Pebble Mill Studios
Encyclopedia
The BBC 's Pebble Mill Studios were located in Edgbaston
, a suburb of Birmingham
, England
. The views from the roof overlooked Cannon Hill Park
, a nature centre, as well as Birmingham's city centre. Pebble Mill became a prominent landmark in the Edgbaston area and contained offices, television studios, radio studios, two canteens, a post office and a garden.
and its associated region BBC Midlands were based in offices and a small studio in Broad Street, Birmingham. However, these became too small for the expanding region.
Regional News remained at Broad Street until 1971, the small studio ideal for news bulletins, with other productions taking place in a former cinema in Gosta Green
(now the site for Aston University
BioEnergy Centre), and in office space in a regency mansion in Carpenter Road, Edgbaston.
It was during this period that sections of senior BBC management in London decided that Scotland, Wales and the English Regions should have 'National Production Centres' so as to be able to produce more effective television and radio for the areas which they covered.
The lease for the site was acquired by BBC Birmingham
in the 1950s but the plans for the site were not approved until 1967, the same year that construction of the studios began. The centre was designed by John Madin founder of the John Madin Design Group, who also designed other Birmingham and Midlands buildings including Birmingham Central Library
, Redditch Library and the Birmingham Post building.
The nine acre site was opened by Princess Anne
on the 10 November 1971. The centre had a large central seven storey office block. At the rear was the staff car park and OB (Outside Broadcasting) base; the audience entrance was to the front and centre of the complex. The main production complex was split into two sections, a TV section (to the left as seen from the road) and a Radio/Sound section (to the right as seen from the road).
In the early 1990s, Pebble Mill's Technical Resources Department decided that, following London, Manchester and Cardiff's change to CCD cameras and also at the urging of producer John King, an upgrade from the old Link 125 tube cameras was needed. A working party was put together who toured the country's major BBC, ITV and independent studios to see what was on offer. Finally the studios bought four Sony BVP-370 studio cameras and two BVP-70 portable cameras.
In November 1997, work began on a major refurbishment of the studio. This included a new production control room complete with 36-channel Sony vision mixer and DME, new lighting/vision control room which also saw the return of technical equipment into the studio and not in a remote Technical Area. A re-equipped sound control room with new Calrec Q-series 60-channel desk.
This £2.2 million upgrade took nine weeks and Studio A re-opened by the end of February 1998 as a fully digital widescreen facility complete with new six Sony BVP-500 and two BVP-550 cameras.
Studio B was used primarily used for Midlands Today but also produced Network East and other regional programmes. 'B' opened with EMI 2001 cameras and in the 1983 refit received four Link 125 cameras. Studio B also contained a small Presentation Studio for lunch time 'Opt Outs' and was equipped with a Link 125 and a COX Vision Mixer. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Studio B was fitted with a GVG 200 vision mixer, Ikegami HL-55 cameras and a Calrec sound console. The presentation studio also gained a small gallery with a HL-55 camera and a GVG Master 21 Mixer. Later in the 1990s the studio cameras where replaced with Sony BVP-70s.
The complex's main foyer (62 × 44 ft wall to wall) became the third studio instead, as space was needed for a new daytime show Pebble Mill at One.
The 'Foyer' had its original suspended ceiling removed and a simple scaffold lighting rig installed. Audience seating replaced the Italian marble reception desk and interview seating was installed next to the main windows. Pebble Mill at One was to be a Light Entertainment show with interviews, music and cookery very similar to the current "One Show".
Pebble Mill at One ended in 1986 but in 1988, Daytime Live was launched. Essentially the same as Pebble Mill at One, it used the same format and had basically the same content only started at a different time and therefore had a different name. In 1992, Good Morning with Anne and Nick (Anne Diamond and Nick Owen - who where previously seen together on TV-AM) replaced Daytime Live. Needing a bit more elbow room, it wasn't long before the construction of a conservatory studio within the courtyard area was completed and was used for cooking items and interviews.
The foyer at first used the control galleries of Studio A but in 1983 'Gallery C' was commissioned. This was part of the on going refit of the complex which included all other studios and technical areas.
Studio C's gallery was situated on the first floor between the Comm's centre / TAR (Technical Apparatus Room) and the Glazed Long Gallery at the front of the building and was the studio's original continuity booth.
The Studio C's Production gallery was a two tier affair with a Monitor stack at the front. A lower 'trench' with a Rank Strand Duet 2 lighting desk later to be replaced by an Arri/ETC Imagine and vision control and colour matching for the four Link 125 and two Ikegami HL-79D cameras. The upper tier held the GVG vision mixer, directors position, PA and Technical Manager positions. Next door was the sound gallery with 'L' shaped console. This had a window looking onto the 'Trench' and to the outside world. Just out side of both control rooms was a small entrance vestibule which also contained a small voice-over booth.
In the mid 1990s (When Good Morning with Anne and Nick started) Studio C was updated and gained a separate Lighting/Vision gallery in dead-space area within TAR and had a door knocked through into the trench. In keeping with the centre's new policy four Sony BVP-360 and two BVP-70 cameras where installed. The studio also had a GVG 200 series vision mixer and a Calrec sound console.
The daytime drama series Doctors was also made at Pebble Mill between 2000 and 2004. Despite the fact that there was a perfectly good television studio sitting empty, they weren't allowed to use it, so the windows of the foyer (studio C) were blacked out and that became the studio - with all its limitations. Doctors also used an additional space - radio Studio 1.
When the 1983 refit began it was decided that a Central area should be built combining both Studio A and B's island desks and the new Studio C area. The new CAR/TAR was in the comms area which had shrunk due to new technology making switching even more compact. Around the late 1980s early 1990s Comm's Centre moved again giving Services Department a new centralised service centre in the old vacant comms centre. The new services area contained work benches for all the disciplines (Comm's, VT, camera, Vision and Lighting control), a camera test area and a small mechanical workshop (situated just above the north riser with Studio C directly below. Any work in the workshop had to stop during programmes as noise would travel straight into the foyer).
For a brief period of time an area at the back of the OB garages called BORIS, which used Studio C's gallery, was used for the early Sunday morning Farming programme which later on became Countryfile
, presented by John Craven who had just stopped presenting Newsround
.
Incidentally, one claim to fame for studio A is that it was the home of a new kind of floor paint. For many years all studio floors had been painted with water-based paint, with disastrous consequences if any liquid was spilled on it. Before a new colour or pattern could be applied, the floor had to be washed and dried with special machines. This wasted valuable time during studio turn-arounds. At Pebble Mill they developed 'Pebble Mill Peelable' paint, which did what it said on the can. This enabled the next floor to be painted on top of the old one, layer after layer, until it grew so thick that the cameras were bumping over the irregularities, at which time it was simply peeled off.
