Friday, May 5, 2017

Flattened

The worlds of property development and tv production collided again yesterday, with the news that Princess Productions is closing down, after twenty years. It would be a brave hack who tried to estimate the number of tv operatives who've been through short-term contracts with the company over that period.

Whiteleys of Bayswater first opened as a department store in 1911; it was revamped in 1989 by BDP; and Princess Productions, founded by Big Breakfast wunderkind Sebastian Scott (who got's his tv start as That's Life researcher) and Henrietta Conrad, set up cheap and cheerful studio space on the third floor in 1996.

The company was taken over by Shine in 2006; the current order book is sustained by two hours every weekday of The Wright Stuff, on Channel 5, which will go out to tender shortly. Meanwhile, Whiteleys is heading for another redevelopment, yes, to include very posh flats in place of the tv studios. So the studios go, and other Princess output will be rebranded with production company names from the extensive Endemol Shine portfolio.

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