Photo by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.
This behind the scenes photo is of the set of Good Morning Summer, from 1995. The series ran over the summer, when Good Morning with Anne and Nick was off-air. It went out from the set and conservatory in the courtyard of Pebble Mill. You can see the set, with the beach huts in the back of the photo. The series was presented by Will Hanrahan and Sarah Greene.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
Today it is the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, the beginning of the end of WWII.
I remember the 50th Anniversary of D-Day in 1994. I was an assistant producer on Good Morning with Anne and Nick. The D-Day Anniversary was an important topic for Good Morning, and one that we wanted to cover with a live outside broadcast from Normandy. I think that we were going to borrow an existing BBC Events OB unit which was going to be covering some of the events later in the day. They initially said that that was going to be fine, and then decided a day or two before D-Day that they would be too busy to help us out, so we had to organise our own OB!
My job was to be the producer back in Birmingham, in case anything went wrong. We had a whole parallel script made up of links and short films, to go to, if the OB link went down. I think that Will Hanrahan was one of the standby presenters, and I can’t remember who else joined him on the sofa. I was ever so slightly terrified, as I had never produced a live show in the gallery before – but all was well, and the OB signal behaved itself, and I just sat in Gallery C, and followed the dummy running order and script I’d spent days perfecting, alongside the live OB.
Vanessa Jackson
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Sharon Fisher: ‘I remember! My first OB. Vidal Sassoon was being interviewed and I was busy doing specially printed red white and blue viewer response cards.’
Caroline Feldon: ‘My first OB was for Radio 3 at the Cheltenham Festival. A week or so of fab concerts at the Town Hall and Pittville Pump Room with legends such as Mark Decker, Tony Wass, Steve Portnoi and anyone remember Alan Ward?’
Paul Hunt: ‘Tom Horsfield and I were there in 1994 by Southsea castle looking out across the Solent with Tony Wadsworth and Julie Mayer to do a live OB for WM. We had a very early start to do our rig – once done we had some time to take in the immense scale of what we part of and what we were remembering. Tom then took some photos of the flotilla of ships including the Canberra, the QE2 and the George Washington aircraft carrier. The OB went without a hitch. As we de-rigged we discovered that Tom’s camera had been stolen from the OB van – which put a sad end to such a memorable event.’
Katie Wright: ‘I think you’re thinking of the Dunkirk anniversary Vanessa Jackson. We were on board HMS Alacrity, escorting the little ships across from Dover to Calais…. Phil Thickett was with me.. And Helena Taylor. My father was on the beaches and it was a real honour to remember him and all the others and the many who risked their own lives to rescue them. We had to get Alacrity to sail at a strange angle to keep ‘line of sight’ to our vehicle on the white cliffs, which would explain why you were on standby throughout. ‘
Photo by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.
This is the ‘Hotline’ area for Good Morning with Anne and Nick, the mid morning studio magazine show, which went out on BBC 1 between 1993-6.
Each day there was a phone-in on the subject of the day. Calls would come in to the ‘Hotline’, and then the contributors chosen would be called back to speak on the programme. The cameras would come into the ‘Hotline’ area to get a summary of the types of calls coming in. The ‘Hotline’ area was near Studio C, where the show went out, just across the corridor, near the Radio Studios.
Director, Chris Wright, deep in thought, during Tom O’Connor Roadshow. Photo Jane Mclean
That’s a classic Chris Wright pose. He would often wander off on his own to think things through prior to going into the gallery or scanner. Mind you, there was that time on a certain infamous edition of Pebble Mill At One when, dressed as a teddy boy, he leapt out of the director’s chair, to be replaced by Mark Kershaw, so he could dance a rock and roll routine downstairs, on camera, in the foyer. It worked a treat, except one of the prgramme guests had imbibed too much and went on air somewhat worse for wear. Consequently, the entire edition went under the microscope, and questions were asked in high places why the programme director was to be seen rocking and rolling with Josephine Buchan, the presenter. How do I know this? … I was Producer of what was our last show before Christmas in that particular year…circa 1984. Hope you don’t mind me mentioning this Chris. It still makes me smile.
Steve Weddle
Mark Kershaw directing Pebble Mill at One. No reproduction without permission
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Jane Clement: ‘All the shows leading into Christmas were great fun. And – given the generosity of the green room – inebriated guests were not exactly a rarity, but never a big problem. I’m having a drink with Chris this afternoon, as it happens. We both live in the same city (Auckland, New Zealand) so I expect we’ll be reminiscing about old times.’
Steve Weddle: ‘I should stress that Chris was totally sober when he danced on the show. It was the guest who was was worse for wear! If Chris was a celebrity he would have been on Strictly by now!’
Ruth Kiosses: ‘Drunken guests! I want to know what they put in the audience’s tea? That warm-up guy telling the audience the cameraman would be like a rat up a drainpipe if legs weren’t kept together on the front row. Must have heard that over the monitor everyday for years! It always livened them up with giggles.’
Betti Moretti: I’ was a bit late to Pebble Mill… but I had so much fun there! I remember a particularly merry Pudsey Bear after a long Children in Need taking a tumble from top to bottom of the stairs into the green room where Anne & Nick were based… wiped a couple of people out at the bottom – Jeremy Paxman included… so many funny memories… happy days indeed’
Photos by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.
These photos are of the Good Morning with Anne and Nick set, circa 1993. The set was built in Studio C, which was originally the Foyer at Pebble Mill, and where Pebble Mill at One was staged. The set mimicked a domestic house, and blocked out much of the iconic view from the street scene on Pebble Mill road, which characterised Pebble Mill at One. The successor programme to Pebble Mill at One, called simply, Pebble Mill, was using Studio A at this time.
Good Morning with Anne and Nick, was a mid morning magazine show, presented by Anne Diamond and Nick Owen which went out between 1993-6.