The Fountain Studios is an independently owned television studio located in Wembley, north-west London, close to Wembley Park underground station. Originally film studios and then the base of London ITV stations Associated Rediffusion and later London Weekend Television the studios fell into disrepair when the latter vacated to new facilities in central London in the early 1970's. A number of independent companies owned the site until Fountain purchased the site in the early 1990's. A television studio is an installation in which television or video productions take place, either for live television, for recording live on tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for postproduction. ... Wembley is a place in the London Borough of Brent. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Wembley Park tube station is a London Underground station at Wembley. ... Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for London, on weekdays between 1954 (transmissions started on September 22, 1955) and July 29, 1968. ... London Weekend Television (LWT) was (and for legal formalities still is; see below) the ITV contractor for London and the South East, Friday 7:00pm (1968-1982)/5:15pm (1982-2002) to Monday, 5:59am. ...

The studio itself, at over 130 × 90 metric feet within the firelanes, is the largest single fully-equipped television studio in Britain, some 30% larger than Studio 1 at BBC Television Centre. Recent productions to have been made there include Pop Idol and The X Factor, and the London wedding storyline of Friends, as well as many sitcoms and audience shows, including The Kumars at No. 42. BBC Television Centre (sometimes abbreviated TVC or TC) in London is home to much of BBC television output and, since 1998, almost all of the corporations national TV and radio news output by BBC News. ... Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV1 on October 5, 2001; the show was a talent contest to find the best new young singer or pop idol in the United Kingdom. ... The X Factor is a British popular TV music talent show, broadcast on Saturdays on ITV1, with spin-off behind-the-scenes shows The Xtra Factor and The X Factor 24/7 screened on ITV2. ... Friends is a sitcom about a group of six friends living in New York City. ... The Kumars at No. ...

An unusual feature of the facility is a soundproof double door which can be lowered in 30 minutes to reconfigure the space into two separate studios, each with their own independent control facilities.

External links

• The Fountain Studios official site
• The Production Guide profile
• Wembley Studios an unofficial history