Television Centre had primary responsibility for most of the BBC's transmitted output and day to day transmission switching and presentation.
Pebble Mill was the Midlands Central Switching and Monitoring Centre and would route national channels (2 television and 4 national radio as well as local radio) to the Midland transmitters at Sutton Coldfield, Ridge Hill and The Wrekin and to other parts of the UK as well as acting as a national back up to TVC in case of emergency's.
In the late 1960s to the early 1990s Pebble Mill also had a fleet of 'Links' vehicles that were used to relay vision signals from OBs back to Comms Centre before being redistributed to London. All audio signals were sent via copper cable (Post Office/BT land Lines). When satellite transmission of picture signals started in the mid 1990s, Pebble Mill gained several satellite dishes on its roof and also had fibre optics installed as well as more permanent links to Birmingham's BT tower.
During the 1970s 'Comms Centre' was above the foyer but the 1990s Comms moved around the corner and was situated in the link area between Radio and TV.
With the completion of Pebble Mill the studios became home to a substansial OB (Outside Broadcast) fleet. The BBC decided that all its regions were to have a Colour Mobile Conteol Room and Pebble Mill received CMCR 6, a Type 2 scanner with EMI cameras this was then replaced with CMCR 9 a similar Type 2 but with PYE/Philips cameras. (This swap of CMCRs gave London an all EMI fleet and the regions all PYEs). CMCR9 survives to this day, following its transfer to Manchester.
From the early 1980s Pebble Mill had several scanners (a BBC Term for an OB vehicle possibly dating back to World War II when it was an RAF term for mobile radar vehicles which the GPO and BBC used after the war)
and many others and it was an integral part of the BBC’s nationwide TV OB fleet. Eventually CM1 was sold to ex-Pebble Mill OB crews who started Transvision Outside Broadcast.
The TV OB Fleet was the first to succumb to the accountants’ spreadsheet logic, and its demise was the first tangible indicator of Pebble Mill’s televisual decline. The vehicles were sold off in 1992 despite being some of the most efficiently scheduled of the BBC’s entire OB Fleet.
A BBC Type-B Vehicle mainly tackled live religious programmes such as Radio 3’s Choral Evensong, or Sunday Worship. A typical B-type, features a CALREC S-Series 40-channel sound desk with LS 5/8 speakers and nearfield monitoring. Birmingham's Type B is still operational from the Mailbox.
SCV6 is an articulated Sound Control Vehicle which handled Radio 1 and Radio 2 popular music OBs. Now as one of only two SCVs in the country it is used for live and recorded shows up and down the UK. The SCV is fitted with an ageing SSL 4000 console (with automation) and a Pyramix digital multitrack system. This vehicle still operates with Radio Outside Broadcast with its sister SCV5.
The Type-C ‘ice-cream van’ would normally tackle Any Questions, sport OBs like Test Match Special, or athletics from Perry Bar.
In addition to WM the complex also had some of the finest sound studios outside of Broadcasting House
in London.
However, John Birt's 'Producer Choice' agenda in the early 1990s forced Pebble Mill to charge unrealistic rental rates for the studio and thus ensured that Studio 1 became too expensive for radio use. Therefore Radio 3 moved out to Adrian Boult Hall
in the centre of the city, with the newly developed BBC Resources, turning Studio 1 into a full-time TV studio. A scene dock door was added together with the installation of a more comprehensive lighting grid.
Soon after, Studio 1 was in daily use for the live transmission of The Really Useful Show. This lasted for three series, but it is understood that the long acoustic reverberation characteristics of the studio were not idea for TV sound.
Programmes that originated from Studio 1 included Daily Live, Anything You Can Cook and Front Room. As mentioned above, in its final years Studio 1 was used as a sound stage for Doctors, although the associated radio cubicle continued to be used to produce Radio 4's Farming Today
until the closure of Pebble Mill as a whole (in May 2004).
, Radio 2 specialist music shows, and Radio 4’s Midlands-based Features and Rural Affairs output.
’s Critical List where recorded or transmitted there as well.
, Alex Lester
and Mo Dutta
. The Mailbox has facilities intended to replicate the functionality of Studios 5 and 6, as well as the M3 & M4 editing facilities.
The world's longest running radio soap, The Archers
was produced in Studio 3.
the midlands region news programme, Nationwide, Inside Out
, Points of View
, The Chequered Flag about the history of Motor Sports. The John Gau Productions/CBS/TBS coproduction 'Reaching For the Skies' a ground breaking documentary series on the history of aviation. Also in the 1990s a New department programme 'The Midlands at Westminster' a local politics strand broadcast at Sunday lunch time on BBC 2.
, Top Gear Motorsport
, Noel's Addicts, The Great Egg Race
with Prof. Heinz Wolff, A series of 2point4 Children
, An Actors Life, The Golden Oldie Picture Show, May to December
, Nuts in May
, Don't Wait Up
, , Going for a Song (1990's)
, Call My Bluff, Eat your Words, Date with Fate, Blizzards Toys. A series of Can't Cook Won't Cook
, A Song for Christmas, The Basil Brush Show
(1970's) and Best of Brass a Brass Band Competition.
, Gardeners World, Local music programme 'Look Hear', On the House a series on DIY where an entire house was built from the foundations up and the work done inside the house presented by Harry Greene and the late Patty Coldwell. Countryfile
, Farming, Kick Start
, Junior Kick Start
. Pebble Mill also broke ground on modern lifestyle programming with Style Challenge and To Buy or Not to Buy
,
BBC Birmingham was also responsible for a popular BBC2 programme for much of the 1970s-1990s the Snooker programme Pot Black
, which was generally shown most Fridays throughout the year at 9pm.
Oliver Twist, Rose for Winter, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, Fosdyke Saga, Airbase, Tycoon, Bird of Prey, and A Very Peculiar Practice
. Gangsters, NIce Work, Owen MD, Lord Peter Wimsey
played by Ian Carmichael, Diary of a Madman, Nona starring Les Dawson, Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks and Timothy Spall. A Year in Provence
starring Lindsay Duncan and John Thaw. Pebble Mill produced 'Specials
' a short series about a group of Special Police Officers in a fictional Midlands Town.
Episodes of Z-cars
, The Moonstone
, The Roses of Eyam
, Prometheus, Sophia and Constance
, Nanny
starring Wendy Craig as nanny Barbara Gray, The Battle of Waterloo starring Warren Clarke, Poldark
, Abigail's Party
, Martin Chuzzelwit
, Angels
, Boys from the Blackstuff
, Adaptations of Charles Dickens work, Shakespeare Plays, Dalziel and Pascoe
, Vanity Fair
(1987 version).
in the early 1970s, Doctors, Dangerfield
, Trainer
, Kinsey
, Triangle
, 'Doctor Who
serial Horror of Fang Rock
in 1977.' 'All Creatures Great and Small, Howards' Way
, Juliet Bravo
, This Life
, The Brothers staring Jean Anderson. Pebble Mill produced 'Specials'
a short series about a group of Special Police Officers in a fictional Midlands Town. and the anthology series 'The Afternoon Play'.
