Gary Hudson – What Was Pebble Mill?

Jonathan Dick

Jonathan Dick (centre) at the 2016 Midlands Today reunion. Thanks to Jane Green for sharing the photo

Jonathan Dick, who was an RSA on Midlands Today, died very suddenly overnight on 17/18th April. David Croxson worked with him at BBC World News. He writes that Jonathan was always calm, collected, very witty and thoroughly professional, and that we are all in complete shock at this desperately sad news.

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

Jane Green: ‘Jonathan and I were RSAs together in the 80s on Midlands Today. He was the intellectual on the team, a brilliant vision mixer (the master of E-Flex and Charisma too), was unflappable in a tense gallery, and had a fantastic sense of humour.

Together, he and I took responsibility for saving all the regional TX and rushes bloopers onto a compilation tape, and when we saw each other the past few years, we recalled things like David Stevens’ forecasting the weather as ‘matchy pists’ and the BBC logo falling off the wall during Brian Conway’s breakfast bulletin. Jonathan’s hands were once seen dancing in shot in the pres studio as he tried to help the poor presenter who was failing on the self opt desk whilst reading the news. Most mishaps seemed to happen in the self-opt pres studio. Neither of us knew where that tape ended up after we left Midlands Today.

We had some fun times out in Brum in the 80s too, and last time I spent the day with Jonathan at BBC Parliament, I gave him some of the photos of him that I’d found, from a very boozy lunch a group of us had at ‘Jonathan’s’ restaurant about 1988. I never heard Jonathan say a bad word about anyone. He was a gentleman and so very kind. I’m still in shock from the awful news that we’ve lost him.”

Lynda Maher: ‘Such sad and shocking news. I worked with Jonathan as an RSA and when I moved onto studio directing he was by my side as VM, always helpful and encouraging and also great fun. He always stayed calm when things went wrong and I learned a lot from him.’

Gary Hudson: ‘I worked with Jonathan in the late 80s on Midlands Today, and I’d been in touch again on Facebook for the last three or four years. A very funny chap, who’ll be greatly missed. This is a photo he posted from Ariel when we won the RTS award.’

Darren New: ‘Very sad to hear this. I worked with Jonathan as a RSA in the Pebble Mill newsroom. I’m in the photo that Gary posted. The one thing I remember his his dry sense of humour and he would say it as it is. And he was a very good vision mixer.’

Maria Needle: ‘I worked with Jonathan and he was one of the nicest guys in telly. If ever I went into a show after him, I used to steal his DVE moves and copy them on to my disk! He was such a technical genius.’

Mary Sanchez: ‘I worked with Jonathan at Pebble Mill . He was a whizz kid on our vision mixing desk on Midlands Today and a lovely colleague too.More recently caught up with him at a reunion where we swapped funny memories and pottery tips on F/B…’

Jonathan Dick in N8 TVC. Photo from David Croxson

Bros at Pebble Mill

Here are some excerpts from an article published in the Birmingham Mail on 26th Jan 2019, following the screening of the BBC documentary about the band Bros, When the Screaming Stops:

“Teenage twins Luke and Matt Goss were less than a month short of turning 20 years old when they arrived at BBC Pebble Mill by helicopter.

They were adorned with their trademark slicked back hair, fake tans, selfie-style poses and some very 80s’ clothing – the perfect pop package.

Their mission? To switch on Radio 1’s new FM signal in the Midlands in front of hundreds of screaming fans…….

Luke and Matt Goss were joined by fellow band member Craig Logan when they arrived at BBC Pebble Mill on Thursday, September 1, 1988….

Hundreds of young, screaming girls besieged Pebble Mill were the group was paying a flying visit by helicopter to officially inaugurate the new service.

Behind the scenes, twins Matt and Luke Goss said they had performed the switch on simply because they had been invited.”

The whole article can be read here:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/nostalgia/bros-came-birmingham-fabulous-pictures-15692764

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

Laura McNeill: ‘Brilliant picture, I remember their visit and being in the foyer to do something with them but then my memory fails me.’

Gordon Astley: I had just interviewed them upstairs at WM.’

Keith Butler: I remember it well, we also had Kylie Minogue at the Mill within a few weeks of this. Virtually no one was outside for her……… who’s the bigger star now, lol.’

Jean Palmer: ‘I remember that day very well. I was having an interview for a prop buyer when all you could hear where screaming girls and them going over and over their song. I didn’t get that job it was a fix.’

Simon Tooley: ‘I remember that day… doing a hand held camera at the railings to film the screaming fans. Unfortunately, only about 3 fans showed up, which I had to make look like a crowd!’

Gary Hudson: ‘There is a sequence in the documentary which I think shows this visit. Either that or the Pebble Mill backdrop is a CGI alternative to the pyros (for those who’ve seen the doco).’

Midlands Today – Best Regional Programme, RTS 1989

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. L-R back-row: Brian Conway, David Waine, Steve Lee, Gary Hudson, Sue Beardsmore. L-R front-row: Kay Alexander, Roy Saatchi, Rick Thompson, the late Alan Towers.

Thanks to Jonathan Dick for sharing this article from the internal BBC newspaper, Ariel, featuring Midlands Today winning the Royal Television Society award for Best Regional Programme in 1989.

Editing News

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This photo shows the editing of regional news in 1990. It looks like a rather makeshift edit suite.

This photograph was originally posted on the Pebble Mill Engineers’ Facebook page.

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

Brian Charles: ‘Makeshift?!? That was state of the art kit at the time – Edit Suite 2 I think.
That’s Inge Samuels managing to get a smile out of Gary Hudson. Can’t have been a last minute lead story edit then!!’

Richard Uridge: ‘Notice the heavy tape boxes ready for Gary to throw at unsuspecting passersby.’

Diane Kemp: ‘Blimey it does look very last century. Definitely Gary though at PM’

Simon Calkin: ‘Three-machine Betacam suite with an Audio Designs mixer.’

Gary Hudson: ‘It’s not me. I sent my stunt double and the bastard smiled, ruining my public image (see comments above about the legendary bad temper). He was a little fey, as you can tell from the girly haircut, and I made sure we were never seen in the same room together, partly to maintain the mystique but also because his immaculate dress sense and devastating good looks were an embarrassing distraction from my position as the only competent journalist in the newsroom at the time. He usually did the posy stuff – PTCs, cutaway questions and the like -while I got on with the proper job. This picture appeared in the book that was given free to staff when Pebble Mill closed – obviously as a tribute to those who were soon to embrace obscurity. Inge was brilliant though, as was Brian Charles, despite his cheeky comment above.’

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Midlands Yesterday – photos Maureen Carter

Here is a selection of photos from the Midlands Today reunion – entitled Midlands Yesterday, held on Saturday 3rd September 2016 at the Midlands Arts Centre. Thanks to Maureen Carter for sharing the photos.