Category: Building

The Pebble Mill Building

Doctors – end of an era

 

On 14th November 2024, the final episode of the continuing drama, Doctors, was transmitted. Doctors began it’s life at BBC Pebble Mill, and moved, when the building was demolished, to a new site in Selly Oak, the ‘BBC Drama Village’ at the University of Birmingham.

Here are the comments from a few of people who worked on it, or had affection for it, taken from the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Clive Payne: I’ll miss being in it as a supporting artist for 12 years plus. It’s a unique family unit and a great joy to be a tiny part of.

Janet Collins: Lovely to have two characters, Bev Dartnall & Carson Black in the last programme. A nice tribute to former producers.

Andy Bentley: I remember when it started and the last episode at Pebble Mill when they did the explosion. A lot of people cut there teeth on this, Emilia Clarke had her first TV appearance on it.

Julie Hill: Why did they kill off Doctors? I just cant believe the appalling decisions that continue to be made by the BBC going back to when they flogged off Pebble Mill without even a backward glance.

Caroline Feldon: You might be interested to know that in my current role as a psychotherapist I advised on some of the scripts for Jimmi. So I was involved from a distance. Sad to see it go.

Sue Robinson: I caught the last episode today by accident. My ears pricked up when I heard one of the characters was called Bev Dartnall. What a lovely tribute. I then watched the documentary afterwards and it was lovely to see both Dave Farline and Andy Payne on camera in the early days of Doctors. Fabulously talented people taken way too early. Well done Doctors for a great legacy and a reminder of a fantastic place I and many others had the privilege to work in.

James Patterson: To be fair, a great and underrated series. When it took over Studio A and other areas in the Crush bar it seemed like the Pebble Mill era had come to an end, but Doctors moved on to the Drama Village and thrived. Hope everyone is well and can find work.

Luisa Prosser: Having worked as a floor assistant at Pebble Mill, I was so excited to be in an episode and to know most of the crew. I’ll always remember Sally from make up, saying ‘Well, this is weird!’ Sad to see this programme come to an end.

Anne-Marie Palmer: When we finished derigging the Drama Village and getting rid of everything it felt like the final demise of Pebble Mill.

It was all so sad, it stated a type of bereavement.
When I watched yesterday I couldn’t stop crying, it was probably also the loss of Pebble Mill 20 years ago coming out as well, as this didn’t really come to an end we just moved premises.
The freelance world is a rocky road to walk (particularly currently) and some of my Doctors colleagues have taken the decision to retire, I have managed to get occasional work and every job I’ve been on my wider Doctors family has been there and we’ve all carried our Doctors (and Pebble Mill) ethics with us of making it a friendly atmosphere to work in. Everyone is important, everyone counts, we work better together.

Opening of BBC Club

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

This photo is from the opening of the new BBC Birmingham Club circa 1982. The original club at Pebble Mill was on the second floor of the office block. That become programme offices when the new Club building was built across the bridge over the Bourne Brook.

The photo includes:

Phil Sidey, Phil Thickett, cameraman (back row striped shirt), Gail Everett, PA (nee Herbert, back row, to the right of Sue), Brian Johnson next to Gail, Freddie Foster right, Stuart Miller (striped shirt), Peter Skinner, Assistant Accountant (extreme right middle row) Keith Jones, Building Engineering Services Manager, Colin Spears, Sue Robinson (front pink dress), Lesley Sleigh next to Sue.

Julie Hill added the following memory on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

“Ah such happy memories of the BBC Club! I used to take the Minutes of the Club meetings for extra money! Remember the crazy squirrel who used to attack us on the bridge? Highlights include watching harrier jump jet land on the grass and the whole building shook. And being tasked with stopping Larry Grayson drink. I failed….”

 

Artist’s Impressions of BBC Pebble Mill

Thanks to Richard Grantham for sharing these artist’s impressions of BBC Pebble Mill. They belonged to his late father, John Grantham. I’m told that John was in charge of the move to BBC Pebble Mill in 1971, from the other BBC buildings around Birmingham (Broad Street, Gosta Green, Carpenter Road).

Pebble Mill Nursery, 1974

Birmingham Post, Sept 1974

The first Pebble Mill Nursery opened in 1974. It was the earliest BBC staff nursery to open. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay open very long. Nicola Silk (pictured in the middle), aged 4, daughter of Stephanie Silk, was one of the first children to attend the nursery. She stayed until summer 1975, when she started Infants School. Stephanie formed the N.A.G. (Nursery Action Group) to try and stop early closure of the nursery, and was supported by the Union.