Club Havana screening 11th Feb 2019

Club Havana screen grab. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screening on Monday 11 Feb, 18.00 NFT2

Club Havana (BBC2 1975, Second City Firsts, Dir Pam Brighton, with Don Warrington, Mona Hammond, Julie Walters, Alfred Fagon. 35mins)
After twelve years apart, Mrs Jordan’s son (Warrington) arrives in Birmingham from Jamaica. Writer Barry Reckord returns to the theme of an inter-racial relationship, first explored in You in Your Small Corner, which causes conflict within a Jamaican family.

Introduction by season co-curator Lez Cooke, producer Tara Prem, script editor Peter Ansorge and actor Don Warrington (work permitting).

Here is the link to the ‘Forgotten Drama’ project website for more details:
https://forgottentelevisiondrama.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/forgotten-black-tv-drama-season-at-bfi-southbank-february-2019/

 

Bros at Pebble Mill

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Here are some excerpts from an article published in the Birmingham Mail on 26th Jan 2019, following the screening of the BBC documentary about the band Bros, When the Screaming Stops:

“Teenage twins Luke and Matt Goss were less than a month short of turning 20 years old when they arrived at BBC Pebble Mill by helicopter.

They were adorned with their trademark slicked back hair, fake tans, selfie-style poses and some very 80s’ clothing – the perfect pop package.

Their mission? To switch on Radio 1’s new FM signal in the Midlands in front of hundreds of screaming fans…….

Luke and Matt Goss were joined by fellow band member Craig Logan when they arrived at BBC Pebble Mill on Thursday, September 1, 1988….

Hundreds of young, screaming girls besieged Pebble Mill were the group was paying a flying visit by helicopter to officially inaugurate the new service.

Behind the scenes, twins Matt and Luke Goss said they had performed the switch on simply because they had been invited.”

The whole article can be read here:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/bros-came-birmingham-fabulous-pictures-15692764

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

Laura McNeill: ‘Brilliant picture, I remember their visit and being in the foyer to do something with them but then my memory fails me.’

Gordon Astley: I had just interviewed them upstairs at WM.’

Keith Butler: I remember it well, we also had Kylie Minogue at the Mill within a few weeks of this. Virtually no one was outside for her……… who’s the bigger star now, lol.’

Jean Palmer: ‘I remember that day very well. I was having an interview for a prop buyer when all you could hear where screaming girls and them going over and over their song. I didn’t get that job it was a fix.’

Simon Tooley: ‘I remember that day… doing a hand held camera at the railings to film the screaming fans. Unfortunately, only about 3 fans showed up, which I had to make look like a crowd!’

Gary Hudson: ‘There is a sequence in the documentary which I think shows this visit. Either that or the Pebble Mill backdrop is a CGI alternative to the pyros (for those who’ve seen the doco).’

Radio WM Sports Team circa 1990

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This is the Radio WM Sports Team circa 1990. It was taken on the front lawn at Pebble Mill and includes, left to right: John Platt, Tim Beech, Simon Brotherton, Ian Winter.

Thanks to Tim Beech for sharing the photo.

Midlands Today – Best Regional Programme, RTS 1989


Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. L-R back-row: Brian Conway, David Waine, Steve Lee, Gary Hudson, Sue Beardsmore. L-R front-row: Kay Alexander, Roy Saatchi, Rick Thompson, the late Alan Towers.

Thanks to Jonathan Dick for sharing this article from the internal BBC newspaper, Ariel, featuring Midlands Today winning the Royal Television Society award for Best Regional Programme in 1989.

Brenda Jeffcoat

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Brenda Jeffcoat passed away suddenly on Thursday 13th December, aged 89. She was in good spirits a few days before she died. There are several photos below of her from her Radio Birmingham days.

Here are a couple of memories of Brenda, one from Nick Owen who says he remembers Brenda well. “A lovely lady who was always friendly and chatty”.
Here is another memory from Bunny Hall of Brenda in the 1960s…….
“I was so sorry to hear about Brenda. Although I hadn’t seen her for many, many years she also played a large part in my BBC life. I knew her right from the early sixties when she used to stand in for Olive Burrows as the teleprinter operator in an office shared with myself and
Lily Such (we were the Duplicating office, but these days probably more pompously known as ‘Office Printing’) at Carpenter Road. We always got on very well and still kept in touch after I left in 1978.”

Thanks to Annie Gumbley-Williams for the information and photographs of Brenda.