In April 2016 Big Centre TV re-branded to simply Big Centre. A subtle difference, but it was what everybody called it anyway, and the rebrand said goodbye to the colour swirl which had divided opinion in the early days of the station, and welcomed the stylized ‘BC’ icon. The company also now officially became Big Centre Television Broadcasting.

A slow reveal shot of the new logo that I was asked to run at the end of the last Magazine programme before the re-branding took place.

The full corporate version of the new ‘BC’ logo, showing the word ‘Television’, used in stationary & business cards but not on-air.

The re-branding was organised by Mat Cooper who was our Station Manager (since December 2015).

Mat is a very talented producer in his own right, and had been associated with Big Centre since the earliest days via his involvement with the Birmingham Film School.

Mat had also founded Spaghetti Studios in Birmingham, and through this useful connection we were able to improve much of our studio equipment and as such the look and feel of the programmes we were making improved too.

Mat once told me that the original idea with the ‘BC’ icon in the new logo was that it would revolve, perhaps like the arms of a clock, eventually revealing the ‘b’ and the ‘c’ of the icon. Sadly this was never implemented, though the design does remain my favourite of the two Big Centre logos.

With this rebrand came the notion of renaming a number of programmes in the station’s image. So, The Midland became Big News with the Sport section becoming Big Sports and moving across to its own satelite studio at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground.

Elsewhere Carl Jones‘s film show previously known as “Brummywood Yammywood” became The Big Picture. And I took back full control of the Midland Weekend and it became The Big Magazine (almost back to it’s former title!). Each of these shows used a logo featuring the ‘BC’ icon. When I became a game show host later in the year, that was called the BigQuiz (another story for another page, and more on my UpAndHappy! Productions website)

Not the most flattering shot of Natalie Cutler – this is from the editing screen for one of our Community Noticeboard segments

A more refined shot of Natalie and I, flying high of the rooftops of Birmingham by the looks of things.

The content of The Big Magazine remained very similar to before, with a review of the week’s news, the community noticeboard (now co-hosted with Natalie Cutler), plus a new business report and film review from Carl Jones, a book review and history segment (featuring my 2 co-studio-Directors, Tom Russon & Tom Wilkinson).

Big Centre was continuing its positive recovery, and many people have told me since that they thought we really hit our stride during this period.

Watch The Big Magazine below

A quick note about how the listings below work. Videos all play in the main big screen, and you choose from the thumbnail listing underneath! Oldest first, newest last. Each title is the original transmission date backwards, followed by the programme name. So “160409 Saturday Magazine” is the programme for 9th April 2016.

160409 Saturday Magazine

160410 Sunday Magazine

160416 Saturday Magazine

160417 Sunday Magazine

160423 Saturday Magazine

160424 Sunday Magazine

160430 Saturday Magazine

160501 Sunday Magazine

160514 Saturday Magazine

160515 Sunday Magazine

160522 Sunday Magazine

This article, along with various others in my website are part of the wider story of Big Centre Television as seen from the perspective of the programmes I was making at the time. Most of the articles contain a video gallery of the original shows that I made.

I was with Big Centre Television from the very first day of production in January 2015 until the last of the original team were made redundant in November 2017 when the bulk of production and operations were being moved up to Leeds, the HQ of Made TV with whom Big Centre had merged in October 2016. Big Centre had a wonderful team all the way through, I miss them all and I remain really proud of what we ultimately achieved.

Contents (click an entry to go to that page)

As time goes on, I'll be filling in some of the gaps as well as adding more to these existing parts of the story too. If there's anything missing, or you'd like me to talk about something in particular, send me a message on social media (see the very top or very bottom of this page) or contact me through the website.