Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
Invitation from Phil Sidey, Head of Broadcasting, to Pebble Mill’s 10th Night Out, to celebrate the building’s 10th birthday, which would have been in 1981. £2 seems very good value for a four course dinner and a night of entertainment. Apparently the comedian had a very funny Rod Stewart impression!
Thanks to Roy Thompson for sharing the invitation, and keeping it safe all these years.
Photographs from Stuart Gandy, no reproduction without permission
Pres studio at Pebble Mill. This was probably taken around 2004, when the studio was being decommissioned with the move from Pebble Mill to the Mailbox.
Thanks to Stuart Gandy for sharing the photographs, which were originally posted on the Pebble Mill Engineers’ Facebook group.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Jason Dean: ‘The pres studio was largely left unused between it being the home of nightly weekday regional continuity during the late 1970s (all evening between Midlands Today and closedown in the early hours) and being used for Breakfast bulletins from Jan 1983. It looks like the photo might have been taken during this fallow period judging by the state of it?!’
Diane Kemp: ‘I did loads of bulletins from the little self opt studio, including the memorable time the Midlands was snowbound and we were interrupting network – all from there.
Can’t see it clearly enough to see the desk, the backdrop or the seat adjacent where SAs sat.’
Jane Green: ‘It looks like it’s being built or dismantled here….we SAs sat to the right of the presenter. It was a squash. The second photo shows what looks like a control desk that the presenter operated. Later on we had a proper backing with logo. Which once fell off on air as Jonathan Dick reminded me…National inserts were done from Pres too, if you had a guest for news or Newsnight. I sat there with Michael Heseltine one evening for what seemed an age. If it’s not Pres, I can’t think where it might be. The cameras would only be in Studio B or A otherwise?
Diane Kemp: ‘It’d be great to see a photo of it as it was. I’d say ‘in all its glory’, but to be fair it was never a beautiful space. Rivalled only by the fab studio in Nottingham above the probation service offices where you could hear the women’s toilets flush on-air.’
copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
These photographs of the personnel team at Pebble Mill were given to Rani Randhawa in 1985, when she left the BBC after a one year placement, to go to university.
Photo by Robin Sunderland, no reproduction without permission.
Harrier jet lands at Pebble Mill, as part of Pebble Mill at One. Keith Brook (aka Scouse) is on camera, and I think Philip Thickett is cable bashing.
Photo of Becky Harris circa 1985. Thanks to Rani Randhawa for sharing the photo.
Becky Harris sadly died in December 2017, aged 83.
Becky joined the BBC when she was only 14, and worked for the Corporation for over 40 years. Even after she retired, she went back to work for the BBC part time! She worked in different departments over the years, starting in the post room at Carpenter Road, and including working for a Miss Bastipol (sp?) in Personnel, who was apparently very strict. She also worked in the Cash Office at Pebble Mill, as a clerk in Personnel, as secretary to the canteen manager, who I think was Stephen Davies, and for Children in Need. She was never reluctant to pick up new skills – Rani Randhawa in personnel ‘got her on the computer’. Becky knew everyone, and loved working for the Corporation, she would go to work even when she was ill, and regarded the BBC as her second home. She was particularly proud when photographed for the local paper with Ross King, to celebrate her service of 40 years.
Thanks to her daughter, Mandy Scholes, for sharing Becky’s story. Mandy herself worked for the BBC, because of Becky, who introduced her to the right people!
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Rani Randhawa: ‘Kind, hard-working and a very funny lady – I worked with her for many many years and what she didn’t know about filing – wasn’t worth knowing.’
Marie Phillips: ‘Becky was quite simply not A Gem but THE GEM and a friend. She was unusual in loving filing and establishing systems. An absolute Master of the filing cabinet ! My Children in Need paperwork was immaculate in her hands;. she could lay her hands immediately on what was wanted. Becky and I had such fun. A loyal BBC stalwart dearly loved and missed.’
Stephen Davies: ‘I’ll remember Becky for the enormous pride and pleasure she took from her work, which she did brilliantly; and for being a wonderful friend and colleague to everyone she worked with at Pebble Mill.’