To Buy or Not to Buy – What Was Pebble Mill?

List of Pebble Mill programmes

Photo by Ben Peissel, no reproduction without permission

This a list of factual television programmes, described as ‘current’, was produced before the closure of Pebble Mill, around 2004. The list is included in a document housed in the BBC Archives in Caversham.

BBC One:

Points of View, Animal Sanctuary

BBC Two:

Gardeners’ World, Gardeners’ World Specials, Gardeners’ World Live, RHS Tatton, Gardener of the Year, Small Town Gardens, Rachel’s Country Garden [I don’t think this series was actually made], Million Pound Property Challenge, SAS Survival Secrets, Big Dreams – The Secrets of Asian Success, How I made My Property Millions

BBC Three:

The Brief: India and Pakistan, Greatest Eunuch Show, Black Beauty

BBC One Daytime:

Countryfile, Call My Bluff, To Buy or Not to Buy, Trading Up, Big Strong Boys, Sunday Garden, Trading Up in the Sun

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

Caroline Feldon Parsons: ‘I worked on 10 of those programmes! And don’t forget all the Radio programmes that were also being currently made …’

Simon Vaughan: ‘Pebble Mill was an amazing production centre – why on earth decommission it and pull it down, such an absolute waste. Just like TVC, their like will never be seen again.’

Carole Lowe: ‘Miss Pebble Mill a great building I worked on Anne and Nick and other programmes. Sad loss to BIRMINGHAM.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Proper broadcasting centre.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘..and of course all the Radio…Live music , recorded music, Radio 2, Radio 3, amazing amount of Radio 4 ….drama, features, documentaries, the Archers and all the Local Radio as well!’

Judith Markall: ‘A sin to knock the building down!’

We are BBC Birmingham – Resources & Drama

This still is from a brochure produced when BBC Birmingham moved to the Mailbox, in 2004. The brochure was for staff and people elsewhere in the industry, promoting the services and departments within BBC Birmingham.

Post production took outside bookings at this time, from series like Fifth Gear, as well as internal bookings.

Drama, did not relocate to the Mailbox, due to insufficient space, the cost, and the inability to film scenes around the premises, and instead arranged accommodation for themselves at the University of Birmingham.

Thanks to Dharmesh Rajput for sharing the brochure, and keeping it safe for the last decade.

Factual and Learning – We are BBC Birmingham

This sheet about the Factual & Learning department, was part of a booklet given to all staff when BBC Birmingham moved from Pebble Mill to the Mailbox in 2004.

The sheet lists various recent and current programmes made by the department, including: £1 Million Pound Property Experiment, SAS Survival Secrets, Casualty Saved My Life, All the Queen’s Cooks, Sylvia Young Theatre School, and Coast. Major series included: Gardeners’ World, Countryfile, Points of View, Call My Bluff, and Sky at Night. Daytime titles included: To Buy or Not to Buy, Houses Behaving Badly, Feather Your Nest, Trading Up, Big Strong Boys. Asian Programmes unit shows mentioned are: Nuclear Paradise, India’s Ladyboys, The Joy of Curry, Dating the Asian Way, Desi DNA and Malai Presents.

Factual & Learning was a prolific department, producing a wide cross section of shows for BBC1, and 2 as well as some for BBC3.

Thanks to Dharmesh Rajput for sharing the booklet, and keeping it for the last decade.

Pebble Mill Props Cages

Photo by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.

This photo shows some of the props cages at Pebble Mill, together with a man in a very bright florescent vest! Props cages tended to be stored either in the basement of the building, or near the scene dock on the ground floor. They had wheels on the base, and so could be wheeled around easily. They were mostly used for dramas, although the studio and make-over shows also used them. I remember sometimes the cages weren’t where you’d left them, because they had been wheeled away by someone, which was rather disconcerting!

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

Steve Johnson: ‘I remember these. I used to work in the News Library next to the newsroom so was often in the basement looking for tapes or film reels.’

Andy Walters: ‘There are still a couple of props cages in the Horsefair car park. They still have the names of the last home makeover shows they were used for scribbled on the side in chalk.’

Marie Phillips: ‘Lovely House Services comandeered several each October for storing my Children In Need merchandise in the cabin loaned for free every year. Also – one Appeal Night me and Gyn Freeman got stuck in a lift behind one and had to keep going up and down until there was someone to rescue us. If you know Gyn and I you will know how funny that was !!’

Carol Churchill: ‘I remember the Props parties, well when l say remember that may be stretching the truth!’

Scott Holdsworth: ‘There were loads of these throughout the basement. I remember when Can’t Cook Won’t Cook finished and all the brand new pans were stored there for years. When there was a clear out I ended up with a kitchen full of lovely new utensils.’

Andy Bentley: ‘Props was great for fun when on nights, when we were in the old Security office at the back of the building we got a head from props. We put the head on a long pole and put it up to the edit suite window above the office. I reckon they could hear Trudy [Offer] and Ingrid [Wagner]’s screams in town. It looks more like Mervin in the photo.

Ruth Kiosses: ‘Best memories of the Props/costume store best known as Smelly (Oak). The Props Lads as they were affectionately known were real characters, especially Jacko who gave himself a wonderful long title which meant props lad. They had a tea room furnished in old Howards’ Way set so the drawers were dummies but it looked swish. I remember a lot of practical jokes after shooting a sex shop scene for a ‘murder mystery’? Series (title eludes me) although I remember costumes really well, lead lady in full Burberry check trousers etc, fabulous purple suede suit! Anyway the props as you can imagine were inflated and used for all sorts of interesting decorations!!!’

Teresa Fuller: ‘Was only privileged to visit Pebble Mill once, on an induction day. But when I worked at The Mailbox, we had storage cages over at the multi storey car park (the one with local rats and the fear of having a friendly local resident chucking something from the adjacent tower block as you walked back from your hire car drop-off)! Anyway, we used the cages to store props for To Buy or Not to Buy and one day a colleague and I had the pleasure of cleaning a cage out that was covered in mouse droppings. Nice.’

Andy Bentley: ‘There was also the skeleton propped up against a door in the basement so when Ted went on patrol and opened the door it fell out on him. Again I reckon the screams could be heard in town.’