Category: Photos

Why Did the Chicken? – photos by Lynda Kettle

Photos by Lynda Kettle no reproduction without permission.  Lynda Kettle was a Production Designer at BBC Pebble Mill, working on factual, entertainment and drama shows in studio and on location.  The photos were taken as records of the Sets.

‘Why Did The Chicken?’ was an animal quiz show for children presented by TV vet Mark Evans.  The contestants had to answer questions about farm animals and won eggs rather than points.  The show ended with an egg hunt against the clock in the shape of a chicken.  There were two series, the first started going out 6/4/1994, with the second series starting exactly a year later in April 1995.  It was recorded in Studio A at Pebble Mill.  The series was produced by Jane Tarleton and the executive producer was Judy Whitfield.

Production Designer, Lynda Kettle also worked as a theatre designer and an artist, and now runs courses from her art studio http://www.lynda-kettle.com.  She is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham Water Colour Society. Midland Pastel Society and Birmingham Art Circle . She exhibits her paintings several times a year at selected galleries.

CM2

 

 

CM 2

Leigh Sinclair in CM2

Photos by Ben Peissell and Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

The lower photo shows VT Editor, Leigh Sinclair in CM2.

CM2 was an outside broadcast truck based at BBC Pebble Mill.  It normally had two cameras controlled from it, and was used to record programmes like ‘Gardeners’ World’, before portable single cameras became the norm in the mid 1980s.

Mike Bloore was a VT editor who worked on CM2:

‘There was no edit controller on CM2’s VTR’s. There was only a button to start both machines at the same time and trust to luck! On ‘Gardeners World’ we often did “roll back and mix” which involved playing back the last shot of the previously recorded sequence through the vision mixer allowing the vision mixer(the person) to mix through to the live camera of the next sequence to be shot while recording the whole event on the other VTR. This enabled mixes on location to be possible with only 2 VTR’s. Then someone invented pre-read but thats another story!’

Mike Bloore

Lorraine Chase at Pebble Mill

Lorraine Chase at Pebble Mill

Photograph copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

I’m not sure which programme this still of actress Lorraine Chase is from – probably ‘Pebble Mill at One’, but please add a comment if you can identify it.  She was presumably wafted here from Luton Airport!

Thanks to Gail Herbert for making the photo available.

 

Delicia Picture House – cutting from Gail Herbert

1959 old Delicia Picture House

This press cutting shows the Delicia Picture House in 1959, which was one of the main BBC studios in Birmingham before the opening of BBC Pebble Mill in 1971.

The Gosta Green studios were where many early television studios were recorded.

Thanks to Gail Herbert for making the cutting available.

Points of View – blog by Sue Watson

My main claim to fame while working at Pebble Mill was renting a hotel room by the hour with Sir Terry Wogan. Every Thursday afternoon we would meet in the hallowed portals of Lady Astor’s former home, Cliveden and as the twinkling eyed Sir Terry entered the bedroom I would greet him from the four poster bed, ready and waiting for our time together. Lying with the ghosts of the sixties Profumo scandal (and under the firm hands of Nick Patten), I would tell Sir Terry exactly what I wanted him to do.

This of course was in my capacity as the Producer of ‘Points of View,’ and for about twelve months the programme was filmed at Cliveden on Thursday afternoons. Far from being the Christine Keeler of my day, I was merely producing a weekly TV programme albeit with a wonderful team and one of the best presenters I’ve ever worked with.

Once the crew (and catering) had arrived, there wasn’t much room for the producer, so the best place for me to see Terry and be out of shot was on the elaborately dressed bed. This became my regular position; the cameraman would place the monitor at the bottom of the bed and I would take my place. Imagining I looked ‘Pre Raphaelite,’ (in reality more ‘Beryl Cook!’) I would drape myself seductively across the counterpane and for several hours I would ‘produce,’ Sir Terry until he couldn’t take any more.

Hard times at Pebble Mill… a tough job, but someone had to do it!

Sue Watson

 

Sue is involved in the online auction, Authors for Japan; To make a bid log on to  http://authorsforjapan.wordpress.com/tag/sue-watson/

Sue’s first novel, Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes out on July 8th is a humorous and heartbreaking tale TV, love, revenge – and cake.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fat-Girls-Fairy-Cakes-Watson/dp/0956536824/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300209306&sr=1-1

Sue Watson