, Vision On
. One series of HartBeat
with Tony Hart
, SMart
the replacement for Tony Harts children's arts programme. The Adventure Game
, Bodger and Badger
, Play School and Jackanory
.
became a popular British afternoon chat BBC1 show, though it started originally on BBC2. The idea to use the reception and foyer for programmes was borne out of the fact, all the other studio space was either fully used for Birmingham produced, or for BBC TV's network needs for the various London based programme departments. Pebble Mill at One ran from 1972 until 1986, was then one of few daytime magazine programmes, hence its popularity at the time.
There was at least one Pebble Mill spin-off during the 1970s, when BBC1 rested its main Saturday chat show, Parkinson
. BBC Birmingham was commissioned to produce a late night chat show. Saturday Night at the Mill, was the result and Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were the regular house band, and they performed the show's signature tune. The programme was directed and produced in Birmingham by Roy Norton and Roy Ronnie. In 1981 an early evening version of a hit show from the sixties on BBC1 called Six Five Special re-surfaced during the Mill's summer break, presented by Donny MacLeod and Marian Foster, occupying the slot vacated after the Evening News by Nationwide fronted among other by Michael Barrett and Sue Lawley.
The Pebble Mill format returned in 1988 as Daytime Live, renamed Scene Today followed by Good Morning with Anne and Nick
all broadcast from Studio C. And finally 'Pebble Mill' a programme broadcast from Studio A presented by Alan Titchmarsh and **************** in a format similar to Pebble Mill at One.
led the BBC to vacate the premises and move to new studios at The Mailbox
, completing the transfer on 22 October 2004 after 33 years at Pebble Mill. Remaining fixtures, furniture and technical equipment were auctioned at Pebble Mill a few weeks later. The studios were demolished the following summer, with developers planning to develop a technology and science park on the site. However, five years on the development has yet to begin.
The decision to relocate was controversial. Indeed, not long after the decision was made to move to The Mailbox, it was discovered that there was not sufficient strength in the foundations to construct the area of mezzanine floor as originally planned. Some departments had to be relocated to a second site (notably the drama department) which became known as the 'Drama Village
'.
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
, a suburb of Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The views from the roof overlooked Cannon Hill Park
Cannon Hill Park
Cannon Hill Park is a park located in south Birmingham, England. It is the most popular park in the city, covering consisting of formal, conservation, woodland and sports areas...
, a nature centre, as well as Birmingham's city centre. Pebble Mill became a prominent landmark in the Edgbaston area and contained offices, television studios, radio studios, two canteens, a post office and a garden.
Early History
During the 1950s and early 1960s BBC BirminghamBBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
and its associated region BBC Midlands were based in offices and a small studio in Broad Street, Birmingham. However, these became too small for the expanding region.
Regional News remained at Broad Street until 1971, the small studio ideal for news bulletins, with other productions taking place in a former cinema in Gosta Green
Gosta Green
Gosta Green is an area in the city of Birmingham, England. It lies at the edge of the city centre, about three-quarters of a mile to the north-east of Birmingham New Street station via Corporation St or the High St....
(now the site for Aston University
Aston University
Aston University is a "plate glass" campus university situated at Gosta Green, in the city centre of Birmingham, England.Established in 1895 as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School, Aston was granted its Royal Charter as Aston University on 22 April 1966...
BioEnergy Centre), and in office space in a regency mansion in Carpenter Road, Edgbaston.
It was during this period that sections of senior BBC management in London decided that Scotland, Wales and the English Regions should have 'National Production Centres' so as to be able to produce more effective television and radio for the areas which they covered.
The lease for the site was acquired by BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
in the 1950s but the plans for the site were not approved until 1967, the same year that construction of the studios began. The centre was designed by John Madin founder of the John Madin Design Group, who also designed other Birmingham and Midlands buildings including Birmingham Central Library
Birmingham Central Library
Birmingham Central Library is the main public library in Birmingham, England, and the largest non-national library in Europe. It is managed by Birmingham City Council...
, Redditch Library and the Birmingham Post building.
The nine acre site was opened by Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
on the 10 November 1971. The centre had a large central seven storey office block. At the rear was the staff car park and OB (Outside Broadcasting) base; the audience entrance was to the front and centre of the complex. The main production complex was split into two sections, a TV section (to the left as seen from the road) and a Radio/Sound section (to the right as seen from the road).
Television facilities
Pebble Mill was designed to be an addition to London's Television Centre and was to contain a Light Entertainment Studio (A) a regional news studio (B) and a drama studio (C) which was to be similar in size to TC6.Studio A
Studio A was the main television studio which opened in 1971 and was 6500 square feet (603.9 m²) (81 ft × 80 ft within fire lanes) in size. It opened with three separate control rooms: a production gallery with windows looking onto the studio floor, to its left a combined Vision/Lighting gallery and to the right a sound control gallery. The studio had four EMI 2001 cameras, a fifth back-up camera and a Thorn Q-file lighting desk, all of which were replaced in 1983 with five Link 125 and a single Ikegami HL-79D camera with a GVG (Grass Valley Group) 1600-7F vision mixer and later a Rank Strand Galaxy lighting desk.In the early 1990s, Pebble Mill's Technical Resources Department decided that, following London, Manchester and Cardiff's change to CCD cameras and also at the urging of producer John King, an upgrade from the old Link 125 tube cameras was needed. A working party was put together who toured the country's major BBC, ITV and independent studios to see what was on offer. Finally the studios bought four Sony BVP-370 studio cameras and two BVP-70 portable cameras.
In November 1997, work began on a major refurbishment of the studio. This included a new production control room complete with 36-channel Sony vision mixer and DME, new lighting/vision control room which also saw the return of technical equipment into the studio and not in a remote Technical Area. A re-equipped sound control room with new Calrec Q-series 60-channel desk.
This £2.2 million upgrade took nine weeks and Studio A re-opened by the end of February 1998 as a fully digital widescreen facility complete with new six Sony BVP-500 and two BVP-550 cameras.
