Jock Gallagher – What Was Pebble Mill?

Broad Street

These photographs pre-date Pebble Mill. They show the studio and newsroom when the BBC regional news operation was in Broad Street, Birmingham.

Included in the top photo are: L to R – Cyril Wilkinson, Gwen Smith, Jock Gallgaher on the phone, ?, but on the extreme right with back to camera is Barney Bamford (I think). It is taken in the newsroom at Broad Street. (Thanks to Gillian Thompson for identifying almost everyone!)

It’s interesting to see the caption card with the Midlands Today title on the stand, and the monitor with ‘Nottingham’ on.

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:

Steve Saunderson: ‘There was little studio in Derby Road, Nottingham above the Jaegar shop. I first worked for a crew that was based there. It had 2 black and white cameras which Terry used to operate remotely in a tiny studio which Les Dawson described as a “technological broom cupboard” when he came in to do an interview down the line to Pebble Mill. They later moved into the bigger “sound” studio and I think actually went to colour and then into their present home.’

Peter Greenhalgh: ‘I moved to the Nottm studio in 83 as an engineer, not long after Terry left. It was colour by then (EMI 2001 cameras). The next move was to York House in 1989 think. That was where Radio Nottingham was and has now been demolished. We are currently in the London Road studios, which opened for radio and TV in 1999.’

Colin Pierpoint: ‘Nottingham television studio was in Black and White at the Broad Street time. I don’t remember if it was an outside source to BM or did a separate opt out, but I do remember at that time I saw a fault on the Notts insert, so I rang the control line to query it and heard a “Tingaling” on the sound off air! The telephone communication was to a field telephone on the studio floor with no ringing mute on TX. The change to colour was while I was at Pebble Mill, so between 1970 and 1980. Malcolm and I were sent to Bardon Hill with a standby generator in case the mains failed.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘The mains was OK, but the standby generator failed.’

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William Smethurst

William Smethurst, photo by Simon Farquhar, no reproduction without permission

WILLIAM SMETHURST : TRIBUTE AND FUNERAL DETAILS

You may have heard on the news that William Smethurst, one time Editor of The Archers, passed away, on 22nd July.

William was at the helm when I was first trusted to mix the drama. I have always remembered trying to compassionately manage a particularly lethargic spot operator during an episode that William was directing. William, kindly but authoritatively, encouraged me to deal with the issue. With knots in my stomach, fearing the immense hurt I was going to cause my colleague, I went into the studio, only to discover that he couldn’t have cared less! I learned valuable lessons: that not everyone has the same sense of duty and obligation, and that difficult issues are best tackled sooner than later. This has stood me in good stead ever since. Thank you, William. Needless to say, said spot operator went on to become a very successful Radio 1 producer, later to forge a successful career in both broadcasting and feature films!

Writer, Jo Toye, was learning her craft at the same time that I was learning mine, and has sent this tribute:

“William arrived on the writing team of The Archers in the mid-Seventies and started his shake-up of the programme in his typically imaginative way then. By the time I joined the production team as a PA in 1980, he’d been Editor for a year and delighted in the team of ‘left-wing, feminist’ writers he’d engaged. His storylines eschewed social comment for what he called ‘social comedy’ – a typical Bridge Farm family story involved not the dawning realisation of domestic abuse but the saga of CND-supporting Pat changing their daily paper from the ‘Express’ to the ‘Guardian’, to Tony’s mystification. As I typed the scripts his bold crossings-out and rewritings taught me everything I know – no chance of the writers doing their own rewrites then as everything was sent in hard copy, by post…

With his clear-sightedness about what The Archers should be – ‘the voice of the shires’ – and the support of then Network Editor Radio, Jock Gallagher, who’d rescued the programme from the doldrums after the retirement of the legendary Godfrey Baseley – William’s energy and ever-whirring marketing brain raised the programme’s profile and listenership.

So many of the characters he created are still there today – Caroline Sterling, Susan Carter, and the inimitable Grundys, while others (Nelson, Nigel) have passed into Archers mythology. So many of the writers he took on – me included – are still writing today. His willingness to back untried young hopefuls didn’t stop at The Archers: when he later created and ran the sci-fi soap Jupiter Moon for BSkyB he gave their first big break to Anna Chancellor and Jason Durr.

