Category: Blog

Pebble Mill – First Day Covers

50 Years of Broadcasting first day cover

Pebble Mill 10th Anniversary first day cover

There were two ‘First Day Covers’ issued by the Royal Mail to commemorate anniversaries at Pebble Mill.

The first dates back to September 1972, and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the BBC.  Special BBC stamps were produced.  The stamp on the first envelope cost only 3p! The logo for this website is inspired from the ‘First Day Cover’ stamp on the envelope.

The second ‘First Day Cover’ marks the 10th birthday of BBC Pebble Mill, and dates from 10th Nov 1981.  The price of the stamp has gone up to 14p by this time!

Thanks to Ian Collins from Post Production for making these available.

Scenic Workshop – Gus’s photos

Scenic Workshop

Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen (Gus), no reproduction without permission.

These photos are of the Pebble Mill Scenic Workshop, where the studio sets were made.  The Scenic Workshop opened onto Studio A, so that sets could easily be moved into place.  You can see the studio doors in the lower photo.

Scenic Workshop

Song for Christmas – Lynda Kettle’s photos

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.

Song for Christmas was an annual children’s carol competition, and part of Pebble Mill at One.  Mark Kershaw was the director of the Song for Christmas shown in the photos, and David Weir was the producer.  Lynda Kettle designed the set in Studio A.  I’m not sure which year the photos are from, but probably 1985 0r 1986.

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.

Song for Christmas

Golden Oldie Picture Show, Christmas – Gail Herbert’s photos

The Golden Oldie Picture Show was produced by John King at Pebble Mill, and presented by the Radio 1 DJ: Dave Lee Travis.  The series ran between 1985 to 1988.  The show featured new music videos made for old hit records. Different film makers recorded their own interpretation of the songs.  Dave Lee Travis introduced and linked the show.

These photos are from the 1986 Christmas show, which went out on 22/12/86.  The first photo shows the ‘links’ set up with Dave Lee Travis, and the others show the location filming of ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’.  In the photo with Father Christmas you can see the cameraman Simon King, now well known as a wildlife cameraman, and son of producer John King.

Gail Herbert, who took the photos,was the Production Assistant on the Golden Oldie Picture Show.

Recording the links

‘Dread Poets Society’ – TX Card from Dave Bushell

Dread Poets Society

TX card for ‘Dread Poets Society’

This was a hosted production shot on location at Oxley Carriage Sidings, Wolverhampton. Two railway carriages were rewired by Derek McCulloch and his sparks so that I could reproduce my take on what it would feel like to be in a train during a thunderstorm. The weather was appalling, as I remember, and we had to deal with a number of equipment problems. Still it was interesting to do (and I like trains!).

Producers were George Faber and Estelle Daniel, director Andy Wilson and the cast were Benjamin Zephaniah, Timothy Spall, Alex Jennings, Dexter Fletcher, Alan Cumming and Emma Fielding. Transmission was in 1992.

Dave Bushell