Glasgow's Kelvin Hall to get £11.9m TV studio

A new £11.9m TV studio in part of Glasgow's Kelvin Hall will be operated by a commercial arm of the BBC, it has been announced.

The aim is for the studio to become the Scottish hub for shows for the BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and Netflix.

Andrew Moultrie, from BBC Studioworks, said it would open next autumn and would be a "shiny floor studio".

This means it will typically house light entertainment, including comedy shows, game shows and quizzes.

The Kelvin Hall Film and Broadcast Studio Hub will be operated by BBC Studioworks - a commercial 'sister company' of the BBC.

It is hoped it will meet the growing demand for TV shows in Scotland and is expected to boost local jobs and support the development of a skilled workforce.

It will provide studios and post-production services to a range of broadcasters.

Mr Moultrie, the chief executive officer of BBC Studioworks, said that although it was created for a "shiny floor environment", it would be versatile and could be used for other genres.

Once completed, the space will be "vibrant" and "energetic" bringing back some of the energy Kelvin Hall used to have, Mr Moultrie said.

He added that the studio was designed with consideration for audiences at its core.

"Audiences and locals will be able to get access to the tickets to come and actually see the shows themselves as well, so they'll be part of the experience, part of the shows," he said.

The project received a £7.9m contribution from the Scottish Government and £4m from Glasgow City Council.

The screen sector is estimated to be worth up to £500m to Scotland each year, with 60% of that in Glasgow.

Council bosses hope the new studio will attract big-budget entertainment and drama productions but none have yet been announced.

Sean Connery had plans for one on the outskirts of Edinburgh. James Cosmo wanted to open one in the Highlands. Plans for a Scottish film studio date back to the 1930s, with every successive generation championing a new scheme.

And then, like buses, several studios came along at once.

Wardpark in Cumbernauld had been hosting the TV series Outlander since 2013. They're now on series 6 of the TV show, and the studio complex itself (once a warehouse) has been expanded and now acquired by an American film consortium for an undisclosed sum.

Similarly appealing was the studio complex beneath the Pyramids business park on the M8, also acquired in the last week by London and Regional who will develop it into a film and TV studio. Both Trainspotting and Good Omens have used the space recently.

The good news for the network of spaces, is that there seems to be plenty of work to go around. First Stage in Leith - partly run by Jason Connery - has barely been open a year but already they've hosted two Amazon programmes, the Rig and Anansi Boys.

The newest addition to the network, Kelvin Hall has already been used for the forthcoming STV/Channel 4 drama Screws, and the new operators BBC Studioworks (a commercial subsidiary of the BBC) will be looking to use that 10,500 square feet floor space for a variety of light entertainment programmes from autumn 2022.

The good news for all the studios is that despite the pandemic, film and TV production in Scotland is at a record high, although official figures won't be published until the new year.