Carpenter Rd & PM from pebblemill on Vimeo.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Specially recorded video with film cameraman, John Williams, talking about BBC Birmingham programmes from Carpenter Road, and the move to Pebble Mill in 1971.
John Williams
Shooting on early film cameras from pebblemill on Vimeo.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Specially shot interview with film cameraman, John Williams, talking about working on early film cameras, e.g. Arriflex cameras, early zoom lenses, and blimps.
John Williams
Alastair Yates Midlands News 1978 from pebblemill on Vimeo.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
This clip courtesy of TV Ark, was recorded in 1978 in the Presentation studio (adjacent to the Midlands Today studio) as I was reading a bulletin into Midlands Today.
I joined the regional newsroom team in 1978, from BBC Radio Derby, and as well as my TV duties I also read the Midlands news on Radio 4 VHF.
Before long I was also invited to present the morning show on BBC Radio Birmingham (now WM). I left Pebble Mill in 1980 to join Selina Scott as co-anchor of North Tonight at Grampian TV in Scotland.
Doesn’t my voice sound plummy: I put that down to David Stevens, Head of Pres., who was trying to rid me of my Burton upon Trent accent. Seems to have paid off though as my career took me to SKY NEWS, where I was the first male presenter on air, then on to BBC NEWS CHANNEL and WORLD. I also joined Deutsche Welle World TV in Germany for a couple of years and am now at Classic FM news.
Alastair Yates
Women’s Television at BBC Pebble Mill from pebblemill on Vimeo.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Video interviews with Steph Silk, Caroline Officer and Mel Stanley, talking about women working in television, and making programmes for predominantly female audiences.
1″ VT demonstration from pebblemill on Vimeo.
Copyright Vanessa Jackson, no reproduction without permission.
Specially shot video of VT engineer, John Duckmanton, demonstrating how to operate a 1″ VT machine. The tape John uses is a Gardeners’ World, with Geoff Hamilton, from 1984.
Photo by Paul Vanezis
The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:
Keith Brook: ‘Editing on 2″ tape you were lucky to get 10 edits an hour. You cannot imagine how huge the edit rate increased once 1″ tape was introduced. The breakthrough was the ability to shuttle by hand and find your edit point visually.’