He could be tough when he wanted to be – when he moved to Crossroads in 1986 he revelled in the title of ‘Butcher Bill’ – but he was also ingenious, inventive, intelligent, witty, warm, massively well-read, and a genuine lover of the countryside, its seasonal rhythms and its history.

He shepherded The Archers through what many now see as a golden age – in simpler times and in the very special atmosphere of Pebble Mill itself. He brought great pleasure to millions of people but for me it was personal. I owe him everything and shall always be grateful.”

William’s funeral will be at 2pm, on Tuesday 2nd August, at Halford Village Church, Queen Street, Halford, Near Shipston on Stour.

Louise Willcox

(Here is an obituary for William Smethurst on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36905761 )

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘Sad indeed. Fine, much deserved tributes. I loved his sense of mischief and gossip, wry chuckle and that dangerous glint in his eye that warned that you or your name might just find their way into Ambridge.’

Cathy Houghton: ‘I worked with him on Midlands Today, a really lovely man.’

Linda Flavell: ‘Loved working with Bill so many years ago, a truly lovely guy.’

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Jock Gallagher Prospero Article

This article was written for the February 2014 edition of the BBC retirees newspaper, Prospero.

Jock Gallagher blog

Considering the glorious sound and fury the network radio team created at Pebble Mill down the years, I’m sorry that there are so few contributions from the wireless wonders.

I was editor and then Head of Network Radio for the best part of twenty years (1970-89), and I can recall an astonishing array of talent that passed through the radio studios both in front of and behind the mic. When I started with the Beeb in 1966 (pre Pebble Mill), I worked in the Broad Street newsroom for the fiercesome Glaswegian Jack Johnston and was regularly saved from his wrath by Roy Ronnie and Sam Shaw! Despite Jack’s attempt to fire me, I survived and thrived well enough to climb the greasy pole and had a key part in the move into Pebble Mill in 1970. In fact, when Alan Rees (Head of the Centre at the time) became ill, I got lumbered with the whole fandango of the royal opening of the building.

So…I have a shedload of memories but is there anyone out there who wants to hear them?

It would be nice to hear from some of the old school but I warn you, I won’t need too much encouragement to shout my mouth off!

Jock Gallagher (Pebble Mill from the beginning until 1989)

Philip Morgan’s blog

My first brush with the newly opened BBC Midlands HQ was when my school class were “extras” on the rides at a fairground set up in Cannon Hill Park as part of the 100th edition of the lunchtime Pebble Mill at One programme. It was the 1970’s and I was fascinated by the Outside Broadcast operation mounted just across the road from the gleaming new studio complex. From that day on my heart was set on a career in broadcasting.

When I left school I wrote in to the (then) BBC Radio Birmingham and was invited to go along to look around the station. I remember it well as my visit was on the very same day that the stunt artist famously jumped off the building onto a pile of cardboard boxes in the courtyard for Pebble Mill at One. The visit led to the chance to become a “helper” on the Saturday children’s programme “Radio Brum Club” which was broadcast at 10.00am on Saturday morning before the “Ross and Henry Show” with a repeat at the same time on Sunday. I helped by recording the ROT, editing insert tapes on Studer B62’s, driving the MKII Pye desk in the Studio 2 cubicle and also doing location interviews with a Uher tape machine. Before long I was doing all sorts of fun interviews and features – frequently nabbing guests from Pebble Mill at One or The Basil Brush Show (which was “hosted” in TV Studio A on Saturdays). I did interviews with a very young Lenny Henry at the old Bingley Hall and a ringside knockabout chat with the wrestler Jackie Pallo Jnr. After these items had been on Brum Club I popped them into an envelope and sent them on to the Radio One “Playground” programme (a networked magazine similar to “Brum Club”) which went out on Sunday mornings just before “Junior Choice” (and so ‘pre-inherited’ an audience of many millions of listeners). Sadly I heard nothing more and assumed that my cheeky submission of a little jiffy bag of 5″ tapes and cue sheets had been chucked into a recycling bin at Broadcasting House!

