Pebble Mill Charity Parachute Jump

Pebble Mill charity parachute jump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

This photo was taken just before the Pebble Mill charity parachute jump, circa 1981.

Included are: Chris Goode (far left), Lesley Hope Stone (in yellow on left),John Priestley behind Lesley, then Trina Bond, Sue Robinson (in blue, first row standing), Wendy Mawson (next to Sue), Robin Sunderland (to the left and behind Sue), Brian Watkiss behind Robin, Phil Thickett (sunglasses at the back) Bob Cosford (glasses at the back), Nick Patten (in orange, wearing sunglasses, to right and behind Sue), Barrie Foster (blue suit, dark anorak), Dave Lowe (red suit, with beard), Andy Turley just behind Dave Lowe, next to Ian Fisher, Steve Mitchell (in khaki), Paul (?) Patterson to right of Steve, Merrick Simmonds (in blue, kneeling in front of Sue), Kevin Hudson (next but one to Merrick, blonde hair), Prakash photographer from Graphics (head in hands), Brian Bishop (blue jumpsuit, crouched on right).

Thanks to Sue Robinson, Kevin Lakin, Jane Mclean, Kevin Hudson for adding in the names.

Thanks to Dave Lowe for sharing the photo.

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

Sue Robinson: ‘I’ve got a newspaper cutting about this somewhere. We raised money for the RNLI, I think?’

Kevin Hudson: ‘The young lad behind Steve Mitchell is Brian Bishops son. I remember the day well, I was slightly off course landing, and was dragged through a pile of sheep sh…t. Oh happy days.’

Carol Churchill: ‘Steve and Brian scenic artists. I saw them all jump, lot of green faces that day.’

Susan Astle: ‘I watched them all too, with Carol, it was an amazing sight. Susie (Bancroft as was).’

 

Planning Department 1980

Sue Robinson, Penny Brain, Bruce Martin PP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

Included in the photo are, left to right: Sue Robinson, Penny Brain, Bruce Martin.

This photo of the Planning Department at Pebble Mill dates from 1980, when Planning were on the 3rd floor. Sue Robinson went on to become a multicamera director on studio programmes like Pebble Mill at One. Bruce Martin was the manager of the department, which used to book studio, VT and outside broadcast crew. He always used to greet people with a ‘Hi, pal!’, whether you were male or female.

Margaret Thatcher on Good Morning Summer – Caroline Officer

Margaret Thatcher produced two autobiographies, ‘The Downing St Years’ and ‘The Path to Power’; it was this second book that brought her to Pebble Mill in June 1995 to be interviewed by Sarah Greene and Will Hanrahan round the kitchen table on Good Morning Summer. I booked her and had the responsibility of researching her and looking after her on the day.

Beforehand, the building had to be checked by plain clothes detectives and sniffer dogs because the IRA was still deemed a risk to her. We couldn’t give her a dressing room near the crush bar or in the basement, so we had to locate her in a room adjacent to the radio complex, which was re-decorated and dressed accordingly with oil paintings and sofas from the props store in Selly Oak, thanks to Julie Knee.

You didn’t mind when some guests arrived early, but she arrived at 9.30am, hair perfectly coiffured and in full make up, she required no time in hair and make-up. The thought of making small talk with Margaret Thatcher was daunting, particularly when your political views were diametrically opposite, but I somehow managed to get through the next two hours, at one point physically holding her back behind the doors in the radio complex, with her handbag on her elbow ready to go on, because she just wanted to get on with it.

The thing I will always remember was Sue Robinson, who was directing that day, calling down to say that I should warn her about the loud intro to the music number that followed directly after her interview. We had the Tribute to the Blues Brothers on and they were playing ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ with a huge brass section and Sue couldn’t move her out of the interview area before they started. I began to explain the situation and then the film and then the type of music and then a list of the legends of soul who appeared in the film and I knew she didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.

I’ve actually found the 1995 interview on YouTube – here’s the link

Caroline Officer

Caroline Officer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Jane Mclean: ‘I did Good Morning Summer and don’t remember Her Maj being on! Hysterical you looking after her and Sue directing!! Got through half of it then found myself thinking of all the spoof Maggies. Don’t believe you found it on You Tube. Think you have your own copy….’

Sue Robinson: ‘I have NO memory of this! I obviously decided to erase it from my memory in case it gave me nightmares!’

Jean Thomas: ‘On her visit there was a request over the tannoy for a welcoming commitee in the foyer. I was somehow at the front thanx to the guys from the 7th floor. She had fierce looking security guys who came in first who stood in the front staring at us. You guessed she came in and headed straight for me. Cameras popping everyone watching, I wanted to dissapear. She was lovely………’

Caroline Officer: ‘Sue Robbo, you can’t remember this one?? And Jane, yes I probably do have a copy but I stupidly dumped all my Pebble Mill stuff on to a D3 tape before I scarpered to Ready Steady Cook.’

Andy Bentley: ‘I was on the roof during the visit with Police Marksmen so they could view the whole area.’

Raymond Lee: ‘Don’t remember the Good Morning visit, but do remember her at Pebble Mill during the Pebble Mill at One era. Sadly I can’t remember what year, but likely to be late seventies, or early eighties. She came with Dennis, and I remember them both being in the production gallery at one point in proceedings. It’s likely that it was before she had engendered much of a reputation.’

Sarah Dunning: ‘I can remember her visiting pebble mill, as when she was walking around the bottom quadrangle corridor we were weren’t allowed anywhere near her by the security guards incase anybody did anything untoward!!’

