The Bond Plays

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special screening card for two television plays by Edward Bond made by Pebble Mill in 1993.

Richard Langridge was the producer of the plays.

Thanks to Ann Chancellor-Davies for sharing this screening card. Ann’s husband, Gavin Davies would have been the production designer on Olly’s Prison.

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Resources booklet mid 1990s

IMG_4455 IMG_4456 IMG_4457 IMG_4458 IMG_4459 IMG_4460

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. This booklet was produced in the mid 1990s, as Resources were sold off from the rest of the BBC by John Birt, and had to commercialise activities.

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

Dave Bushell: ‘The David Suchet production was ‘Bingo! by Edward Bond. David was a brilliant actor to work with – he always found his light!

The betacam cameraman is Jim Gray and in the left hand image it looks like Sue Cook interviewing with cameramen Paul Woolston and Doug ? and FM Steve Pierson.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Although I can’t put a name to the productions, that little picture bottom right of the Aston brings back memories for me from the time I was engineer for graphics. The keyboard is for the Aston 4 character generator, which was a step up from the stalwart Aston 3’s we had. It could of course do more and fancier captions and the hands seen there would have been those of one of the specialist Aston operators working in the graphics department. The little box above it was one of the 6 or so homebuilt talkback boxes that allowed communication between the studio gallery and the aston desks in the graphics area. A era of turbulent change.’

Peter Poole: ‘Studio 3, the late Mark Decker and Archers producer. Dubbing Theatre, Neve mixer.’

Olly’s Prison – Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen

Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission.

‘Olly’s Prison’ was a three part drama series produced at Pebble Mill by Richard Langridge.  The script was written by Edward Bond, and directed by Roy Battersby. It was transmitted in 1993, and was probably the last studio only drama to be recorded in Studio A at Pebble Mill.  Dave Bushell was the lighting director, and Bob Jacobs the 1st A.D. and Ian Barber the AFM.  Dave Bushell remembers it being a satisfying drama to work on, although not a bundle of laughs.

Mike Eastman remembers working on the series: “I had a small acting role in this production playing a prisoner, my filming days were just prior to Christmas 1991. It was the first time I had worked with Bob Jacobs as ‘first’, but went on to do lots more work with him later on.”

The BFI database http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/489433 includes this precis of the storyline:

Part 1: Tells the tragic story of Mike who sees his life crumble as his grip on reality becomes ever more tenuous. He shares a claustrophobic flat with his 16-year-old daughter, Sheila. Sheila is uncommunicative, like many teenagers, and Mike becomes increasingly frustrated by her silence. He resorts to violence.

Part 2: Bernard is serving a life sentence for the murder of his daughter. He attempts suicide but fails. His fellow prisoner Smiler uses his makeshift noose to hang himself.

(No precis of Part 3 is included)

‘Olly’s Prison’ featured Bernard Hill as Mike, Jonny Lee Miller as Smiler, Mary Jo Randle as Vera, George Anton as Frank, Bryan Pringle as Barry, Richard Graham as Olly, and Maggie Steed as Ellen.

 

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