Lee B on the TV! This is where you can find out about my telly stuff. On screen and off screen! In no particular order. The most recent TV things I’ve written about are below. Have a browse, or do a search – you might turn up something fun! To find out even more about the programmes I’ve made as “UpAndHappy! Productions” then pop over to www.upandhappy.com

And if there’s something you’d like me to write about on here, then why not get in touch!

Big Centre Television Tiswas

Putting Tiswas back into your Telly

Ever since Tiswas ended in 1982 I had hoped to somehow see it again but as time went on I came around to the idea that I probably wouldn’t. TV programmes have their time and then they pass into history, that’s just the way it works. And apart from a brief reunion skit during the […]

Television

Going Behind The Scenes at ITV’s Central News Studio

On 22nd June 2015 I appeared on ITV News Central (aka Central News). Central were undergoing one of their periodic studio set ‘refreshes’ in line with all of the other ITV companies across the UK (yes, they still do exist) and their resident fan-of-nostalgia reporter Andy Bevan was looking to include comments from someone who […]

Big Centre Television

Reading the Television News

At school I was once part of a project in which we had to divide into groups and ‘report’ on a chosen event. I can’t remember whether it was an actual historical event or some kind of pivotal ‘happening’ within one a book we were reading in our English Literature class. Whatever it was, our […]

Big Centre Television

Big Centre – An (Early) Day In The Life

After the excitement of launching Big Centre TV with a first night party at a bar called “The Bureau” on Colmore Row in the centre of Birmingham, we settled down to the day-to-day business of making and broadcasting programmes The station was originally set up to be the local television channel for Birmingham, Solihull and […]

Radio Tiswas

Putting Tiswas on the Radio

In November 2006 I received an email from a gentleman called Mike Smith. At first I wasn’t sure who he was, but he explained that he was Sally James‘s husband and as a Tiswas fan I certainly knew who she was! Mike is an almost legendary name in the music and media business, and he […]

Big Centre Television

Big Centre Bloopers and Behind the Scenes

Cliché alert! In broadcasting you know that things don’t always go to plan. You’ve watched “It’ll Be Alright On The Night” or “Auntie’s Bloomers” (blimey, that’s going back a bit) and so on… Yeah, so did I, but I never thought I’d be an outtake myself… From the Summer of 2015 I had joined Chanelle […]

Big Centre Television

The Story of Big Centre Television

Elsewhere on this website there are various “Box Sets” of a number of the Television programmes I made when I was working at Big Centre Television and Made in Birmingham. I didn’t really intend them as a history of the place, but I later realised as I was looking back across them that they do […]

Television

The Story of ATV Today – An Illustrated Talk

Back in 2011 and 2012 I was, along with a group of like-minded TV-loving friend, part of “ATVLAND.productions” and we produced 2 DVD documentary series charting the television history of the “ATV Centre” Studios in Birmingham, and the Midlands News Magazine Programme “ATV Today”. Both “From ATVLAND in Colour” and “From Headlines to Tight-Lines: The […]

Big Centre Television

Box Set: Crossroads Check-In

Who doesn’t love Crossroads? Don’t answer that! Seriously, I used to love Crossroads when I was growing up. I was born and raised during the Mid-1970s in “ATV Land” (West Midlands) and Crossroads was our very own Soap Opera. Granada had Coronation Street in Manchester. Yorkshire had Emmerdale Farm in Leeds. ATV had Crossroads in […]

Television Tiswas

Sylvester McCoy Interview – 30th May 2020

During the first lockdown of the 2020 pandemic TiswasOnline – a group of dedicated Tiswas fans (including me!) – decided to re-run compilations of Tiswas clips on Saturday Mornings again, all to raise money for charity (see link below). In addition, we contacted as many members of the Tiswas Team as we could and asked […]