychain simply because I love The Archers and I am a slave to merchandising. Also, since we didn't pay for that TV license, this is my part in keeping the Beeb on air.
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