Studio B
Studio B was for local news and sport and was 40 × 25 ft in size. The studio was situated next to Studio A on the first floor and was close to the news room. Studio B had a combined control gallery with Lighting-Vision-Production and sound all sited next to each other.Studio B was used primarily used for Midlands Today but also produced Network East and other regional programmes. 'B' opened with EMI 2001 cameras and in the 1983 refit received four Link 125 cameras. Studio B also contained a small Presentation Studio for lunch time 'Opt Outs' and was equipped with a Link 125 and a COX Vision Mixer. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Studio B was fitted with a GVG 200 vision mixer, Ikegami HL-55 cameras and a Calrec sound console. The presentation studio also gained a small gallery with a HL-55 camera and a GVG Master 21 Mixer. Later in the 1990s the studio cameras where replaced with Sony BVP-70s.
Studio C
The Pebble Mill studios were originally intended to have a third 'drama' studio - Studio C - next to Studio A but this was never built.The complex's main foyer (62 × 44 ft wall to wall) became the third studio instead, as space was needed for a new daytime show Pebble Mill at One.
The 'Foyer' had its original suspended ceiling removed and a simple scaffold lighting rig installed. Audience seating replaced the Italian marble reception desk and interview seating was installed next to the main windows. Pebble Mill at One was to be a Light Entertainment show with interviews, music and cookery very similar to the current "One Show".
Pebble Mill at One ended in 1986 but in 1988, Daytime Live was launched. Essentially the same as Pebble Mill at One, it used the same format and had basically the same content only started at a different time and therefore had a different name. In 1992, Good Morning with Anne and Nick (Anne Diamond and Nick Owen - who where previously seen together on TV-AM) replaced Daytime Live. Needing a bit more elbow room, it wasn't long before the construction of a conservatory studio within the courtyard area was completed and was used for cooking items and interviews.
The foyer at first used the control galleries of Studio A but in 1983 'Gallery C' was commissioned. This was part of the on going refit of the complex which included all other studios and technical areas.
Studio C's gallery was situated on the first floor between the Comm's centre / TAR (Technical Apparatus Room) and the Glazed Long Gallery at the front of the building and was the studio's original continuity booth.
The Studio C's Production gallery was a two tier affair with a Monitor stack at the front. A lower 'trench' with a Rank Strand Duet 2 lighting desk later to be replaced by an Arri/ETC Imagine and vision control and colour matching for the four Link 125 and two Ikegami HL-79D cameras. The upper tier held the GVG vision mixer, directors position, PA and Technical Manager positions. Next door was the sound gallery with 'L' shaped console. This had a window looking onto the 'Trench' and to the outside world. Just out side of both control rooms was a small entrance vestibule which also contained a small voice-over booth.
In the mid 1990s (When Good Morning with Anne and Nick started) Studio C was updated and gained a separate Lighting/Vision gallery in dead-space area within TAR and had a door knocked through into the trench. In keeping with the centre's new policy four Sony BVP-360 and two BVP-70 cameras where installed. The studio also had a GVG 200 series vision mixer and a Calrec sound console.
The daytime drama series Doctors was also made at Pebble Mill between 2000 and 2004. Despite the fact that there was a perfectly good television studio sitting empty, they weren't allowed to use it, so the windows of the foyer (studio C) were blacked out and that became the studio - with all its limitations. Doctors also used an additional space - radio Studio 1.
CAR/TAR (Central Apparatus Room/Technical Apparatus Room)
During the 1970s until the general refit in 1983 TAR was part of the technical rooms suite on the first floor adjoining Studio A. ( This was to be the central technical link between Studio A and Studio C ) This area housed the 'Line Up' desk's for Studio A and B also a maintenance area, the dimmer room for the studio production lighting systems and TV signal generation equipment.When the 1983 refit began it was decided that a Central area should be built combining both Studio A and B's island desks and the new Studio C area. The new CAR/TAR was in the comms area which had shrunk due to new technology making switching even more compact. Around the late 1980s early 1990s Comm's Centre moved again giving Services Department a new centralised service centre in the old vacant comms centre. The new services area contained work benches for all the disciplines (Comm's, VT, camera, Vision and Lighting control), a camera test area and a small mechanical workshop (situated just above the north riser with Studio C directly below. Any work in the workshop had to stop during programmes as noise would travel straight into the foyer).
For a brief period of time an area at the back of the OB garages called BORIS, which used Studio C's gallery, was used for the early Sunday morning Farming programme which later on became Countryfile
Countryfile
Countryfile is a British magazine-style television programme produced by BBC Birmingham, first aired on 24th July 1988, which reports on rural and environmental issues within the United Kingdom. For its first 20 years it was fronted by broadcaster John Craven, until he stepped back from the role of...
, presented by John Craven who had just stopped presenting Newsround
Newsround
Newsround is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972, and was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically at children...
.
Incidentally, one claim to fame for studio A is that it was the home of a new kind of floor paint. For many years all studio floors had been painted with water-based paint, with disastrous consequences if any liquid was spilled on it. Before a new colour or pattern could be applied, the floor had to be washed and dried with special machines. This wasted valuable time during studio turn-arounds. At Pebble Mill they developed 'Pebble Mill Peelable' paint, which did what it said on the can. This enabled the next floor to be painted on top of the old one, layer after layer, until it grew so thick that the cameras were bumping over the irregularities, at which time it was simply peeled off.
Post Production
The centre was also home to the largest and most advanced BBC post-production departments outside London, including six VT edit suites, two dubbing suites, a small viewing screen and a multitude of Avid non-linear suites. Following the 1983 refit a vast Graphics centre was opened in the old site of TAR and contained Aston caption generators, Rank Cintel Slide Files, Quantel Paintbox and Harry's and other graphic systems.Costume
The basement had most of the Dressing rooms and the Costume Department which produced hundreds of Period and Specialist drama costumes from the early 1970s until it closed in the late 1990s.Design
Production Design had design offices in the central tower block and workshops on the ground floor next to Studio A. Close by to the construction workshop where several props cages which contained all manner of items, even a DALEK.Communications and Signals
Throughout its life Pebble Mill formed part of the BBC's communications and transmission backbone.Television Centre had primary responsibility for most of the BBC's transmitted output and day to day transmission switching and presentation.
Pebble Mill was the Midlands Central Switching and Monitoring Centre and would route national channels (2 television and 4 national radio as well as local radio) to the Midland transmitters at Sutton Coldfield, Ridge Hill and The Wrekin and to other parts of the UK as well as acting as a national back up to TVC in case of emergency's.
In the late 1960s to the early 1990s Pebble Mill also had a fleet of 'Links' vehicles that were used to relay vision signals from OBs back to Comms Centre before being redistributed to London. All audio signals were sent via copper cable (Post Office/BT land Lines). When satellite transmission of picture signals started in the mid 1990s, Pebble Mill gained several satellite dishes on its roof and also had fibre optics installed as well as more permanent links to Birmingham's BT tower.
During the 1970s 'Comms Centre' was above the foyer but the 1990s Comms moved around the corner and was situated in the link area between Radio and TV.
