IN COUNTRY HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 105, 31 October 1939, Page 8

IN COUNTRY HOME

8.8.C. STUDIOS

SECRET AND WELL GUARDED

Writing from a mythical "Hogsnorton," in the West of England, a correspondent of the London "NewsChronicle" says:—

"Hogsnorton" sounds more appropriate than "Somewhere in England" and as I am the first radio correspondent to visit the place I must be careful not to reveal secrets. What a place this Georgian mansion is—and how marvellously the 8.8.C. have converted it into Britain's secret radio .centre!

I approached it through a thick wood and was stopped by watchmen at a gate in the barbed wire fencing. All must show a pass. Any attempt to slip through unseen is discouraged by patrolmen—and by Paddy, the fiercest watchdog I have ever seen. His growls and gnashing teeth boded ill for any sabotager. I gave him a wide berth."

Once inside, I found a self-contained broadcasting community of 400 men and women. Six excellent studios have been constructed in the old country house and grounds. True, one of the studios built in a stable has a very uh-8.8.C. smell, but the engineers declare that it has almost perfect acoustics.

The chief departments here are drama and features, music productions, schools, and light music. But I must not forget the stationery department in the pigeon loft, the restaurant in the abattoir, accounts in the ballroorh, or those Important People, cheque writers, in the servants' quarters. Important, too, during the wasp and mosquito season are Matron and her trained nurse.

As for the staff and the special wartime repertory company of 35, who are thrown together here apparently for the duration of the war, I can only say that they are working at high pressure and seem as happy a family as they were in the old days of Savoy Two hundred of them cycle to and from, their billets each day. Wild life in this rural 8.8.C. centre introduces a new element in broadcasting. Bats at black-out time wing their way uncannily through the corridors of the ancient building and may produce an unrehearsed feminine shriek in the studio. Outside there are snakes, barking foxes, and hooting owls to add cheer to the neighbourhood.