Pebble Mill at One – Sea King, blog by Keith Brook

Keith Brook (Scouse), preparing to record in the Sea King helicopter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture was taken in 1979 by the Navy when we covered a parachute drop for Pebble Mill at One, what else.

I may look cool, calm and collected but I was actually shitting bricks. It wasn’t helped by a very tight throat mike that made me want to up-chuck, or ‘burst’ in Navy parlance. It was only my social responsibility of not wanting to return some of the licence fee to the good people of Selly Oak in the form of fragments of canteen breakfast that held me back.

I needn’t have worried because these guys were among the heroes that saved so many lives in the Fastnet Race disaster of that year. Their stories were incredible and a wonderful example of teamwork. Funnily enough, on the Fastnet rescue, the man who did the ‘least’ work was the pilot. His job was to keep the helicopter in the same orientation and to take orders from the other two crew members. The co-pilot called the waves so the plane would rise and fall with the swell. The winchman then asked for up or down feet and the pilot did the sums to keep the poor man in the same place in space, usually on the deck of a boat. Amazing.

The pilot asked me what I wanted to do when the parachutists came out of the Wessex we were tracking. My well thought out idea was that the sun was very fetching and we’d have a great shot if we could descend with them, keeping them in silhouette. He suggested a rehearsal and promptly dropped the Sea King out of the sky. ‘Excuse me, old chap, but what was that about’, or slightly similar words, came ‘frog like’ from my stupid mike. Obviously, they drop like stones before opening their ‘chutes, so we’d have to do the same. That idea was quickly abandoned to be replaced by a shot looking up at the Wessex and the kamakasi crew dropping ‘through’ the sun. Nice.

The Navy were brilliant and the pilot did everything I asked as the parachutists dropped onto the front lawn. Well, most of them did. Some landed in the trees, which was embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as the poor man who, having wrapped up his parachute, had to walk from Cannon Hill Park, find his way across the Pershore Road and make a dignified entrance to the building as best he could.

Before we landed, I wanted to do a shot of the ‘The Mill’ that was a little different and, after describing it to the pilot, we had a go. It was rubbish, mainly because we were at 2000ft and he did it head-on, forgetting that I was poking out the side and couldn’t see anything apart from my house in the distance.

He announced that we only have five minutes of flying time, and should land. I croaked that we need to do this shot again, sideways, at zero feet, very fast and NOW.

So, off we went beyond the Bristol Road, turned, and came bombing in sideways just above the trees. Halfway down Pebble Mill road the pilot calmly asked ‘What next?’ I shouted ‘Stand by to turn right and hover’.

By the time I’d finished the sentence we were there, so I screamed ‘Turn, turn, turn’, which he did on full lock. This meant the Sea King was on its side, I was dangling, face down, from my safety cable and the camera was looking up through the blades, but we got the shot and it was used in the titles for months.

I should also add that, after we landed behind the new club building, we still weren’t finished and I had to run to the front lawn while the Sea King popped over to the rear car park to pick up the parachutists for one more shot. As I ran from the club grounds, director screaming down my ear, Ikegami on shoulder with large BBC sticker, onto Pebble Mill Road, turning left onto the front lawn, I was stopped by security who wanted to see my ID!! I’m sorry to say that I used a bad phrase that obviously upset the sensitive nature of that particular uniform wearing zealot and he reported me to his boss.

So, as I was sitting on the pavement, in front of Studio A, camera in lap, taking a ‘moment’ after the tribulations of the morning, I was tapped on the shoulder by none other than head of security. He was a little upset at my suggestion of remote intercourse to one of his staff and was going to report me to Sidey. I told him to arrange a meeting at 3:30 because I was going to the bar. Suitably tanked up, I staggered into Sidey’s office and gave my version of the story. HoS was duly told to perform the same distant relationship and, after a Sidey sized gin and tonic, I managed to find my way back to the club for more incredible rescue stories.

