BBC TV Studio B, Manchester - first txm Look Northwest, Monday 18th May 1981

The last transmission of Look Northwest, the North West of England's BBC regional news programme, from Studio N, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester was the previous Friday. Look Northwest continued years later as Northwest Tonight in Studio B until 2011, when it moved to Media City in Salford..

Here we see the national weather followed by a teaser from Nationwide in Studio E, Lime Grove, London, before the regions opt-out of network and present their own news programmes. This is the first North West news programme from the newly built Studio B in New Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester.

Look Northwest was the third programme to be broadcast from Studio B - the lunchtime and afternoon news were the first and second programmes. The studio had what is called a saturated lighting grid which is the norm in most if not all BBC TV studios. ITV studios use an ad hoc lighting grid where lights are placed where needed.

I don't think the production team were happy with the new set as it changed relatively quickly. For the cameramen it did feel it was not suited to the 4:3 television format, but would suit the 16:9 of the present day quite well. The cameras used were brand new Philips LDK 25 which gave pretty good pictures except for comet-tailing - for some reason the OB version, used in the North Region, the LDK 5, didn't exhibit this yet used the same tubes and electronics.

Studio B went on to produce all manner of local and network programmes, including breakfast programmes. It was reasonably large and never felt cramped. It also had an annexe where programmes could have an extension to their floor plan. This was at the north end of the studio, ran across the width of it and as it had direct access to Studio B and a simple lighting grid cameras could be pushed into it and used there. To the east of the annexe was a self-op studio, Studio C, where the regional presenters introduced and ran the weekly regional 30 minute opt-out. This was a smallish room with a vision and audio desk, but no cameras. To the west of the annexe was a lighting store.

Eventually the annexe was converted into a full studio (Studio D) and used by programmes that needed little floor space or couldn't afford Studio B e.g. Religion.