Factual – Page 8 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Steve Weddle remembered by Steph Silk

Marian Foster with Steve Weddle

Today [8th April 2020] is Steve Weddle’s funeral and from a distance I mourn the shocking devastating loss of a lifetime friend. In 1976 we were both new researchers, desk to desk in the hairy scary Dobson days of PM@1. All the producers and directors were male and all the researchers except Steve were female – that’s what it was like in those days. Never macho, Steve quickly became one of the girls to the extent that his name was on the office PMT wall-chart.

First and foremost, Steve was fun. He was of course talented and creative, wacky and wonderful and super sociable but he also had great empathy and kindness and was friends with one and all. He gave my daughter her TV break and passed on his Spurs programmes to my grandson.

Recently we had two lovely holidays at the Exotic Marigold Hotel in Menorca. Steve, a great holiday companion, suggested that we should travel as Hinge and Bracket.

Post Beeb we met up every month with our fellow Sagalouts to wine and dine down Memory Lane. In January we celebrated his 70th birthday. In February Steve talked about his latest book, not an autobiography exactly but drawing on his life in television.
That would have been a good read.

Stephanie Silk

On the House production team

Photo from Susi Lightfoot, no reproduction without permission

Here is the original On The House production team, circa 1987. Included left to right are: Stephen Lockwood, Andy Meikle, Steph Silk, Bob Davies, Susi Lightfoot, Carol Sparrow & Jayne Owen. It looks like it was taken in the On The House, House, in the back garden of Pebble Mill.

Thanks to Susi Lightfoot for sharing the photo.

Steve Weddle by John Williams

Daytime Live special 1990, ‘My Name is Jane’, audience photo. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

The whole country is in a state of shock, but shock associated with the sudden loss of losing someone close concentrates the mind wonderfully and I recognise all the comments that have poured out on Facebook regarding Steve Weddle’s death. They do tick all the boxes. This is what happened to me when our son had a stroke and ended up in Worcester hospital fighting for his life. As a therapy I used the time to write, “Shoot First No Ordinary life,” the story of my BBC career at Pebble Mill which many of you have read.

What a character Steve was and yes taken far too young, for he had much more to offer this life. There were things about him I could never get my head round, like rushing off to London with only the flimsiest of reasons to find time with Hot Spurs or some name like that. There were his books of course, and BBC pensioners meeting every month will certainly not be the same without him, especially as he always dominated the Raffle presentations. But there was much more to this larger than life character than meets the eye, especially for me personally.

As editor of Daytime Live behind all the facade and bonhomie was someone who was deep, showed great courage in his work, often moving where many ‘feared to tread’, even prepared to gamble. Continue reading →

Bish Mehay, thoughts from Waseem Mahmood

(Asian Unit producers: Yosuf Aziz, Waseem Mahmood, Krishan Gould and Bish Mehay. Seated is Ashok Rampal, the executive producer.)

“It is with great sadness that I learn of the passing of my old colleague, Bish Mehay. I shared an office with him for six years and learnt so much from him. It is a sobering thought that of the original producers of the BBC Asian Programmes Unit in this picture, only I remain. It is a shame that the pioneering work that these men did for Asian broadcasting in UK in the 70’s and 80’s has been largely overlooked and lost in the annals of history. The contribution of Ashok Rampal, Krishen Gould, Yosuf Aziz and Bish Mehay has to be recognised and acknowledged. The programmes we made Asian Magazine on BBC1, Gharbar on BBC 2 and Make Yourself at Home on Radio 4 were a staple part of life for the majority of Asians at that time. It is these men who laid the foundations and opened the doors for all of us in the media today.”

Waseem Mahmood

Pebble Mill at One team

Included in this photo of the Pebble Mill at One team are: John Smith, Peter Seabrook, Judy Hill, Clara Hewitt, Chris Wright, Angela Lee, Margaret Walne, Steve N Weddle, Dave Williams, Jane Clement, Clare Stride, Richard Pearson, Fran Groves, Pat Holmes, Trudy Stanton, Tony Wolfe, Pam Creed, Jim Dumighan, Marian Foster, Peter Hercombe, Jane Mclean, Jonathan Fulford, Mary Clyne, Annie Morris, Ellie Lacey, Tony Rayner.

The occasion was Lis Walker’s leaving do.

Thanks to Jane Mclean for sharing the photo.