[DTV]

When the new Nottigham set debuted the other week, it was commented upon here that the set size would no way fit into the Birmingham or Hull studios and therefore dispelled the notion that all regions would be getting an identical size of new set.

But the new Birmingham set revealed yesterday looks to me to be the same size as the Nottingham one.

So, now I'm confused.

Either the EMT set is of a sufficiently small size it that would be able to fit into the Birmingham/Hull studios but somehow looks bigger than that (wide angle lenses? A perception trick resulting from the depth of the outdoor view shown on the LED walls?), or the MT one is smaller than the EMT one but somehow manages to not seem so. Black magic?

I think you're misremembering the discussion a bit - the discussion about studio sizes concluded that, while they might be making all the sets to Birmingham's template (at the smaller end of the scale, but reasonbaly proportioned), there were still some more extremely sized/shaped studios that would probably require a bit of bespokeness - at least Hull, Tunbridge Wells and Salford (you aren't getting a set that tall in TW or the Salford regional studio and I feel you might need a slightly differently proportioned set in Hull due to the narrow but long studio).

It would appear that the Nottingham and Birmingham sets are virtually identical, but, of course, the surrounding studio spaces and cameras aren't. Nottingham's studio is bigger so, depending on how they've oriented the set, it might be the case that the cameras can be set further back from the set - which naturally gives a more spacious feel. Plus, as you mention, it may be the case that the Nottingham studio is shot with wider angle and, of course, lighting can also have an effect on how big a space feels.