Category: Factual

The Queen and Jim Dumighan

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Jim Dumighan showing the Queen around Pebble Mill in 1981.

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

Malcolm Hickman: ‘I remember it as Roy Thompson and I were on shift in the comms centre when security phoned to say they had a bomb warning. We scoured the area and found a bag under a table in the corner. We didn’t know who’s it was, so security removed it. Turned out one of our colleagues, who was not on shift, had all his cameras gear in the bag as he had been photographing the queen.’

Roy Thompson: ‘Thanks Malcolm for reminding me of that had totally forgotten it. How intrepid we were searching for the bag!!! Do you remember the other time the comms centre was “under attack”. We thought we were being shot at when a loud bang was heard and a chip mark appeared on the large toughened glass window facing the road. Turned out to be the gardener’s lawn mower throwing a stone in our direction from the front lawn. Happy days!!’

Chris Phipps on Radio WM

Hear  Chris Phipps  reminiscing about BBC Pebble Mill  in his new book on the Paul Franks Show on BBC WM. Friday  January  25, 2019  4-40 available on catch-up! Here is the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06xfhm7

Chris also appeared on Nigel Williams Show on Jazz FM January 12, 2019.

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Michael Fisher:
“Chris was my introduction to the Black Country around Dudley and Walsall. Interesting to hear him reminisce about Pebble Mill, the biggest BBC broadcasting centre outside London, capturing the Zeitgeist in music of the 70s and interviewing Black Sabbath 50 years on in Dublin after they first appeared at The Crown in Birmingham.”

Bros at Pebble Mill

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Here are some excerpts from an article published in the Birmingham Mail on 26th Jan 2019, following the screening of the BBC documentary about the band Bros, When the Screaming Stops:

“Teenage twins Luke and Matt Goss were less than a month short of turning 20 years old when they arrived at BBC Pebble Mill by helicopter.

They were adorned with their trademark slicked back hair, fake tans, selfie-style poses and some very 80s’ clothing – the perfect pop package.

Their mission? To switch on Radio 1’s new FM signal in the Midlands in front of hundreds of screaming fans…….

Luke and Matt Goss were joined by fellow band member Craig Logan when they arrived at BBC Pebble Mill on Thursday, September 1, 1988….

Hundreds of young, screaming girls besieged Pebble Mill were the group was paying a flying visit by helicopter to officially inaugurate the new service.

Behind the scenes, twins Matt and Luke Goss said they had performed the switch on simply because they had been invited.”

The whole article can be read here:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/bros-came-birmingham-fabulous-pictures-15692764

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

Laura McNeill: ‘Brilliant picture, I remember their visit and being in the foyer to do something with them but then my memory fails me.’

Gordon Astley: I had just interviewed them upstairs at WM.’

Keith Butler: I remember it well, we also had Kylie Minogue at the Mill within a few weeks of this. Virtually no one was outside for her……… who’s the bigger star now, lol.’

Jean Palmer: ‘I remember that day very well. I was having an interview for a prop buyer when all you could hear where screaming girls and them going over and over their song. I didn’t get that job it was a fix.’

Simon Tooley: ‘I remember that day… doing a hand held camera at the railings to film the screaming fans. Unfortunately, only about 3 fans showed up, which I had to make look like a crowd!’

Gary Hudson: ‘There is a sequence in the documentary which I think shows this visit. Either that or the Pebble Mill backdrop is a CGI alternative to the pyros (for those who’ve seen the doco).’

Pebble Mill Christmas Card

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Thanks to cameraman Robin Sunderland for sharing this Pebble Mill Christmas Card, which probably dates from the late 1970s, and to Annie Gumbley Williams for adding information.

The photograph was taken during a production of Saturday Night at the Mill.

Nick Owen on Inside Out

Here is a link to Inside Out from the Midlands including a piece presented by Nick Owen about local television/film industry, as it was & as it is now, plus going forward, despite Channel 4 not coming here. Nick is outside the new hospital at the Pebble Mill site talking about the ‘old’ days, the broadcasters, the independents and film makers, and showing various clips. He interviews Joe Godwin along with Roger Shannon, Steven Knight and Colette Foster, as well as some of my Media Production students at Birmingham City University – I’m also in it very briefly, blink and you’ll miss it! Worth a watch and here is a link to the iPlayer, only available for another 16 days The piece appears at about 10 minutes into the programme.