Pebble Mill, when will we see your like again?

Favoured by skiving schoolchildren (not to mention students living the high life on full maintenance grants), Pebble Mill at One was an early success in what was to become a long line of disastrous daytime television 'magazine' programmes (possibly the worst example was Nigella Lawson's one-season deal on ITV. Words don't really do it justice).

I have no idea if Pebble Mill at One, or PebMo, as it was occasionally referred to on the streets of South Central LA, was any good in its early days, but the presenters were much-loved pros such as the great Donny McLeod (RIP), so it must have been reasonably decent, even if it was broadcast live from Birmingham.

Later presenters included the ghastly trinity of Titchmarsh, Coia and Rumbold, suggesting standards may have slipped a notch in the 80s (a recurring theme in that decade).

The show finally came to a dramatic end with the studio firebombed by a squadron of strafing RAF Tornados, while Daniel O'Donnell sang his little heart out and the clock ticked down to the final minutes of the tearful valedictory programme.

Actually the show ended normally, with little or no carnage.

That said, the final programme was tearful - and it would have been more so had those present been able to foresee the garbage that was to takeover their slot. Mind you, when there are human beings alive who can parlay car boot sales into a successful TV format, surely inter-dimensional time travel, a cure for Parkinson's Disease and an answer to the endless mystery that is Vernon Kaye's success can't be far off.

Anyway, back to PebMo. Thanks to Craplister for reminding me of this monumental performance, which is the apogee or nadir of the programme, depending on how you look at it.

It's Hi-De-Hi star Paul Shane not so much murdering You've Lost That Loving Feeling as taking a machete to its balls, setting fire to its head then pushing it off the roof of a multi-storey car park into a vat filled with hydrochloric acid and nails.

Magic.

Comments

[dave]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJvGdOC6D1Y

check it out the whole song

a true pebble mill classic

[Boogaloo Overlord]

True dat Jane, true dat

[Jane]

Ah! The boo is back. This is Baltimore. It's all in the game . . .

[Ambermonkey]

HAHAHA! Just one point of contention - Titchmarsh's current afternoon programme is making a fair attempt atwrestling Nigell'as crown from her.