Pebble Mill Trinket Box

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Pebble Mill trinket box from Marie Phillips.

These trinket boxes were amongst a number of souvenir objects commemorating the  building which were commissioned by HR, to give to important visitors.  Marie Phillips was a personal assistant in HR.

Midlands at Westminster in Strasbourg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of a ‘Midlands at Westminster’ shoot in Strasbourg. Featured, left to right are: Sarah Foley, Jim Knights (camera), Naomi Goldsmith (producer), Gordon Nightingale (sound).  Merrick Simmonds was the director.

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

Sarah Foley: ‘Was great fun! In the days of a full crew. Definitely very early 1990’s. Interesting, very busy, lovely weather, and snails in garlic butter are the things I remember!’

Peter Poole: ‘Mike Greatorex and I worked on ‘The Midlands at Westminster’ from its start. It was broadcast live from the Foyer. The director was John Taylor. I think the first presenter was David Davies. Other presenters include Peter Hobday, Steve Le Fevre, Michael Collie and Naomi Goldsmith. At a later date the programme moved to Studio B. Patrick Burns always produced high quality programmes. He also seemed to manage a very happy production team. I have many happy memories of working with you all.’

Date with Fate – Becky Land

Photo by production designer Lynda Kettle, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had so much fun on this show. I remember I stood in as ‘presenter’ in the run throughs on the top floor! It lasted only one series and was a daytime Mr and Mrs with horoscopes. It pitted family and friends against guest astrologers to see who would be able to answer questions about them; the astrologers used personal birth charts of each contestant to help them. The prizes were a little modest compared with today but it was still when the BBC had a limit on the value of prizes. I do remember a Henry vacuum and of course the ‘Date With Fate’ Plate. Three shows in a day running back and forth along the ground floor to the old ‘Clothes Show’ Office. I think it was around early 1998? We all went separate ways and I ended up on ‘Gardening Neighbours’ in Sheffield.

Becky Land

Telecine – Ray Lee (Part 2)

Telecine, BBC Pebble Mill

Photo by Ivor Williams, no reproduction without permission. Photo from 1971, of the Rank Cintel  16mm Flying Spot Telecine Machine.

The majority of inserts to Midlands Today, and Pebble Mill at One were on film in those days (mid 1970s), as this was before lightweight cameras, and film cameras were at that time the best means to obtain location shots. Studio inserts were often recorded on VT then played in live quite often without editing. Film was much easier to edit then.

The process of getting a news story involved a film camera crew going out, shooting on film with sound onto tape. The tape also recorded a pilot tone from the camera to allow re-syncing of the sound after editing. The film (usually reversal film) then went into Film processing while the tape was transferred to Sepmag using the pilot signal to lock to the sepmag bay, thereby giving the sound track frame for frame correspondence with the film. The two parts then came back together in the film cutting room, where the film editor selected the parts he wanted using a Pic Sync ( basically a set of about 4 sprocket wheels on a shaft, with an illuminated mini projector on the far end to see the film images. The sepmag track (or tracks) would be on the nearer sprockets. On either side was a film bin. Often a “wild” track sound was recorded (not sync to pictures) in order to add additional effects and bridge edit points. The Clapper board was used to sync the sound and picture together with giving details of what item this was. The film editor would look for the first frame on which the clapper was completely closed, and align that with the clap on the soundtrack, thereafter the sprockets would ensure that the sound and picture remained in sync.

With news stories there was not usually time to go into dubbing, so the edited film and sound track then came straight to TK and one hoped that the edits on the sepmag would hold together.

Where time permitted a dub the sound was often tracklaid. This allowed sound to be carried over an edit to smooth the effect. In this case the sound was edited into 2 or more rolls with film spacer being used to make all the rolls the same length. Each roll would have a leader spliced onto it with the familiar sync cross and then a 12 second count down.

