February 2013 – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Pebble Mill drama

Please can anyone identify this grab from a Pebble Mill drama?

Radio Birmingham’s opening broadcast

Here is the opening broadcast from Radio Birmingham circa 1970. You’ll notice that the presenters have received pronunciation, and there isn’t the trace of a Brummie accent.

Thanks to Andy Caddick for finding and sharing this sound clip.

The following comment was left by Pete Simpkin on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Pete Simpkin: ‘Quite right about the voices Vanessa-I was amazed to be accepted at Radio Birmingham just a few months after being refused a job at Radio Solent in Southampton my home town because my voice was ‘not acceptable’ there! Another aspect of recruitment of staff to many of the Local Radio second wave of stations of which Birmingham was one was that at the time there was quite a bit of relocation of staff as these stations were in effect replacing the old BBC Regions as part of the major re-organisation plan called ‘Broadcasting in the Seventies’.’

General Programme Unit Success

Thanks to Pete Simpkin for making this clipping from the Pebble Mill magazine available.

The article talks about the success of the General Programme Unit in terms of winning commissions from both BBC 1 and BBC 2. The commissioned shows mentioned include a late night Saturday entertainment show and the ‘Golden Oldie’ video programme – presumably what became the ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’. A sailing magazine show had been commissioned by BBC 2 – this is what became ‘Making Waves’. ‘Paddles Up’, a canoeing series, and ‘Now Get Out of That’, are also mentioned, as well as programmes from the NEC Motor Show, and the RAC Rally. Recommissioned shows include ‘Gardeners’ World’, ‘Asian Magazine’, ‘Gharbar’, ‘Kick Start’, ‘Junior Kick Start’, and ‘Pot Black’.

The article dates from around 1983/4.

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

Jane Maclean: ‘Jane Hyde & Sue Gilbert were the PAs on Now Get Out of That. I did one series with Jane in ’82. Would think the Sat night entertainment show was Saturday Night at the Mill. Think the sailing series would be Making Waves – a magazine prog covering all aspects of boating – which I did during 83/84. Also did Pot Black + junior version, Paddles Up in Llangollen and Kick Start + junior version at Donington.’

Maggy Whitehouse: ‘I did a season on Making Waves … including the Tall Ships race which was based at Gothenburg that year. It was a wonderful job to have. Chris Wright was one of the directors and Tony Rayner, the producer.’

Juliet Bravo

‘Juliet Bravo’ was a hosted London drama, which was recorded at Pebble Mill, by Pebble Mill crews. It was a police series, where a female inspector – Jean Darblay (played by Stephanie Turner from 1980-82) , takes charge of an all male police station. The first photo dates from the first series in 1980, whilst the second photo is from a later series. The series was created by Ian Kennedy Martin, and ran from 1980-85. The title ‘Juliet Bravo’ was not the name of a character, but of the police call sign.

The locations were filmed in various Lancashire towns (Colne, Accrington, Bacup, Burnley), as well as Todmorden in West Yorshire and in the Black Country.

Thanks to Janice Rider, the costume designer, on this production for making the photos available.

CMCR9 on Gardeners’ World

Photos by John Abbott, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from an outside broadcast for ‘Gardeners’ World’ with the scanner CMCR9, which was Pebble Mill’s CM1, and later became Manchester’s North 3. The first photo is outside Percy Thrower’s garden. The second is of a rostrum set up for the ‘Gardeners’ World’ OB. I think that the dark shape in the foreground of the second photo is the flap on the roof of the scanner, which was for the inlet and outlet for the air conditioning unit, which was fitted above the cab.

Percy Thrower presented ‘Gardeners’ World’ from 1969 until 1975, when he was dropped by the BBC, because of a contract he entered into with Plant Protection, a subsidiary of ICI, to appear in some commercials.

Keith Brook (Scouse) has identified the right hand cameraman up the tower as Don Cooper and thinks that it’s Tony Wigley in the blue jacket to the right of the lower camera.