March 2014 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Kate O’Mara – Howards’ Way

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. Kate O’Mara is second from the right in the top photo. The lower photo shows the cast and crew of Howrds’ Way.

Kate O’Mara died on Sunday 30th March 2014, in a Sussex nursing home, aged 74, after a short illness.

Kate O’Mara played the part of Laura Wilde in Howards’ Way, series 5-6.

Howards’ Way was made at Pebble Mill between 1985-90. It was a London hosted production. The drama series was inspired by US soaps like Dynasty and Dallas. The series was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. It was set in a fictional town of Tarrant on the south coast of England, around the rich and glamorous world of sailing. It followed the trials and tribulations of the Howard family, and their rivals.

Here is a link to Howards’ Way on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oK03V7z_IA

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

Karen Lamb: ‘I remember when we were filming in Studio A for Howards’ Way and she had to drink some champagne during a scene, ever the professional (only after she had completed the scene) she went mad that it was real champagne & not fake!’

Susan Astle: ‘I was lucky enough to do Kate’s make up on most of the series.’

Mary Sanchez: ‘I worked on Howards’ Way with her for 2 series – she had a very dry sense of humour and had the men eating out of her hand ! Lovely lady – sorry to hear of her passing away relatively young.’

Pebble Mill table at Journalists’ Charity Event

Photo by Vanessa Jackson

This photo was taken at the Journalists’ Charity Event lunch on March 28th 2014. The event was held at the Holte Suite at Aston Villa Football Club. Jim Dumigan had arranged a ‘Pebble Mill’ table. Included in the photo are, left to right: Tony Rayner, Tony Wolfe, Jim Dumighan and John Williams.

Pebble Mill staff also present at the dinner were: Midlands Today presenter, Nick Owen, director, Philip Thickett, Caroline Officer, Tommy Nagra, Jenny Wilkes and Vanessa Jackson.

The lunch included a Q&A between C4 news presenter and journalist, Jon Snow and Nick Owen.

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Wally Aspey’s retirement do

These photos are of Wally Aspey’s retirement do. It was held at the BBC Club, with Mick Murphy playing the piano. Also in the piano photo are Kevin Hudson (blonde curly hair), next to Dave Ackrill (blonde hair).

Wally is seen tucking into his ‘BBC’ cake, behind him is designer Miles Laing.

Thanks to Dawn and Kevin Hudson for sharing the photos.

Tom O’Connor Roadshow – Toby Horwood

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

Here’s me on The Tom O’Connor Roadshow (picture by Nigel Beaumont).

This was at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. The camera is an LDK 5 working out of our big OB truck called CM1. This picture exemplifies the long hours of waiting that OBs sometimes entail. I think at one point I did actually doze off. I just had the big wide ‘low cock-up factor’ shot, not very challenging. It was sometimes a good idea to bring along a book. Some crew members bought along golf clubs, badminton racquets and watercolour sets, so that their time off duty away from home could be made more useful. I remember going to a fringe comedy show one evening whilst we were in Cambridge for Tom O’Connor.

Toby Horwood

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

Mike Renshall: ‘North 3 did Falkirk and Blackpool (twice), all of which I was on the crew for.’

Alan Jessop: ‘That Schneider ZDU has the external v/f switch adaptor that I thought was only on LO6 cameras, was this CM1 then?

Dental Hospital on Pebble Mill site

The following article was published in the University of Birmingham Alumni Magazine: Old Joe, in March 2014.

Work has now begun on the dental hospital, being built on the former BBC Pebble Mill Studios site. The dental hospital will have facilities for both dental students from the University, and for the public. The building will open in autumn 2015.