BBC Birmingham

From recent conversations, I have established the following information (which I have only ASSUMED is correct, but don't see why I would have been deliberately lied to)...

The part of The Mailbox buling in B'ham city centre that BBC Birmingham will eventually move to is not quite complete (although other parts of the building are up and running with shops, offices etc).

As far as me and my friends can establish, the newsroom is in The Mailbox but nothing else is. However very little is still housed at the Pebble Mill building in the Edgbaston suburb of B'ham.

All the other things that have moved out of Pebble Mill are being housed in an office block in Solihull (a town/city(?) that is very much a place in it's own right (as opposed to a suburb of B'ham) that is about 8/9km south east of B'ham city centre).

That is only a temporay home until the Mailbox is ready - which may not be October 2001 as I have previously stated in this forum - because of delays in building/furnishing The Mailbox.

BBC Birmingham rent out warehouses in Sollihull for the studio-based elements of the few programmes they still make for the network (e.g. the daytime drama Doctors). Although most of BBC Birmingham's current supplies to the BBC network are 80%-100% location-based (e.g. Countryfile).

I understand Pebble Mill is esentially the administrative centre of BBC Birmingham now (i.e. it's the address you would write to for information). Although of course even that will move to The Mailbox eventually.

The only other things still at Pebble Mill are the Midlands Today set and some (but not all) elements of BBC WM (local radio station for West Midlands)

Apparently, the MT set is now in the Pebble Mill reception, rather than a studio - with a temporary-type plywood wall to seperate it from the area immediately beside the reception desk.

It is entirely possible that the Midlands Today set is now in the reception area at Pebble Mill.

When Pebble Mill was built in the early 70s (?) the Foyer area was designed as both reception and a studio so had all the facilities for lighting, camera and sound required for live TV. I believe there may even have been a dedicated gallery for this area, though it is probably reasonably easy to plumb these facilities into the Midlands Today gallery (unless this has changed as well)

Those of us old enough to remember the programe Pebble Mill (originally Pebble Mill at One) will remember that it used to come from the lovely Foyer area, with its huge glass windows.

It was a pretty varied programme, with live music, live audience, gardening, cooking, chat show type interviews. It was also a great training ground for new studio directors - cos it was 5 days a week almost every week of the year.

It is such a pity that the BBC is closing Pebble Mill (and has already closed the studios in Manchester) as it is the end of regional studio production in England. (Bristol lost its network studio in the 90s)

I remember the revived version of Pebble Mill in the early 1990s (without 'at One' in the title as it was on at 12:00 - or was it 12:30? - becuase News After Noon had long-since been replaced by The One O'Clock News). The likes of Alan Titchmarsh, Judy Spiers, and Ross King presented it.

It was definately that programme which made the name of the building a household name, and therefore an icon of TV heritage. The fact that Pebble Mill has this status in people's minds make its current demise seem VERY sad and ignominious. (DICTIONARY: Ignominious means 'treated without due ceremony' or 'humiliating')

Indeed. Very much the end of an era.

I grew up watching Pebble Mill at One (and I also remember a late night version). The revived version had to drop the 'at One' bit cos the One O'Clock News had launched by then.

It is sad that the modern economics of broadcasting mean that the BBC can no longer make studio programmes in the regions.

(I think Newcastle was the beginning of the end, which started in the middle-to-late 80s. A large studio was built in Newcastle - for Childrens' programmes? - but it has only ever really housed local news. Plymouth and Southampton got nice-ish refurbishments/relocations - but they were the last. Norwich never got a decent sized studio - the foundations for an extension were, I believe, dug in the car park, but in the end it only got a bit of a gallery rebuild...)

I presume the foyer area is the same place that Daytime Live was broadcast from - I remember the big windows with a sofa in front of them.

I remember that, for a little while, Midlands Today was broadcast from this studio (including the windows) - presumably because the usual studio was being renovated.

Was the set for Anne & Nick also in this same studio, as they also had windows looking out onto the road - or did one of the other studios have windows too?

