Factual – Page 107 – What Was Pebble Mill?

‘Always Something There to Remind Me’ – photo by Gail Herbert

Photo by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

This is from a ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’ shoot for the song, ‘Always Something There to Remind Me’. It was written by Bert Bacharach and Hal David in the early 1960s. Different versions were recorded by Lou Johnson and Sandie Shaw, I’m not sure which one was used in ‘Golden Oldies’.

The ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’ was an entertainment show, of specially shot films for hits which pre-dated the music video era. It was produced at Pebble Mill by John King’s department and presented by Radio 1 DJ, Dave Lee Travis. Gail Herbert was the production assistant on the series.

I’m not sure what the story behind this particular video was, but it seems to be of a transvestite recreating the scene featuring the famous Marilyn Munroe dress.

Please a add a comment if you can add any detail.

Daytime Live – behind the scenes

Here is a behind the scenes clip of ‘Daytime Live’ from 1 November 1988, presented by Alan Titchmarsh. It was one of the successors to ‘Pebble Mill at One’, and had a very similar magazine format. This clip is one of a series recorded by the BFI as part of their ‘One day in the life of television’ project in 1988.

The excerpt shows Alan Titchmarsh giving a behind the scenes tour of the ‘Daytime Live’ office, with a psychologist commenting on the state of the production team’s desks and what they say about them as people. Featured are David Morgenstern and Jane McCloskey.

‘Daytime Live’ was recorded in Studio C, like ‘Pebble Mill at One’.

Jane Clement added the following information via the Facebook page: ‘Nice to see the back of my head there (at the first desk as Alan enters the office, opposite the gorgeous Steph). It was actually Jane (not Jo) McCluskey, I think – she was Queen of Books at the time, a role I held myself before her when I took over from the late great Jenny Cowan. Of all my jobs at PM, that was probably my favourite, given my lifelong love affair with books. Also interesting to see David Morgenstern; he and I had bought a house together in Harborne that year (purely as friends, I should say); I was due to emigrate to Australia the next month (December 88) and I laughingly thought the house would be a good investment. How wrong I was!’

Casualty Saved My Life – interview with Janice Rider

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This interview with costume designer, Janice Rider, is about the 2004 documentary ‘Casualty Saved My Life’. The programme told the stories of viewers who used information they’d learnt from the medical drama ‘Casualty’, and put it into practice, saving the life of themselves or others. The documentary used first hand testimony, reconstructions, clips and behind the scenes footage from ‘Casualty’.

Janice worked on the reconstruction of a motorcycle crash, which resulted in the rider losing his leg.

The directors on the documentary were Mark Scott and Paul Vanezis, the researchers Sophia Wollschlager and Caroline Ossowaskia. Sarah Costigan and Jo Gray were the production assistants, and I was the producer.

Vanessa Jackson

Asian Programme Unit – photos by Peter Poole

Lisa Sommerville

Karen Hewson

Lisa Sommerville and Karen Hewson. Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

Lisa and Karen were production assistants working in The Asian Unit. This department produced TV and radio programmes for the Asian community. I remember working on the radio programme which was in Urdu. The producer and presenter was Waseem. I had to rely on hand signals for playing the discs and tapes. I then did the edit under Waseem’s guidance. I always enjoyed working with Asian Unit. They were a great team and very nice people.

Peter Poole

Here are a couple of comments from the Facebook page:

Tariq Azis: I remember Lisa and Karen well..they would tolerate me and my sister when we were loitering around the office, I was probably around 10 at the time…they’re exactly as I remember them in these photos!

Jayne Savage: Karen now runs the very successful Westbury Park Guest House in Bristol.

Golden Oldie Picture Show -‘Come Outside’ – photo by Gail Herbert

Photo by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is of the location shoot for ‘The Golden Oldie Picture Show’ music video of the hit song, ‘Come Outside’. The song was a number one hit in 1962 for Mike Sarne, with vocals by actress Wendy Richard. There was a cover version by Judge Dread in 1975. I’m not sure which version G.O.P.S. used. The location for the shoot was at the Midlands Arts Centre, in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston.

‘The Golden Oldie Picture Show’ was an entertainment show consisting of specially shot music videos for hits which pre-dated the music video era. It was linked by Radio 1 DJ, Dave Lee Travis, and was produced at Pebble Mill by John King’s department. Gail Herbert was the production assistant on the series which ran from 1985-8.