Boris Johnson – more knowledgeable about TV production than broadcasters themselves 

19 September 2011 tbs.pm/1282

From the “Boris Johnson is clearly an expert on making television – better at it than even the BBC” file comes this rather farcical story….

Basically there was a plan that the EastEnders studios might move to the Olympic Park in Stratford in 2012. It’s fallen through and Boris isn’t happy. In the Evening Standard he accuses the BBC of being “bureaucratic, wasteful and out of touch” about not going through with the move which would, according to him, be better value for money.

Naturally the BBC aren’t taking this lying down with sources telling the Guardian that whilst it would have been great, the proposed move would have had a number of problems including that a 23 feet high wall around the sight would have got in the way of filming, that there were privacy concerns caused by the site being surrounded by housing and that the crew would lose up to 30% of their shooting time due to the proximity of London City airport. Oh and the studios would have cost more in rent as well.

But hey, clearly London’s Mayor knows best. After all, it’s quite obvious that a studio with higher rent costs and less time to film would be less wasteful. Much less wasteful indeed. After all Boris Johnson knows far more about television than anyone in broadcasting. One only needs to remind oneself of his cringe-worthy attempts at presenting Have I Got News For You to know that…