Building – Page 109 – 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.’

VT – photos by Jim Gregory

Nigel Evans & Ivor Williams in VTB

Brain Watkiss in VT A

Dave Schoolden in PSC A

Photos by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

These photos probably date from the late 1980s, judging by the 1″ tape editing machines, and labels for U-matic and D2 formats in the PSC A photo.

They show several areas of the VT editing department at Pebble Mill. Programmes recorded in the Pebble Mill studios would be edited in the VT editing suites, and programmes recorded on film or PSC formats, would be finished and onlined in the VT suites.

Pebble Mill – TK

The photo shows Jim Gregory and Dave Schoolden in Pebble Mill’s TK area in 1976.

TK was also known as Telecine, and was the technical area where film was transferred to video.

Memories of working at the BBC – Dave Kirkwood

Dave Kirkwood

I joined the BBC in 1965 and trained as a ‘technical operator’. In the
regions, TOs were expected to work in both TV and Radio. Normal jobs for a
TO were operating cameras and sound equipment in TV studios and sound
recording suites for radio as well as the sound control room. Radio Studios
were the province of a different breed called ‘studio managers’. These were,
in the main, graduates whereas the majority of the TOs were recruited from
schools after A Levels.
I spent most of my time working on camera crews in Gosta Green and Broad
Street. As a trainee I was only allowed to operate a camera in Broad Street
and for simpler programmes at Gosta Green, but I often drove the ‘Heron’
camera crane used on most of the dramas at Gosta Green. By 1968 it was becoming clear
that the TO role was a bit of a ‘dead end’ and that those senior to me were
not much older, so I was encouraged to look for other opportunities. I was
keen to explore production and broadcasting rather than engineering (TOs
were very much ‘engineers’ in the eyes of personnel). Local radio was just
starting, so I managed to transfer into that as a station assistant and
(after just two years) was promoted to producer. I stayed in local radio
until I left the BBC in 1996 from the post of ‘Senior Broadcast Journalist’.
Along the way I had spells as a Continuity Announcer at TV Centre and as a
trainer at the Local Radio Training Unit.

Dave Kirkwood

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!