HELIOS

Helios

Photographer: Nat Twiss

The Porsche 356 that lives at the centre of the universe.

Would-be audience members queued politely at the side as I arrived at the old BBC Television Centre. At the front of the building, a morning TV show set was being dressed with artificial snow in the final moments before going live, as a countdown to Christmas began. Almost every culturally important British television moment was either conceived or filmed on this plot in London. That showbiz history is still palpable, even though in 2013 the BBC officially moved headquarters to a newer, larger complex, and many of the old offices were converted to luxury apartments.

A couple of studios are still in use by the other major British channels, but it's safe to say that the heyday of the nearly century-old British Broadcasting Corporation has already come to an end here. One of those apartment owners was waiting for me in the doughnut, as it was once lovingly referred to by former staffers - his tangerine Porsche 356 parked in the circular plaza at the centre of the question mark-shaped landmark. It's rare that a shoot location could take my breath away quite like this, but as a television-addicted youth. it occupies a very special place in my heart.

In 1949, the head of the BBC, Norman Collins (a man who would later break the BBC's monopoly of the British airwaves by launching a competing - and commercially funded - station), commissioned a new building in the Shepherd's Bush district of London. At the time, it was expected to be the largest studio complex in the world, but when construction was finally completed in 1960, it exceeded all expectations two-fold.

Both the BBC and television itself had expanded so rapidly in the time of construction, that extra studio space was added ad hoc in the construction plan. Over twenty studios were built, ten of which were dedicated solely to BBC News broadcasts.

Inside the middle of the torus-shaped courtyard sits a shining gold statue of the Greek god of the sun, Helios. When it was installed for the building's opening, the intent was clear for all to see - this was the centre of the universe, as far as television was concerned.

The building itself is a mid-century masterpiece, inside and out - a testament to television's role as a cultural touchstone. Inside the middle of the torus-shaped courtyard sits a shining gold statue of the Greek god of the sun, Helios. When it was installed for the building's opening, the intent was clear for all to see - this was the centre of the universe, as far as television was concerned. And so began the age of BBC dominance, having a significant number of employees, a World Service which reached almost every country on the planet, and shows in global syndication.

The BBC continued to expand, and by the turn of the millennium, had outgrown its home of close-to half a century. Satellite and regional studios dotted the country, but the BBC's headquarters were full to the point of bursting. Now, it remains a relic to the golden age of broadcasting with listed historical status, and in the memory of the British population. In the announcement of the building's protected Grade Il English Heritage status, Barbara Follett, the UK's culture minister at the time remarked, "It has been a torture chamber for politicians, and an endless source of first-class entertainment for the nation - sometimes both at the same time.”