Tag: Alan Towers

Midlands Today – TV Ark link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to ‘TV Ark’, a site which includes short clips from a number of ‘Midlands Today’ episodes.  Clips include the first Midlands Today from 1971, as well as excerpts from presenters David Stevens, Alan Towers, Kathy Rochford, Nick Owen, Sue Beardsmore, Kay Alexander, Brian Conway, David Davies, Bernadette Kearney, Andy Knowles, Richard Uridge, Lawrence Lee, Michael Collie, Stuart Linnell and Suzanne Virdee.  The last ‘Midlands Today’ to be broadcast from Pebble Mill is also included.

http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_midlands/news.html

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

Jane Ward: ‘I vision-mixed that last 6.30 prog….an honour to do it, but very emotional….’

Stuart Gandy: ‘If you spend a few minutes looking at TV ark, you will find quite a lot from pebble Mill. After all we did make a lot of programmes there, probably more than the average viewer realised’

Ewan Kiel: ‘That is great. I probably spent far longer than I should have done on Midlands Today … but looking back, it was really fun and hey, it was where I met my wife – and now I list people people who were – to me – cool: Kay, Brian, Darren, Fiona Barton, Richard (Uridge), Steve (Lee), Pete Lowe, Patrick (thank you, Patrick), Cathy, Martin Dowell, David Davies, Fiona (again), Steph, Pam, Gary (yes, Hudson), Will Trotter, Mike Johnston, Paul Freeman, Ian (Pedersen – very cool man), John Carney, Kathy Rochford (always had a crush), Liz (camera diary – huge crush… huge), Harvinder ( coolest guy in the office), Fiona ( the memory won ‘t go away), Barbara Steele (were the rumours true?), Darren (again coz he is my abiding friend from that time, and I honestly love him … although nothing gay has happened yet!), Jane Green (aaah), Julie (Etchingham … didn’t she do well), Pete Wilson (cool), John McLeod (very, very cool), Peter Poole (loved him), Howard (HOWARD!!?), Sue Beardsmore (especially in that button up the front grey dress), Nick Patten (and his tendency to direct standing up), Merrick Simmonds, Mel and her stockings, Lindsay, Ian Bellion (and his gorgeous sideburns) …and christ, I spent too long there.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘yep, worked on that….gallery flush as we called it always evident as things went wrong and you had to be on your toes! Dear david stevens too – dont think he is any longer with us. kay alexander too – she is lovely. oh many many names….oh yes geoffrey green – i loved him and he was so funny. Wonder if he is with us still?’

Peter Poole: ‘I will never forget Alan Towers resigning on air and his comments about BBC management. What a great presenter.’

BBC Radio Birmingham – Blog by Nick Owen

I first worked at Pebble Mill in 1973 after I landed a job as a news producer on BBC Radio Birmingham, the forerunner of BBC WM.  It was a case of third time lucky getting into the BBC, having failed twice in the previous months to get a job in the Midlands Today newsroom. I arrived from The Birmingham Post and was overwhelmed with all the technology! I was always hopeless with anything mechanical, so learning to work a tape recorder was terrifying, but I got the hang of it in the end and became pretty adept at editing too, with razor blades and tape etc! I was told I had a fairly boring voice so I had to work on my intonation, to try to sound a bit more interested, but I really felt I had found my vocation. In fact, I loved it.  It wasn’t long before I read my first live bulletin – I was introduced on air by a young disc jockey called Les Ross, but I have no idea what happened to him!

Ultimately, I became Sports Producer, following my friend Jim Rosenthal, and that took me all over the country and Europe following the fortunes of our football teams.  Up the corridor, of course, was the Midlands Today newsroom with such luminaries as Tom Coyne, Alan Towers, Geoffrey Green and Tony Francis ( whom I’d trained with long before I came to Birmingham). I remember one day Tom Coyne said hello to me in the gents and I was so thrilled I nearly had an accident.

I left in 1978 to join ATV but returned to Pebble Mill to present Good Morning with Anne and Nick in 1992. More about that some other time, but I have to say thanks to the BBC at Pebble Mill for giving me my first chance in television back in August 1977.  They were doing a regional opt to herald the start of the football season, but Tony Francis, who would normally have been expected to front it, was away on holiday so they were clearly desperate and asked me!  I co-hosted it with Peter Windows, then a familiar face on continuity, and our studio guest was someone who became a great friend Larry Canning, the former Aston Villa player, then well known as a reporter for Sport on Two. The show was produced by another long standing friend, Rob Kirk, now at Sky News.

Some very happy days!

Nick Owen


Midlands Today 25th Anniversary – Peter Poole

Photo from Peter Poole, copyright resides with the original photographer, no reproduction without permission.

This photo was taken after the 25th Anniversary edition of Midlands Today.  Included in the photo are Darren New, Brian Conway, Jane Patterson in red, Peter Poole, Ann Banks, David Davies, Sue beardsmore, Alan Towers, Howard dartnall, Lynda Maher, Nick Johnson (soundman) a very young Chris Nelson, and Jonathan Dick.  

Thanks to those who helped with identifying people!