Immigrants Programme Unit – What Was Pebble Mill?

Mahendra Kaul obituary

The article above is from the Times of India: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/other-news/veteran-nri-broadcaster-mahendra-kaul-dies/articleshow/64947726.cms

Mahendra Kaul was one of two producer/presenters who worked in the Immigrants’ Programme Unit at Carpenter Road, and later at Pebble Mill in Birmingham.

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

Dharmesh Rajput: ‘He was a pioneer in South Asian broadcasting in the UK – many of us who worked in the Asian Programmes Unit probably owe our careers to him and the teams behind those early Asian programmes such as Apna Hi Ghar Samajiye (Make Yourself At Home or Think Of This As Your Home) and Nayi Zindagi Naya Jeevan (New Life, New Life). I remember these programmes as staple viewing on Sunday mornings while eating breakfast in the 70s and 80s.’

Ian Collins: ‘I can remember having to edit Urdu under Mahendra’s direction. Whether any of the edits made sense I will never know but he was always happy with the end result.’

Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television

This newly published book by Gavin Schaffer, from the University of Birmingham, explores the development of multiculturalism on British television. It includes several mentions of programming from Pebble Mill and BBC Birmingham. Gavin’s research for the book included a detailed interview with Stephanie Silk, who was a PA in the Immigrants Programmes Unit in the late 1960s, as well as interviews with English Regions Drama Department producer, Peter Ansorge (producer of Empire Road , Britain’s first black soap opera, written by Michael Abbensetts).

It is Steph Silk on the front cover, with Saleem Shahed on the left, and Mahendra Kaul in the middle, from the Immigrants Programme Unit. The photo is from summer 1968, at a charity dinner in London, arranged by the Indian High Commission.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Vision-Nation-Gavin-Schaffer/dp/0230292984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401910435&sr=8-1&keywords=vision+of+a+nation+gavin+schaffer

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘Many, many memories…. Mahendra (who was also a restaurateur) was rather grand. Saleem gave off an air, not only of pipe tobacco, but of a university vice-chancellor.

Studio B! Ah, the glamour!

I was always proud of Pebble Mill’s role in the policy. There were ups and downs, as well as hours of incomprehensible chat shows, but you felt that it was engaging its audience keenly and in a vital way. Year on year, you felt it responding to social developments as, in the other direction, the rest of BBC programming caught up.

Before that happened, there was a period in which the Unit was thought by all too many as a silo for people whose epidermis was insufficiently French. I recollect being mortified with embarrassment by the “helpful” suggestion of a senior producer to a bright new graduate [of Asian complexion] who was gaining work experience at Pebble Mill and who was interested in getting into production. Fag in hand, she advised the girl to try Asian programmes.

The remark was simultaneously offensive and very good advice. I’m delighted that those days are behind us. That they are is in no small part due to the efforts of the Asian Unit.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Yes, remember all that. I worked in what was called The Asian Unit at one time and have to say I never went hungry because there was always a restaurant of a relative somewhere near where we were filming. I worked on Black Christmas too – John Clarke being the producer. There was also a couple of series called “Together” which was about ethnic minorities living in the Midlands. It was interesting and I learnt such a lot.’

History of the BBC in Birmingham

photo by Ben Peissel, 2003, no reproduction without permission

History of the BBC in Birmingham

(taken from notes held at the BBC Archives in Caversham)

1922 Nov 15 British Broadcasting Company begins transmitting from rooms at the GEC Works at Witton. Managed by Percy Edgar and Pat Casey, it consisted of three room: one contained the transmitter, one was the office and the other was the 12x20ft studio.

1923 Dec 6 The first ever Children’s Hour comes from Birmingham. Children’s circle established, proceeds of which were donated to West Midlands Children’s charities.

1924 Witton premises too small. Moved to top storey of 105 New Street. One studio and a suite of offices.

1926 New Street premises too small (and rat infested). Purpose built studios at 282 Broad Street acquired. Largest studio could accommodate a full orchestra and chorus.

