Dave Bushell – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Going for a Song – titles

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Going for a Song was a long running popular quiz show about antiques. The original series went out between 1965-77, and was made in Bristol. John King directed on the original series, and it was him who was responsible for reinventing the show and bringing it to Pebble Mill, when he was executive producer of the Entertainment Department. The relaunch was between 1995-2001 for BBC1 Daytime, with presenters Michael Parkinson (1995-9), Anne Robinson (2000), and Michael Aspel (2001). Eric Knowles was the antiques expert.

The show was recorded in Studio A.

Sue Robinson directed many of the shows, with Helena Taylor being one of the series producers, as well as Claire Hobbs. Vicky Jepson and Kate Southcott (now Hillman) worked on the series, as did gallery PA, Jane Mclean.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab available.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Dave Bushell: ‘I had the pleasure of not only working on the Pebble Mill series but also the original when it was produced in Bristol Studio A in the late 60s/early 70s.’

Mike Hayes: ‘There was an incident with a hand wound electrical generator that some guest put his finger in, his partner then just wound it up giving a shock and a good laugh for everyone else.’

Sue Johnson: ‘I did the autocue for this and remember Dave brazier telling us how happy Michael P was with the production team – very fond memories.’

Helena Taylor: ‘I was the Series Producer and great fun it was too and a great team both in front and behind the camera.’

Michael Wood: ‘First TV show I ever saw get recorded – Anne Robinson was presenting. Made me realise I really wanted to work in telly!’

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Memories of Aberfan – John Howarth

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

I started my career in professional broadcasting at Pebble Mill as a vacation trainee engineer. I remember Alan Edwards man ops, who was the engineering manager at Aberfan 50 years ago today, who stopped the riggers from going to help, because they had a job to do as part of the news team, to report the historical events, so they should not be repeated. I remember my Welsh teacher mother Olwen holding me and weeping as we watched the families digging for their children. I am so glad that John Humphries and Huw Edwards, fellow Taffia have remembered and so eloquently reported on the anniversary. I have never forgotten, and so it would appear neither have they. I was privileged to work with John in SPUR, BBC TV News when he was South Africa Correspondent, & Lime Grove BBC NCA 1978-1988, and under Brigadier Alan Protheroe DDG Ed Tel News, and finished my career as Acting Planning Manager BBC NCA Resources, before resigning when the BIRT/Checkland double act took office. I am glad someone else remembers Pebble Mill, speaking as a BBC Pensioner.

John Howarth

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Dave Bushell: ‘One of my Bristol engineering colleagues was at Aberfan. The Bristol OB unit, MCR 28 was in South Wales for a job and was diverted to provide coverage. He spoke of the difficulties the crew had staying at their posts when the urge to help was so overwhelming.’

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The Franchise Affair

Thanks to Roger Guest for sharing this script front page, from the 1988, six part drama series: The Franchise Affair, by Josephine Tey. The series went out between September-Nov 1988, on BBC1.

Here is the link to the entry in the Radio Times, for episode one of The Franchise Affair, from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/bcbdbb487b894908a9120d1acd02b909

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Dave Bushell: ‘I enjoyed working on this – a touch of film noire style and location shoots in Church Stretton and on
the Severn Valley Railway.’

Winnie O’Brien: ‘I remember it well, I did the opening title sequence and graphics. It was a wonderful project to work on.’

CM2 and CMCR40 at Chester Races

Photos by Robin Stonestreet, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows Pebble Mill’s small-ish outside broadcast truck, CM2, with the larger CMCR40 truck at Chester Races in 1985.

The OB trucks were scheduled all over the country, depending on where they were needed, they covered football matches, cricket, as well as working on factual shows like Gardeners’ World.

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Dave Bushell: ‘Pretty sure we had CM2 out on Vanity Fair in 1987 and other dramas.’

Ray Lee: ‘The cameras were Philips LDK14’s with the Triax adaptor LDK514. From memory there were 3 cameras, but whether there was a spare as well I can’t now remember. The cameras had a short multicore cable (10metres or so) between the triax adaptor box and the camera, then the base station in the vehicle was a modified LDK5 base station which powered the camera and adaptor box down standard triax. (at that time CM1 was a type 5 with Philips LDK5 cameras which also used triax but all the way to the camera) The front area had 2 VPR2 1″ videotape machines. CM2 was thus a complete production and recording vehicle, which meant for programmes like Gardeners World, the could leave site with a complete edited programme, apart perhaps from some captions.’

Bryan Comley: ‘Gardeners World has a very simply caption generator, so we did leave site with a TX tape, and this was 30+ years ago!’

Philip Donnellan retires

This article from the Pebble Mill News from 1984, lists some ‘comings and goings’ at BBC Pebble Mill.

Included in the ‘goings’ is radio and television producer, Philip Donnellan. Philip joined BBC Birmingham in 1948, and his retirement was beginning with a filming trip in the USA, and the promise of being able ‘to make all the films I wasn’t allowed to in the BBC!’

Other notable ‘goings’ include Stan Smith from Comms, Technical Manager Barry Hill, cleaners Maud Joyce and Gwen Carr.

Amongst the new faces were trainee cameramen, Simon Bennett and John Moorcroft, engineer Steve May, Top Gear researcher Jon Bentley (now of the Gadget Show), and dresser Terry Powell.

Liz Darby, Bob Jacobs are also congratulated on their attachments.

Thanks to Robin Sunderland for sharing the Pebble Mill News.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Laura McNeill: ‘That is brilliant! I trained with David Page at Wood Norton, the audio trainee.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Many names I remember here and some I have worked with over the years.
Dave Bushell seeing your name there reminded me that it’s 35 years last month since I joined the BBC and you were my course lecturer!’

Dave Bushell: ‘Yes, Stuart, you were one of my early victims! Luckily you survived!’

Steve Dellow: ‘Lurking at the extreme bottom right (Anniversaries)…Clive Kendall (Comms) reaching 40 years service!’

Richard Stevenson: ‘Jon Bentley, Researcher Top Gear. Didn’t he do well?!’