Photos – Page 239 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Mr Blobby – Ruth Kiosses

Photo from Ruth Kiosses, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows Ruth Kiosses in the Wardrobe Department with ‘Mr Blobby’. ‘Mr Blobby’ was a character who appeared regularly in Noel Edmond’s Saturday night show: ‘Noel’s House Party’ in the early 1990s. ‘Mr Blobby’ went on to release a hit single, and was a merchandising phenomenon.

I believe that ‘Mr Blobby’ was the idea of a sound man, who received very little recompense for it.

‘Mr Blobby’ was probably up in Birmingham as a guest on the Christmas special of ‘The Movie Game’, a BBC Children’s programme, which was a London series, hosted out of Pebble Mill in the early 1990s. (Thanks to Linda Hearn for this information.)

Ruth remembers that Mr Blobby visited the Wardrobe Department several times, arriving in a large box from TVC. This photo was taken in old Wardrobe in the basement below Studio A. Inside was head of Wardrobe Anne-Marie Palmer(now Morrell) what a great Boss!

‘Gardens by Design’ – photos by Gail Herbert

Photos by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

‘Gardens by Design’ was a garden design series presented by designer, David Stevens. It was recorded in the spring and summer of 1990, being transmitted January/ February 1991, in the Friday night ‘Gardeners’ World’ slot on BBC 2, whilst GW was on its winter break. Nick Patten produced and directed the series, Helen Faulkner, on attachment from Radio 3, was the assistant producer and Gail Herbert the production assistant.

The series concentrated on making the most of your outside room, including both front and back gardens.

Pebble Mill signage – photos by Philip Morgan

Photos by Philip Morgan, no reproduction without permission.

Philip took these photos in November 2004, once all the different departments had moved out of Pebble Mill, on one of the preview days before the auction selling off fixtures and pieces of equipment.

The various notices and signage give an insight into broadcasting practices of the time, and I wonder if Pebble Mill was the only BBC building with a croquet lawn!

Croquet lawn booking board

‘United’, a soap from Gosta Green – Dave Kirkwood

This photo from the 1960s, shows a group of technical operators ‘relaxing’ on the set
of another soap produced at Gosta Green. This was called ‘United’ and was about life in a fictional football club. It was a total flop and hardly mentioned in BBC drama history at all.

Gosta Green (Gosta Green was the BBC studio in Birmingham before the building of Pebble Mill) did a lot of drama, but also general work – Percy Thrower’s gardening programmes and music items for the fledgling immigrants’ programmes among them.

Dave Kirkwood

Refurbished Film Sound Transfer Suite – Peter Poole

Photos copyright Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

These photos from the early 1990s, show the Film Sound Transfer Suite which was a very busy area. Its main use was to transfer audio tapes to SEPMAG. The tapes were recorded on a Nagra tape recorder together with a pilot tone signal. This was needed to ensure that the audio was synchronous with the picture. At a latter time a DAT recorder with time code replaced the Nagra. The Transfer Suite also housed a collection of “Library Music”. These discs were produced for TV and radio programmes and not commercially available. They had interesting titles such as “Links Bridges and Stings”. A full collection of BBC sound effects were also available.

Peter Poole