Frank Carson at Pebble Mill

Frank Carson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo copyright resides with the original holder.

It was Belfast comic, Frank Carson’s funeral today.

Stephen Davies remembers that one December, Frank Carson was a guest on ‘Pebble Mill’ and afterwards went to the staff canteen.  It was the day of the staff Christmas dinner, and Frank decided to join in.  He had everyone in hysterics.

The following comments are from the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Barbara Harrison: ‘I remember that Christmas lunch. It was the best ever and he was such a natural.’

Naomi Bishop: ‘He came in through the double doors, saw an audience in party hats and went for it. He was fabulous. It was a real treat. Took our mind off sprouts that had been cooking since September.’

Caroline Officer remembers being the researcher looking after Frank Carson on ‘Pebble Mill’ that day: ‘When he arrived, he told me his flight back home to Blackpool wasn’t until 6pm, so we had to find something for him to do, the Christmas lunch was a Godsend. Ironically Engelbert Humperdinck was on the show too and we invited him to the lunch too, but he didn’t want to come, couldn’t stop Frank though.

I love the earlier comments because since that day I’ve felt slightly guilty at disrupting everyone’s lunch. He was a lovely man, but I remember being glad to get him into the taxi and on his way to the airport – exhausting! Norman Wisdom was the same.’

Save

Gardeners’ World – photos from Gail Herbert

Photos from Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are of a location shoot for ‘Gardeners’ World’ in 1991, shortly before the series stopped being a BBC Pebble Mill production and became an independent production with Catalyst Television.

The first photo shows (left to right) Tony Wass (sound), Eric Wise (camera), Herbie Donnelly (sparks), Denis Jarvis (director).

The second photo shows (left to right) Tony Wass (sound), Eric Wise (camera), Karen Lamb (director), Gail Herbert (PA), Caroline Officer (researcher), Denis Jarvis (director).

The location was Keighley in North Yorkshire, and was I think about railway station gardens.  This station is on the Keighley and Worth Valley line, which is called ‘The Railway Children’ Line.

Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook – photos Dave Bushell, comment from Caroline Officer

The second photo shows Jean Campbell holding our National Television Award for Best Daytime Programme 1997, beating Dale Winton’s ‘Supermarket Sweep’, ‘This Morning’ and ‘The Vanessa Show’. We all had so much fun working on the show and as you can see there are a lot of familiar faces in the team however, special mentions for Steve the washer upper, warm up man, Ray Turner, Orla, Silvana, Merilees and Annalisa, the amazing home economics team and the legendary (at least in Warrington) showbiz agent Dave Warwick (2nd pic, front row, far right)

Who can forget Ainsley’s black sausage show, the food mixer trick which somehow raised a laugh every single time and Sir Terry Wogan’s constant swearing!

Best team ever!

Caroline Officer

(Included in the photos are: vision engineers Ian Cull, Pete Eggleston, John Cooke, and Mike Tomlin, along with Sarah Williams, Jill Francis, Jim Gray, Caroline Officer, Andy Payne, Dave Bushell).


 

Save