April 2013 – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Juliet Bravo polaroids – Janice Rider

Photos by Janice Rider, no reproduction without permission.

Costume designer, Janice Rider, took these polaroids of characters in the police drama series Juliet Bravo for continuity reasons. The polaroids are written on to include the character name, and the episode and ‘take’ number. Juliet Bravo was a hosted drama series at Pebble Mill for a couple of years, although it was a London production. The series ran between 1980-85, with Stephanie Turner playing the lead role in the first three series

Tony Shaw has matched the continuity photos up to the relevant episodes:

Tk6 Beck Ep9 Day1 – Continuity photo taken during the filming of S01 E08 ‘Cages’ episode.

Ep9 Tk7/8/9 Day 1 – S01 E08 ‘Cages’ episode.

Ep5 Tk9 Day 4 – S01 E04 ‘Coins’ episode.

Ep14 Tk3 Day 1 ‘Janice’ – S01 E14 ‘Oscar’ episode.

Tk2 Maureen Ep1 – S01 E01 ‘Shot Gun’ episode.

Ep14 Tk2 Day 1 ‘Pengelly’ – S01 E14 ‘Oscar’ episode.

Bentley Tk7 Ep1 – S01 E01 ‘Shot Gun’ episode.

Tk3(b) Cole Day1 Ep2 – S01 E03 ‘The Draughtsman’ episode.

Ep14 Tk4a Day 1 ‘Harold Coop’ – S01 E14 ‘Oscar’ episode.

Parrish Ep2 Day 1 – S01 E03 ‘The Draughtsman’ episode.

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Prospero – Mark Decker

This article from the BBC retirees’ magazine, Prospero (November 2006), commemorates the dedicating of radio drama studio in the Mailbox, where The Archers is recorded, to the memory of sound designer, Mark Decker.

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing this article.

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘How very sad. In my own BBC years, everyone liked Mark immensely and respected his serious and thoughtful approach to the development of sound engineering. I am terribly sorry to hear this news. It’s touching to celebrate Mark’s work and commitment in this particular manner. I knew Sue well and offer her my deepest condolences.’

Ray Lee: ‘Mark was a true professional. He pioneered work with the Calrec Soundfield Mic, wich gave some atonishing results and when the stereo sound was listened to on headphones, you really could hear things coming from behind and over your head.’

Ed Billington: ‘As a studio attendant I worked with mark sitting up the studio’s a great chap always a gent am sorry to hear this news.’

Kath Shuttleworth: ‘I had the pleasure of working with Mark on The Archers and many other Radio Drama projects over the years both as Spot SM and Gram Op. I learnt so much from him and always admired his work. We worked together on moving the Radio Drama Studio from Pebble Mill to The Mailbox and I was gutted when we lost him. Today I sit in what was his chair at the front of the studio mixing The Archers and I can only hope that I do the job half as well as he did. He was truly inspirational, a complete gentleman, and still very much missed.’

Peter Seabrook’s Gardening Week

Peter Seabrook presented many gardening shows out of BBC Pebble Mill. Peter Seabrook’s Gardening Week was a weekly gardening advice show which went out on afternoons on BBC 2 in 1996. Helen Yemm was Peter’s co-presenter. Peter would often present from the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley.

Thanks to Ian Collin’s for making this grab available.

Superstars – photos James French

Photos by James French, no reproduction without permission.

The photos were taken during a recording of Superstars in Nottingham in 1983. This was a London production, but used Pebble Mill scanners, if the recording was in the Midlands and a PM truck was available – in this case CM1.

Crew 3 was on CM1 at the time. The cameras are Philips LDK 5s with Schneider lenses.

The pics show:

Dave Ballantyne sitting on the Elemac dolly with, I think, George Stevenson tracking him.
Dave again, sitting on a Vinten Kestrel crane (though you can’t see it)
Dave again, Bob Meikle and Eric Wise relaxing at lunchtime
James French, standing on the platform of the Moonshot hoist, shown in the last pic.

Crew 3’s Supervisor was Keith Salmon but he was on leave, so Dave B was acting.

Thanks to James French for sharing the photos.

Signature tunes: Look Hear, Second City Firsts, Gangsters

These Pebble Mill signature tunes are for:
1) Look Hear – Regional studio based entertainment show, presented by Toyah Willcox.
2) Second City Firsts – 30 minute studio A drama series, featuring new writers to television.
3) Gangsters – 1976 Play for Today, and later series.

Thank to Peter Poole for sharing the signature tunes.

Look Hear

Gangsters 1976

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:
Stuart Gandy:’I certainly remember all these, and Look Hear was one of this first programmes I worked on as a TA in Studio Ops back in 1980.’