Pebble Mill recalled in look back at regional TV

Nick Owen MBE in the current Midlands Today studio - nowhere near a hotel room with Cher

"You'd go into the canteen, and the next table would be a load of wounded soldiers from a Poldark film."

Midlands Today presenter Nick Owen MBE has been sharing his memories of Birmingham's Pebble Mill Studios.

"So many dramas came out of there… Pebble Mill was an absolute hub of activity in broadcasting. Both in gameshows, dramas and documentaries and all, of course, all of the radio shows that came out of there as well," he said.

The former studios were located on Pebble Mill Road in Edgbaston and were opened by Princess Anne on 10 June 1971. It closed in 2004.

Many shows, including Call My Bluff, Telly Addicts, All Creatures Great & Small and Good Morning With Anne & Nick, were recorded there.

"It was a brilliant place to be, and it was very sad that that contracted into a much smaller operation," Owen said.

"Pebble Mill At One, I think, was the first ever proper daytime programme, and that was really special.

"When I first came to Birmingham… it used to be great to watch Pebble Mill at lunchtime. The fantastic music, helicopters seemed to be landing all around, and there seemed to be explosions and things going on. And big, big names on that show."

Presenters over the years included Bob Langley, Tom Coyne, Marian Foster, Gloria Hunniford, Fern Britton and Alan Titchmarsh.

The old Pebble Mill building in Edgbaston, Birmingham. The site is now home to Birmingham Dental Hospital & School of Dentistry, a Bupa Care Home and Circle Health Hospital

Owen met a lot of famous faces while working on Good Morning With Anne & Nick.

"We had Margaret Thatcher on and Tony Blair. We had Tom Jones, Elton John – the list was fantastic.

"I did some wonderful filming with Cher. Spent an afternoon on a bed at The Savoy with Cher. Me dressed in leather trying to be raunchy.

"So the memories of that are absolutely brilliant."

When Owen first started working on BBC Midlands Today in 1997, the regional news programme was based at the Pebble Mill studios.

It first aired on 28 September 1964, broadcast from a tiny studio on Broad Street.

In 1971, it moved to the newly opened Pebble Mill Studios, and the first episode was presented by Tom Coyne.

Good Morning with Anne & Nick (Anne Diamond and Nick Owen) was a daytime magazine show

Dr Vanessa Jackson, who specialises in TV production at Birmingham City University, started her career at Pebble Mill.

It had three studios, but one of its' most famous locations was the bar – located in the BBC Club.

"That was a very important place because many a programme idea was brought to life at the BBC Club. Many a job offer was made. And they used to do a wicked cheese toastie," she said.

"It's the place where most BBC staff – after working on a programme like Pebble Mill At One – would come over the little bridge over the Bourn Brook and make their way into the club, which used to serve a lot of alcohol and very good food."

Early in his career, Walsall-born Bob Warman, who presented ITV's Central News for 40 years, worked at BBC Radio Birmingham (now BBC Radio WM), which was broadcast from the Pebble Mill studios.

"The BBC Club was a pretty desperate place… When I came for an interview at the BBC with the then station manager – who was a chap called Jack Johnson, a wonderful Glaswegian man… He gave me a brief interview in his office and then said, 'Well, it's lunchtime, we better go to the bar.'

"We went into this bar which was absolutely nose-to-nose – it was rammed with people – all drinking furiously at lunchtime. And I thought, 'Well, I better do the honours here…' so I said to Jack 'Can I get you a drink?' and he said 'Aye, I'd like a Bells please'.

"And I thought 'Gosh, Bells whiskey, at lunchtime', and I said, 'Anything with it?' And he said, 'Aye, another one!'"