With feature film investment dwindling in the face of unfavourable exchange rates and the removal of tax breaks further eating into profit margins, the studios industry has been feeling the squeeze this past few months. But there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Last month it was reported that the BBC plans to create a new comedy division on a par with its entertainment and drama departments and incoming BBC1 controller Peter Fincham is already grooming a number of comedy talents to expand the corporation's raft of laughter output.
That the BBC is investing in a genre whose natural habitat is the studio four waller can only be good news for the UK's studio industry. But for comedy producers and production managers tasked with deciding which studio is right for their production, there are still many factors to take into account.
Pinewood Shepperton Studios, home to comedy favourites from Little Britainto My Family, remains central to the UK comedy industry and, in addition, it recently bought Teddington for£2.6m, whose recent productions include forthcoming Only Fools and Horsesfollow-up The Green Green Grass.
One huge benefit Pinewood continues to offer productions is scale. Based across 97 acres, with plans to expand by half again over the next decade, it's large enough to house standing sets that stay for the duration of filming.
"Pinewood was the only studio which could give us the facility for the time that we needed and leave the set standing," explains Don Taffner Jr, vice-president of DLT Entertainment, who recorded the last three series of My Familyat the studio.
"We did the first series at the BBC, but it had to knock the sets down at the end of each day, to make way for other productions - and that's wear and tear," he adds.
The key benefit of standing sets is that they allow cast and crew to familiarise themselves with the set - which is crucial, particularly if the script is undergoing late changes.
"Everybody gets to know what you're doing on set this way. Otherwise, you've got to prepare it in a rehearsal room and adapt it later," explains Celador's director of production, Heather Hampson, who spent eight weeks at Pinewood recording Jasper Carrott's All About Me. Undeniably, it's costly. "But," adds Taffner, "we think it's money that shows on the screen."
Boasting two 9,000sq ft TV studios, a new underwater stage and extensive post-production facilities, Pinewood remains the industry standard for large productions, but Shepperton's four-waller sets also make it a popular host for situation comedies like BBC1's Richard Curtis-penned Vicar of Dibley.
However, while appropriate for long-running shows or star vehicles, Pinewood Shepperton's out-of-town location appears to be less convenient for smaller productions.
It's here that more central London studios have the edge. For Bremner, Bird and Fortune, Vera Productions favoured studios which were easily accessible by public transport, such as Wembley's Fountain TV - although the company is considering a move to the 21m x 21m production studio at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.
"Our type of audience is slightly more intellectual," explains Vera's head of production, Carrie Fletcher. "And because it's recorded on a Friday night, it's not a good idea to go very far out of town, because you lose that audience."
BBC studios resource manager Andy Waters, who worked on the latest series of The Kumars at No. 42, stresses the importance of selecting a studio that will attract not just heads, but the right heads. "With the greatest respect, the last thing you want is a load of old age pensioners wheeled in to fill up the seats. You want artists in a sitcom to be able to bounce off the audience."
BBC Television Centre's proximity to the Underground ensures good turnout and its multiple studios set up also guarantees audience overspill from one production to another.
A good audience is also vital for capturing what is still a comedy staple: the laughter track. Contrary to popular belief, "canned laughter" is a thing of the past. Reactions are usually picked up on a multi-microphone sound rig suspended over the audience, for which a dedicated sound team is crucial. "Getting the mix is a great skill," explains Waters. While a laughter track will inevitably undergo editing, a sense of verisimilitude remains key. "We retake some of the sitcom bits if people fluff, but if a joke dies on its arse, we cut it," explains The Kumars' executive producer, Anil Gupta. "You can rebuild laughs in the edit, but you don't stick a huge laugh on something that didn't get one."
According to comedy producer Charlie Hanson, who recently worked on new Ricky Gervais vehicle Extras, the requirements of studios are rapidly changing as the genre moves on - with productions such as The Officeand Peepshoweschewing live audiences and bucking the trend for more naturalistic settings.
"There's less of the traditional sitcom set - new comedy is progressively being set more on location or in real-life venues," Hanson says.
As a case in point, IWC sitcom Meet the Magoonsfor Channel 4 was entirely filmed on location in Scotland. The interiors were shot in a disused building which was completely rebuilt for the series.
Fellow Glasgow-based production company The Comedy Unit also prefers to film the likes of Chewin' the Fatand The Karen Dunbar Showin its own open warehouse space (formerly part of the Glasgow TV and Film Studio).
Comedy's shift outside a studio's four walls doesn't necessarily mean studios become redundant in this equation - despite their naturalistic look, The Officewas filmed at Teddington and Extrasat Pinewood. What this trend does mean is that production teams will now cite flexibility as a key factor.
"I think it's more the fact that if the script calls for this, that and the other, we'll need a studio which will let us plug in a single camera and rush off to film in the green room or the gallery," explains Vera Productions' Fletcher. "We need a studio which will quickly check the health and safety, and off we go."
This level of flexibility favours London-based independent studios - including London Studios or Three Mills (host to the second series of Baby Cow's The Mighty Boosh) rather than facilities under the corporate wing.
"The BBC has gone a huge way in improving its facilities and working for outside contractors - all the green rooms, the dressing rooms are hugely improved," explains Tiger Aspect's head of comedy, Clive Tulloh, who has produced the likes of theLenny Henry Showat Television Centre. But, he adds: "It still suffers from the fact that this space was primarily designed for in-house production."
However, Tulloh is keen to talk up the clear benefits of recording a BBC show in-house. "You can get the commissioning editors to come down - there are great synergies when you make a show at the broadcaster's home base."
