Drama – Page 99 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Angels

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.

Angels, began life in 1975 as a seasonal drama, but switched to a soap format between 1979 to 1983. It was produced out of the BBC in London, with some series being filmed there as the ‘St Angela’s Hospital’, Battersea. Later series in the 1980s were recorded at Pebble Mill in the imaginary ‘Heath Green Hospital’, Birmingham. It followed the lives of student nurses and tackled issues such as contraception, alcoholism and sexuality. The series was sometimes criticised for its gritty portrayal of nursing. To make the performances more realistic the actresses had to work in real hospital wards to gain experience.

The series offered opportunities to many actresses who have become well known household names, like Fiona Fullerton, Lesley Dunlop and Pauline Quirke.

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.

An Actor’s Life for Me

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, and in some you can just see the studio lights over the top of the flats.

Previously a Radio 4 comedy, ‘An Actor’s Life for Me’ was a 6 part television drama series recorded in Pebble Mill Studio A and outside broadcast, and transmitted in 1991. The drama starred John Gordon Sinclair, who played Robert Neilson, a struggling actor with an incompetent agent, Desmond, played by Victor Spinetti. Gina McKee played his teacher girlfriend, Sue. Lynn Scott-Farrell played the fourth character, Brenda. The comedy was directed and produced by Bryan Izzard. ‘An Actor’s Life for Me’ was a series hosted at Pebble Mill, but produced out of London.

The Rainbow – D.H. Lawrence adaptation

Photographs copyright of Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission. The Rainbow was a 3 part adaptation, by Anne Devlin, of the D.H. Lawrence novel. It was produced at Pebble Mill by Chris Parr and directed by Stuart Burge. Transmitted in 1988 it featured Imogen Stubbs as Ursula; other members of the cast included Tom Bell, Kate Buffery, Jon Finch, Martin Wenner, Jane Gurnet, Clare Holman and Eileen Way. It was filmed on location in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

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Dangerfield

Photos from drama producer Bev Dartnall, not to be reproduced without permission.

Dangerfield was a police surgeon drama series which started in 1995, and ran until 1999. Paul Dangerfield, the police surgeon, was played by Nigel Le Vaillant, with Joanna Stevens being played by Amanda Redman. In later series Nigel Havers played the lead. Chris Parr was the Executive Producer. Dangerfield was produced at Pebble Mill.

It is Kenilworth Castle which is shown in a couple of the photos.

Martin Chuzzlewit – photos from Jo Mainwaring

Photos provided by Jo Mainwaring, not to be reproduced without permission.

Martin Chuzzlewit was a 6 part dramatisation of the Charles Dickens novel, adapted by author David Lodge. It was transmitted in 1994 on BBC 1. Produced by Chris Parr and Directed by Pedr James, it starred Paul Scofield, Tom Wilkinson, Emma Chambers, Philip Franks, Keith Allen, Pete Postlethwaite, Julia Sawahla and Lynda Bellingham. The story concentrates on the wealthy Chuzzlewit brothers and their contrasting destinies.