BBC Studioworks has hosted nine productions on the 2016 Christmas and New Year programme line up, almost doubling the number of holiday offerings facilitated in 2015.
Utilising four of Studioworks’ studios at Elstree, the line-up features a range of shows, from popular festive family favourites to mainstream entertainment shows debuting a Christmas special.
Festive favourites
Already home to multi award-winning BBC productions, EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing, BBC Studioworks has also hosted their seasonal offerings.
EastEnders’ Christmas and New Year episode run sees residents of Albert Square facing up to festering secrets, fractured families and the explosive return of Max Branning. BBC Studioworks provides the continuing drama with full technical facilities and crew, including camera, sound, lighting, engineering and post production staff.
EastEnders: it’s a Christmas to remember for the Brannings
The baubles are out in BBC Studioworks’ 15,770 sq. ft. George Lucas Stage 2 for the Strictly Come DancingChristmas special. Following the facilitation of thirteen live shows for series 14, the production has made full use of BBC Studioworks’ HD production galleries and post production Avid Symphony suites for the annual Christmas Day show.
Top of the Pops has returned to Elstree for a third year to record a Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve special. BBC Studioworks’ Stage 9 hosted the legendary music show over two back-to-back recordings, deploying a seven-camera set up that included two jibs, two handhelds and three peds. BBC Studioworks also transformed the adjacent Stage 8 into a holding area for the 200-strong audience members.
Top of the Pops presenters Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton
Newcomers to the Christmas and New Year line-up
Highlighting the variety of Christmas special genres facilitated by BBC Studioworks, the ever-versatile Studio D at Elstree has seen three productions making their Christmas debut.
BBC Two’s award-winning anthology series, Inside No. 9, required the build of a working 1970s television drama set, retro-fitted with broadcast technology authentic to the era for their Christmas special, entitled The Devil of Christmas. Featuring the mythological character Krampus, the show will air on Tuesday 27 December.
The cast of Inside No 9 on set in Studio D at Elstree
The UK edition of the pop-culture phenomenon, Lip Sync Battle UK, returned to Studio D for its second series. Due to air in early 2017, the six-episode Channel 5 production, presented by Spice Girl Melanie Brown and rapper Professor Green, is launching its second series with a Christmas special airing on 27 December, which sees actor Shane Richie take on his EastEnders screen wife Jessie Wallace in a festive-themed lip-syncing competition.
Studio D also opened up its doors to Eric Idle, Professor Brian Cox, Warwick Davis, Noel Fielding and Hannah Waddingham who have teamed up for a one-hour Boxing Day special for BBC Two, called The Entire Universe. The production combines fascinating facts about the birth of the universe with larger-than-life comedy characters penned by the renowned comedian Eric Idle, all amid an elaborate amateur dramatics musical theatre production.
Panel and quiz show Christmas specials in Stages 8 and 9
The assortment of Christmas special sets and technical rigs continued for an array of different broadcasters in BBC Studioworks’ Stages 8 and 9.
Stage 8 has also hosted a special celebrity Christmas edition of the popular general knowledge BBC One quiz, Pointless Celebrities. Scheduled for transmission on Christmas Eve, the show sees four celebrity teams dress in Pantomime-wear and try to come up with the answers that no-one else knows. BBC Studioworks has provided full studio and technical support for all ten series of Pointless Celebrities and all 18 series of Pointless. The Pointless team is due to return to Elstree in 2017 for its next series.
Another returning show to BBC Studioworks, which is launching its new series with a Christmas special on 20 December, is E4’s Virtually Famous. Returning to Elstree for its third consecutive series, the topical panel show will record its fourth series in BBC Studioworks Stage 8 during the latter part of 2016 and early 2017, including eight 45-minute episodes and a Christmas special.
New Virtually Famous line up: Vicky Pattison, Chris Ramsey, Seann Walsh and Scarlet Moffatt
Stage 9 has also hosted much festive merriment and high jinks for ITV 2’s Celebrity Juice Christmas special, which followed the end of the production’s series 16 run, the fifth consecutive series to be facilitated by BBC Studioworks at Elstree. The Christmas special aired on 8 December and sees Danny Dyer, Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid join Keith Lemon for a festive edition of the cheeky game show, along with regulars Holly Willoughby, Fearne Cotton and Gino D’Acampo.
Meryl McLaren, Commercial Manager at BBC Studioworks, says: “Christmas TV is a British tradition and is something that viewers look forward to immensely over the festive season. Here at Studioworks, we’ve seen the number of shows making Christmas specials double this year, and we’re already taking bookings for Christmas 2017 for both our Elstree and Television Centre studios”.