Early History
BBC Midlands had a modest fleet from the earliest era and consisted of both Radio/Sound and Black and White Television Mobile Control Rooms. These were based at the Carpenter Road, Broad Street and Gosta Green sites.With the completion of Pebble Mill the studios became home to a substansial OB (Outside Broadcast) fleet. The BBC decided that all its regions were to have a Colour Mobile Conteol Room and Pebble Mill received CMCR 6, a Type 2 scanner with EMI cameras this was then replaced with CMCR 9 a similar Type 2 but with PYE/Philips cameras. (This swap of CMCRs gave London an all EMI fleet and the regions all PYEs). CMCR9 survives to this day, following its transfer to Manchester.
From the early 1980s Pebble Mill had several scanners (a BBC Term for an OB vehicle possibly dating back to World War II when it was an RAF term for mobile radar vehicles which the GPO and BBC used after the war)
CM1 (Colour Midland 1)
CM1 was a Type 5 Scanner built by Link Electronics. This was a five-camera vehicle and had Philips LDK-5 or -6 cameras. CM1 would service big sports commitments and other large events around the Midland region such as the snooker at Sheffield, Grand Prix from Silverstone Race Track, Songs of PraiseSongs of Praise
Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional Christian hymns. It is a widely watched and long-running religious television programme, one of the few peak-time free-to-air religious programmes in Europe Songs of Praise is a BBC Television programme based around traditional...
and many others and it was an integral part of the BBC’s nationwide TV OB fleet. Eventually CM1 was sold to ex-Pebble Mill OB crews who started Transvision Outside Broadcast.
CM 2 (Colour Midland 2)
CM2 was a 'Topical News & Drama', two-camera vehicle equipped with Philips LDK-14 cameras connected to LDK-5 CCUs (Camera Control Unit) and based on a Dennis TK chassis. In 1982, Boys from the Blackstuff, an English Regions Drama production, was shot on CM2 in Liverpool. The director, Philip Saville, was breaking lots of conventions (not least shooting wide-angles and close-ups at the same time) and presented Ramon Bailey (Sound Supervisior) and his sound crew with lots of challenges.CM 3 (Colour Mobile 3)
CM3 was a Single camera vehicle based on a Transit van and was similar to modern SNG vehicles.The TV OB Fleet was the first to succumb to the accountants’ spreadsheet logic, and its demise was the first tangible indicator of Pebble Mill’s televisual decline. The vehicles were sold off in 1992 despite being some of the most efficiently scheduled of the BBC’s entire OB Fleet.
Radio
The Radio OB fleet comprised three vehicles.A BBC Type-B Vehicle mainly tackled live religious programmes such as Radio 3’s Choral Evensong, or Sunday Worship. A typical B-type, features a CALREC S-Series 40-channel sound desk with LS 5/8 speakers and nearfield monitoring. Birmingham's Type B is still operational from the Mailbox.
SCV6 is an articulated Sound Control Vehicle which handled Radio 1 and Radio 2 popular music OBs. Now as one of only two SCVs in the country it is used for live and recorded shows up and down the UK. The SCV is fitted with an ageing SSL 4000 console (with automation) and a Pyramix digital multitrack system. This vehicle still operates with Radio Outside Broadcast with its sister SCV5.
The Type-C ‘ice-cream van’ would normally tackle Any Questions, sport OBs like Test Match Special, or athletics from Perry Bar.
Local Radio
The centre was responsible for a large output into mainstream network radio and was also home of the local radio station Radio WM. WM had studios on the first floor linking the Comm's centre and the news room.Radio Studios
The two radio studios and Local Radio Operations Room over looked the central courtyard and between them provided all of Radio WM's production base for 35 years.In addition to WM the complex also had some of the finest sound studios outside of Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
in London.
Studio 1
Studio 1 was the main music studio at Pebble Mill with enough space to accommodate a full symphony orchestra. Initially, it was used for sound recording sessions plus the twice weekly live broadcasts for Radio 3's lunchtime concerts. However, as well as radio this studio was equipped with a basic lighting grid and was used in its early years for the occasional television programme. The studio lighting was controlled from gallery 'C' from the summer of 1983.However, John Birt's 'Producer Choice' agenda in the early 1990s forced Pebble Mill to charge unrealistic rental rates for the studio and thus ensured that Studio 1 became too expensive for radio use. Therefore Radio 3 moved out to Adrian Boult Hall
Adrian Boult Hall
The Adrian Boult Hall is the main concert hall of the Birmingham Conservatoire in central Birmingham, England. It is named after the conductor Adrian Boult....
in the centre of the city, with the newly developed BBC Resources, turning Studio 1 into a full-time TV studio. A scene dock door was added together with the installation of a more comprehensive lighting grid.
Soon after, Studio 1 was in daily use for the live transmission of The Really Useful Show. This lasted for three series, but it is understood that the long acoustic reverberation characteristics of the studio were not idea for TV sound.
Programmes that originated from Studio 1 included Daily Live, Anything You Can Cook and Front Room. As mentioned above, in its final years Studio 1 was used as a sound stage for Doctors, although the associated radio cubicle continued to be used to produce Radio 4's Farming Today
Farming Today
-Transmission:It is broadcast each week day between 5.45 and 6.00 a.m. and a longer programme is broadcast on Saturdays from 06.35 – 7.00 a.m. Around one million people listen to the programme...
until the closure of Pebble Mill as a whole (in May 2004).
Studio 2
Studio 2 was a large popular music studio with an SSL 4000 console and a reverb time of about half a second. This is where aspiring music balancers were trained, but regrettably there will not be a music studio of any kind at Pebble Mill’s replacement facility, The Mailbox. Studio 2 in the 1990s was used mostly by Radio 2 as it's midland sessions studio and many popular musicians performed there.Studio 3 and M3
Pebble Mill’s radio drama studio, Studio 3, provided much of Radio 3 and 4’s drama output – It was the home of 'The Archers' the world's longest running radio soap. The last Archers programme from Pebble Mill was on 13 September 2004. The Mailbox (Pebble Mill's replacement) has a smaller radio drama studio, but incorporating a larger dead-room with an anechoic ‘snail’ for long, outdoor approaches. The Archers transferred to the Mailbox studio at the beginning of October 2004 and the drama studio was designed by the late Mark Decker. The adjacent facility (M3 - Midland 3) was a small edit studio and had a SADiE and was primarily used for editing The ArchersThe Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
, Radio 2 specialist music shows, and Radio 4’s Midlands-based Features and Rural Affairs output.
