Photos – Page 243 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Midlands & East News 1996

Thanks to Tim Manning for making this edition of ‘Midlands & East News’ from Aug 1996 available.

Interestingly some of the topics mentioned here seem as relevant today as back in 1996: re-organisation and re-structuring are perennial themes. The short articles at the end about trying to reduce working hours and introducing more flexible working never seemed to be widely implemented in production areas, despite the good intentions. The Asian Network was becoming more established in the mid 1990s, and the Asian Programmes Unit was an important part of production at Pebble Mill.

‘The Newcomers’ – photo from Dave Kirkwood

‘The Newcomers’ is a Cast & Crew publicity shot for a soap called ‘The Newcomers’, which was shot at Gosta Green in the mid 60’s. It was a very happy production telling the story of London families relocated to a ‘Town in East Anglia’. The show gave a first break to Wendy Richard, who went on to ‘Are You Being Served’, ‘East Enders’ etc. It was directors included Ronald Wilson, Eric Hills and Paddy Russell, produced by Bill Sellars, script by Barry Letts, Kenneth Hill and Patrick Scanlan, and the story was by John Cresswell. The series also starred George Woodbridge, Megs Jenkins, Alan Browning, Naomi Chance, and Robert Brown.

Apart from the people, note the archaic lighting equipment c/f today!

Film Sound Transfer Suite – Peter Poole

The Film Sound Transfer Suite

I took the first photo in 1976 shortly after joining the BBC. It shows me (Peter Poole) in the dubbing theatre’s machine room which housed the Perfectone SEPMAG bays. It was also used as the film sound transfer suite when time allowed. As the the number of programmes produced on film increased the dubbing theatre was in constant use. Also a dedicated transfer suite was needed to cope with the increased output. The second photo was taken in 1978 and shows me (Peter Poole) in the new transfer suite. The BBC’s policy was to buy British equipment if possible. This resulted in Pebble Mill being the first and probably the only BBC broadcast centre to buy PAG SEPMAG bays. They were somewhat unreliable. I will never forget pressing the stop button and watching a thousand feet of SEPMAG film being thrown across the room. I was very pleased when the PAG bays were replaced by Perfectone bays.

The photos were taken using a tripod and self-timer.

Peter Poole

Midlands Today colleagues – photo from Laura McNeill

The photo of Midlands Today colleagues includes (left to right): Mary Sanchez (floor manager), Lindsay Doyle (Arts Reporter, Midlands Today), Laura McNeill (sound).

It was taken at the launch event of Laura’s sound company, after she left BBC Birmingham

Top Sailing – photos by Peter Poole

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

Peter Poole was the sound recordist on this location film shoot for the network series ‘Top Sailing’, broadcast between 1980-83, and produced at Pebble Mill. The photos include cameraman Steve Saunderson, with the beard, with the other person probably being producer Jeremy Pallant. These photos were taken about 1983 in Lymington. Peter developed the photos himself in the Pebble Mill processing lab.

‘Top Sailing’ was a factual series about various aspects of yachting, looking at stories like ‘The Admiral’s Cup’. Different episodes were presented by different sailing enthusiasts including: Martin Muncaster, Clive Gardener, Donny Macleod, Iain Cuthbertson, Anthony Churchill, Bob Fisher, Patrick Mower, Suzanne Danielle.