Keith Brook

The following comments were posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Pete Simpkin: ‘Absolutely cracking story! Well done and well told Keith. Phil Sidey, now there’s a name to conjure with!’

Keith Brook: ‘Thanks Pete. Yes, Sidey had a lot to answer for, making us have so much fun.’

Mike Skipper: ‘Wonderful story !! Looks like the camera you were using was an Ikegami HL-79D (I can just about remember those being used back in the 1980s at Television Centre).

Your story about Security certainly rang a bell – even at TV Centre you can sometimes take ‘pot luck’ with whoever happens to be on the gate when you need to get through. I can recall Jim Davidson referring to some of the more “jobsworth” types as belonging to the Zaire Border Patrol, back in the days when we were recording Big Break…’

Keith Brook: ‘Thanks for the comment Mike. In fact it was a 79A. We had set up a single camera unit way before TC and Acton and because it operated out of a car, it was easy to shove into a helicopter. The fun we had in the early single camera days might be the subject of another missive!!’

2nd Floor Bar – photos by Peter Poole

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

The photos show the bar on the 2nd floor of Pebble Mill, before it was moved to the new Club building in the mid 1980s. The 2nd floor bar proved to be a creative melting pot, where staff from all departments mingled after recordings, at lunch time and at the end of the day.

The photos include Liz Nicholls, Martin Harris, Sharon Pemberton, John Allen, Gail Herbert and Geoff Watts.

Please add a comment if you can identify any others.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Maggie Humphries: ‘Peter Skinner from Finance and Geoff Watts another couple of names’.

Janet Collins:  ‘I think it’s Sue Brown in a couple of photos’.

Susan Astle: ‘Definitely Sam from makeup -is she standing next to Graham Pettifer from the scene crew? From Susie Bankers’

Brian Johnson: ‘In one of the group photos , first from left, Alex who I think was Bar Manager for a time before leaving with Sarah (standing next to him) , to run a pub somewhere in Worcs I think. In front of them (seated) Colin from security who I believe sadly took his own life in the late 70s when he was still working in P Mill Security.’

Gail Herbert: ‘The tall guy in the group picture is Jeremy Pallant, producer of Farming, etc and I think Sue Williams in in the 3rd photo.’

Children in Need Staff List




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder.

The document is a staff list from the 1999 regional opt team for the Children in Need evening show.

Note that the presenters included Michael Ball, alongside Midlands Today presenters: Nick Owen and Nina Nannar.

Thanks to Harvey Pope for making the list available.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Matthew Sly: ‘I was Pudsey Bear that year, we did the majority of it from Nat West in the Town Centre.
I was approached to be Pudsey when I worked in the Post room, and obviously was honoured, I remember that night very well indeed.

I remember how torturous the suit was, it had a fan in the head, but you couldn’t use it. I remember meeting a lot of Children while they were Auditioning for a Martine McCutcheon Video and almost passing out near the end.

I also remember H, Pete, Matt Wall and Matt Evans laughing their heads off when I first put the thing on:)’

Marie Phillips: ‘Matthew – whilst I was Co-ordinator we had strictest instructions that the suit should not be worn for more than twenty minutes at a time – a ten minute break with the head off and so on. You were lucky you didn’t suffer any ill effects. My long serving Pudsey was Charlotte Mayberry (spelling?) who did a brilliant job.’

Matthew Sly: ‘Very true Marie, I was also given the same instructions I must admit, I think I was just a bit of a wimp, the ladies that looked after me were absolutely lovely, to my shame I can’t remember their names anymore.

They also sent me a lovely letter after the night and I’ve also lost that, such a shame, it would have been my pride and joy.’

David Ackrill: ‘A friend of mine (Giles Herbert) who was an Engineer at Pebble Mill helped to organize the CiN special event station using the BBC Amateur Radio Club station located in the Pebble Mill building one year and I have a “QSL” card for a CW (Morse code) contact with the station on 144MHz somewhere in my files.’