However, whatever facilities are on offer to producers, Tulloh warns that if studios want to ride this new wave of comedy investment, continual emphasis on competitive rates is key. "It's the holy grail of TV programming," adds Tulloh, "Because if you can get it right, it repeats like no other genre. "But people will always be looking to decrease prices. It's still incredibly hard to make a sitcom for under£250,000 per half hour."
THE GREEN GREEN GRASS Teddington
The first sitcom to use high-definition camera technology, The Green Green Grass- the debut sitcom from Only Fools and Horseswriter John Sullivan's new indie, Shazam Productions - needed a studio with the engineering capabilities to fit an HD system.
"I wanted to go to Teddington because of the people I knew there," explains line producer Julian Meers, "I knew they were capable of working with an outside company which was helping me with the high definition."
Shazam called in broadcast hire company Shooting Partners, which installed a high-definition kit alongside Teddington's existing system. "We brought in our cameras, the VTR recorders, and an HD vision mixer," explains Shooting Partners' Chris Dingley, "But as far as the producer and director were concerned, they walked into a familiar gallery - it was just like doing a regular show for them. It was very much business as usual."
Outside scenes were filmed out on location in Shropshire, but to maintain the narrative, these scenes are piped into the studio in real time, with soundmen on hand to capture audience reaction.
Shazam took the trouble of hiring an audience gatherer. "Some producers will worry if they'll get an audience out to a regional studio," explains Teddington's marketing director, Diana Crystal Honey. "But we're packed out on every sitcom we've done." And Shazam's experience seems to concur. "Because of the tradition of the studio, audiences are used to going there," adds Meers. "Also, Teddington knows how to handle an audience, and I'm not saying other studios don't, but it works for us."
EXTRAS Pinewood
The filming of Extras, Ricky Gervais' first post- The OfficeTV production, was largely dictated by the show's open-ended set requirements.
Following the career of two extras, the plot conceit is to base each individual episode on a fresh film set or TV production. "It needed to be a flexible space or set of spaces - a sound stage we could change each week," explains Extrasproducer Charlie Hanson. "We couldn't have it look like we were filming in the same corridor every week."
"When I first met Ricky and Stephen [Merchant, co-producer] last summer, I immediately suggested we'd have to look at Shepperton or Pinewood. We went first to Pinewood, and we were due to go on to Shepperton, but Pinewood looked so vast and had so much of what we needed, we'd already made our choice."
Without the constraints of an audience, the Extrasteam was free to improvise or explore the studio at will. "It's enormous, a 97-acre site," explains Pinewood Shepperton marketing director Diana Crystal Honey. "So they went all around all the stages that were available to them. You can do shoots in the grounds, in the gardens. There's room for free-forming, for making stuff up on the spot."
And even the detritus of past productions helped shape the Extras scenery. "Round the back where Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryhad been, it looked like a wasteland," explains Hanson. "It was just a matter of parking up vehicles and it looked like the Balkans! Within its confines we were able to create the worlds we needed."
THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW BBC studios TC1 and TC4
The first series of Catherine Tatewas filmed at Pinewood. "A great space," confirms Tiger Aspect head of comedy, Clive Tulloh, "but it was hard to get audiences."
A relocation to BBC studios TC1 and TC4 proved to be the right decision. One benefit of TC1 is that the set is very wide, meaning that, particularly for set-heavy sketch shows, there's more capacity for rapport between cast and audience.
"I know Catherine wanted to play it very much with the audience," explains BBC resource manager Sinead Sweeny. "Sometimes when you're setting sitcoms in smaller spaces you've got sets behind, and the only way people can see is on a screen. Actors prefer that direct communication with the audience - it's much more like it being in a theatre environment, you can get your timing better that way."
Catherine Tateused a collapsible set, with each recording concentrated into an intensive day.
"The light rig goes in overnight and the crew will come in and set up in the morning," explains Sweeny. "The actual structure of the set is fairly straightforward. They'll set up in the morning and populate with props, then late afternoon they'll do the fine light, so we're ready to go first thing on the evening of recording." Tulloh is full of praise for the BBC's technicians and facilities, but as an independent, he has just one reservation. "Getting in and out of the BBC can be frustrating if you're not on staff. It's just the nature of how they were originally designed - it's very difficult for them to get round the fact you need security people; you can't just have people wandering in and out."
THE KUMARS AT NO. 42 Fountain TV; BBC studio TC3 and 8
Although best known for large-scale light entertainment like The X-Factorand Pop Idol, Wembley's 13,000sq ft Fountain TV proved a good match for Hat Trick's The Kumars at No. 42.
"We recorded at Fountain because we liked the studio and had a good deal there," explains executive producer Anil Gupta. Unquestionably, however, geography played a large part: set in Wembley, home to one of London's biggest Indian communities, it ensured that the show's recordings were accessible to its key demographic. "We could definitely rely on it for a receptive audience," adds Gupta.
The Kumarsquickly became part of Fountain. "The show was born and bred here, really," explains Julian Kossick, Fountain's managing director. "We got on so well with the cast." However, a demanding deadline can uproot even the most grounded show. "The BBC commissioned very late - an unexpectedly quick recommission," explains Gupta. "We were expecting to turn the next one around for autumn, but they wanted it for the spring." To the disappointment of both parties, Fountain was already full. "It's a real nightmare when a show we've got a good relationship with comes along and says: 'Here's some dates, can you do them?' and we're already booked up," explains Kossick. Instead, the latest series filmed at TC3 and 8 at the BBC. "It made things a bit more difficult," explains Gupta. "We had to work with new people, there were a few teething problems - but it was okay." However, he thinks The Kumarswill probably move back to Wembley if the show receives a recommission.
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