Drawn out

It's drawing to a close, thank heavens, at Television Centre. Studio boss Anna Mallett revealed yesterday that there's still a Channel 4 daytime show being recorded, and listed the temporary new homes of some old favourites. Strictly Come Dancing, for example, is moving to the George Lucas Stage at Elstree - 1435m2 compared with the 995m2 of Television Centre 1.

I didn't sit through all of the BBC4 nostalgia fest, but thought that Danny Baker and Noel Edmonds expressed clearly the advantages of having talent, production and commissioning power rubbing up against each other in the same building. Attenborough and Grade talked wistfully of the days when they were old-time impresarios, giving the greenlight to series in corridor conversations. Sadly, that way of working went much longer ago than last night - dismantled by Birt. Intellectually, once even the smallest indie quotient was granted, the relationship between controllers and talent had to move onto a formal and much more boring business basis.

I'm told it was a good job there were fewer live cameras around for the staff party on Thursday.