Photos by Bhasker Solanki, no reproduction without permission.
These photos are of a Royal Navy rescue helicopter appearing on Pebble Mill at One, and landing on the back lawn.
Thanks to Bhasker Solanki for sharing the photos.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Stuart Gandy: ‘Yes, I remember this, but this was not the only time we had aircraft at the mill. We also had a helicopter land on the font lawn, and the harrier on the club field, twice. These were the kind of big event things that put Pebble Mill and BBC Birmingham well and truly on the map.’
Jean Palmer: ‘It was all very exciting. The best was the harrier.’
David Gregory-Kumar: ‘The legend I was always told was it blew the garden shed clean over!’
Nick Owen: ‘My brother started playing Terry Barford in The Archers about 1979 – I think he did some publicity photos for his character being in the army arriving in a helicopter on the pebble mill lawn?’
Eurwyn Jones: ‘I remember them so well, the programmes were usually directed by John Smith.’
Stephen Adams: ‘I was a GPO apprentice based at Pebble Mill whilst all this was going on. I thought wow so this is what broadcasting is all about! Needless to say I changed careers into TV as soon as I could. Never looked back. Thank you PM!’
Richard Stevenson: ‘Before my time sadly, but I very much doubt it would be allowed these days. Believe Noel used to land at the club too?’
Gail Herbert: ‘Pebble Mill must have been the only office block where we would constantly have to say to people on the phone to hang on a minute ’cause there was a helicopter/plane/etc outside the window. Utter magic!’
