If you mention the early days of UK babeshows, most people will immediately say Babestation. And fair enough. It was one of the big names of the late-night TV boom in the early 2000s. Satellite TV was absolutely everywhere, people were staying up far too late, and suddenly you could pick up the phone and actually talk to the woman you were watching on screen. But Babestation wasn’t the only babe show making a name for itself. There was another one. Babecast.
And here’s the bit that a lot of people probably don’t know…For a while, Babecast and Babestation were actually being filmed in the same building. Yep. Same building. Welcome to Great Portland Street.
The Great Portland Street Secret
Babecast launched in 2003, right in the middle of that slightly bonkers period when late-night phone-in television was absolutely booming. And while viewers at home probably assumed Babecast and Babestation were completely separate worlds, behind the scenes they were practically neighbours.
Babestation was based on the second floor of a building on Great Portland Street in London. Babecast was upstairs on the top floor. So while you were sitting at home watching one channel, the other one was literally being filmed a couple of floors away. It sounds ridiculous now, but at the time it was just part of the mad world of babe channels. Different production teams. Different girls. Different shows. But the same building. And, naturally, each one developed its own little personality.
Glamour Girls vs The Girl Next Door
Babecast had strong links with the Daily Sport, with publisher David Sullivan involved in producing the show. That meant there was a pretty obvious connection with the glamour modelling world, and Babecast had plenty of girls who were already familiar faces from Page 3, magazines and the tabloids. It had a definite glamour-model feel. Babestation was a little different.
It became known for girls who felt more like the girl next door – chatty, cheeky, approachable and, importantly, able to have a laugh with the bloke on the other end of the phone. And let’s be honest, that was a big part of the appeal. It wasn’t just about watching someone pretty on a screen. You could actually pick up the phone and have a conversation with her. For the early 2000s, that felt pretty bloody futuristic.
What Was It Actually Like Behind the Cameras?
People have all sorts of ideas about what it was like working in those studios. And yes, there were plenty of women in tiny outfits sitting around talking to men on the phone in the middle of the night. But apparently the atmosphere wasn’t nearly as dramatic as you might imagine. One former presenter recalled earning around £8,000 a month at just 21, despite only working two weeks out of every four. Not exactly a bad little job.
She also described the studio as having a party atmosphere and said she didn’t experience the sort of bitchiness you might expect between a group of women working together. In fact, she compared it favourably to some of her previous admin jobs. Which, let’s face it, says quite a lot. The early babe channels were still something of an experiment. Nobody really knew how big the whole thing was going to become, and the studios often had a much more relaxed, late-night-TV feel than people might imagine. It was a very different world.
The Babecast Babes
Over the years, Babecast had a whole host of familiar faces, including: Sky, Sammi Rhodes, Camilla, Kandi Kay, Dionne Mendez, Jennifer Keelings, Morgan, Denni Tayla, Donna Duke, Sahara Shakur, Jemma Jey, Talulah Thomas and Vikki Valentine.
And interestingly, several of those names would later pop up on Babestation too. Which isn’t really surprising when you remember they were all working under the same roof. Imagine being one of the girls walking through that building. Babecast upstairs. Babestation downstairs. Girls coming and going. Studios running late into the night. And probably a fair amount of gossip happening in the corridors. I wish those walls could talk.
A Very Different Kind of Television
It’s easy to look back at the early babeshows now and think they were simply a bit of late-night TV with pretty girls. But they were actually doing something quite different. They gave viewers direct access to the person on screen.
You could call. You could talk. You could request things like get your cock rated by a live babe. You could become a regular caller and get to know your favourite live cam girl. That personal interaction was a huge part of what made the shows work and it’s something that has carried right through into today’s world of cams, livestreams and creator platforms. In fact, when you look at what Babestation has become now, you can see just how far ahead of its time that original idea actually was.
Babecast Upstairs. Babestation Downstairs.
Looking back, one of the strangest and most brilliant things about that era is knowing that two of the UK’s best-known babe channels were being made in the same building.
Babecast upstairs. Babestation downstairs. Most people watching at home had absolutely no idea. They were simply flicking through the satellite channels after midnight, stopping when they found a familiar face they fancied chatting to and deciding whether they were brave, or drunk enough to pick up the phone.
Meanwhile, in a building on Great Portland Street, two completely different babe shows were being made just a couple of floors apart. It was the beginning of something much bigger. Before social media. Before Instagram. Before TikTok. Before livestreaming and Onlyfans. There were just the girls, the cameras, the phone lines and a whole load of blokes staying up way past their bedtime. And honestly? What a time to be alive.
That old-school babeshow spirit is still very much alive at Babestation. The technology might have changed, but the girls, the banter and that unmistakable live connection are still at the heart of it. The more things change, the more you realise some things are worth keeping.
But the old-school days don’t mean Babestation has stood still. New babes are joining all the time, bringing their own personalities, styles and reasons to tune in. So if you’re feeling nostalgic for the old days, or just fancy discovering who’s hot on the lives right now, explore the latest Babestation babes and see who catches your eye.