Category: Television

Rose for Winter – photos by Gail Herbert

Photos copyright Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

‘Rose for Winter’ was a two part adaptation by Laurie Lee of his book of the same name, of his return to Andalusia in 1951 with his bride Cathy years after the Spanish Civil War.  It was produced at Pebble Mill by John King with narration by Laurie Lee.  It was transmitted on BBC 2, on 23 and 24 December 1989.

The two parter starred John Wild as Laurie Lee and Cordelia Roche as Cathy.

John Williams was the cameraman, assisted by Dave Evans, Richard Reynolds was the recordist, with Gail Herbert the PA.

Clothes Show: Dream Wedding, Egypt – photos by Andy Frizzell


Photos by Andy Frizzell, no reproduction without permission.

‘The Clothes Show’ did an annual ‘Dream Wedding’ show, which included working with the bride and groom, helping arrange the wedding itself, and dressing the wedding party. One of the most ambitious was this one filmed on location in Egypt.

The crew were, Andy Frizzell (lighting), Steve Saunderson (camera), Keith Froggatt (camera), Roger slater (sound), Carol Sparrow (PA), Clare Stride (Series Producer), Alexandra Fraser (AP), Jane Galpin. Presenters were Jeff Banks and Caryn Franklin with Trevor Sorbie. Make up was Jill Gray (+ a n other) plus we took our own vicar Paul Daniel James ( true) researcher was Kath Moore.

The wedding took place over two days. Civil wedding day one then the religious (C of E) by the stepped pyramid at Sakhara day two. We were all pretty knackered having done in the region of a 35hr day!!! With a short rest break at about midnight ahead of the sunrise shoot.

Witchcraft – photo from John Greening

Photo from John Greening, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of the 1992 Pebble Mill drama series, ‘Witchcraft’, on location near Chipping Camden.  Carol Parks was the producer, Peter Sasdy the director, screenplay by Nigel Williams.  Barry Hanson was the exec producer.

The story involves a film school teacher choosing the subject of 17th Century witchcraft for his latest script.  Real life begins to take on ominous similarities to the happenings in the script.

The series starred: Peter McEnery, Alan Howard, Lisa Harrow, Georgia Slowe, and Judy Campbell.

From the comments of people who worked on the series, it was a somewhat challenging production.

Gardeners’ World – photos from Gail Herbert

Photos from Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are of a location shoot for ‘Gardeners’ World’ in 1991, shortly before the series stopped being a BBC Pebble Mill production and became an independent production with Catalyst Television.

The first photo shows (left to right) Tony Wass (sound), Eric Wise (camera), Herbie Donnelly (sparks), Denis Jarvis (director).

The second photo shows (left to right) Tony Wass (sound), Eric Wise (camera), Karen Lamb (director), Gail Herbert (PA), Caroline Officer (researcher), Denis Jarvis (director).

The location was Keighley in North Yorkshire, and was I think about railway station gardens.  This station is on the Keighley and Worth Valley line, which is called ‘The Railway Children’ Line.

Pop at the Mill – photos from Richard Smith

Photos by Richard Smith, no reproduction without permission.

‘Pop at the Mill’ was an open air pop festival which went out live on Saturday nights during the summer of 1977.

The set was built on the back lawn, behind the main Pebble Mill office block.

P.A. Gail Herbert remembers working on ‘Pop At The Mill’, ‘these were great fun. Carol Morgan, Sam Watkins & I used to work as camera bashers and one day one of those large cameras (I think it was Phil Wilson operating) ran straight over my toe – blimey it was sore!’