WCTC

[towerman]

I've noticed on other threads that some of the members had an aversion to going to the training centre at White City.Maybe it was different for the operating side,but I used to like going to White City as a trainee car examiner, 09:00 to 15:30,a nice relaxed atmosphere in class,and at lunch time a trip to one of the best LT canteens Shepherd's Bush Garage.There was also a great eat in chippy on the green.We only used the snack bar in WCTC first thing before class.Do older members remember the BBC using the conference room downstairs as a rehearsal room for Dr Who,saw William Hartnell a couole of times,by all accounts he was supposed to be a right miserable B.

[piccadillypilot]

towerman said:

Do older members remember the BBC using the conference room downstairs as a rehearsal room

I remember it being used, what programme they were working on I don't know.

for Dr Who,saw William Hartnell a couole of times,by all accounts he was supposed to be a right miserable B.

Not all of us are that old!! ;D

[Deleted]

Wasn't one of the disused Wood Lane platforms used for a scene in Doctor Who once? They'd be close to White City.

[citysig]

towerman said:

09:00 to 15:30,a nice relaxed atmosphere in class,and at lunch time...

And that's why you didn't mind it as much. My experience was more 08:50 to 16:45, not so relaxed (with big-headed patronising instructors) and lunch of exactly half an hour at the same time as all the other classes so all the shops or canteens were crowded.

I think a lot of my hate for the place comes from when I was an apprentice, and had to go there and learn stuff which I knew I would never want to know. Six weeks on a booking-office course. What for!

[q8]

Willaim Hartnell had good reason to be miserable as I think he had bad medical problems.

[redsam]

in a way, you are both right - heres a piece from his wikipedia article :

According to some he worked with on Doctor Who, he could be a tough person to work with. His poor health (arteriosclerosis, brought on by years of drinking) as well as poor relations with the new production team ultimately led him to leave Doctor Who in 1966. Some fan commentators now believe that reports of Hartnell's illness were subsequently exaggerated by his producers, Innes Lloyd and John Wiles, to justify a decision to sack the actor. Other sources suggest that it was a mutual decision between Hartnell and the production tem that he should leave the programme, although Hartnell in later life claimed he did not want to go.

Hartnell reprised the role in the 10th Anniversary story The Three Doctors (1973) with the help of cue cards but appeared only in pre-filmed inserts. Hartnell's health had grown progressively worse since leaving Doctor Who and in December 1974 he was admitted to hospital permanently. In early 1975 he suffered a series of strokes brought on by cerebrovascular disease and died in his sleep of heart failure on April 23, 1975.