Tag: David Davies

Midlands Today newsroom

Photo from Jonathan Dick, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Midlands Today newsroom at Pebble Mill from the early nineties.

Cathy Houghton in the foreground and David Davies in the background, at BBC Pebble Mill, Birmingham. The computer system was BASYS, which Cathy apparently excelled at!

Thanks to Jonathan Dick for sharing the photo.

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

Malcolm Hickman: ‘As a Comms engineer, we sometimes had to see Gwen Smith when there had been a problem with the Saturday results feed. Her bark was always greater than her bite. When you got it wrong, she gave you a tongue lashing, when it went right, she sent out a hero gram. A lovely lady.’

Jane Partridge: ‘I remember when Phil was doing a Saturday Comms shift and I was away (possibly at Guide Camp in those days) he took our eldest daughter into work with him, she was 5 at the time (so 1989-90) and he was heavilly involved in setting up the BAYSIS system. She was used to using the BBC Model B computer we had at home, so going into the newsroom with him, she perched on a stool and was happily occupied tapping away on a keyboard…. the report I got was that there was a newsroom of open-mouthed journalists nervously attempting what this 5 year old didn’t bat an eyelid at.’

Diane Kemp: ‘I remember when BASYS came in. There were some ‘super users’ who taught the rest of us. Jane Green was one, I think??’

Children in Need walk through Birmingham

Photos from ‘Children in Need’ organiser, Marie Phillips.

The photos are from the  1996 ‘Children in Need’ Toddle through Centenary Square in Birmingham, outside the Hyatt hotel.  Included are ‘Midlands Today’ presenters Sue Beardsmore, David Davies, Shefali Oza and Gary Hudson, as well as director Merrick Simmonds, and cameraman Jamie Knights.

Marie Phillips is pictured with Aston Villa player, Shaun Teale, in the third photo.  Apparently she had her photo taken with Shaun to make her Villa supporting son, jealous!

Midlands at Westminster in Strasbourg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of a ‘Midlands at Westminster’ shoot in Strasbourg. Featured, left to right are: Sarah Foley, Jim Knights (camera), Naomi Goldsmith (producer), Gordon Nightingale (sound).  Merrick Simmonds was the director.

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

Sarah Foley: ‘Was great fun! In the days of a full crew. Definitely very early 1990’s. Interesting, very busy, lovely weather, and snails in garlic butter are the things I remember!’

Peter Poole: ‘Mike Greatorex and I worked on ‘The Midlands at Westminster’ from its start. It was broadcast live from the Foyer. The director was John Taylor. I think the first presenter was David Davies. Other presenters include Peter Hobday, Steve Le Fevre, Michael Collie and Naomi Goldsmith. At a later date the programme moved to Studio B. Patrick Burns always produced high quality programmes. He also seemed to manage a very happy production team. I have many happy memories of working with you all.’

Midlands Today – TV Ark link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to ‘TV Ark’, a site which includes short clips from a number of ‘Midlands Today’ episodes.  Clips include the first Midlands Today from 1971, as well as excerpts from presenters David Stevens, Alan Towers, Kathy Rochford, Nick Owen, Sue Beardsmore, Kay Alexander, Brian Conway, David Davies, Bernadette Kearney, Andy Knowles, Richard Uridge, Lawrence Lee, Michael Collie, Stuart Linnell and Suzanne Virdee.  The last ‘Midlands Today’ to be broadcast from Pebble Mill is also included.

http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbc_midlands/news.html

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

Jane Ward: ‘I vision-mixed that last 6.30 prog….an honour to do it, but very emotional….’

Stuart Gandy: ‘If you spend a few minutes looking at TV ark, you will find quite a lot from pebble Mill. After all we did make a lot of programmes there, probably more than the average viewer realised’

Ewan Kiel: ‘That is great. I probably spent far longer than I should have done on Midlands Today … but looking back, it was really fun and hey, it was where I met my wife – and now I list people people who were – to me – cool: Kay, Brian, Darren, Fiona Barton, Richard (Uridge), Steve (Lee), Pete Lowe, Patrick (thank you, Patrick), Cathy, Martin Dowell, David Davies, Fiona (again), Steph, Pam, Gary (yes, Hudson), Will Trotter, Mike Johnston, Paul Freeman, Ian (Pedersen – very cool man), John Carney, Kathy Rochford (always had a crush), Liz (camera diary – huge crush… huge), Harvinder ( coolest guy in the office), Fiona ( the memory won ‘t go away), Barbara Steele (were the rumours true?), Darren (again coz he is my abiding friend from that time, and I honestly love him … although nothing gay has happened yet!), Jane Green (aaah), Julie (Etchingham … didn’t she do well), Pete Wilson (cool), John McLeod (very, very cool), Peter Poole (loved him), Howard (HOWARD!!?), Sue Beardsmore (especially in that button up the front grey dress), Nick Patten (and his tendency to direct standing up), Merrick Simmonds, Mel and her stockings, Lindsay, Ian Bellion (and his gorgeous sideburns) …and christ, I spent too long there.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘yep, worked on that….gallery flush as we called it always evident as things went wrong and you had to be on your toes! Dear david stevens too – dont think he is any longer with us. kay alexander too – she is lovely. oh many many names….oh yes geoffrey green – i loved him and he was so funny. Wonder if he is with us still?’

Peter Poole: ‘I will never forget Alan Towers resigning on air and his comments about BBC management. What a great presenter.’

Midlands Today 25th Anniversary – Peter Poole

Photo from Peter Poole, copyright resides with the original photographer, no reproduction without permission.

This photo was taken after the 25th Anniversary edition of Midlands Today.  Included in the photo are Darren New, Brian Conway, Jane Patterson in red, Peter Poole, Ann Banks, David Davies, Sue beardsmore, Alan Towers, Howard dartnall, Lynda Maher, Nick Johnson (soundman) a very young Chris Nelson, and Jonathan Dick.  

Thanks to those who helped with identifying people!