Studio 4 and M4
Studio 4 was the chassis of a studio that was never installed, but it had an edit suite associated with it called M4 (Midland 4) where most of the Radio Drama was edited. This is where the first AMS Audiofile DAW was used in radio and was then equipped with both Audiofile and SADiE in the mid 1990s.Studio 5
Studio 5 was the General Purpose studio – over the years it had done every form of feature or ‘strip’ programme, from Woman’s Hour to Radio 2’s Ed Stewart Show on Sunday afternoons. The studio has been refurbished at least twice and was home to The Richard Bacon Show, live Saturday and Sunday nights on Radio 5. Radio 2’s specialist popular music such shows as Best of Jazz, Paul Jones, and Stuart MaconieStuart Maconie
Stuart Maconie is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC 6 Music, where he hosts an afternoon show five times a week , alongside Mark Radcliffe, called the Radcliffe...
’s Critical List where recorded or transmitted there as well.
Studio 6
Studio 6 was not equipped until about 1995 but was where Radio 2 ‘Through the Night’ originated – presented by Janice LongJanice Long
Janice Long is an English radio broadcaster currently working on BBC Radio 2. Her show is on Sunday to Thursday nights from midnight to 02:00. She is the older sister of TV and radio personality Keith Chegwin.-Early career:...
, Alex Lester
Alex Lester
Alex Lester is a British broadcaster. He presents the weekday overnight/early-morning programme on BBC Radio 2...
and Mo Dutta
Mo Dutta
Mohit "Mo" Dutta , is a television and radio presenter known for his dry sense of humour, who presented Saturday and Sunday morning shows on BBC Radio 2 between 1994 and May 2009.He has also been a familiar face on BBC1's Daytime TV...
. The Mailbox has facilities intended to replicate the functionality of Studios 5 and 6, as well as the M3 & M4 editing facilities.
Studio 7
According to the floor plans of 1971 there was a seventh sound studio on the first floor adjoining the local radio studios. This studio was never commissioned and became an office and later became an electronics room for comms centre.Other Information
The Mailbox has facilities intended to replicate the functionality of Studios 3, 5 and 6, as well as the M3 & M4 editing facilities.Programmes
BBC Birmingham and BBC Midlands, from their initial conception, were to provide local interest and national programme output for the Midland Region. Over Pebble Mill's 35 years of operation the studios produced some of the BBC's most iconic programmes and was second to Television Centre for total output. The following is a small list of the total programme output of the complex. There were many single and short run documentaries, OBs and pilots which have come and gone over the years many of which will never be remembered.Radio
Pebble Mill housed Radio West Midlands (Radio Wm) but also produced programming for Radio 2, 3 and 4. Most of Radio 4's 1990s dramas came from Pebble Mill. Radio programming included over the years Woman’s Hour, The Ed Stewart Show on Sunday afternoons. The Richard Bacon Show, live Saturday and Sunday nights on Radio 5. Radio 2’s specialist popular music shows as Best of Jazz, Paul Jones, and Stuart Maconie’s Critical List a Radio 2 ‘Through the Night’ and radio shows presented by Janice Long, Alex Lester and Mo Dutta.The world's longest running radio soap, The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
was produced in Studio 3.
Television
Pebble Mill's television output was just as large as radio. Programmes and series produced at the studios include -News and Documentary
Midlands TodayMidlands Today
Midlands Today is the BBC's regional television news programme for the West Midlands region, which covers the north of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands county...
the midlands region news programme, Nationwide, Inside Out
Inside Out (BBC TV series)
Inside Out is the brand name for a number of regional television programmes in England broadcast on BBC One. Each series, made by a BBC region, focuses on stories from the local area...
, Points of View
Points of View
Points of View is a long-running television show shown in the United Kingdom on BBC One, featuring the letters of viewers offering praise, criticism and purportedly witty observations on the television of recent weeks...
, The Chequered Flag about the history of Motor Sports. The John Gau Productions/CBS/TBS coproduction 'Reaching For the Skies' a ground breaking documentary series on the history of aviation. Also in the 1990s a New department programme 'The Midlands at Westminster' a local politics strand broadcast at Sunday lunch time on BBC 2.
Light Entertainment
Telly AddictsTelly Addicts
Telly Addicts is the name of a BBC1 game show hosted by Noel Edmonds, broadcast from 3 September 1985 until 29 July 1998 and produced at the BBC's Pebble Mill Studios...
, Top Gear Motorsport
Top Gear Motorsport
Top Gear Motorsport was a British television programme, covering various forms of motor racing, broadcast on BBC Two from 1994 to 1998. It was a spin-off programme from the popular motoring series Top Gear. The programme was presented by former Formula One driver and Top Gear presenter Tiff Needell...
, Noel's Addicts, The Great Egg Race
The Great Egg Race
The Great Egg Race was a BBC television series that ran from 1978 to 1986 and featured Professor Heinz Wolff and Lesley Judd, who joined the series in 1984...
with Prof. Heinz Wolff, A series of 2point4 Children
2point4 children
2point4 Children is a 1990s British sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porter family; an average family that is persistently faced with surreal situations and sheer bad luck....
, An Actors Life, The Golden Oldie Picture Show, May to December
May to December
May to December was a British sitcom which ran for 39 episodes, from 2 April 1989 to 27 May 1994 on BBC1. The series was written by Paul Mendelson and produced by Cinema Verity....
, Nuts in May
Nuts in May
Nuts in May is a television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh, originally broadcast as part of the BBC's Play for Today series on 13 January 1976. It is the comical story of a nature-loving and rather self-righteous couple's exhausting battle to enjoy what they perceive to be the idyllic...
, Don't Wait Up
Don't Wait Up
Don't Wait Up is a British sitcom that aired for six series from 1983 to 1990 on BBC1. It starred Nigel Havers, Tony Britton and Dinah Sheridan, and was written by George Layton...
, , Going for a Song (1990's)
Going for a Song
Going for a Song was an antiques quiz show broadcast by the BBC from 1965-1977. It was a forerunner of the Antiques Roadshow. The original television series was hosted by presenter Max Robertson, with Arthur Negus appearing as the resident expert and antique valuer. The programmes were recorded...
, Call My Bluff, Eat your Words, Date with Fate, Blizzards Toys. A series of Can't Cook Won't Cook
Can't Cook, Won't Cook
Can't Cook, Won't Cook was a UK game show and cooking programme that was broadcast on BBC1 on weekday mornings usually after the Breakfast News from 20 November 1995 to 7 July 2000.-Format:...
, A Song for Christmas, The Basil Brush Show
Basil Brush
Basil Brush is a fictional anthropomorphic fox raconteur, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet, but has also been depicted in animated cartoon shorts and comic strips...
(1970's) and Best of Brass a Brass Band Competition.
