Studio 3 – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Jill Archer’s Aga

Copyright Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

This is Jill Archer’s Aga, and presumably quite a bit of her kitchen equipment piled on top! It would have been regularly used during recordings of The Archers.

Martin Fenton took this photo in Radio Studio 3 in Pebble Mill in 2003, where The Archers used to be recorded.

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

Kathryn Shuttleworth: ‘We still have the Aga but it nearly didn’t make it as there were concerns about the weight of it! I’m pretty sure there was some concrete reinforcements installed, not just for the Aga but the entire BBC building structure. A team from Aga did the move to The Mailbox as it had to be dismantled into many pieces and reassembled. It really does weigh a tonne!’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘When I used to do the guided tours of Pebble Mill (sometimes helping Sheila Brown) the Archers Studio was always very popular.’

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Radio Studio 3 Till

Old till. Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

The photo is of the Radio Studio 3 till. This was the old one, which decided to go open circuit during a recording and threw me across the studio floor, only narrowly missing an actor. It could no longer be plugged in, but it still made a noise.

Martin Fenton

Below is the replacement till, without the electrical fault! Radio Studio 3 was the studio used by The Archers, amongst other network radio dramas.

New till. Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

The Archers – Adam is Gay, recycling bin

Photo by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission

Radio Studio 3 main exit. Note the paper recycling bin. There was something of a hoo-ha when the “Adam is gay” storyline from The Archers was leaked to the press. Pebble Mill had had one of its community open days the previous weekend. Nobody had thought to remove the big cardboard box full of yet un-broadcast scripts!

Martin Fenton

Spot Effects Store Room

Photos by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission.

These photos were taken in 2003 at Pebble Mill, they show the radio spot effects store room. The room may look like a jumble of assorted domestic bits and pieces, but it was the source of the spot effects used in radio dramas, primarily The Archers.

Thanks to Martin Fenton for sharing the photographs.

Resources booklet mid 1990s

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.’