Some months later at a party I met a teacher friend in Birmingham who it turned out had been freelancing for “Playground”. Out of the blue she congratulated me for my interview items – which she revealed had actually been broadcast on “Playground”. She urged me to get in touch with the producer (Don George at BH) as he was trying to trace me so that he could pay my network fees and give me more work. When I got in touch with Don he very kindly invited me to visit the recording of “Playground” one week at Egton House and introduced me to the presenter David Rider. Don had links to BBC Midlands himself as he revealed himself to have been on attachment to the 282 Broad Street radio studios in the 1950’s and he had been one of the SM’s who helped to “kill” Grace Archer (with the SFX of a burning barn anyway!). He kindly arranged with Jock Gallagher (Network Editor Radio at Pebble Mill at that time) that I could join the other network freelance contributors on the fifth floor at Pebble Mill and make regular contributions to the show. This was certainly a very lucky break and led to the chance to offer interviews to “Playground” as well as other programmes such as “The John Dunn Show” on Radio 2.

Network radio was certainly a very different operation to its local counterpart. I couldn’t just wander into an empty studio and ‘self-op’ a feature. Instead I would have to book a studio through the bookings department and someone from the Audio Unit would be on hand to operate the area. One day I needed to record some links for a package that I had produced with the pop star David Soul. When I booked a studio I was surprised that the only area available was Studio 1 where the Midlands Radio Orchestra recorded. Of course I expected that I would record my links in the adjoining “narrator studio” adjacent to the cubicle. However when I turned up in the cubicle at 10.00am with my typewritten script to start the booking the sound supervisor claimed that he had no idea how to patch a mic from the studio into the Type “D” desk and then he indicated that I would have to do my links from “out there” – the 3,000 sq ft floor of the concert studio itself! The studio was completely empty except for a microphone and headphones laid out on a small square table in the centre of the floor and a set of acoustic screens which had been carefully set up on three sides of the table. As I sat alone at that microphone in that massive studio and cleared my throat for the recording I was terrified! I must admit that over the years I’ve come to the conclusion that this was all a jolly jape by the sound supervisor to give me a bit of a baptism by fire…

I used to spend as much time as I could in the radio studios, or helping to edit tapes in the office for other colleagues. My forays around the building included lots of time spent in the Studio “A” observation gallery and in edit suites. Pebble Mill was a marvellous centre in that everyone was friendly and people were always ready to share knowledge if you were keen to ask questions. I knew designers, journalists, film editors, directors, researchers, projectionists, sound supervisors, people from TAR, indeed from all over the building. Because Pebble Mill had all aspects of production under one roof it was a terrific place to learn the nuts and bolts of broadcasting. I soon became friends with people in the film transfer suites who would kindly help me out when they had downtime by letting me copy tapes or grab sound effects and that led to opportunities to do freelance shifts in transfer or the dubbing record room working in areas that very few people in the building knew much about – or even knew existed! It was a perfect combination with my radio work and I spent several years freelancing in both areas.

The Network Radio department always seemed to be thriving under Jock Gallagher and I remember several very happy Christmas lunches where after we had enjoyed lunch in the 7th floor canteen, Jock would lead all the radio folks behind the serving counter and we would serve Christmas lunch to all the catering staff (who obviously numbered many more than those we actually saw behind the servery each day).

Eventually I joined the BBC technical staff elsewhere in the BBC and did the BBC “A” course at Wood Norton. But I will always cherish my teen years spent at Pebble Mill and treasure the wonderful people from so many departments who took me under their wing and so generously shared their expertise and enthusiasm with me.

Pebble Mill in the 70’s was a bustling and innovative production centre and the building – and its equipment – was gleaming and state of the art and the staff shared a real sense of optimism where any creative idea seemed possible. I was therefore a little sad to return for the auction of contents (in November 2004) and to explore the building which by then was on the brink of final closure and looked completely forlorn. Its offices and technical areas were very shabby and of course almost completely devoid of all the wonderful and talented people that I was so used to seeing in the past and which brought the place to life. Nevertheless I decided to photograph as much as possible before the building was lost forever. Pebble Mill was a unique and happy working environment which produced so many fine and memorable programmes in its heyday. I was always proud to have the chance to work there with so many warm and wonderful people. It all seems like only yesterday…

Philip Morgan