Midlands Today T-shirt, circa 1980s. Thanks to Jane Partridge for sharing the photos, of husband Phil’s T-shirt. Impressive that it’s lasted so well, and been so well looked after.
Tag: Jane Partridge
News Team
Photos by Jane Partridge, no reproduction without permission
‘News Team’ T-shirt belonging to Phil Partridge.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Ian Collins: ‘It was an animated logo and a version of it was on the front of the building for a while.’
Stuart Gandy: ‘You are right Ian, it was on the front of the building as can be seen in the picture on this wikipedia page about Pebble Mill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mill_Studios. I think I remember it being animated when it appeared at the start of the programme. I’m sort of guessing late 80s.’
Camilla Fisher: ‘The logo was designed by Tony Fisher based on transport etc meeting in the middle (rather than something going down the drain).’
Radio Birmingham top
Photos by Jane Partridge, no reproduction without permission
Radio Birmingham top, belonging to Phil Partridge. This dates from the very late 1970s or early 1980s. Thanks to Jane Partridge for taking and sharing the photos.
The following comments were added on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Tim Manning: ‘These were produced while negotiations about changing the name were still going on with the BBC in London; “WM”, rather than a standard place name, was a big change for BBC local radio style. John Pickles, the manager, wanted to get on with a “soft” relaunch of the station in the meantime, and for a while there was less emphasis on Radio Birmingham and more on “206” and the broader West Midlands identify.’
Andy Walters: ‘I have a feeling that dates from 78. It later morphed into the Radio WM logo. To show you how old some of our OB gear is, this logo still adorns some of it.’
Radio WM sticker on OB kit still being used!
Pete Simpkin: ‘This one was the best of all the designs for the Radio Birmingham/WM shirts…..wore all mine till they fell to pieces!!’
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??’
Gangsters complaint
Letter from Mary Whitehouse to David Rose
David Rose’s reply to Mary Whitehouse
This exchange of letters was given to me by David Rose several years ago.
Mary Whitehouse, in capacity of General Secretary of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, which she established, complained about many television programmes from the 1960s onwards. The 1975 ‘Play for Today’, Gangsters, clearly wasn’t to her taste, because of its violence, and ‘coarseness’. David Rose’s response defends the themes and tone of the film, as well as stating its public acclaim. I suspect that it felt like a badge of honour to provoke this kind of complaint from Mary Whitehouse: a way of gauging that the point of the play had been successfully made to the audience!
The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Jane Partridge: ‘Did you know the lady herself was a visiting speaker for the Royal Television Society Midland Centre’s meeting at Pebble Mill? It would have been somewhere around 1979-1980, possibly early 1981 (but definitely before June that year when I had to change departments). John Grantham was Secretary of the Midland Centre, and as his secretary, I had the job of meeting Mrs Whitehouse in Reception and taking her up to the room we used for the meetings. She was, in fact, a very nice person.’