Jane Green – 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

Dear Octopus 1959

Dear Octopus was transmitted on BBC television on 10th January 1960. It was produced at Gosta Green in Birmingham. The drama is set at a reunion of the Randoph family.

Joyce Hawkins worked on the costumes for the drama. Thanks to her for sharing this publicity photograph of Michael Denison, from the production.

Chloe Gibson was the director, and the play was written by Dodie Smith.

Michael Denison played Nicholas Randolph and Gwen Ffrangcon Davies played Dora Randolph.

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

Colin Pierpoint: I think I do remember it. Each of the characters was a bit weird in some way or other. Now I think of it the son ends up behaving like a baby at the end, with the parents encouraged by this, even though he is about 40. It was so way out, I thought it worthy of a Pebble Mill drama!’

Mary Sanchez: ‘I worked with Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray on Howard’s Way too- lovely almost regal like couple! They didn’t mind being driven around locations in my massive mini bus and were always very appreciative!! Climbing in and out …They invited me to their house in Amersham for tea, I never did go but they were very sweet indeed!’

Jane Green: ‘Ah! Michael was married to Dulcie Gray who played Kate Harvey in Howards Way. When we were filming near Southampton they gave me a lift back to my hotel in their car – which he proudly told me he’d bought off Princess Diana’s dad.(Dulcie was friends with the Queen Mum and used to go to Clarence House a lot for tea) The Denisons were a lovely, giggly, fun couple. Photo is of AFM Alison Symington and me on location standing infront of ‘Jan Howard’s’ car. About 1986.’

Vanity Fair, photos by Chris Glover

Paul Woolston and VPR20 videotape machine mounted on carriage

Low loader

Paul Woolston on 2CV camera car + director Mike Morris

Cherry picker. For lighting purposes I think, rather than a camera platform

Photos by Chris Glover from the 1987 drama series, Vanity Fair.

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

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Paul Woolston was a real gentleman. A sad loss..’

Jane Green: ‘Yes – lovely to see Paul Woolston in this pic. I was a runner on this. Up at 3am to bus in about a hundred extras to get into costume and make up – period dress – so took hours and hours, to shoot a ball scene at the Rothschilds’ fabulous Waddesdon Manor in Bucks. Seriously hard work! Lots of tired, hot, fed up actors to placate.’

Pres Studio

Photographs from Stuart Gandy, no reproduction without permission

Pres studio at Pebble Mill. This was probably taken around 2004, when the studio was being decommissioned with the move from Pebble Mill to the Mailbox.

Thanks to Stuart Gandy for sharing the photographs, which were originally posted on the Pebble Mill Engineers’ Facebook group.

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

Jason Dean: ‘The pres studio was largely left unused between it being the home of nightly weekday regional continuity during the late 1970s (all evening between Midlands Today and closedown in the early hours) and being used for Breakfast bulletins from Jan 1983. It looks like the photo might have been taken during this fallow period judging by the state of it?!’

Diane Kemp: ‘I did loads of bulletins from the little self opt studio, including the memorable time the Midlands was snowbound and we were interrupting network – all from there.
Can’t see it clearly enough to see the desk, the backdrop or the seat adjacent where SAs sat.’

Jane Green: ‘It looks like it’s being built or dismantled here….we SAs sat to the right of the presenter. It was a squash. The second photo shows what looks like a control desk that the presenter operated. Later on we had a proper backing with logo. Which once fell off on air as Jonathan Dick reminded me…National inserts were done from Pres too, if you had a guest for news or Newsnight. I sat there with Michael Heseltine one evening for what seemed an age. If it’s not Pres, I can’t think where it might be. The cameras would only be in Studio B or A otherwise?

Diane Kemp: ‘It’d be great to see a photo of it as it was. I’d say ‘in all its glory’, but to be fair it was never a beautiful space. Rivalled only by the fab studio in Nottingham above the probation service offices where you could hear the women’s toilets flush on-air.’

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??’