Closedown at Pebble Mill

Goodnight, then, from Pebble Mill, Birmingham. After three decades as one of the flagships of BBC regional broadcasting, the main TV studios are to close. For that sizeable proportion of the population old enough to remember Pebble Mill at One, the moment is particularly poignant.

Goodnight, then, from Pebble Mill, Birmingham. After three decades as one of the flagships of BBC regional broadcasting, the main TV studios are to close. For that sizeable proportion of the population old enough to remember Pebble Mill at One, the moment is particularly poignant.

Many of us recall with affection the programme's diet of live music (usually supplied by the likes of Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen), celebrity chat and consumer information, all served up by the cheery Bob Langley and Donny Macleod. Not that challenging, it's true, but, by comparison with much of the exploitative daytime output we now find in the schedules, Pebble Mill at One was like Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man.

It is a sad day for broadcasting and a sad day for the regions, as it serves as yet another example of the seemingly inexorable concentration of economic and cultural life in London. But there will be some ways by which we can remember Pebble Mill. There is the Pebble Mill Heritage Tapestry, made from 2,600 needlework patches sent in by viewers in 1985, which can be found at Harewood House. And the early career of Alan Titchmarsh, today rarely off our screens, was given a boost in the studio's garden. Pebble Mill won't be forgotten.