Katie Cooper – What Was Pebble Mill?

Ed Doolan 1941-2018

Ed Doolan receiving a lifetime achievement award in 2015

Australian born, Radio WM presenter, Ed Doolan, has died today (Jan 16th 2018) aged 76. Ed revealed that he was suffering from vascular dementia in 2015.

Radio WM paid tribute to him in the following announcement:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05v1x7y

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

Tim Manning: ‘I was Ed’s first producer at Radio WM when he moved to the BBC from BRMB in 1982. There was a bit of nervousness behind the scenes, as this was really the first time the BBC had poached a big name from a commercial rival for a local radio station. Bosses in London were reportedly a bit uncomfortable about the cost, and some staff at WM weren’t too happy, worrying that they were being pushed aside. Ed was also nervous, as he feared that his listeners might desert him and that Radio WM’s audience wouldn’t take to him. John Pickles, then the manager of the station, was convinced that the publicity coup of Ed’s arrival would lift the station’s profile, and that Ed would fit in; he was proved right.

In fact, Ed settled in really quickly, and Radio WM gave him space to grow. Ed was a great showman, with a style more akin to the big TV chat show hosts of the era than conventional radio presenters of the time, and he loved doing celebrity interviews. Nonetheless, underneath the larger-than-life on-air persona, he was a sharp current affairs journalist with a real sense of what mattered to his audience and he really knew and understood Birmingham and the West Midlands. I’m glad he was never spirited away to Network Radio (there was talk of it), as he was at his best skewering local and national politicians on behalf of his listeners. Few broadcasters have had such a lasting impact on their local community.’

Linda Flavell: ‘Ed did quite a lot on Regional TV too, although I thibhe was at his best on radio. Sad loss.’

Katie Cooper: ‘I’m so glad to have seen him at the last Pebble Mill coffee morning I got to. Lovely man.’

Victoria Wood 1953-2016

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Comedienne Victoria Wood died today, aged 62, after a battle with cancer.

Birmingham played an important part in launching Victoria Wood’s career. She studied Drama at Birmingham University in 1971, and as you’ll see from the excerpt of her obituary in the Telegraph today, one of her first professional engagements was at BBC Pebble Mill. Does anyone know what the ‘local television programme about Midlands Life’ was? Please add a comment if you do.

I think that Victoria was probably quite a challenging student at Birmingham University. I studied English and Drama there a decade later, and remember being told by one of our lecturers, Gerry McCarthy, that Victoria had refused to choose any of the options she was offered, and they had to put together a module on Farce especially for her!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/04/20/victoria-wood—obituary/

“In 1971 she enrolled at Birmingham University to study Drama and Theatre Arts and while working as a part-time barmaid in a pub frequented by BBC producers was invited to a party where she played a few of her songs. The following day she auditioned at the BBC studio, Pebble Mill, and was given a spot on a local television programme about Midlands life. This led to another audition, and two appearances on the ITV talent show New Faces, one of which she won.”

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

Lynn Cullimore: ‘I do know that John Clarke knew her and I think he was the producer. I was John’s Production Assistant after that time but I know they were friends. What an amazing lady though – so talented and so sad she is no longer with us. What has been happening lately that we have lost so many talented artists.’

Katie Cooper (Wright): ‘Apart from the regional news programme we also had the ‘Regional Opt Out’. Half an hour’s worth. Regionally based and ranging from news magazines to inter-town quizzes….travelogues, history, even live music + audience from Studio B!!!!. John Clarke and Roger Casstles were two of the Producers in the days of Victoria Wood. David Nelson and I amongst the Directors… Couldn’t name the specific programme she was involved in though…sorry.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Back in those days, Midlands News did 2 half hour opt outs a week. One on a Tuesday night and one on a Thursday night. They often featured a particular town or event. It may have been one of those programmes.’

Andy Walters: ‘I’m sure some of her As Seen On TV series was filmed around the corridors of Pebble Mill.’

Jane Clement: ‘A lovely lady, met her several times on the Mill. Another one gone too soon.’

