April 2012 – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Memories of the VPR20 – Norman McLeod

(Norman McLeod remembers the following incident involving the VPR20, a portable 1″ recorder)

Nigel Evans and Ian Dewar spent 3 days and nights trying to repair the beast in Raffles Hotel Singapore – a ‘Pebble Mill at One’ Summer shoot in 1984 with Donny MacLeod, Paul Coia, Peter Seabrook. Eventually, an Ampex engineer was diverted from Malaysia with chips. The then Video Manager refused to let us take one of the new-fangled Beta portables as back up, so we had to borrow a Singapore TV VHS for the first part of the month. Don Cooper was camera, Roger Casstles directed, Arthur Binnie producer, Nicky Barfoot prodn. asst. Dick Bentley E.M. All our credit cards (especially Dick’s) were hammered to pay for facilities not covered by production – especially the Tiger beer.

Also used on Loch Ness on a Scottish adventure with John Smith – Whisky distillery at dawn: and the “Sealink Cycle Race” with Norman Steemson sitting in the boot of a Rover hatchback from the Isle of Wight to Sheffield.

Norman McLeod

Big Strong Girls – Vanessa Jackson

‘Big Strong Girls’ was commissioned as a series of 20, half hour shows for BBC 1, by Daytime Controller, Liz Barron. It was Liz who came up with the title when the idea was pitched to her by BBC Pebble Mill. The series was transmitted in 1999.

It is the only series idea that I thought up, developed and actually made. It was centred around the empowerment of women, in the wake of the Spice Girls – that women ought to get on with their own DIY projects, without waiting for the men in their lives to lead the way! The key talent were two sisters, Fiona Quigley, and Siobhan Palmer, who were both on screen team members of the Daytime makeover series ‘Real Rooms’, which I series produced at the time. Fiona and Siobhan were funny, creative, and yes – both big and strong! They visited members of the public and got to grips with their DIY jobs. I think one of the funniest episodes involved a family in Hall Green, Birmingham, who had missing skirting boards, which they’d replaced using tea towels! Unfortunately that episode was never shown, as it had been originally scheduled for the Opening of Parliament day.

Unfortunately the Daytime Controller changed between commissioning and delivery, and Liz Barron’s taste was not shared by Jane Lush and her team. When we’d already made and delivered around ten episodes of the series, I received a phone call from the Controller’s office, saying that they really liked the idea of ‘Big Strong Girls’, but that couldn’t we use a couple of fit, attractive young men instead, and rename the series ‘Big Strong Boys’. I felt that this was somewhat missing the point of the original series, but it’s difficult to argue with Channel Controllers! We recorded another five episodes that we had already researched and were committed to, and then the girls were replaced by the ‘Big Strong Boys’, which in my opinion was a far more predictable approach to DIY on television. Focus group research was carried out into a pilot of ‘Big Strong Boys’, whilst ‘Big Strong Girls’ was actually airing, and I was secretly pleased that the audience research said that people preferred the female version – not that it made any difference of course!

‘Big Strong Girls’ had a great production team, Roger Casstles was our executive producer, and was an early experiment in directors self shooting, using the Sony DSR 200 – which produced some very good results. We did employ a professional recordist – and were very glad we did.

Live from Pebble Mill – Cargo Kings

Copyright resides with the original holder, probably Willoughby Gullachsen; no reproduction without permission. Thanks to Janice Rider for making the photographs available.

‘Cargo Kings’ was a live play produced at Pebble Mill in 1983 in Studio A, when Robin Midgley was Head of Drama.

The BFI Database describes the storyline thus:

‘Roger Savage, an anthropologist, visits at remote island, where the natives, Mambu, Baku and Abode learn about an obscure cargo cult from him. Soon they are in London putting Savages ideas into practice.’ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/161953

The script was written by Stephen Davies, directed by Donald McWhinnie, Dawn Robertson was the production associate, with Will Hartley the production manager. Roger Gregory was the script editor. Ian Ashurst was the production designer, with Janice Rider the costume designer and Carol Ganniclifft the make up designer. Bob Hubbard was the camera supervisor, lighting was by Barry Hill, and Annette Martin was the vision mixer.

The play starred Jeffrey Kissoon as Baku, Norman Beaton as Mambu, Michael Cochrane as Roger Savage, Christopher Asante as Obode and Ray Smith as Chief Inspector Beltrap.

Pudsey at the Club – Marie Phillips

Photos by Marie Phillips, no reproduction without permission.

These photos were taken on the football pitch at the back of the Pebble Mill Club. It looks like Pudsey was involved, so there was obviously a Children in Need connection.

Portable 1″ Videotape Recorder (VPR 20)

Photos by Video Editor, Ian Collins; no reproduction without permission.

Ian took these photos before the sale of equipment when Pebble Mill was cleared prior to being demolished in 2005.

The portable 1″ videotape recorder (probably a VPR-20) was a useful piece of technology, meaning that shots could be recorded on location without a full outside broadcast, and before the advent of portable single cameras.

The VT editors shown in the photo are (left to right) Ian Collins, Steve Neilsen, Brian Watkiss, Ivor Williams, Mike Bloore, John Burkill, John Doidge, Steve May.

Peter Poole added the following information on the Pebble Mill Facebook page: ‘I remember a Clothes Show recording using the Ampex/Nagra VPR5. It was an audition for models in Studio 1. The queues stretched down Pebble Mill road.’

Please add a comment if you remember which programmes used portable 1″ recorders.