General Interest
The Clothes ShowThe Clothes Show
The Clothes Show is a British television show about fashion that can currently be seen weeknights on Really. It was formerly broadcast on BBC One from 1986 to 2000.-BBC series :...
, Gardeners World, Local music programme 'Look Hear', On the House a series on DIY where an entire house was built from the foundations up and the work done inside the house presented by Harry Greene and the late Patty Coldwell. Countryfile
Countryfile
Countryfile is a British magazine-style television programme produced by BBC Birmingham, first aired on 24th July 1988, which reports on rural and environmental issues within the United Kingdom. For its first 20 years it was fronted by broadcaster John Craven, until he stepped back from the role of...
, Farming, Kick Start
Kick Start (TV series)
Kick Start was a popular series on BBC television screened between 1979 and 1988. The show began originally as a summer replacement to fill in the slot vacated by Nationwide for the summer and was hosted by Dave Lee Travis....
, Junior Kick Start
Kick Start (TV series)
Kick Start was a popular series on BBC television screened between 1979 and 1988. The show began originally as a summer replacement to fill in the slot vacated by Nationwide for the summer and was hosted by Dave Lee Travis....
. Pebble Mill also broke ground on modern lifestyle programming with Style Challenge and To Buy or Not to Buy
To Buy or Not to Buy
To Buy or Not to Buy was a British reality television series made between 2003 and 2010 for BBC One in the UK. The final series was the eleventh and contained 90 episodes, in one of two formats—either 30 or 45 minutes in length. It aired on both BBC1 and BBC2...
,
BBC Birmingham was also responsible for a popular BBC2 programme for much of the 1970s-1990s the Snooker programme Pot Black
Pot Black
Pot Black was a British series of snooker tournaments televised by BBC, that played a large part in the popularisation of the modern game, from 1969 to 1986. The event was revived in the form of several one-off tournaments throughout the 1990s and up to 2007...
, which was generally shown most Fridays throughout the year at 9pm.
Drama
Throughout its 35-year history Pebble Mill produced some of the BBC's best dramas.Oliver Twist, Rose for Winter, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, Fosdyke Saga, Airbase, Tycoon, Bird of Prey, and A Very Peculiar Practice
A Very Peculiar Practice
A Very Peculiar Practice is a BBC comedy-drama series, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.- Storyline :...
. Gangsters, NIce Work, Owen MD, Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
played by Ian Carmichael, Diary of a Madman, Nona starring Les Dawson, Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks and Timothy Spall. A Year in Provence
A Year in Provence
A Year in Provence is a 1989 bestselling autobiographical novel by Peter Mayle about his first year in Provence, and the local events and customs. It was adapted into a television miniseries starring John Thaw and Lindsay Duncan. Reviewers praised its honest style, wit and its refreshing humor...
starring Lindsay Duncan and John Thaw. Pebble Mill produced 'Specials
Specials (TV series)
Specials was a 1991 BBC series about Special Constables in a fictional Midlands town.Twelve 50 minute episodes were made.The series was shot on videotape, in the studio and using locations around West Bromwich and Birmingham, England.-Cast:...
' a short series about a group of Special Police Officers in a fictional Midlands Town.
Episodes of Z-cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
, The Moonstone
The Moonstone
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century British epistolary novel, generally considered the first detective novel in the English language. The story was originally serialized in Charles Dickens' magazine All the Year Round. The Moonstone and The Woman in White are considered Wilkie...
, The Roses of Eyam
The Roses of Eyam
The Roses of Eyam is a historical drama by Don Taylor about The Great Plague that swept Britain in 1665/66. It is largely based on the events that happened in the 'Plague Village' of Eyam in Derbyshire, between September 1665 and December 1666...
, Prometheus, Sophia and Constance
Sophia and Constance
Sophia and Constance is a British drama television series which originally aired on the BBC in six episodes between 13 April and 18 May 1988. It was an adaptation of the 1908 novel The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett which follows the lives of two sisters through the Victorian era. It starred...
, Nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
starring Wendy Craig as nanny Barbara Gray, The Battle of Waterloo starring Warren Clarke, Poldark
Poldark
Poldark is a BBC television series based on the novels written by Winston Graham which was first transmitted in the UK between 1975 and 1977.-Outline:...
, Abigail's Party
Abigail's Party
Abigail's Party is a play for stage and television written and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s...
, Martin Chuzzelwit
Martin Chuzzlewit (TV series)
Martin Chuzzlewit was a 1994 TV mini series produced by the BBC. It is based on the novel by Charles Dickens, with a screenplay by David Lodge. The music was composed by Geoffrey Burgon...
, Angels
Angels (TV series)
Angels was originally a British television seasonal drama series dealing with the subject of student nurses and was broadcast by the BBC between 1975 and 1978. The show's format then switched to a twice weekly soap opera format from 1979 to 1983. The show's title derived from the name of the...
, Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2....
, Adaptations of Charles Dickens work, Shakespeare Plays, Dalziel and Pascoe
Dalziel and Pascoe
Dalziel and Pascoe consist of Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel and Detective Sergeant Peter Pascoe....
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (1998 TV serial)
Vanity Fair is a BBC television drama serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same name broadcast in 1998. The screenplay was written by Andrew Davies....
(1987 version).
Soap operas and Serials
A series of Pobol Y CwmPobol y Cwm
Pobol y Cwm is a Welsh-language television soap opera which has been produced by the BBC since October 1974. The longest-running television soap opera produced by the BBC, Pobol y Cwm was originally transmitted on BBC Wales television and later transferred to the Welsh-language station S4C when it...
in the early 1970s, Doctors, Dangerfield
Dangerfield (TV series)
Dangerfield is a British drama series about a small town doctor / police surgeon, which ran for 6 series, between 1995 and 1999. Originally Nigel Le Vaillant played the central role , but this character later left the series, the focus switching to his replacement, played by Nigel Havers.The BBC...
, Trainer
Trainer (TV series)
Trainer is a British television series transmitted by the BBC between 1991 and 1992.Filmed in and around the village of Compton near Newbury, the series is set in the world of horse racing. It starred Mark Greenstreet as Mike Hardy, an aspiring horse trainer keen to set up his own stables...
, Kinsey
Kinsey (TV series)
Kinsey was a television programme lasting two series, made in 1990/91 and broadcast on BBC 1 in 1991 and 1992. It starred Serena Gordon as Tricia Mabbott, Marian McLoughlin as Judy Kinsey and Leigh Lawson as Neil Kinsey...
, Triangle
Triangle (TV series)
Triangle was a BBC television soap opera in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed between Felixstowe & Gothenburg and Gothenburg & Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam & Felixstowe to make up the program title, but this was not operated by the ferry company...