John Endall RIP

John Endall on a PM@1 OB in the Cotswolds. Photo by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

I’m sorry to have to tell you that John Endall died on Saturday morning. He didn’t recover from his fall in the autumn of last year, despite having had a new hip replacement. His daughter, Penny told me that he had been in Kidderminster hospital for quite a while, for recuperation, but had developed various infections and also hadn’t really been given enough physio to avoid muscle wastage. The latter meant that he hadn’t the strength to attempt to walk towards the end.

I visited him in Redditch hospital a few weeks after his operation, and he seemed quite chipper at the time. I told him that only the previous day I had been walking near Rutland Water and had come across the pub in Whissendine where we used to stay whilst doing Gardeners’ World from Barnsdale. Needless to say many ‘fireside O.B. yarns’ were told after that!

John Kimberley

John worked at Alexandra Palace after the war and then Carpenter Road and later Pebble Mill. Known to many as ‘Biggles’, he had a good innings reaching 90 years and was active with swimming and sailing throughout his retirement.

Anne Gumbley-Williams

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

Tim Dann: Dear old John, God Bless…RIP….”Biggles” it said in the link above…I remember well entering the bar when it was on the second floor at PM…in a ‘Posse’ of Designers & Design assistants looking for mischief…. & John, leaning on the bar, giving it ‘rock all’ about the war & his time in ‘Fighters.’ & the Battle of Britain…..”Bloody hell!” cried one of our company rather uncharitably…”Not another one of the bloody ‘Few!!’….you buggers must have been eight to a Spitfire!”….John nearly swallowed his pipe, spilt his bitter down his front before collecting himself & raging at our raiding party about being lucky and what the ‘Few’ had sacrificed before stomping off in a haze of blue pipe smoke….No lasting damage done (save perhaps from the passive smoking of the era!)…just another example of the amazing relationship that we all had with each other during certainly my time at PM which was 73 – 79…….Off into the ‘wild blue yonder’ John…Give em hell!

Katie Cooper: ‘Such a lovely ‘wicked’ man…… Always a giggle…RIP’

Diane Reid: ‘He was the pilot for my first ever glider flight – he also taught me a thing or two about OBs – a real gent.’

Sue Nicholson 1952-2014

Sue Nicholson, who worked in Regional Television at Pebble Mill in the 1970s and early 1980s, sadly died on Saturday 3rd May 2014. She was diagnosed with cancer some years ago and after surgery and treatment appeared to have recovered. Unfortunately the cancer returned last year and despite further surgery and chemotherapy the tumour spread further. She died at home, surrounded by her family. She celebrated her 62nd birthday on Thursday 1st May.

Sue worked on a range of regional output at Pebble Mill, before returning to London and working in the Sports Department.

(Thanks for Katie Cooper for sharing this information)

Pebble Mill Newsroom

Good Morning in Berlin

‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ did a live outside broadcast from Berlin, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Nov 1994. The show was transmitted from the Radisson Hotel in Berlin. The presenters included Anne Diamond, Nick Owen, Will Hanrahan, Tania Bryer, and Jeni Barnett.

The photos include: Sue Robinson, Sangeeta Modha, Katie Wright, Will Hanrahan, Nick Owen, Nick Thorogood, Marco, Steve Pierson.

The furniture for the broadcast was delivered to the hotel – but it was flat-packed, which meant that the first job was to literally build the set!

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

Conal O’Donnell: ‘The Doolan programme did a show out of the former GDR studios in Liepzig a year after the wall came down .Strangely we still had a sort of old style communist minder with us who got terribly drunk over dinner & talked endlessly about the ghastliness of the fallen regime. Ashen faced & hung over the next morning he approached in tears begging us not to repeat anything he’d said the night before “it could ruin my career”(!)It was apparent that the old cultural cringe at saying anything remotely controversial was very much still there.Impressed too at our free wheeling ” anything goes” broadcasting style were the former GDR broadcasters who watched the show go out in some awe.A pleasant reminder of a time when the BBC was regarded as a free speech beacon to the world not a Saville style cess pit..’

Katie Wright (now Cooper): ‘God…memories! Yes it was the 5th Anniversary. The furniture arriving ‘flat’ was unbelievable but in the way of Pebble Mill folk, everyone just got on with building the stuff. I’m amazed it lasted the two hours…there were a lot of bits left over?! It was a great show with some very moving memories from Andrew Sachs. Then we all had to pile onto a rather ancient chartered aircraft to get back in time for the next day’s show……’