Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
These commemorative stamps were given to BBC members of staff to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the BBC, in 1972. Sue Sweet has kept her presentation pack safe since then, and has kindly shared it here.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
Thanks to Sue Sweet for sharing this cutting from 1971, of her operating some sound effects for The Archers, in the BBC’s studios in Broad Street, Birmingham. Sue worked in the Sound Effects library at Broad Street, and would help out with effects when necessary.
Studio manager, Alastair Askham, sadly died in the early 1980s.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
Thanks to Sue Sweet for sharing this press cutting.
I don’t know the date of this cutting, but it is either from the 1970s or very early 1980s, and is presumably from one of the Birmingham local papers, and by a journalist who can’t spell ‘Pebble’. The woman obviously came well armed with bricks, in case the first one failed to break the window! Was the woman an irrate viewer?
The lunchtime magazine show, Pebble Mill at One used to bring out all sorts of merchandise and information for viewers, such as sewing patterns, fact-sheets and recipes. Here are a couple of sewing patterns from the early 1980s which were bought by a viewer, but seem to be unused!
I remember buying a similar pattern Pebble Mill pattern as a teenager, and making quite a successful vest top for myself!
Thanks to Sue Sweet for sharing the photo of the patterns.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Jane Clement: ‘That brings back memories. Hilary James made a fortune out of these. It was one of the most successful regular segments ever on PM – we sold thousands of her patterns. I was the researcher who introduced her to the show and looked after her whenever she was there – we became quite good friends. Ironically, I can’t sew a thing myself!’
Mike Hayes: ‘…and so The Clothes Show was born…’
Princess Anne opening Pebble Mill. Copyright Sue Sweet, no reproduction without permission.
As a follow up to the recent blog about who should officially open the new Pebble Mill building: http://www.pebblemill.org/blog/who-should-open-pebble-mill/ the next memo of interest in the BBC’s Written Archives at Caversham dates from 16th January 1970. It is from the BBC Director of Public Affairs, Kenneth Lamb, to the Director General, Charles Curran, and suggests that either the Prince of Wales, or Princess Anne should be asked to open the new broadcast centre in 1971. Lamb adds that he thinks that one of the ‘new generation of Royals’ would be ‘appropriate’ for the occasion, and both Prince Charles and Princess Anne are ‘one up the scale’ from the Royals who had opened the ITV centres. Princess Alexandra had recently opened the ATV centre in Birmingham!
Princess Anne was subsequently approached to open Pebble Mill.
The BBC obviously did not want to be upstaged by the calibre of Royal that ITV were able to attract!