BBC Birmingham

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.

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.

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.

Notable modern productions

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.

ee also

*BBC English Regions
*BBC Asian Network
*Sue Beardsmore
*Ashley Blake
*Carl Chinn
*Sonia Deol
*Ed Doolan
*David Gregory
*Kay Alexander
*Nick Owen
*Shefali Oza
*Satnam Rana
*Adil Ray
*Peter Sissons
*Adam Yosef
*Michael Buerk

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham bbc.co.uk - BBC Birmingham]