Saturday Night Takeaway

For the last five series I was Engineering Supervisor for Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway as part of my role as studio engineer in TC1 at Television Centre. Before that I was at ITV's London Studios and regularly on the engineering team for the show.

My first Takeaway experience was in 2015, when I was the Engineer at ITV Meridian. An outside broadcast from the nearby Portsmouth Historical Dockyard was backhauled through our newsroom using microwave links on cranes and I was responsible for ensuring comms and connectivity was passed to the OB via the cranes.

Here's a selection of just a few pictures from 9 years of the craziest and fun show I've worked on.

The London Studios on the South Bank, original home to Saturday Night Takeaway.
TLS Studio 1... This is what the set looks like from 'Behind The Screens'!
Do you remember the Fickle Finger Of Fate? A huge finger suspended from the lighting grid which moved across the audience to select a contestant.
For a while, one audience member would be upgraded to 'The Best Seat In The House' which was built into the audience seating.
Counting down to transmission at The London Studios
On Air! From Ant & Dec's instagram it looks like they have acquired one of these lights
The STAR Engineering area of The London Studios during a Takeaway Episode
Studios never look quite as good unlit, but this is the closest I'll get to a light entertainment gig!
Fancy a place on the plane? Probably built to a better standard than some of the Boeing ones.
The Supercomputer would visit various parts of the country targeting unsuspecting members of the public. It was also regularly in the studio. An operator had to sit inside it to make the arms move!
1995 outside broadcast from Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. In those days there was a whole OB truck for each location

All images are © 2024 Simon Hardwick.
Please contact me if you would like to enquire about licensing them.

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