Pebble Mill Studios
Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne on 10 June 1971, and in addition to the studios contained two canteens, a post office, gardens, a seven-storey office block, and an outside broadcasting (OB) base.
"Pebble Mill" redirects here. For the talk show, see Pebble Mill at One.Pebble Mill
As well as being the home of Midlands Today and BBC Radio WM, programmes produced at Pebble Mill included Pebble Mill at One, The Archers, Top Gear, Doctors, Telly Addicts, Howards' Way, Juliet Bravo and Gardeners' World.
Pebble Mill Studios closed in 2004 and was demolished in September 2005; BBC Birmingham is now located in The Mailbox shopping complex in Birmingham city centre.
Post production, design, costume and make-up[edit]
Post production[edit]
The centre was also home to the largest and most advanced BBC post-production departments outside London, including six VT edit suites, two dubbing suites, a small viewing screen and a multitude of Avid non-linear suites. Following the 1983 refit a vast Graphics centre was opened in the old site of TAR and contained Aston caption generators, Rank Cintel Slide Files, Quantel Paintbox and Harry's and other graphic systems.
Costume[edit]
The Wardrobe/Costume department had its home in the studios central basement area just below the long glazed front window. There was a large work room with another work room containing cutting tables and sewing machines. There was also an office with several dressing rooms either side. There were also several large extras dressing rooms in the basement.
Design[edit]
Production Design Department had design offices in the central tower block until moving in the early 1990s to a new extension on spare land (originally intended for the early Light Entertainment Studio C) next to the road to the rear car park.
There were offices and work rooms for set and prop design located to the rear of the extension near to the construction workshop. On the ground floor were several props cages which contained all manner of items, even a Dalek.
Make-up[edit]
Make-up had a large purpose-built complex on the ground floor next to Studio A. With seating for 6 people and small office space at one end of the glassed gallery at the front of the building.
Communications and signals[edit]
Pebble Mill formed part of the BBC's communications and transmission backbone. London's BBC Television Centre (TVC) had primary responsibility for most of the BBC's transmitted output and day to day transmission switching and presentation.
Pebble Mill was the Midlands Central Switching and Monitoring Centre, and would route national channels (two television, four national radio and local radio) to the Midland transmitters at Sutton Coldfield, Ridge Hill and The Wrekin and to other parts of the UK as well as acting as a national back up to TVC in case of emergencies.
Sound and radio[edit]
Local radio[edit]
The centre was responsible for a large output into mainstream network radio and was also home of the local radio station Radio WM. WM had studios on the first floor linking the Comms centre and the news room.
Radio studios[edit]
The two radio studios and Local Radio Operations Room overlooked the central courtyard and between them provided all of Radio WM's production base for 35 years. In addition to WM the complex also had some of the finest sound studios outside of Broadcasting House in London.
Studio 1[edit]
Studio 1 was the main music studio at Pebble Mill with enough space to accommodate a full symphony orchestra. Initially it was used for sound recording sessions plus twice-weekly live broadcasts for Radio 3's lunchtime concerts. However, as well as radio this studio was equipped with a basic lighting grid and was used in its early years for the occasional television programme. The studio lighting was controlled from gallery 'C' from the summer of 1983.
However, John Birt's 'Producer Choice' agenda in the early 1990s forced Pebble Mill to charge unrealistic rental rates for the studio and made Studio 1 too expensive for radio use. Therefore, Radio 3 moved out to Adrian Boult Hall in the centre of the city, with the newly developed BBC Resources, turning Studio 1 into a full-time TV studio. A scene dock door was added together with the installation of a more comprehensive lighting grid.
Soon after, Studio 1 was in daily use for the live transmission of The Really Useful Show. This lasted for three series, but it is understood that the long acoustic reverberation characteristics of the studio were not ideal for TV sound.
Programmes that originated from Studio 1 included Daily Live, Anything You Can Cook and Front Room. In its final years Studio 1 was used as a sound stage for Doctors, although the associated radio cubicle continued to be used to produce Radio 4's Farming Today until the closure of Pebble Mill as a whole in May 2004.
Studio 2[edit]
Studio 2 was a large music studio with an SSL 4000 console and a reverb time of about half a second. This is where aspiring music balancers were trained. Studio 2 in the 1990s was used mostly by Radio 2 as its midland sessions studio and many popular musicians performed there. There isn't a music studio of any kind at Pebble Mill's replacement facility, The Mailbox.
Studio 3 and M3[edit]
Pebble Mill's radio drama studio, Studio 3, provided much of Radio 3 and 4's drama output – it was the home of The Archers, the world's longest running radio soap opera. The last Archers programme from Pebble Mill was on 13 September 2004. The Mailbox (Pebble Mill's replacement) has a smaller radio drama studio, but incorporating a larger dead-room with an anechoic ‘snail’ for long, outdoor approaches. The Archers transferred to the Mailbox studio at the beginning of October 2004 and the drama studio was designed by Mark Decker. The adjacent facility (M3 – Midland 3) was a small edit studio and had a SADiE and was primarily used for editing The Archers, Radio 2's specialist music shows, and Radio 4's Midlands-based Features and Rural Affairs output.
Studio 4 and M4[edit]
Studio 4 was the chassis of a studio that was never installed, but it had an edit suite associated with it called M4 (Midland 4) where most of the Radio Drama was edited. This is where the first AMS Audiofile DAW was used in radio and was then equipped with both Audiofile and SADiE in the mid-1990s.
Studio 5[edit]
Studio 5 was the general purpose studio – over the years it was used for every form of feature or ‘strip’ programme, from Woman's Hour to Radio 2's Ed Stewart Show on Sunday afternoons. The studio was refurbished at least twice and was home to The Richard Bacon Show, live Saturday and Sunday nights on Radio 5. Radio 2's specialist popular music such shows as The Best of Jazz, Paul Jones, and Stuart Maconie's Critical List were recorded or transmitted from there as well.
Studio 6[edit]
Studio 6 was not equipped until about 1995 but was where Radio 2 Through the Night originated, presented by Janice Long, Alex Lester and Mo Dutta. The Mailbox has facilities intended to replicate the functionality of Studios 5 and 6, as well as the M3 & M4 editing facilities.
Studio 7[edit]
There was a seventh sound studio on the first floor adjoining the local radio studios. This studio was never commissioned: it was originally an office, and later became an electronics room for the communications (Comms) centre.