Yep - Daytime Live came from the Foyer I believe - ISTR that it was Pebble Mill by any other name! They rebranded the whole morning output - and bits of it came from both Manchester and Birmingham? (Programmes I remember from this by-gone era - Daytime Live, Daytime UK, People UK, Open Air, and latterly Style Challenge, The Really Useful Show etc. )

I certainly remember Debi Jones - who now presents on Shop! - presenting one of the programmes.

Didn't Anne and Nick co-exist with Pebble Mill? I think that would mean that Anne and Nick came from a studio, with Pebble Mill in the Foyer?

In fact - in days gone by BBC One presentation for daytime was also handled by Pebble Mill (including trails), with just the News and Weather coming from London (this was handled by NC1, as were the short 1'15 regional opts between the London News and Weather)

I think this was one major reason that Pebble Mill was the BBC presentation evacuation centre.... though I also understand that once the move to the Mailbox is complete a different centre will be appointed for Pres evacuation.

Any idea, which bits of WM are where?

I was under the impression, the majority of programmes came from Pebble Mill, with the exception of the Coventry breakfast show, Coventry's version of Sport on Saturday, Lorna & Geoff's Early Show & split news bulletins!

The only programme I am aware that comes from Queen Street, Wolverhampton, is Friday's Wolverhampton Community Magazine, which goes out at the same time as Coventry's 'Poles Apart' programme for the Coventry Polish community!

BTW Hello, this my first post, after lurking around the various incarnations of this site, so I thought I'd finally take the plunge!

It has been described to me that, if you are standing outside the front of the Pebble Mill building looking at the foyer (the front of the foyer bit is just one massive ceiling-to-floor-window), you can see the back of the ivory wall of the Midlands Today set. One rectangular segment of the wall is black not ivory, and sticks out slightly (it's the back of the plasma screen that is used as MT's 'window').

(Edited by StandUpAndBeSeated at 9:03 pm on Sep. 9, 2001)

Is there any yellow scaffolding surrounding the PM building at the moment?

I only ask because the new series of Doctors has started on BBC One, and the last series was filmed using Pebble Mill as the exteriors (and the Foyer as the interior - though it sounds like the 'studio' production for this has moved to a warehouse?)

This series the surgery exteriors seem to be similar - but with the addition of scaffolding...

(Incidentally Holby City uses a similar trick - the majority of the exteriors are obviously BBC Elstree buildings! Even the signage is retained - Elstree sections are named after Film stars - and I am sure I have seen Fairbanks featured in a Holby scene... ISTR Elstree personnel being in Fairbanks...)

I seem to have established that studio work for Doctors is now done in rented warehouses in Solihull. The Pebble Mill building is a very scaffolding/builders/trucks/diggers/wheelbarrows type place right now.

Pebble Mill was built at a time when asbestos was the all-the-rage material. We have of course subsequently long-since learned of it's downside (e.g. health risk if you breathe it in). Therefore Pebble Mill cannot just be knocked down in one go. Experts would have to painstakingly remove all the asbestos first. Apparently, they are doing this as things go along (i.e. as BBC Birmingham gradually move out of the building).

I suppose this makes sense, as it would be silly to wait until the BBC have completely gone before even STARTING any demolition. By the time the building has been completely vacated by the BBC, it will probably be ready for the main knocking-down to begin.

Residential development is apparently planned for the site. No doubt the estate will be called Pebble Mill...

(Edited by StandUpAndBeSeated at 9:06 pm on Sep. 9, 2001)

Here's a picture for anyone who doesn't know what it looks like:

http://www.tvhome.f2s.com/ikonboard/upload/Pebble%20Mill.jpg

I'm guessing that the foyer area is the bit at the front! The building was featured in the opening titles of Midlands Today in the early/mid 90s.

For a more up to date piccy of Pebble Mill (and also an artist's impression of The Mailbox), go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/news/122000/13/mailbox.shtml

Note: when the BBC logo was changed to [ B ][ B ][ C ] in 1997, the name on the building and network production credits changed to BBC Birmingham.