Radio WM Self-Opt News Studio – Pete Simpkin

Rear of Pebble Mill, showing the 2nd floor bar balcony
Photo by Tim Savage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recent entries about the old second floor Club at Pebble Mill reminded me that when Radio WM took over the bar area for it’s new Newsroom a self operate news studio was incorporated, a first for us.  Advantage was taken of the, then, new technology which enabled news inserts to be played in by the newsreaders themselves from audio cartridges.  These were prepared by the bulletins editor and handed with the scripts to whoever was presenting.  The increased speed of production and the consequent later deadlines for inserts meant that inevitably there would be a disaster and it was my luck to be the duty reader to delight the listening thousands with it!

Having read the headlines I introduced the first recorded item and fired off the cart only to discover it had been mislabeled and so bore no relationship to the intro. script. After apologizing I went into the next introduction only to find the second cart too had been mislabeled. Having to do something I tried the third one which turned out to be the first story but set halfway through. At this stage I shut the microphone off and intercommed the editor to come in and collect this wrecked pile of scripts and carts and very kindy sort them out……or words to that effect.

He never returned.  To keep the bulletin running I embarked on a reading of the other stories which were in the form of an endless teleprint of national stories subbed in London and sent out by teleprinter, ready to be read at sight. With an ever widening eye of disbelief I saw ahead a row of letters ZCZCZCZC approaching which in teleprint means ‘end of message’, unfortunately this was halfway through a story. Luckily I had read this one in an earlier bulletin so was able to conclude it from memory.

Having only done 5 minutes of a 12 minute bulletin I was left with no alternative but to hand over to the next programme of which the presenter was already in the studio and able to rescue yours truly. Still nothing like that could happen today in this wonder-tech age. Could it.

Pete Simpkin

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Andy Walters: ‘We were still on carts in 2001. Cart recorders don’t have erase heads. Some readers had a habit of erasing them in a Weircliffe eraser used for tapes and then stacked the erased carts on top of the machine. This would give a lovely swooshing effect to subsequent recordings. Then there was the cardinal sin of erasing carts with the hand that your watch was on.’

8 Years since Radio WM left Pebble Mill

Pebble Mill just before WM signed off from the building. From Andy Walters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a Facebook conversation commemorating the departure of Radio WM from the Pebble Mill building, eight years ago.

Andy Walters: Happy 8th Anniversary of BBC WMs first broadcast from The Mailbox. Has it really been that long since we left Pebble Mill?

Brian Christopher Winter: I remember back in 2000 and 2001 about all the talk of the proposed move out of Pebble Mill. Time has flown by.

Andy Walters: I was told on my first day of work there in 2001 that they were looking at an imminent move which it turns out was over three years away. We were talking about Pebble Mill over the weekend. You couldn’t believe these days that WM had a smoking room opposite the studios at the mill! Other defunct things like a Gram Library with shelves piled high. Lines of tape machines and cart triple stacks and the lovely old BBC Designs Dept. Mk 3 desks.’

Nik Andrews: ‘I wonder if in years to come some young BBC engineer will be lamenting over the current systems used.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Andy re the smoking at PM, just after the no smokng ban was introduced at the Mill I was the Afternoon Presenter on duty when I had to interview live a certain Peer of the Realm, as he sat down in the studio he took out a ciggy and was preparing to light it when I pointed out the new No smoking sign, he looked at me wih a ‘yes but that doesn’t mean ME does it’ and I was just about to send for managerial reinforcements when the on air disk ran out and I had to do the interview without the pre-chat. He was most unco-operative with his answers and at the end as I started to say ‘Thank you for coming in…’ he was already out of the door and runing down the corridor!’

Andy Walters: ‘I think something similar happened (and this was in the early 2000’s) with Julie Goodyear who couldn’t bear to be without a ciggy for more than a few minutes. Did nothing for Ed’s respiratory problems either.’