1927 Jan 1 British Broadcasting Company dissolved and the British Broadcasting Corporation constituted under Royal Charter.

1927 Daventry ‘Experimental Transmitter’ replaces 5 IT at Witton.

1938 First episode of Paul Temple attracts 7,000 fan letters.

1949 Sutton Coldfield transmitter opens bringing television to the Midlands.

1951 Jan 1 The Archers first appears on the Light Programme. Brookfield Farm was located in Studio 2 at Broad Street for 20 years.

1951 BBC acquired the lease for Pebble Mill site.

1954 Carpenter Road, Edgbaston became the new Broadcasting House.

1955 Dec 29 First Midland Region television studio opened at Gosta Green, Birmingham.

1956 Gardening Club (now Gardeners’ World) began.

1957 Sept 30 First BBC Midlands TV News broadcast each weekday evening. 6.10-6.15.

1962 Nightly TV magazine programme – Midlands at Six

1962 A model of proposed BBC Pebble Mill Broadcasting Centre was show to the press.

1964 Sept First episode of Midlands Today presented by Barry Lankester and produced by Michael Hancock. News items were a football bribery trial, a new course on local government, Swedish sport and an item called ‘the body beautiful’.

1965 Immigrants Unit set up by Patrick Beech to provide Hindu/Urdu programmes. BBC’s first bi-media department, making programmes for both radio and television.

1967 First BBC Local Radio Station in Leicester.

1967 Pebble Mill – first sod was cut by then Director General Sir Hugh Greene.

1970 Nov 7 Pebble Mill began with Radio Birmingham, later became Radio WM.

1971 HRH Princess Anne officially opens the new Pebble Mill studios.

1972-86 Pebble Mill at One, presenters included Donny Macleod, Bob Langley, Ross King, Judi Spiers and Alan Titchmarsh.

1976 Saturday Night at the Mill – live. All staged in either one of the studios or outside the front of Pebble Mill. The courtyard around the back was constructed into a mini ice-rink with a canopy area for if it rained when live bands were on.

1977 The Horror of Fang Rock, only episode of Dr Who to be filmed here at The Mill. The set consisted of a lighthouse built in the studio, and it was the setting for a battle with an alien shape shifter. The story featured the one and only appearance in the series of a Rutan – seen in its natural state as an amorphous green blob with trailing tentacles. It was the fifteenth season of the series and the Doctor at the time was Tom Baker. It was transmitted between 03/09/1977 and 24/09/1977.

1988 Oct Midlands Today became the first regional news programme to include a nightly sports section.

Immigrants’ Programmes Unit

This BBC article can be found on the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/4/newsid_2540000/2540633.stm

The Immigrants Programme Unit began in 1965, combining both a radio and television service for newly arrived Asian immigrants. The BBC Birmingham Unit was based at Carpenter Road in Edgbaston.

The following comment was added on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:

Pete Simpkin: ‘When Radio Birmingham started in 1970 we used to rebroadcast this series as well.’

The Immigrants’ Programme Unit

The Immigrants’ Programme Unit from pebblemill on Vimeo.

In this specially recorded interview, Stephanie Silk talks about becoming a production assistant in the newly formed Immigrants’ Programme Unit, at BBC Birmingham in 1966.

The Unit made a number of series to support newly arrived immigrants to the United Kingdom. The series that Steph talks about here was an Asian magazine show, with journalistic items, as well as arts and music inserts. It was a studio show, with inserts on film, and was in Hindustani, which was apparently understandable by both Muslim and Hindu viewers. The presenters of the show were Mahendra Kaul, and Saleem Shahed, and head of the Unit was David Gretton, and the studio director, Paul Morby.

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:

Peter Poole: ‘I remember Mahendra and Saleem well. An interesting experience trying to edit in Urdu!’