BBC Television Centre CBBC Tour – 6th December 2007   by Megan Claridge aged 11

When we went to the BBC Television Centre, we saw lots of famous things.  The first thing we saw was the van from a T.V. programme called ‘Prank Patrol’.  It wasn’t very big, but it stood out because it was so colourful.  Everybody who knew it wanted their picture taken in front of it.  When everybody had finished taking photos, a tour guide led us to a small room.  On the way we passed all different props from films.  We saw a fake heart from an operation, helmets of baddies from Doctor Who and T-shirts that Tracey Beaker wears in her films.  When we got into the small room, two of my friends were to make a Newsround speech as if they were on Newsround.  We all got to look at the Newsround website and say what we thought about it, and what should be changed about it.  Then, half of the children went with the one tour guide, and the rest of us stayed with a different tour guide and did a quiz.

Next, we all went into a dressing room.  If you are famous, you are allowed to have whatever you want whilst you stay there. Elton John asked for some ginger biscuits; somebody even asked for some puppies before they went on stage!  There was even one lady who said the dressing room wasn’t big enough for her.  When staff did find the right sized room, she wanted it redecorated!  She was only in there for 40 minutes!

Then we went outside and saw the T.M.I. (Too Much Information) garden.  When filming out there, there are two doors in the background.  These are not the real doors to the T.M.I. studio.  The real doors are to the right.  The garden is also the Blue Peter garden.

We went back inside and saw the Strictly Come Dancing studio.  On television the dance floor is big.  When you look at it in real life it is small because you are looking at it from above, but really it is half the size of a football pitch!  Next we played a game of ‘true or false’ about a television programme called Raven.  A man from the programme told us what to do.  When we had played the game, we went to the next room along where we played with Dick and Dom’s puppets.

When I had said good-bye to my friends, a man came up to me and asked if I would mind reading out some lines into a microphone.  When I had done it, the man said that I would be on the six o’clock news.  I was!  I was on the news reading out lines about children going on to websites that they weren’t meant to go on.

I hope I go again!