Peter Poole – Page 9 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Plan of Pebble Mill Basement – John Madin

Negative, Basement Plan, 1971. This digital resource is available under a Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, with kind permission of the Birmingham & Five Counties Architectural Association Trust, thanks to the Architectus project (part of the Jisc Content Programme 2011-13).

Plan of Pebble Mill’s basement from 1971, by architect John Madin.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group about the basement:

Stuart Gandy: ‘We had an engineering store room down there. It was right beneath studio A, and quite a trek to get to up some steps and down some others. It was quite an Aladdin’s cave of stuff that had been pensioned off never to be seen again. Every now and again attempts were made to sort it out and it was at it its best just before we moved out!’

Peter Poole: ‘The echo plate room was down there. Also two sub-stations to ensure mains power. If this failed batteries would give a limited supply until the generator started.’

Andrew Hewkin: ‘I went down, with permission, after most staff had left, to see if there was anything worth salvaging. There were literally thousands of sound effects discs, some 78s, many 7-inch. Enough to fill several skips, which is probably what happened.’

Diane Reid: ‘Used as a music location on more than one occasion’

Charles White: ‘it was always rumoured there was a nuclear bunker down there, and a shooting range, true or false ?’

Peter Poole: ‘I fully explored the basement and found no evidence of a nuclear bunker.’

Giles Herbert: ‘The range was not purpose built: It was the passage that ran under to corridor from the bottom of the goods lift by Studio A scene door and ended up near the steps up to the approach to the loading bay outside the security office.’

Dave Baumber in Dubbing Theatre

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

These photos of are dubbing mixer, Dave Baumber, taken around 1976. The top photo was taken in the room next to the mixer area, which housed the sepmag bays. The bottom photo was taken in the dubbing theatre. Dave mixed a myriad of programmes at Pebble Mill, both dramas and factual programmes. He was certainly one of Pebble Mill’s best dubbing mixers, and was frequently requested by producers and directors.

Dave moved up to Birmingham, from working at the BBC in London in the 1970s in the early days of Pebble Mill. He worked on many of the English Regions Drama department productions.

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

Victoria Trow: ‘Dave Baumber taught me to tracklay, which stood me in very good stead when I went to London. Thank you Dave.’

Peter Poole: ‘Film unit was a great place to work. Such lovely and fun people.’

Mark Heslop: ‘Many a night and long day sat in those rooms, especially during “Trainer”‘

Planning Department 1980

Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

Included in the photo are, left to right: Sue Robinson, Penny Brain, Bruce Martin.

This photo of the Planning Department at Pebble Mill dates from 1980, when Planning were on the 3rd floor. Sue Robinson went on to become a multicamera director on studio programmes like Pebble Mill at One. Bruce Martin was the manager of the department, which used to book studio, VT and outside broadcast crew. He always used to greet people with a ‘Hi, pal!’, whether you were male or female.

East

East was a topical factual magazine show about Asian affairs, with reports from Britain and abroad. It went out on BBC 2 between 1990 and 2002.

The series tended to go our weekly in the spring or summer, in runs varying between 6 and 10 episodes.

Thanks to VT editor, Ian Collins, for making this grab available.

The following comments were added on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Peter Poole: ‘I often worked on the Studio B recordings. The music sessions ranged from traditional to electro-pop. A very interesting and enjoyable experience.’

Matthew Sly: ‘I did Audience Security when it was Network East, always found it very enjoyable.’

Dawn Trotman: ‘It was experimental as an editor they pretty much let you do what inspired you. Oh I yearn for those days.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Yes, I worked in what was known as The Asian Unit. I enjoyed it and i remember we never went without food! I wonder what happened to Nahrendra.’

Signature Tunes – Midland Tonight, Juliet Bravo, The History Man

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing the following Pebble Mill signature tunes.

The first sig tune is for Midlands Tonight. This was a late night regional opt out, broadcast live from Studio B. The programme covered news and current affairs.

The second sig is for the hosted drama series Juliet Bravo.

The final sig is for The History Man, and includes various versions. The History Man was a four part adaptation of the Malcolm Bradbury novel, transmitted in 1981. Michael Wearing was the producer.

Juliet Bravo 1989, no reproduction without permission