Jenny Brewer – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Gosta Green Revisited photos

Lez Cooke introducing the screenings. Photos from Izzie Archer of Flatpack, no reproduction without permission

Lez Cooke, Peter Booth and Joyce Hawkins. Photo from Izzie Archer of Flatpack, no reproduction without permission

Photo from Izzie Archer of Flatpack, no reproduction without permission

Audience for Gosta Green screenings. Photos from Izzie Archer of Flatpack, no reproduction without permission

These photos are from the Gosta Green Revisited screenings, held at the Midlands Arts Centre on the 15th October 2016.

The photos are from the Flatpack Film Festival organisers, who arranged the screenings.

The screenings included: Rainbow City, The Newcomers, and Sinking Fish Move Sideways and were followed by a question and answer session with cameraman Peter Booth, and costume designer Joyce Hawkins, interviewed by academic researcher, Lez Cooke.

In the audience photo you can see Ann Chancellor-Davies in the front row, and in the second row, towards the right, Jenny Brewer, Peter Ansorge, and me (Vanessa Jackson).

Please add a comment if you can identify others.

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A Funny Thing Happened – David Shute

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

This photo was taken just a short time before we moved shop to Pebble Mill – late 1960s/1970.

Some of the under-dressed cast of A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum. Top left the amazing Jenny Brewer, next to her Olive McCosh (I hope that’s right ) bottom Left, Sandy Sutton wife of the redoubtable vision-mixer Roger Sutton. This was BBC AmDram Society and producer David Shute caused quite a stir when he insisted that all the ladies auditioned in bikinis! The amazing cast won a rare 5 star rating from the Birmingham Post & Mail’s theatre critic. We had to re-stage the show some months later for a second week’s run. What a hoot!

David Shute

Jenny Brewer – becoming a female manager

Jenny Brewer on becoming a female manager at the BBC from pebblemill on Vimeo.

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

In this specially recorded video, Jenny Brewer talks about becoming one of the first female managers at BBC Pebble Mill, outside of traditionally female areas like: Costume and Make-up and Personnel. This was in the era of John Birt’s reforms in the early to mid 1990s.

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

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Jenny was someone you could respect as a Manager because she had been through production and as she says worked her way up. She had been there, done it and got the t-shirt. She knew the problems that the people she was managing experienced. She had also been on location and knew what it was like to be filming in the pouring rain, having to get the film back and the problems this could bring. I remember a particular occasion I went to her with a problem (she may not remember it but I do) and she was helpful and understanding. She commanded respect – certainly from me.’

Artemis 81

Jenny Brewer on Artemis 81 from pebblemill on Vimeo.

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

In this specially recorded video, Jenny Brewer, who worked as a production assistant in the 1970s and early 1980s, talks about some of the challenges of making the three hour, epic drama, by David Rudkin: Artemis 81.

The film was transmitted on 29th December 1981. The BBC genome project (digitised historic Radio Times entries), provides the following information about Rudkin’s drama:

A film by DAVID RUDKIN with Hywel Bennett
Dinah Stabb , Dan O’Herlihy featuring Sting and Anthony Steel, Margaret Whiting Roland Curram , Ingrid Pitt
A Danish museum case shattered, the pieces of a pagan statue hidden in cars on a North Sea ferry, the subsequent deaths of ferry passengers, an old musician terrified that a curse upon him will cause the devastation of the Earth.
Gideon Harlax, a successful young novelist of ‘ the paranormal and unexplained ‘, thinks he has found the material for a new book. But as Gideon coldly exploits human tragedies, angry powers from Man’s ancient past are gathering. Alien Planet Danish ferry Oxford library
Original music by DAVE GREENSLADE Passacaglia by GORDON CROSSE
Film cameraman DAVID JACKSON Film editor MIKE HALL Designer GAVIN DAVIES
Script editor ROGER GREGORY Producer DAVID ROSE
Director ALASTAIR REID

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e4712cf3ce794d8d9c47c637bf8dbadd

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘I remember working on this in the dubbing theatre. Dave Baumber did a wonderful mix. It needed a lot of post-sync recording. A very interesting film, would love to see it again. I don’t think it was ever repeated.’

Dancing at the BBC Club

Photos by Karen Bond, no reproduction without permission.

These photos of dancing in the BBC Pebble Mill Club date from the early 1990s. They mostly feature Pebble Mill series editor, Steve Weddle, taking to the dance floor, amongst others!

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

Marie Phillips: ‘Funny you posted this today. We were lunching with friends today at The Boot in Lapworth and in walked Steph Silk who I have bumped into twice in a week after 25 years. She was meeting former Pebble Millers, including Jenny Brewer and ….. Steve Weddle also 25 years on. Great to see everyone and share a few laughs. Steve was excited about his recently published book – available on Amazon! It must be part of the aging process but nobody looks any different as the years roll by.’

Judith Markall: ‘Remember dances in Studio 9 at Carpenter Road!’

Bridget Vaughan: ‘Tall girl could be Bev Dartnall, bless her.’

Janet Collins: ‘Sure it’s Bev and is the other person Julie Knee?’

Steve Weddle: ‘What is he like? Don’t answer that! And yes, that could be Bev – she was always full of fun and frolics, god bless her.’