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.
Bob Langley dancing with Ginger Rogers
KEITH ACKRILL – MEMORIES OF PEBBLE MILL
I worked at Pebble Mill on Radio 4 and television, from the day it opened until I left in 1982. I have very many pleasant recollections of the years I spent there.
The thing you noticed most was the tremendous enthusiasm that permeated the whole staff.
It was the feeling that we were in a brand new building hailed as the biggest combined radio and television complex in Europe. We were all determined to make Pebble Mill programming a force to be reckoned with.
Hours and hours of top television had the Pebble Mill label. As well as Birmingham productions, many London drama series were based in the studio or filmed on location, using Birmingham crews.
The Brothers, Poldark, All Creatures Great and Small, Juliet Bravo, Howards Way, even Basil Brush – the list goes on and on. And that doesn’t include the many classic dramas that were produced in Studio A.
Radio was an important part of the building’s output too. Radio Two programming found a home there, the Midlands Radio Orchestra was in residence for many years. Folk music, pop music – every kind of music came from Pebble Mill. And that’s not forgetting radio drama. Pebble Mill, of course, was home to The Archers and many other dramas of all kinds were produced alongside, together with some fine radio documentaries.
There were many landmark programmes – Top Gear, Pebble Mill At One, Saturday Night At The Mill – all of which I was fortunate to have worked on.
My main memories from the last programme include talking to actor Robert Wagner, in the hospitality room, about English beer. I know nothing about beer, but it was worth talking about it just have Natalie Wood’s dark brown eyes focused on me! I remember sitting across the table from Ginger Rogers and, later, photographing Bob Langley dancing with her – lucky devil – accompanied by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, with guest trumpeter James Hunt. Many, many great stars came to Pebble Mill to take part in the wide range of radio and television programmes that came from within that building.
I miss meeting them, but I also miss the camaraderie of the people I worked with, of being part of a team dedicated to putting broadcasting in the Midlands on the map.
Bob Langley dances with Ginger Rogers
These photos are not be reproduced without permission.
Saturday Night at the Mill’ was a spin off from ‘Pebble Mill at One’, and featured live entertainment from the Pebble Mill foyer. Kenny Ball’s jazz band was the resident band. The show ran from 3/6/76 until 11/7/81, and there were 89 episodes. The photos feature: Bob Langley dancing with Ginger Rogers, Jenny Hanley, Natalie Wood, John Bennett, Marvin Hamlisch, Roger Whittaker, Robert Wagner.
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.
Maggie Thomas Make-up Artist
The First Series Of ‘All Creatures’
Christopher Timothy, Peter Davison and Carol Drinkwater were with us all the time, since most of the storylines required them to be ready for their scenes all day. My main responsibility was Chris and Carol. How lucky was that? They soon became my dearest friends and keeping Chris’s period haircut neat was really the most make-up I needed to do for him. We were really aiming for the totally natural country look and with Carol it was a matter of controlling her beautiful natural curls into a slightly more old- fashioned look. So, apart from hats on and off and making sure that wind-blown pieces of hair were in the same place for continuity, the actual make-up job seemed pretty minimal, until we realised that every storyline had an injured animal in it and that my Designer and I would, as far as possible, be doing them!
What we didn’t know was that every animal injury in the storyline would require a lot of attention from the Make- up Department. It soon became very clear that we were going to have our work cut out to achieve some believable looking animal injuries and other problems that I will now relate to you. Another lovely job that came our way was mud – on and off at all relevant times, i.e. when an artiste slipped over in a cowshed or an animal had a sudden and unexpected movement that made the artiste get dirty. So, at the start of every day we had to mix up our bucket of artificial mud that went everywhere with us, just in case! That was not the worst thing we had to produce. Every day the script would throw up things like puss in the horse’s hoof which had us propositioning the catering wagon for a mixture of mustard and mayonnaise which we then put into the hole in the horse’s hoof that the real vet Jack Watkins had cut out in readiness and then we put some of the horny hoof bits back over it so that when Chris (Mr. Herriot) started to use the hoof implement the puss would ooze out.
Excerpt from ‘Dishing the Dirt’ by Maggie Thomas, available from Amazon, authors on line