What The Bond means for the West Midlands
9 March 2023
The opening of the Bond creative hub is a key step in reinvigorating the West Midlands’ TV industry and inspiring the next generation of local talent.
It was the actor, presenter and writer Adil Ray who summed it up perfectly. He was speaking back in 2018 at a pitch we were making for Birmingham to become Channel 4’s first regional HQ. In the end, the nod went to Leeds, but that decision - and that moment - turned out to be pivotal in many ways.
Adil told a rapt audience how he’d always dreamed about working in television because every day he went to school in the city he passed the BBC’s old Pebble Mill building and wondered what went on inside.
This struck a serious chord with me because, in my opinion, among the many things the city lacked as its media industry slowly disappeared – Pebble Mill shut in 2004 and ITV’s big Central Studios in 1997 – was a visible beacon of hope for broadcasting and production in the area. Something to immediately recognise, aspire to and rally around.
But first we needed to get the whole train back on the rails. When Channel 4 announced their plan for Leeds, Birmingham’s Mayor Andy Street was naturally disappointed. He asked us if there was anything he could do to help the industry. We told him bluntly that if there wasn’t tangible assistance from the region then there wouldn’t be an industry left to help. He not only listened, but he also actually did something about it.
We’d been running a production company in the city since 2000 – originally staffed largely by Pebble Mill alumni – and while the business had grown (despite the lack of local investment or genuine interest in the city from broadcasters) it remained hard going. Aside from our All3Media sister company Optomen, there were only a handful of production companies left. Serious work was required to reverse the decline.
Create Central was established to help turn the ship around, an organisation led by the industry with a plan developed from experience and knowledge, not imposed by well-meaning quangos, academia, or dislocated training bodies.
Led by TV savvy Deloitte executive Ed Shedd, its eclectic membership was drawn from all over the West Midlands, from factual, drama, children’s production, facilities, animation and gaming. I signed up immediately because this was not going to be just another talking shop. This was to be all about positive action and getting things done. North One had nailed its colours to the regional mast and I was keen to encourage others to join us, turning the ambition to create a thriving media hub into reality.
Part of our vision - and frankly something I was especially vociferous about - was to replace the much missed, inspirational presence of Pebble Mill and Central. The replacement needed to be just as iconic, but geared toward the day-to-day needs of the media industry and the region’s incredible, diverse population – and something that would future proof the sector in the region for years to come.
Ask anyone in the West Midlands under the age of 25 and they’ll tell you they didn’t know there was a media industry here – let alone think they can work in it. With the big broadcasting beasts gone, it was only the indie world keeping the lights on.
The reality was we had become a transit camp for TV talent. Many headed to London, Manchester, and Glasgow. Production managers, camera operators, sound recordists, editors and researchers were moving on. This is something we had to reverse.
But it was only half the equation. Building a far bigger and significantly more consistent production base was paramount, but we also needed to fill it with young talent from the area.
There was no point having one without the other. North One has been successful in Birmingham, with the likes of Fifth Gear, The Gadget Show, Travel Man and Guy Martin, and that’s meant we’ve been able to run against the tide and hang on to a lot of key staff, from the shires of Warwickshire to Wolverhampton city centre and the high rises of Solihull. But we couldn’t do it alone.
Covid naturally stalled a lot of our plans, but the ship is moving fast now and significant progress has been made. Shine will be bringing Masterchef to Steven Knight’s Digbeth Loc Studios in 2024. BBC Director General Tim Davie is establishing a new Midlands base in the old Typhoo factory close to the Birmingham end of the HS2 railway line. And a few hundred yards down the road is The Bond, which on Thursday (March 9) will open as a creative content hub to something of a fanfare. It’s a key moment in the renaissance of the media industry in the city and wider region. The Bond has been transformed into a modern, attractive media hub from a rundown old 19th century ice warehouse and HP sauce factory on the Grand Union Canal, in a once-decaying area. When we moved there 20 odd years ago it was a grotty and frankly quite dangerous part of town. Today it feels like London’s Shoreditch – full of crowded bars, amazing eateries, new businesses, and genuine hope. Our goal – to transform it into the city’s creative quarter.
North One and Optomen will move their regional HQs into The Bond in May, as well as All3Media’s facilities and post-production arm, Manor Services. Optomen’s Birmingham roster will also include the BBC’s Great British Menu. Other companies will follow supported by a hive of businesses focused on every media speciality - from facilities to graphics, music to animation, gaming to social media – and everything in between.
The most important part of the project, which I’ve consistently described as a Google-style media campus, is the opportunity to run events and training activity and showcase the industry to local young people and local talent, as well as to those visiting out of town, creating a highly visible place in the centre of Birmingham that acts as a beacon for the local creative sector. There will be no closed doors here – quite the opposite. We welcome everyone to come, visit and see not only what we’re doing, but what they could do as well. This was the vision that helped persuade the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP to put £3million into the project, alongside the considerable investment of the building’s owners, Oval Estates.
We’re still a way from the glory days of Pebble Mill and Central TV, and it’s certainly true that the industry has changed wholesale since then, but if we get this right, we not only secure a real future for the city and wider region as a significant and global media player, but also ensure that the next generation of local talent will be driving it.
And that’s got to be worth all the effort.
Neil Duncanson is the owner of North One Television and a Create Central Board Member
First published in Broadcast