November 2014 – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Warren Clarke 1947-2014

Actor Warren Clarke died 12 Nov, aged 67, after a short illness. Warren Clarke appeared in several BBC Pebble Mill dramas including: Battle of Waterloo 1983, Nice Work 1989, and perhaps most famously, Dalziel and Pascoe 1996-2007.

Warren was born in Oldham, and began acting at the Liverpool Playhouse. He appeared in the controversial, 1971, Stanley Kubrick film, A Clockwork Orange. He has been described as having a ‘hangdog’ expression, perfect for rather grumpy character parts, like Vic in Nice Work, and the detective, Dalziel, in Dalziel and Pascoe.

I remember seeing Warren Clarke at several Midlands, Royal Television Society Awards ceremonies, where he was frequently nominated, and often won awards – he seemed to enjoy a good party!

(Copyright on the photographs resides with the original holders, no reproduction without permission)

Warren Clarke and Haydn Gwynne. Nice Work

Warren Clarke, Battle of Waterloo

Warren Clarke, Nice Work

Warren Clarke, Colin Buchanan, Dalziel & Pascoe

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

Julia Jones: ‘Very sad. I worked with Warren on four series of Dalziel and Pascoe. He certainly did enjoy a party and was always a great supporter of Pebble Mill.’

Mark James Southall: ‘Was a great friend of Pebble Mill and was one who was always fond of the talent that was in the area.’

Chris Marshall: ‘Nice Work was fabulous and Warren Clarke was fabulous in everything he did.’

Steve Peet: ‘Was lucky enough to see the great man at work on D and P back in 2002/3, a complex soul and totally committed to the role, but in a sometimes difficult arena when you’re the trainee he found time for a chat and words of encouragement.’

Patricia Hodge Robinson: ‘He also starred in ‘The Locksmith’ with Chris Gascoyne and a very young John Simm. Made by Fair Game Films but staffed out of Pebble Mill. I have very fond memories of working with him on this and D & P. He leaves behind an impressive body of work and was an excellent character actor.’

Veronica Butt: ‘I went to meet Warren from B’ham New Street when he appeared as a guest on the pilot series of The One Show, created in Birmingham! He insisted we had a couple of drinks at the bar at the Malmaison before we went through! He was a lovely, down to earth man and a great actor.’

Nick Hennegan: ‘My partner was an actor in The Locksmith and a mentor produced D and P. He was a lovely man.’

Roulla Xenides: ‘He and Nigel Havers were guests on Pebble Mill together when they appeared as Soviet agents in the BBC1 comedy drama Sleepers in 1991. I remember we used some outtake clips of them talking in Russian. I think the series concept was Warren’s.’

Friday Night at the Mill ticket

This ticket is from the staff party held on 3rd September 2004, to mark the closure of the Pebble Mill building, when production moved to the Mailbox in the centre of Birmingham, and to the Drama Village in Selly Oak. The pass was designed by Chris Hession.

The party was a very good night, with different activities taking place in the various marquees shown on the reverse of the ticket.

Thanks to Adam Cooke for sharing the ticket, and keeping it safe for the last decade.

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

Jean Palmer: ‘This was a great night but I never got into any of the tents ended up talking to loads of people. What happened to the Mill message book?’

Stuart Gandy: ‘It was indeed great night, with many mixed emotions.’

Jane Ward: ‘Great night….but bitter-sweet….’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘It was a fantastic night and I so enjoyed it. Happy memories.’

Nanny, S2, Ep4, Slate and Take information

This paperwork is from the drama series: Nanny, starring Wendy Craig. The script is from series 2, episode 4. What is interesting is that the script includes the hand written Slate and Take information, with alternative possible shots listed. This copy of the script belonged to film editor, Oliver White, and would have been used in the editing process.

The abbreviations included stand for the following:

O/s – over the shoulder

a.b. – as before

f/g – foreground

b/g – background

LS – long shot

MCU – medium close up

MS – medium shot

Thanks to Oliver for sharing the script, and for keeping it safe since 1981!

Scouse on Pebble Mill at One

The photo shows a very young looking cameraman, Keith Brook (Scouse), complete with hair, in rehearsal for Pebble Mill at One. In the background is presenter Tom Coyne.

Thanks to Keith for sharing the photo.

CM2 and CMCR40 at Chester Races

Photos by Robin Stonestreet, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows Pebble Mill’s small-ish outside broadcast truck, CM2, with the larger CMCR40 truck at Chester Races in 1985.

The OB trucks were scheduled all over the country, depending on where they were needed, they covered football matches, cricket, as well as working on factual shows like Gardeners’ World.

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Dave Bushell: ‘Pretty sure we had CM2 out on Vanity Fair in 1987 and other dramas.’

Ray Lee: ‘The cameras were Philips LDK14’s with the Triax adaptor LDK514. From memory there were 3 cameras, but whether there was a spare as well I can’t now remember. The cameras had a short multicore cable (10metres or so) between the triax adaptor box and the camera, then the base station in the vehicle was a modified LDK5 base station which powered the camera and adaptor box down standard triax. (at that time CM1 was a type 5 with Philips LDK5 cameras which also used triax but all the way to the camera) The front area had 2 VPR2 1″ videotape machines. CM2 was thus a complete production and recording vehicle, which meant for programmes like Gardeners World, the could leave site with a complete edited programme, apart perhaps from some captions.’

Bryan Comley: ‘Gardeners World has a very simply caption generator, so we did leave site with a TX tape, and this was 30+ years ago!’