Martin Chuzzlewit – photos from Mark Smithers

Here are some photos from Mark Smithers of ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’, featuring some of the cast. ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ was produced at Pebble Mill in 1994. With filming all over the Cotswolds and Kings Lynn in Norfolk. Mark remembers that it was a constant surprise turning up on location and being transported back 200 years by the amazing design team.
Costume designer Jeremy Turner won a BAFTA in 1995 for his Chuzzlewit costume designs. His assistant was the talented and knowledgeable Paul Higton, and various pieces were created at Pebble Mill by brilliant seamstresses.

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with Mark Smithers, no reproduction without permission

Heron Crane – Bhasker Solanki

Photo from Bhasker Solanki. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

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

Robert Meikle: Its a Heron. Great fun to drive in a studio with little in the way of a set. I tracked one for a series of dance shows, basically The Black and White Minstrels, but not with the black make up. Very fast crabs all over the floor, with Ron Greene being very cool on the front. Also good for very, very slow creep in, before zooms were commonplace. Example, also with Ron, Pete and Dud in ‘Not Only but Also’. Happy memories of obsolete ways of working. For the anoraks, powered by hydraulic motors, compressor powered by 3 phase AC, could go for a distance with electrical power off, in silence.

Ian Keown: It was a very scary machine to drive, as it could crab (all 4 corner wheels moving), or steer, with just the two rear wheels moving. It went forward and reverse, and in crab mode if you went all the way round with the wheels, they became reversed, as quite a few studio walls and sets could testify! On the front, the left foot pedal was for craning up and down, and the right pedal moved the seat left and right, but if you had your whole foot on the pedal, and pushed your toe down, the seat moved to the left!It was a monster whichever end you sat on!!

Mark Smithers: Once did a play called ‘The Fallout Guy’ with Dave Bushell as the LD. There was a longish scene with a drive through the desert, so to show movement we mounted a 5k lamp where the camera usually is and I sat on the front to point the lamp with the camera supervisor Paul Woolston driving.

Laura McNeil: That was the only drama I did from start to finish, sound from pre to post-production. I loved working on it. Then I didn’t get a credit on it but the runners did. I almost cried it was awful as I found out when the end credits rolled in the edit suite.

Richard Stevenson: Looks like it’s still in the camera store. All the cable coiled up on the back. As far as I know it never went up to [Studio] B – no height in that studio anyway.

Simon Tooley: It used to come out of the store for ‘Crimewatch Midlands’. There was one mark on the floor, and I used to sit on the back of it in the same place for the whole show! If I remember rightly.

Alan Hussey: Very versatile dolly in the hands of an expert tracker – you could slip it from track to crab on the move. On the front both feet and both hands had individual jobs.

Cruel Train

Cruel Train 1 cropped Cruel Train 2 cropped Cruel Train 3 cropped

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Cruel Train was a drama transmitted in 1996. Chris Parr was the producer, with Malcolm McKay as the director, and script adaptor, from the novel by Emile Zola. Sean Van Hales was the director of photography, and Michael Pickwoad was the production designer.

The drama featured: Adrian Dunbar, Saskia Reeves, Alec McCowen, David Suchet, Jonathan Moore, and Minnie Driver.

The BFI database includes the following synopsis:

‘Drama set in wartime Britain. Rueben Roberts a deputy railway station master, discovers that he owes his job, marriage and home to the sexual favours that his wife Selena has been forced to grant to Arthur Grandrige, her godfather and the railway chairman. Rueben vows revenge and kills Arthur on the Brighton express train. The murder is witnessed by a railway worker, Jack Dando. When the police investigate, Rueben pursuades Selena to seduce Jack to buy his silence. However things soon spiral out of control.’ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/516788

The budget is listed in the BFI database as £1.25 million, and apparently it was also known as Beast in Man. The shoot lasted from 25th November to 22nd December 1994.

Thanks to the BBC Drama Village for giving me the photos for sharing and safe keeping.

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

John Greening: ‘The station was a built set at an old Electric works ( which had some rail lines) by the Aston Expressway -Bill Hartley was the First AD.’

Gary Jordan: ‘Part of Screen two: SCREEN TWO – CRUEL TRAIN A dark & stylish drama set in wartime Britain, based on ‘La Bete Humaine’ by Emile ZOLA. Ruben ROBERTS discovers his wife has been sexually abused by her godfather since her early teens & coerces Selina to help him kill GRANDRIDGE. Sp s film
——————————————————————————
BBC Cprd Name: WORLDWIDE
BBC Item Type: Programme
BBC SubCatalogue: LONPROG TX DATE 22 Dec 1996′

Ian Barber: ‘And I was the AFM. Peter Lloyd was the 2nd Ad. Probably one of the best projects we ever worked on. The set was amazing. Built from scratch in a disused warehouse. We all had to wear masks because the air was black with soot from the steam engines. Alec McGowen was also in it, along with Sheila Reid and Brian Pringle.’

Mark Smithers: ‘Filmed at the GEC turbine and transformer works. The factory was pulled down shortly afterwards.’