Notable BBC Birmingham Productions
As mentioned above BBC Birmingham hosted many London produced programmes when studio requirements demanded it, an example was The Brothers starring 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 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 produced the first BBC Television drama with a predominantly black and Asian cast, Empire Road (1978–79) 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, and broadcast 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.
BBC Birmingham utilised the main foyer of Pebble Mill 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.
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 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.
Read more about this topic: BBC Birmingham
Famous quotes containing the words notable, bbc and/or productions:
“a notable prince that was called King John;
And he ruled England with main and with might,
For he did great wrong, and maintained little right.”
—Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 2–4)
“To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.”
—Anonymous. quoted in “Quote Unquote,” Feb. 22, 1982, BBC Radio 4.
“Most new things are not good, and die an early death; but those which push themselves forward and by slow degrees force themselves on the attention of mankind are the unconscious productions of human wisdom, and must have honest consideration, and must not be made the subject of unreasoning prejudice.”
—Thomas Brackett Reed (1839–1902)