Stuart Gandy – Page 16 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Regional TV Presentation Studio – Peter Poole

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission. I took these photos in 2003. They show the self-opt presentation studio which was operated by the news reader. They could opt out of the network programme and switch all the Midlands transmitters to enable a regional news bulletin. With the increasing number of regional bulletins during the Breakfast programme a dedicated production gallery was installed. This freed the news reader from any equipment operation. The gallery enabled video reports to be played and was operated by the director. This area also housed the computer graphics equipment. This was used for the weather maps.

Peter Poole

Stuart Gandy adds the following information: ‘In 1991 there was a project to make the presentation studios in all the regions stereo and included a new self op desk that the presenters used in the studio itself. At Pebble Mill though it was decided to build a gallery for the pres studio as well, that could be used to direct the shorter bulletins from instead of using the main gallery, so needing less people. Hence this was built with a tiny budget. The far end of the gallery here was where the news paintbox was located that was used to produce at very short notice, the graphics for Midlands Today.’

Pete Simpkin remembers visiting the self opt desk: ‘I remember visiting the late David Stevens at work in the self op days and noticed he sat on phone directories as he was a little short to be correctly framed by the locked off camera.’

Mary Sanchez remembers working in the Regional news gallery, ‘ I remember gallery B very well- worked from there for years- vision mixing and directing Midlands Today and Midlands at Westminster etc … Many happy ( and lots of scary!) memories! Self opt desk at 6am – hilarious with carol , sheila and Mandy ….!!’

Roz Gower remembers, ‘the terrifying experience of directing and vision mixing Mids Today! Did the gallery really look that tatty? And the monitor stack looks positively Heath Robinson! But in spite of the gut wrenching nerves it was somehow all great fun.’

Telly Addicts Christmas Special

The photo includes left to right: Back Row, Pat Mifflin, Richard Lewis, Annette Martin, Noel Edmonds, Steve Pierson, John King; Front Row, Jennifer Hassall, Rajinder Ram, Tim Manning, Sue Williams, Denny Hodge (Comedy Workshops).

‘Telly Addicts’ was a BBC 1 Game Show produced at Pebble Mill, which ran between 1985 and 1998. Noel Edmonds was the host, who tested contestants on their knowledge of television shows. Alongside the regular series were a number of Christmas Specials. This photo was taken after the recording of one of these Christmas shows.

Stuart Gandy remembers the little gadget that engineering made for Noel, known as the hooferdoofer, that he used to indicate to the gallery with. Looked a bit like a TV remote with a few buttons on. Louis Robinson remembers borrowing the word ‘hooferdoofer’ to describe the remote, from his grandmother!

Thanks to Tim Manning for making the photo available.

Radio WM information card

The Radio WM information cards were distributed to promote the station, and make sure people knew the right frequencies to tune in to. The cards were given out around the time of the official relaunch of the station with its new name – BBC Radio WM, instead of Radio Birmingham (which took place on November 23rd 1981), and were designed to publicise the additional medium wave transmitter on 828 khz at Sedgley, aimed at improving the signal in Wolverhampton and across the Black Country.

‎”Five Star Listening” was the tag line for the station, it was used before the official name change as well. From late 1980 onwards when the name Radio Birmingham was played down and the station started to refer to itself wherever possible as “206”. There was a lengthy discussion going on between BBC Local Radio HQ in London and the management at Pebble Mill about what the new name for the station would be. John Pickles was determined that the re-vamping of the station wasn’t going to be delayed forever by internal debate, and so the 206 strategy (the MW frequency) was adopted.

Thanks to Stuart Gandy for making this card available, and to Tim Manning for providing all the information.

Steve Woodhall – Radio WM photocard

Steve Woodhall was the drive time presenter Radio WM at Pebble Mill in the 1980’s. You’ll see from his information card that he was also a keen gardener, organist and technical wizard – a man of many talents. Steve worked for BBC television news in London before moving to Radio WM. He later helped set up BBC CWR in Coventry.

Thanks to Stuart Gandy for making the photocard available.

Malcolm Stent – Radio WM Photocard

Malcolm presented on both Radio Birmingham and Radio WM, with ‘Folk Scene’ and ‘Malcolm Stent in the Barmaid’s Arms’. He was often accompanied by his guitar, and never relied on scripts or running orders! He was described on the BBC website as a ‘folk-singing humorist’.

Thanks to Stuart Gandy for making this Radio WM photocard available.

The following comments have been left by people who remember Malcolm’s show:

Lynn Cullimore: We were lucky enough to be able to pick up the Barmaid’s Arms from WM and do a TV version. I
did several series with Malcolm Stent. He is still working and often does things with the comedian Don Maclean who I have only recently met up with again, as I also worked with Don. John Clarke was the producer for Regional TV. Malc is great fun and a lovely person. I was the production assistant on barmaid’s arms for regional television and I loved it. The sets were fantastic – Mary Spencer was the designer and we had “customers” who had to have little tokens to get drinks as of course they were restricted! Malc and Rosie – yes her name was Mary Lloyd were brilliant. Oh happy days.

Andrew Langstone: Memories of ‘The Barmaid’s Arms’ with Malc and Rosie – those wonderful sound effects of a pub – clinking glasses and jolly background chatter. I think Rosie’s real name was Marie Lloyd [it was actually Mary Kendall]. The whole concept of a lunchtime in a pub with gentle banter and music ”from the juke box” was inspired – another of Mr Pickle’s ideas? It’s a pity BBC WM has such a different sound now – but that’s another story!

Tim Manning: The Barmaid’s Arms was a big success for Radio WM and for Malcolm, a daily chat show with its stereo pub sound effects in the background, and a cast of fictitious regulars (like Simon the Crisp Man). People used to turn up at Reception at the weekend asking for directions, and it’s one of very few local radio shows to have been turned into a regional opt-out TV series. All the music played was supposedly on the jukebox, although Rosie the barmaid did say she liked “those copulation albums”! Yes, it was very much a John Pickles concept. He once said to me that he thought of that WM schedule as being “a bit like a street”, starting the day over the breakfast table with news and the papers, followed by coffee with friends and neighbours (The 206 Team), popping into the pub at lunch time (Barmaid’s Arms), then a quiet time after that before picking up the kids from school, or coming home from work in the rush hour. One of his most inspired ideas was the “romance” between Stuart Roper and Viv Ellis, which was only ever really mentioned in other programmes, until the surreal and wonderful fake OB of the wedding on April Fool’s Day.

Pete Simpkin: Malc bless him is still at work in his favourite medium the stage and regularly writes produces and stars in the Solihull Arts Centre Annual Traditional family pantomime. I was honoured to help him with the technical side of his early days at Pebble mill where he presented Folk Club on Radio Birmingham. We also shared some stage talent shows which I produced at the Old Rep theatre and I produced his famous album ‘Malc Stent is not a working class Millionaire.’ After the tragic axing of the Barmaid’s he went onto be the ‘Warm up’ man for ‘PM at One’.

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