BBC Birmingham
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BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio (in 1922) and television (in 1949) transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter. For many years, BBC Birmingham was based at the famous Pebble Mill studios, but in 2004 moved to the brand-new Mailbox facility in the centre of the city. Pebble Mill has since been demolished to make way for a science park, which will become part of the planned A38 technology corridor.
Pebble Mill at One, an afternoon talk show, ran for many years from the 1970s to the 1990s on BBC One, with several long-standing presenters, including Alan Titchmarsh, and raised the profile of the Pebble Mill studios almost to the status of a national institution.
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[edit] Drama production
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Birmingham branch of the BBC was home to the famous English Regions Drama department, which was set up in 1976 with a remit for producing drama programmes set in various regions of the UK, to try and redress the balance of the majority of programmes being made and set in and around London. Perhaps the department's most famous drama production was Boys from the Blackstuff in 1982. The Birmingham studios have also occasionally provided a home to usually London-based productions when regular studio space has been unavailable, as was the case with the 1977 Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock, which was shot at Pebble Mill.
Since the demolition of Pebble Mill, BBC Birmingham makes drama programmes at the BBC Drama Village in the Selly Oak district.
[edit] Regional output
As with all other BBC regions, BBC Birmingham is responsible for providing local radio services and the regional television news broadcasts on BBC One during the times when all regions opt out of the network feed to provide their own local news programming, which in the BBC Birmingham area is called Midlands Today. As one of the larger regions, however, it also provides many programmes to the network for national consumption.
[edit] Notable BBC Birmingam productions
As mentioned above BBC Birmingham hosted many London produced programmes when studio requirements demanded it, an example was The Brothers staring Jean Anderson from BBC Drama Serials. Two other programmes shoe-horned into BBC Pebble Mill, were children's programmes, Play School and Jackanory. Drama played a key role at BBC Birmingham and senior BBC producer David E. Rose became the first head of BBC English Regions drama, where a series of plays by new writers, called Second City Firsts, produced by Peter Ansorge and Tara Prem were aired on BBC2. The unit also pioneered the first black-led BBC Television drama, Empire Road also shown on BBC2.
During the early sixties, BBC Birmingham pioneered television programmes, for the Asian community. These were presented and produced by Mahendra Kaul and directed by Ashok Rampal, on Sunday mornings on the sole BBC Television channel at the time. The programme, Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye ("Make Yourself At Home") aired on Sundays at 9am for half an hour.
Another genre for which BBC Birmingham established a good reputation, was in utilising the main foyer of the building for television entertainment and magazine programmes, mostly for BBC1 One fixture of the schedule Pebble Mill at One became a popular British afternoon chat BBC1 show, though it started originally on BBC2. The idea to use the reception and foyer for programmes was borne out of the fact, all the other studio space was either fully used for Birmingham produced, or for BBCTV's network needs for the various London based programme departments. Pebble Mill at One ran from 1972 until 1986, was then one of few daytime magazine programmes, hence its popularity at the time. In that period BBC2 was mainly used for sports programmes, the party and trade union conferences, and BBC Open University programmes.
There was at least one Pebble Mill spin-off during the 1970s, when BBC1 rested its main Saturday chat show, Parkinson. BBC Birmingham was commissioned to produce a late night chat show. Saturday Night at the Mill, was the result and Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were the regular house band, and they performed the show's signature tune. The programme was directed and produced in Birmingham by Roy Norton and Roy Ronnie. In 1981 an early evening version of a hit show from the sixties on BBC1 called Six Five Special re-surfaced during the Mill's summer break, presented by Donny MacLeod and Marian Foster, occupying the slot vacated after the Evening News by Nationwide fronted among other by Michael Barrett and Sue Lawley.
A very popular BBC2 programme from Birmingham for much of the 1970s-1990s was Snooker programme Pot Black, generally shown most Fridays throughout the year at 9pm.
The Pebble Mill format returned in 1988 as Daytime Live, renamed Scene Today and finally Pebble Mill.
Well-known BBC programmes currently based in Birmingham include the drama series Dalziel and Pascoe, daytime soap opera Doctors, anthology series The Afternoon Play, the countryside and environmental series Countryfile viewer feedback show Points of View and daytime property show To Buy or Not to Buy. In radio, the popular BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers is made there. The original series of Top Gear was also produced by BBC Birmingham.
[edit] BBC Regional News
BBC Midlands Today is broadcast from in the Mailbox in Birmingham, and is the regional news for;
- Herefordshire
- Northern Gloucestershire
- Worcestershire
- Warwickshire
- West Midlands
- Shropshire
- Staffordshire
[edit] See also
- BBC Asian Network
- Sue Beardsmore
- Ashley Blake
- Carl Chinn
- Sonia Deol
- Ed Doolan
- David Gregory
- Kay Alexander
- Nick Owen
- Shefali Oza
- Satnam Rana
- Suzanne Virdee
- Adil Ray
- Peter Sissons
- Adam Yosef
- Michael Buerk
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 52°28′34.42″N 1°54′15.32″W / 52.4762278°N 1.9042556°W
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