Category: Photos

Smart – 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.

Smart was a children’s art show which was hosted by Pebble Mill, and recorded in Studio A.  The producer was Chris Tandy and the director Jason Garbett.  The series was presented by Mark Speight, amongst others like Jay Burridge and Zoe Ball.  The series went out between 1994-9, although I don’t know which series were recorded at Pebble Mill – please add a comment if you can add more information.

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.

Lynda Kettle

‘Reaching for the Skies’ – photos from Maggie Humphries

Photos from Maggie Humphries (Film Unit).

‘Reaching for the Skies’ was a 12 part documentary series for BBC 2 about the history of aviation, produced at Pebble Mill.  It was transmitted in autumn 1988.  The series was a co-production with CBS TV, John Gau Productions and the BBC.  The producers were Tony Salmon, and Dennis Adams, executive producer: John Gau, series producer: Ivan Rendall, and Anthony Quayle the narrator.  Peter Gower, Gregg Miller and Michael Duxbury edited the series. John Bland cut a small part of episode 1 before Peter Gower took over from him.  Peter cut ‘Pioneers’, ‘Rivals over the Atlantic’, ‘Giants of the Air and ‘The Adventure of Flight’. Because all the Pebble Mill cutting rooms were full, temporary ones were set up at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, along with a production office.  The rooms used at the cricket ground, like Pebble Mill, have since been demolished!

The photos include the F15, from the ‘Fighter’ episode, the Harrier, from ‘Vertical Flight’, the F18, also from ‘Fighter’.  The fourth photo is the P82 Twin Mustang, based on the P51 Mustang (thanks to Paul Hunt for the identification).

The episodes were:

  • Pioneers
  • The Aeroplanes Goes to War
  • Trailbazers
  • Lighter than Air
  • Bombers
  • Quest for Speed
  • Giants of the Air
  • Rivals over the Atlantic
  • Fighters
  • Vertical Flight
  • Victory over the Sea
  • The Adventure of Flight

Harrier: Vertical Flight

Asian Programmes Unit – ‘New Life’

These photos are probably by Willoughby Gullachsen, and have been given by Maggie Humphries from Film Unit.  No reproduction of the photos without permission.

BBC Pebble Mill was home of the BBC’s multicultural programmes.

The photos show a location shoot for the Asian magazine strand: ‘New Life’. They date from the 1980s, when the inserts were still shot on film.  The sound recordist shown is Alex Christison, and cameraman Steve Saunderson, the camera assistant Ian Churchill, and the PA Jayne Savage.  Standing on the stairs in the tie is the director/producer, Waseem Mahmood. The programme was a documentary on the first Asian model, Safira.  Nigel Pardoe-Matthews was the film editor.

The documentary was an occasional 30min special as part of the New Life strand. Waseem made three in the six years that he was at Pebble Mill: “Safira” about the model, a film about Asian Ballerina Nicola Katrak and a special where Marion Foster interviewed Ravi Shankar… the latter got a prime time slot on BBC2.

‘New Life’ from 1981 was called ‘Asian Magazine ‘- this must have been when Ashok Rampal took over as Executive Producer.

Please add a comment if you can identify other people in the stills, or can add more information.

 

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Pebble Mill Opening Brochure

This brochure was produced to celebrate the opening of BBC Pebble Mill in 1971. Thanks to Juliet Dean for keeping her copy safe all these years.  The last image is a picture of the original Pebble Mill farm, which was on the site before the building was erected.  Before the building of Pebble Mill, production in Birmingham was scattered between sites in Carpenter Road, Edgbaston with a television studio at Gosta Green.  It was sold for the princely sum of 20p!

Pebble Mill brochure link

Brochure front cover

Maharajas – TX card from Maggie Humphries

Maharajas TX card

Maharajas TX card from Maggie Humphries.

Maharajas was a two part documentary about the former Indian rulers, produced at Pebble Mill.  The first part, ‘Kings and Castles’, was transmitted on 13/8/87, with the second part, ‘Kings to Commoners’ going out the following night.

It was written by Charles Allen and directed by Jonathan Fulford, Peter Hercombe was the executive producer.  Keith Froggatt was one of the cameramen who worked on the film.  The documentary contained dramatised sequences. It starred actors: Simi Garewall and Jugal Hansraj.