Andy Walters – Page 4 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Radio Studio 3 Tape Library

Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

This photo is of the Radio Studio 3 tape library at Pebble Mill (used on The Archers, and many other radio dramas). All of the bird sound effects were verified by the RSPB, with explicit notes as to the times of year they could be used. We’d get letters otherwise…

Martin Fenton

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

Andy Walters: I think a lot of the tapes are now in the basement store at the Mailbox. I’ve definitely seen a master tape of the Archers signature tune down there along with the Midlands Today film archive.

Kath Shuttleworth: ‘The tapes were all transferred to CD for the move to The Mailbox. Those CDs have since been transferred onto hard drive and the sound effects are still used today, it’s just all a bit more high tech than a bank of tape machines! The original tapes were junked, apart from a few which I discovered contained missing episodes and rare Archers cast recordings. These were sent to archive and copies retained with The Archers team. Andy Walters, I don’t know what the tapes are in the basement. There were plenty of master tapes of the sig and vinyl copies too. Maybe someone brought them to The Mailbox as a momento! All the effects are now on a local server or hard drives of specific machines along with many other SFX collections. Well over 1TB when I last looked! We use two playout systems in studio (Spot On & Ableton Live). A lot of effects are still played in “live” for The Archers. All SFX are available to use at the click of a button and looping sounds is so much easier than it was in the days of 1/4″ tape!’

Andy Walters: ‘Possibly. There are a lot of programme tapes in the basement with codes that mean nothing to me. Or at least there were last time I was down there.’

Kath Shuttleworth: ‘If they’re still there we should take a look at them before they get junked as part of the current clear up regime! You never know, there could be a gem of a programme down there that’s missing from archive.’

We are BBC Birmingham

This, We are BBC Birmingham brochure was given to members of staff moving from Pebble Mill to the new Mailbox building in summer/autumn 2004.

There are other sections which name some of the then current productions, both radio and television, but I will post those separately.

The leaflet highlights the work of internal departments like HR, Finance, Marketing, Talent Rights, Libraries and IT.

Thanks to Dharmesh Rajput for keeping the leaflet safe for the last decade, and for sharing it.

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

Andy Walters: ‘I remember those being taken. I am on the first B. We were assembled on the grass at the back of the building with the photographer on the roof.’

Jane Green: ‘I’m on a B too. I miss Pebble Mill’

Paul Hunt: ‘Am on the bottom of C having dashed back from a meeting at the Mailbox!’

Claire Bennett: ‘Eleven years? Did I miss all the big ten year anniversary celebrations there must have been for a decade of glory at the Mailbox then?’

Steve Peacock: ‘I think they threw that party in Bristol’

The Clothes Show titles grab

This titles grab is from The Clothes Show, the BBC1 fashion magazine show, transmitted between 1986-2000. Roger Casstles was the executive producer, and the show was his idea. The series grew from fashion items on Pebble Mill at One, and a regional fashion show called College Rags.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the still available.

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

Becky Land: ‘I loved to see the grabs and stills from the show that adorned the ‘bottom corridor’ grace the scenes from the early days of Doctors. They would be walking through a hospital corridor discussing serious cases and Jeff and Caryn grinning back!!! And we all came a cropper when we nipped out for a quick cuppa only to be banned from going back into our newsroom/office due to filming… oops!’

Andy Walters: ‘I know the theme tune was an edit of In The Night by the Pet Shop Boys. I also got told off for walking into shot on Doctors.’

Pat de Whalley in the studio

The photo is of Radio WM presenter, Pat de Whalley, at work in the studio, circa 1990.

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

Andy Walters: ‘That looks like it would have been Area 2. The window is looking into Area 3, the phone-in room. Those are very expensive Technics CD players too. Later replaced with modified Hi-Fi ones that were horrible to fix. Usually gluing buttons back on.’

Andy Caddick: ‘I would agree that this is Area 2 with Area 3 through the glass and 4 after that. Love the Mark 111 desk. Amazing to see all those carts.’

Philip Morgan: ‘A pair of Beyer DT100 cans on the MKIII desk too…’

Pete Simpkin: ‘That’s right Andy, in the old days we called area three the ops room. You can see a very hazardous pile of blue plastic carts used for jingle, trails etc on the top of the desk.Behind her dozens more. She looks as if she is carrying out one of the more hazardous operations with the equipment namely adding a sugar lump to her coffee. Surprising to see coffee let loose so close to the faders…could put us off the air in seconds if it spillt. The anglepoise arms carried the microphones which could be positioned easily by the presenter. I would guess music is on air at the moment as the only fader ‘up’ is what I know as a grams fader, probably deck two yellow top ident on fader)(hidden behind the desk bulkhead) as the arm is not on the disk on deck one.’

Pebble Mill Props Cages

Photo by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.

This photo shows some of the props cages at Pebble Mill, together with a man in a very bright florescent vest! Props cages tended to be stored either in the basement of the building, or near the scene dock on the ground floor. They had wheels on the base, and so could be wheeled around easily. They were mostly used for dramas, although the studio and make-over shows also used them. I remember sometimes the cages weren’t where you’d left them, because they had been wheeled away by someone, which was rather disconcerting!

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

Steve Johnson: ‘I remember these. I used to work in the News Library next to the newsroom so was often in the basement looking for tapes or film reels.’

Andy Walters: ‘There are still a couple of props cages in the Horsefair car park. They still have the names of the last home makeover shows they were used for scribbled on the side in chalk.’

Marie Phillips: ‘Lovely House Services comandeered several each October for storing my Children In Need merchandise in the cabin loaned for free every year. Also – one Appeal Night me and Gyn Freeman got stuck in a lift behind one and had to keep going up and down until there was someone to rescue us. If you know Gyn and I you will know how funny that was !!’

Carol Churchill: ‘I remember the Props parties, well when l say remember that may be stretching the truth!’

Scott Holdsworth: ‘There were loads of these throughout the basement. I remember when Can’t Cook Won’t Cook finished and all the brand new pans were stored there for years. When there was a clear out I ended up with a kitchen full of lovely new utensils.’

Andy Bentley: ‘Props was great for fun when on nights, when we were in the old Security office at the back of the building we got a head from props. We put the head on a long pole and put it up to the edit suite window above the office. I reckon they could hear Trudy [Offer] and Ingrid [Wagner]’s screams in town. It looks more like Mervin in the photo.

Ruth Kiosses: ‘Best memories of the Props/costume store best known as Smelly (Oak). The Props Lads as they were affectionately known were real characters, especially Jacko who gave himself a wonderful long title which meant props lad. They had a tea room furnished in old Howards’ Way set so the drawers were dummies but it looked swish. I remember a lot of practical jokes after shooting a sex shop scene for a ‘murder mystery’? Series (title eludes me) although I remember costumes really well, lead lady in full Burberry check trousers etc, fabulous purple suede suit! Anyway the props as you can imagine were inflated and used for all sorts of interesting decorations!!!’

Teresa Fuller: ‘Was only privileged to visit Pebble Mill once, on an induction day. But when I worked at The Mailbox, we had storage cages over at the multi storey car park (the one with local rats and the fear of having a friendly local resident chucking something from the adjacent tower block as you walked back from your hire car drop-off)! Anyway, we used the cages to store props for To Buy or Not to Buy and one day a colleague and I had the pleasure of cleaning a cage out that was covered in mouse droppings. Nice.’

Andy Bentley: ‘There was also the skeleton propped up against a door in the basement so when Ted went on patrol and opened the door it fell out on him. Again I reckon the screams could be heard in town.’