November 2015 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Real Rooms – Children in Need special

These photos are of the Real Rooms team, during a makeover to coincide with Children in Need day. The show went out on Friday 21st November 1997, and was the last episode of that series. The makeover was of a centre used by special needs children, somewhere in south Birmingham.

Included in the first photo are left to right: back row, Elaine Walker, Jon ?, Richard White, John Gregg, Robert David, ?, front row Beverley ?, Leah ?, Kieran Kelly, Simon Biagi (presenter), Fiona Quigley, Dee Mortimer.

Working on Real Rooms was my first programme as a series producer, with Mark Kershaw as executive producer, and Roger Casstles as Managing Editor. We had an initial commission for 20 programmes, but the series proved very popular and it was recommissioned many times over. I worked on the first 80 programmes, before moving on to other series.

It was one of the first programmes at Pebble Mill to extensively use self shooting by researchers and assistant producers, on Sony VX1000s. Some of the quality was mixed, but it was only through self shooting that the programmes were cost effective. We used to have a full Beta crew for all presenter, Simon Biagi’s pieces to camera, and the opening and reveal, as well as the ‘inspiration’ and ‘shopping’ trips. The self shooting was reserved for the makeover happening in the actual room.

Vanessa Jackson

Tom O’Connor Roadshow – Liverpool

Photos by Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from the Tom O’Connor Roadshow winter/spring 1987. The roadshow was staged in each location for one week, these photos were taken in Liverpool, which was the last location on the run, in April 1987. The second photo is of cameraman John Couzens, seated on the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby bench. The bottom two photos are from the after show party, which was obviously attended by Melvyn Bragg. Series producer, Steve Weddle, can just be seen popping up behind Melvyn Bragg.

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

Mary Sanchez: ‘Ok I was there and the girl on piano was Louise someone( can’t remember surname – producer ) and in first pic is a graphics girl (Liz?)( on the right ) and on the left is it Pam Creed? Sorry this is all I can offer! I have LOADS of pics , must dig them out!’

Steve Weddle: ‘The warm-up chap alongside Melvyn Bragg, weirdly enough, is called Bobby Bragg (no relation!) In fact Bobby became a bit of an on screen celebrity as Roadshow Reg, the pretend scene shifter, who’s catchphrase was, I’m not feeling very well Mr. O’Connor. We’d send him on stage whenever we were under running, which happened quite frequently. And as the series progressed his cameos with Tom became increasingly popular, so much so, that when I appeared on Open Air to discuss the Series the following week, it was Reg who joined me on the sofa there! Melvyn Bragg just happened to be in the vicinity of our end of series party in the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool – unsurprisingly, he had nothing to do with the Show – but we invited him along anyway, and he graciously joined us for our knees up. I seem to remember I was dressed as a giant chicken at the time! I think that’s Pam by the old Roadshow Relay scoreboard, and Louise Stellakis is the researcher by the piano.’

Jane Mclean: ‘Just come to me! The audio supervisor Louise married was Paul Cunliffe.’

Radio Studio 3 Control Room

2 Shortcut 360 effects players to replace the PEG.

Sony mixer and patching

2 x Widebody EMT 950 turntables

Studers

Main Sony mixer with PPM on top

Photos by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are of Radio Studio 3 at Pebble Mill. This was used by Network Radio dramas. They were taken by Martin in autumn 2003.

“Studio 3 control room. Recorded effects submixer. Note the Shortcuts – practically obsolete when they were purchased by somebody who wasn’t expected to use them.”

Martin Fenton

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

David Shute: ‘Some of us remember the time when the empty studio was recording atoms’ for later edit usage. A senior member of staff chose the location to have a stand-up row with his mistress and it was all recorded. I wonder if anyone kept a copy?’

Ray Mears World of Survival

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab available. This was the first of Ray Mears’ survival programmes, after he had built his reputation on the countryside magazine series, Tracks. Many of the same production team worked on this series, including series producer, Kath Moore.

Here is the link to the Radio Times entry for the first episode of this six part series from Pebble Mill, which was transmitted in spring 1997: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Ray+Mears+World+of+Survival&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search

‘Tracks presenter Ray Mears makes himself at home in six of the most inhospitable places on earth and discovers how the indigenous people have survived.

Episode 1: The Arctic. Mears takes on the Arctic, which is twice as cold as the average freezer, and learns survival techniques from the Inuit.
Producer Kathryn Moore

Pebble Mill splicer

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

This is a film splicer from BBC Pebble Mill, which would have been used in Telecine, for cutting and joining lengths of 16mm film. The same machines were used in the film edit suites. The splicer could cut film straight, or at an angle, and also held a roll of sellotape for joining the pieces of film together.

Each splicer was obviously labelled with the building name, and a number, to stop it wandering around the building, and being taken off by someone else in error.

Thanks to Jim Gregory for keeping it safe for many years.

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

Nigel Mercer: ‘The lever at the bottom was for cutting the mag sound diagonally and the one next to it was to straight cut between the film frames on the frame line. Amazed I can still remember !!!’