Monthly Archives: August 2012

PAs Leaving Party & Rum Punch 1998

PAs Leaving Party 17 Dec 1998

PAs at Rum Punch 1998

VT at Rum Punch 1998

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

The photos were taken at the Leaving Party for the Pebble Mill Production Assistants, as they took redundancy in 1998, and at Rum Punch which took place a couple of days later.

The first photo includes: Andy Rutter, Paul Scholes, John Cooke, Jim Cleland.

Second photo includes: Anne Varley, Jane Mclean, Sylvia Lloyd, Sue Williams, Linda Flavell. (In the background: Dave James & Geoff Moore)

The third photos includes left to right: Ray Lee, Dave Rhodes, Mark Ray, Gurpi Saini (kneeling), James Allen, Nigel Evans, Mark Davies, Ian Collins, Keith Brown, Robin Szemeti, Adam Harvey.

Thanks to Dave Bushell, Paul Vanezis, Mark Ray, Ray Lee, Stuart Gandy and Jane Mclean for identifying those in the photos.

PAs’ Leaving Party – photo by Sue Robinson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo was taken in the BBC Club bar in Dec 1998, when the staff Live Production Assistants left Pebble Mill. They include, left to right: Sue Williams, Jane Mclean, Anne Varley, Sylvia Lloyd.  The stop-watch cake was a very good idea!

Jane Mclean adds the following information: ‘The only thing I can tell you about it is that it was THE BEST PARTY EVER. And that not just from me!’

Charisma Keyboard

Charisma keyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

VT editor, Ian Collins, took a number of photographs of obsolete kit before the closure of Pebble Mill in 2004; this still of a Charisma keyboard among them. Charisma was a digital video effects machine which was de rigour in the late ’80s, early ’90s.  It enabled complex video effects to be incorporated in programmes like ‘The Clothes Show’.  In fact the style of series like ‘The Clothes Show’ were largely due to Charisma, and the skilled use of it by VT editors like Mike Bloore, who was awarded a craft BAFTA for his editing of the programme. I remember being really excited about using Charisma in VT edits, and thinking the effects looked really great.  If anything it was used too much, and caused a reaction against multi-layered complex edits and effects and back towards straightforward cuts.  Nowadays the effects look pretty dated. I also remember a funny story about an edit assistant, who shall remain nameless, going to a job interview and being asked about what he thought about Charisma.  He replied that charisma was an important quality in a person, and meant that they could be inspirational to others etc.  It was only later he realised that they were talking about the Charisma machine.  I can’t remember if he got the job or not! The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group: Mike Workman: ‘As used by the Six O’Clock News in 1985 for headline transition wipes, what a machine – VizRT is not a patch on Charisma!’ Matthew Skill: ‘we had one in Newcastle BC, there’s a complete set of manuals down in the workshops in the basement of TVC. That’s all the info i have for now….’ Mike Workman: ‘there’s a few dotted around TVC that came out of the then N1/2 news studios when the News Spur opened in 1997’ Mike Skipper: ‘Their successor the Ten X was used up until about a year ago at TV Centre!’ Ian Collins: ‘Without this piece of kit, Clothes Show would not have been the success that it was.’ Jane Green: ‘Ian’s right. I remember racing back from the NEC Clothes Show Live 1992 with the rushes of the live show and using Charisma with VT at Pebble Mill to put the show montages together. The effects were groundbreaking at the time. Took the finished tapes back to Roger at the NEC for TX and everyone crowded round to watch and loved the Charisma transformation.’

Terry Wogan with Pudsey Bear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from Marie Phillips, no reproduction without permission.

The photos include Children in Need organiser, Marie Phillips with Terry Wogan and Pudsey bear.

These date from the mid 1990s, and were taken on the ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ set in Studio C at Pebble Mill.

Marie Phillips adds the following information:

‘Terry Wogan was a Trustee of Children in Need and went round the Regions in the weeks prior to Appeal Night and asked particularly to meet each Regional Co-ordinator. He was very supportive and very appreciative of our work.

 I told him that there were 90 calls on my answer machine from potential fundraisers, waiting to be dealt with. He was amazed and although I didn’t hear it, apparently on his next day programme he expressed his astonishment at “Marie in Birmingham having 90 calls in one day”. He was very friendly and interested in what we did. I am not sure if he did appear on Good Morning.’