, 'Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial Horror of Fang Rock
Horror of Fang Rock
Horror of Fang Rock is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 September to 24 September 1977.-Synopsis:...
in 1977.' 'All Creatures Great and Small, Howards' Way
Howards' Way
Howards' Way is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC One between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the yachting and business communities in the fictional town of Tarrant on the South Coast of...
, Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
, This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....
, The Brothers staring Jean Anderson. Pebble Mill produced 'Specials'
Specials (TV series)
Specials was a 1991 BBC series about Special Constables in a fictional Midlands town.Twelve 50 minute episodes were made.The series was shot on videotape, in the studio and using locations around West Bromwich and Birmingham, England.-Cast:...
a short series about a group of Special Police Officers in a fictional Midlands Town. and the anthology series 'The Afternoon Play'.
Childrens
RentaghostRentaghost
Rentaghost is a British children's television comedy show, broadcast by the BBC between 6 January 1976 and 6 November 1984. The show's plot centred on the antics of a number of ghosts who worked for a firm called Rentaghost, which rented out the ghosts for various tasks.-Background:The company,...
, Vision On
Vision On
Vision On was a British children's television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976 and designed specifically for deaf children. It was conceived and developed by BBC producers Ursula Eason and Patrick Dowling to replace a monthly series For the Deaf, a programme paced slowly enough for...
. One series of HartBeat
Hartbeat
Hartbeat was a Children's BBC television arts programme presented by the late Tony Hart. It was broadcast between 1984 and 1993. The series was a follow on from Take Hart and taught children how to design art features and use everyday items to make objects.-History:Like its predecessor Take Hart,...
with Tony Hart
Tony Hart
Norman Antony "Tony" Hart was an English artist and children's television presenter. He was famous for television shows such as Vision On, Playbox, Take Hart and Hartbeat.-Early life:...
, SMart
SMart
SMart was a British CBBC television programme based on the subject of art, which began in 1994. The programme was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London, previously it had been recorded in Studio A at BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham. The format is similar to the Tony Hart programmes Take Hart...
the replacement for Tony Harts children's arts programme. The Adventure Game
The Adventure Game
The Adventure Game was a game show, aimed at children but with an adult following, which was originally broadcast on UK television channels BBC1 and BBC2 between 24 May 1980 and 18 February 1986. The story in each show was that the two celebrity contestants and a member of the public had travelled...
, Bodger and Badger
Bodger & Badger
Bodger and Badger is a BBC children's comedy programme which was first broadcast in 1989. It starred Andy Cunningham as Simon Bodger, who had a badly behaved companion, a talking badger with a love for mashed potatoes.- Plot :...
, Play School and Jackanory
Jackanory
Jackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 24 March 1996,...
.
Asian Unit
During the early sixties, BBC Birmingham pioneered television programmes, for the Asian community. These were presented and produced by Mahendra Kaul and directed by Ashok Rampal, and broadcast on Sunday mornings on the sole BBC Television channel at the time. The programme, Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye ("Make Yourself At Home") aired on Sundays at 9am for half an hour and Empire Road (1978–79) also shown on BBC2. During the late 70's and 1980's Network East (An Asian Unit Programme) was produced both in Studio A and B providing both music and interviews for the Asian community in the Midlands.Daytime Television
BBC Birmingham utilised the main foyer of Pebble Mill for television entertainment and magazine programmes, mostly for BBC1. One fixture of the schedule, Pebble Mill at OnePebble Mill at One
Pebble Mill at One was a popular British lunchtime chat show broadcast live originally on BBC2 before transferring to BBC1. It was produced from the Pebble Mill facilities of BBC Birmingham, and uniquely was hosted from the centre's main reception area rather than a traditional studio...
became a popular British afternoon chat BBC1 show, though it started originally on BBC2. The idea to use the reception and foyer for programmes was borne out of the fact, all the other studio space was either fully used for Birmingham produced, or for BBC TV's network needs for the various London based programme departments. Pebble Mill at One ran from 1972 until 1986, was then one of few daytime magazine programmes, hence its popularity at the time.
There was at least one Pebble Mill spin-off during the 1970s, when BBC1 rested its main Saturday chat show, Parkinson
Parkinson (TV series)
Parkinson is a British television talk show that was presented by Sir Michael Parkinson. It was first shown on the BBC from 1971 to 2004, and on ITV from 2004 to 2007.-Background:...
. BBC Birmingham was commissioned to produce a late night chat show. Saturday Night at the Mill, was the result and Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were the regular house band, and they performed the show's signature tune. The programme was directed and produced in Birmingham by Roy Norton and Roy Ronnie. In 1981 an early evening version of a hit show from the sixties on BBC1 called Six Five Special re-surfaced during the Mill's summer break, presented by Donny MacLeod and Marian Foster, occupying the slot vacated after the Evening News by Nationwide fronted among other by Michael Barrett and Sue Lawley.
The Pebble Mill format returned in 1988 as Daytime Live, renamed Scene Today followed by Good Morning with Anne and Nick
Good Morning with Anne and Nick
Good Morning with Anne and Nick was a BBC1 daytime television show presented by Anne Diamond and Nick Owen, from October 1992 to May 1996. The pair had previously presented TV-am on ITV, but now directly competed with ITV's This Morning....
all broadcast from Studio C. And finally 'Pebble Mill' a programme broadcast from Studio A presented by Alan Titchmarsh and **************** in a format similar to Pebble Mill at One.
The End and Closure
Problems with the lease and changes in the way television is produced, in addition to increasing repair costs due mainly to the building suffering concrete cancerConcrete cancer
Concrete cancer is a colloquial name for the deterioration of concrete caused by the presence of contaminants or the action of weather combined with atmospheric properties. While often used in the context of the rusting of concrete reinforcement bar , the term can equally be applied to any number...
led the BBC to vacate the premises and move to new studios at The Mailbox
The Mailbox
The Mailbox is an upmarket development of offices, designer shops, restaurants, bars and luxury city-centre apartments in the City Centre and on the boundary of the City Centre Core in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. It includes a mini supermarket and three art galleries: the Artlounge, Castle...
, completing the transfer on 22 October 2004 after 33 years at Pebble Mill. Remaining fixtures, furniture and technical equipment were auctioned at Pebble Mill a few weeks later. The studios were demolished the following summer, with developers planning to develop a technology and science park on the site. However, five years on the development has yet to begin.
The decision to relocate was controversial. Indeed, not long after the decision was made to move to The Mailbox, it was discovered that there was not sufficient strength in the foundations to construct the area of mezzanine floor as originally planned. Some departments had to be relocated to a second site (notably the drama department) which became known as the 'Drama Village
BBC Drama Village
The BBC Drama Village is a television production facility run by the BBC. It is operated by their BBC Birmingham branch and based largely at the Selly Oak campus of the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England....
'.