Pinewood’s TV department, including studios where Taskmaster and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK are filmed, are to close next year.
The facilities includes three studios that can host audiences of more than 2,000 between them, plus technical support, a crewing service, HD galleries and TV post-production suites, and is set up for live broadcasts and streams.
While it has hosted light entertainment shows such as Would I Lie To You, Red Dwarf and The Weakest Link, Pinewood was hit hard in the recession and since 2021, only three productions are listed as having filmed there: Taskmaster - which is currently shooting its studio segments for series 19, due to air next spring - RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars.
It will honour bookings for 2024 and 2025 but is taking no new bookings and will close after those shows have wrapped.
Pinewood is now in consultation with all staff affected by the decision.
Pinewood’s 2024 accounts show a £5.1m drop in revenues for its Production Services arm, which includes the TV studios, despite the Pinewood Group as a whole making a £25m profit.
Pinewood’s other assets, including the film and HETV studios used by Disney and the Shepperton site that is home to Netflix and Prime Video productions, remain in operation.
