copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
This is an excerpt from an interview with the Assistant Editor of Pebble Mill at One, Peter Hercombe, from a book called Working in Television written in 1980 by Jan Leeming, who worked at Pebble Mill for a time. The aim was to encourage young people to think about careers in television.
Thanks to Jonathan Dick, who has sadly died recently since sharing the excerpt.
copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
This is an excerpt from an interview with technical manager, Derek Price, from a book called Working in Television written in 1980 by Jan Leeming, who worked at Pebble Mill for a time. The aim was to encourage young people to think about careers in television.
Thanks to Jonathan Dick for sharing the photo, who has sadly died since sharing the excerpts.
copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
Directors: Chris Wright, David Weir, Mark Kershaw, from Tom O’Connor Roadshow
This is an excerpt from an interview with David Weir, from a book called Working in Television written in 1980 by Jan Leeming, who worked at Pebble Mill for a time. The aim was to encourage young people to think about careers in television. David went on to become a successful multi-camera director.
Thanks to Jonathan Dick for sharing the photo, who has sadly died since sharing the excerpts.
The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Gordon Astley: ‘I first met David in the ‘60s when he came into my dad’s petrol station In Hall Green . As I filled up his sports car we got chatting and he told me about the T.O. Course at Wood Norton. That was the start of my 40 year broadcasting career. We met a few times over the years and I only once committed the cardinal sin of calling him ‘Dave’.’
Excerpt from ‘Working in Television’ 1980, by Jan Leeming
This is an excerpt from an interview with Clare Stride, from a book called Working in Television written in 1980 by Jan Leeming, who worked at Pebble Mill for a time. The aim was to encourage young people to think about careers in television. Clare was working as a research assistant at the time, and later became a producer on The Clothes Show and a series producer on various Daytime shows. I worked with her when she was a producer on Good Morning with Anne and Nick in the early 1990s. She sadly died aged 55 in 2006.
Thanks to Jonathan Dick for sharing the photo, who has sadly died since sharing the excerpts.
Clare Stride on the Severn Valley Railway. Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission
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