Terry Dobson

Terry Dobson, who launched the Pebble Mill at One programme in 1972 and remained its editor until 1978, died on Saturday, 19th September in Devon. He was 87.

Terry joined Pebble Mill from BBC North East, and left Birmingham in 1978 to become Regional Television Manager at BBC South, Southampton.

In the mid 80’s he returned to Pebble Mill as Managing Editor, English regions.

(text from Jim Dumighan)

The photos feature Terry Dobson and the Pebble Mill at One production office, and date from the mid 1970s. They were taken by Ken Williams.

: Terry Dobson

: Sue Ashcroft

: Pebble Mill at One production office

: EMI camera

Steve Weddle remembered by Steph Silk

Marian Foster with Steve Weddle

Today [8th April 2020] is Steve Weddle’s funeral and from a distance I mourn the shocking devastating loss of a lifetime friend. In 1976 we were both new researchers, desk to desk in the hairy scary Dobson days of PM@1. All the producers and directors were male and all the researchers except Steve were female – that’s what it was like in those days. Never macho, Steve quickly became one of the girls to the extent that his name was on the office PMT wall-chart.

First and foremost, Steve was fun. He was of course talented and creative, wacky and wonderful and super sociable but he also had great empathy and kindness and was friends with one and all. He gave my daughter her TV break and passed on his Spurs programmes to my grandson.

Recently we had two lovely holidays at the Exotic Marigold Hotel in Menorca. Steve, a great holiday companion, suggested that we should travel as Hinge and Bracket.

Post Beeb we met up every month with our fellow Sagalouts to wine and dine down Memory Lane. In January we celebrated his 70th birthday. In February Steve talked about his latest book, not an autobiography exactly but drawing on his life in television.
That would have been a good read.

Stephanie Silk

45th anniversary of Pebble Mill at One

It is 45 years this month since Pebble Mill at One first hit our screens in October 1972. The photograph above shows the foyer, before it was turned into the Pebble Mill at One studio.

Here is the entry from the Radio Times, for the first Pebble Mill at One aired on 2nd October 1972 from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9d1ca776d4e347dd91864bdb0533c460

“Anything can happen in this daily half-hour of people, views and music – in other words, entertainment.
It will happen in the entrance hall of the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham where Robert Langley will be welcoming the guests, people in the headlines and you – viewers who have something to say or do.

Presenter: Robert Langley
Editor: Terry Dobson”

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

Paul Westwood: ‘Thought PM was always 45 mins long? I read somewhere that as the lunchtime news & Pm At One were the only programmes during the day at one point, apart from the test card, that Birmingham was in charge of the network for that period, not London! Is that true?’

Andy Marriott: ‘Interesting to see how much of the design of that reception wouldn’t look out of place in a modern building.’

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Pebble Mill at One 1976

This photo of the Pebble Mill at One presenters was taken on the area just by the bridge at the front of the foyer studio, on September 7th 1976. Included, left to right are: Donny Macleod, Marian Foster, Bob Langley, Jan Leeming and David Seymour.

Thanks to Gary Jordan for sharing the photograph.

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

Robert Greaves: ‘What a great picture. Pebble Mill at One was always a good reason to miss first period of afternoon school! Marian was always the most professional yet homely – I often wonder what she did after Pebble Mill.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Such memories of those days and lovely Donny who died.’

Sue Westwood: ‘I loved Pebble Mill at One. My neighbour made the cake for the final programme.’

Steve Weddle: ‘That was the year I joined the production team as a researcher on PM at One. I was lucky to work with a really great line-up of presenters, and a brilliant editor called Terry Dobson, who virtually invented the daytime magazine show.’

Pebble Mill at One Office

Photos by Ken Williams, no reproduction without permission.

These photos date from the 1970s. They show the Pebble Mill at One production office.

Thanks to Keith Brook (aka Scouse) for sharing the photos.

Photo 1 has Heather Turner, hands on hips, who was in charge of fashion items, Sue Ashcroft in the middle and Roger Laughton on the right. Roger was deputy editor who went on to be Managing Director of Meridian.

Photo 2 has Yvonne Ackrill on the right and I don’t know who on the left.

Photo 3 has the same lady again and Terry Dobson, the infamous editor, trying to be dominating.Photo 4 is Sue Ashcroft again in a typical, shy and quiet pose!

The following comment was posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Keith Brook: ‘The camera (in the 2nd photo) is an EMI 201 that was used as a makeshift prompter. Slung underneath the studio cameras were small TV monitors showing the script, which meant the presenters were always looking down slightly.’