Telly Addicts

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

Thanks for VT editor, Ian Collins for making these grabs available.

Telly Addicts was a gameshow which went out between 1985 and 1998 on BBC1, with all the questions being based on television shows past or present. Most questions were introduced via clips. It came out of John King’s department, and was presented by Noel Edmonds. The format of the shows changed a bit over the years, and there were some celebrity versions and Christmas specials.  Usually there were two teams of four contestants, and a tournament structure which produced an overall winning team at the end of the series.

The show was recorded in Studio A.

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

Maria Needle: ‘Ah yes I was the production secretary on Telly Addicts, Sue Williams was the PA, Louis Robinson was the producer, Sue Robinson the Director I think. I learnt to drink on this show!’

Ruth Kiosses: ‘We did loads of light entertainment costumes for Telly Addicts either from Selly Oak stores or sent up from Wales Farm Road and ones that were made especially (usually at pretty late notice I recall?) Mr Blobby often arrived in a box for various of  Noel shows not sure whether he appeared on Telly Addicts?’

Clare Cotton: ‘Aghhh happy days! We had such a laugh making telly addicts-great production team, great characters one and all…’

Jane Green: ‘Noel always gave me a panic by arriving at the last minute in his helicopter but was always ready on set on time and wanted no special treatment. I once found him standing on a chair in his dressing room trying to get a signal on a new thing called a mobile phone. It was the size of a shoebox.’

Julian Hitchcock: ‘Like Jane, I floor managed it. I also directed it once on some sort of wheeze, and was a terrible Assistant Producer on the show. Richard Lewis was the producer, working with the very talented Louis Robinson as (correct me, Louis) AP cum scriptwriter. Marino Katchmaryck was the genius AP, who (unlike me,- who didn’t possess a TV and preferred books and radio) knew everything about every programme since the birth of Logie Baird. John King presided fatuously over all, assisted by Tim Manning. King’s slightly dubious interests in the supposed format rights helped my interest in intellectual property, which I’ve practiced for 17 years now.
In my view, the sycophancy displayed towards Edmonds, which he seemed to expect, probably contributed to the fatality on a different programme that he presented. Edmonds himself appeared to loathe the contestants. It was, however, very easy and very successful.’

Becky Rogers: ‘Worked on sadly the last series of the show in @ 1998 with Helen Hands (nee Lott) as producer, Sue Robinson as director, together with Nick Harris, Sarah Proctor, Kate Hillman, Simon Lupton, Dan sorry can’t remember surname…… Richard Lewis was exec producer. Happy memories – especially the celebrity edition featuring a very young Ant and Dec!! Left telly in 2000 for life in the lakes and the world of commercial radio. Got married last December and hubby surprised me with a personal video message from Noel during the speeches. Despite it being 14 years since I’d worked briefly with him, it was genuinely lovely of him to ‘share’ our day. Many many happy memories of my time at Pebble Mill!’

Julian Hitchcock: ‘I had no idea that it went on so long after I left in ’92. I meant to mention Helen Lott. Nick Hurran directed, presumably before Sue. Possibly Annette Martin, briefly, too. There wasn’t exactly a lot of scope for directors or camera operators; two cameras on each side and a wide angle in the middle!
During my stint, there was a dreadful family (stars of auditions we did in the Clifton something hotel in Bristol) that kept on winning. Of course, being supreme couch potatoes, Pearl and her family were utterly boring. Noel hated them and beseeched us to hit them with harder questions, but it was useless…’

Nick Harris: ‘Such a happy show – remember being paid as a researcher to literally watch TV for six months choosing clips. The longer you’d been there the better the series you got to watch. I started with Triangle and ended with Ab Fab! Then followed three months of auditions around the country. A sifting out the dopes. (One guy thought Noel was called Norman!) and then three months of studio. Two very happy years of my life – in fact I was reminiscing with Noel about exactly that a couple of weeks ago at Deal Or No Deal…’

Julian Hitchcock: ‘The name, of course, was extraordinary. Addiction was not the best thing for a government-funded broadcaster to paint in such a positive way, but King, who was not quite of this world (where does one begin?!) thought it was so good that he tried another series, simply called “Addicts”…’

Thea Harvey: ‘I was PA and worked with Tim, Richard, Helen, Marino, Andrea and, Nick Hurran now a famous (??!!) movie director. They were happy days and we used to have great Christmas lunches! ‘

Ann Gumbley Williams: ‘I worked as PA as we were called then on the pilot shows of Telly Addicts. I think it was first called Telly Quiz . Memories of who worked on the pilot show not good. I think it was Annette Martin who was the producer. Does anyone else remember? They took ages to get the format and edit at first. I didn’t do the programmes after it was commissioned. I was probably off having a baby!’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘I did work on one of the Addicts programmes with Claire Rayner at her house. I just stepped in as another Production Assistant was sick. I enjoyed the day filming at claire’s house – she was lovely and had made us all cake! Telly Addicts was very popular I remember and I did go to one of the shows – just as a member of the audience so i could show my husband what went on!’

Gail Herbert: ‘I was the copyright researcher on Telly Quiz. Producer was Bill Jones, Prod Sec Julie Whittaker, Studio Director Mike Derby. It was great fun doing that series. I then went to work as John King’s PA on Golden Oldies, etc.’

Keith Salmon on Children in Need

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows cameraman, Keith Salmon, and camera, dressed up for a ‘Children in Need’ evening show, from the Studio C, Foyer, with pledge call takers in the background, circa 1991.