At the dub, the film projector and the sound rolls on the sepmag bays would all be locked together electrically so the they ran synchronously. The machines would be laced and set with the cross in the projector gate and on the sepmag sound head, and then the lock button pressed which linked everything together. Due to the nature of the electrical locking, very occasionally the sepmag bay would go into runaway, and one needed to hit the stop button fast, otherwise there was a danger that the film sprockets would be damaged, and a lot of film could end up very quickly on the floor!

Dubbing involved balancing and mixing the soundtracks together, adding any voice overs, commentary, and spot effects, and recording the whole sequence onto a new continuous sepmag track. At the end of the process there would be a single continuous sepmag track and a single edited picture track, which could then be played by TK into the studio.

The process was the same for network programmes on film, although in this case the film was usually shot on negative film, and a rushes print made. This is what the editor used to compile the required shots and soundtracks. The edited rushes were then returned to the lab for a print to be made from the original negative, using the rushes edit to align the required shots. The lab also graded the pictures at this stage to match the exposure and colour balance to some extent. This print was termed the “answer print”. This was usually the one used be dubbing, and sometimes also for transmission, although some programmes had a Transmission print made as well. The answer print basically gave an opportunity to the producer to change his mind, and for the lab to further trim the grading of pictures, although as it entailed quite a lot of expensive processes, in later years the answer print was quite often the transmission print as well.

By the time it got to TK there was usually a picture roll, and a sepmag sound roll. In a few cases (usually prints of commercial films) the sound was an optical track on the picture roll, in which case there was no separate sound. However this gave rise to problems if ever the film needed to be cut and spliced as the sound head was separated by 16 frames from the film gate so the picture would change, and the sound continue, only to change about half a second later.

In the case of news it was not uncommon for the editor to rush in with the film and sepmag rolls with very little time to get it on the machine before transmission. The one occasion I particularly remember involved me, and I think Jim Gregory, lacing the sepmag and picture rolls simultaneously, hitting the lock button and running the machine without even pausing on the “10” while Tom Coyne padded until the film hit the screen. Usually there was a little more time, and quite often we had a quick rehearsal, prior to the programme going out.

R. G. Lee

Big Strong Boys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Jake Robinson and Gavin Lowe were the original ‘Big Strong Boys’. The daytime DIY series, which succeeded ‘Big Strong Girls’.

The boys would descend on house and put right the DIY wrongs – building shelves, fitting cupboards, tiling – just whatever needed doing.

The boys were cheeky chaps, who loved to wind up the production team!  I remember receiving several spoof Mr Angry type phone calls!

I series produced one series of about 20 programmes, which were presented by Anna Walker.  Anna presented the programme from 1999-2001.

Deputy Daytime Controller, Alison Sharman was responsible for finding the boys, and asking Pebble Mill to develop the series, as a successor to ‘Big Strong Girls’.  The series ran from 1999-2004.

The presenter in these photos is Sarah Matravers, I think.

Vanessa Jackson

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

Caroline Feldon Parsons: ‘Yes it is Sarah Matravers. I worked on ‘Big Strong Girls’, with Bridget Calderhead and Elaine Walker who were partnered with vet Mark Evans, followed by these Boys, and also the second team of Boys which featured Craig Phillips (first winner of Big Brother) and Stuart Castleton. MDF madness!!’

Robert Dagg: ‘Used to watch ‘Big Strong Boys’ (and they were!) with Loran Durant and Susan Ball, coffees in hand, before the opening of the Shoulder Of Mutton at midday in Slawit :-)’

Suzie Curtlin: ‘And also Debra Veal presented with Craig & Stuart, and of course not forgetting Kate Silverton, we all know where she is now!’

Caroline Feldon Parsons:  ‘I think I must have worked on nearly every makeover show going! Building MDF creations in pouring rain under gazebos, drying paint with hairdryers to make the reveal, dealing with “cheeky chappy” presenters and their particular brand of charm, yes, the memories are flooding back!’

Becky Land: ‘Painting wardrobes at 2am…. watching placentas being buried under trees… couriering tons of railway sleepers half way across England. The normal office job’s not quite the same.’