Thanks to Kevin Lakin for keeping this marked up running order of a 1984 edition of ‘Pebble Mill at One’ safe in his attic for the last 27 years!
Kevin was the floor assistant at that time, and his main job was getting presenters and guests from make-up, wardrobe, canteen, bar, green room and on to the studio floor at the right time. Item no 2 and 7a are crossed out because they were pre-recorded in the morning, that’s why there’s a VT in the box.
Roger Casstles was the producer of the show, and the presenters Paul Coia, Marian Foster and Jeff Banks. The show featured Princess Anne, Earl Okin, John Curry as well as Peter Seabrook planting lettuce! Sounds like a packed show!
Photos by Paul Scholes, no reproduction without permission.
The photos are from the outside broadcast of the annual RAC Rally called ‘Rally Report’, which was produced at Pebble Mill for many years. The team would record and edit from the location, moving on each day, finishing the nightly broadcast and transmitting via satellite from the OB truck.
The top photo shows left to right: Chris Rowlands (film editor), Ken Pollock (producer), Jon Bentley (producer and now presenter of Fifth Gear), Gurpi Sani (post production engineer), Pete Shannon (editor). The lower photo shows Jon Bentley and Pete Shannon.
Photo by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.
This photo from 1989 is of Patrick Flavelle, on the left, (with the clipboard), directing on ‘Countryfile’. The man with the rabbit is presenter Roger Tabor.
Patrick adds the following comment:
‘It was for a piece called ‘What’s British?’ about common animals and plants that you might imagine were native to Britain. Rabbits,not, Horse Chestnut, not etc Roger Tabor presenting and shot at Packington Estate who were really helpful. No facility fee as long as we didn’t say where we were. Very unlike the National Trust!
Nigel Davey on camera I think and my first solo shoot as Director. Clipboard, bouffant hair and pretending I know what I’m doing.’
Photos by Vanessa Jackson, no reproduction without permission.
There were three series of the garden design show, ‘Small Town Gardens’. The first was made in London, the show then transferred to Birmingham, with me series producing the second and third series at Pebble Mill 2002 -3. I was delighted to be asked to make the show by Owen Gay. The London series was presented by Rachel de Thame, Joe Swift presented the second series and James Alexander Sinclair (shown in these photos) presented the third. Mark Scott and Paul Vanezis were the producer/directors, Sarah Wilkin and Emily Rusted researched on it, with Sarah Costigan and Jo Gray the production co-ordinators. Martin Dowell and Ant Smith were the editors. There were eight episodes in the second series and six in the third. The series were transmitted on BBC 2 on Friday nights before ‘Gardeners’ World’.
The idea of the series was to show how small town gardens could be transformed into creative, innovative spaces. We teamed up well known garden designers with contributors, they went on inspiration and shopping trips to discover what they wanted for their gardens.
It was a brilliant series to make – a lovely production team, great experts, presenters and contributors (well with a couple of exceptions), wonderful locations and a decent budget! And we knew we were lucky at the time.
The photos shown here are from a shoot in Kennington, London, series 3. The garden was a converted farrier’s workshop, with a tiny courtyard garden. The contributors were great, and I seem to remember that when the garden was finished they held a party, and rather the worse for wear tried to bathe in the water feature! The couple shown in the photo are the garden designers, not the contributors!
James always wore his trade mark hat, in fact he had about seven different ones, in various states – some tatty ones reserved for gardening. I think we were lucky enough to have the use of his second best hat! We used to have to check for ‘hat hair’, if we were filming inside and he took his hat off, as his hair would get all squashed and have to be sorted!
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
‘Pop at the Mill’ was an open air pop festival which went out on Saturday nights during the summer of 1977. It was set in the courtyard of Pebble Mill, behind the foyer where ‘Pebble Mill at One’ was set. Acts included Gary Glitter, Joe Brown and Showaddywaddy.
I’m not sure which which acts are shown in the photos.
Thanks to Gail Herbert for making the photos available.
