Carol Parks

Photo by John Greening. Included, left to right: Belinda Cherrington, Carol Parks, Jane Barton

 

This poem was written by Make Up Designer, Gill Hughes, in response to the death, in Autumn 2021, of drama Producer, Carol Parks. Gill worked with Carol on many drama productions.

THE END
It doesn’t happen to us
Not our generation.
The Go-Getters
The Movers
The Shakers
The ones who were going to change the World
Not to us
The Hippies, The Long Hair
The Pill, Sex, Rock and Roll
That was us
Our journey is not yet done
The Script not yet finished
Girl Power, Emancipation
There are some paragraphs to unfold
Before the Full Stop
THE END
Gill Hughes, Make Up Designer

Showaddywaddy

Photos by Bhasker Solanki, no reproduction without permission

These photos by cameraman Bhasker Solanki are from a Showaddywaddy performance at BBC Pebble Mill.

The camera operator in the lower photo is the late Bob Hubbard, and seated next to him is Robin Sunderland, also a camera operator, probably then an assistant.

Robin has kept the hat safe all these years, and here he is with it in 2021.

All Memories Great and Small

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Here is an article from the Darlington and Stockton Times. Costume designer, Janice Rider and make-up artist, Vivien Oldham travelled up to the north east to attend the ‘All Creatures’ book signing event.
“SCORES of people attended an author event and book signing for the recent second edition of “All Memories Great and Small” by Oliver Crocker, last Saturday.
The book is about the making of the original, and much loved, BBC television series “All Creatures Great and Small”, based on the James Herriot books of Thirsk vet Alf Wight.
Channel Five have recently remade the show, and the second series is mid-way through its run.
From the original series, Mr Crocker brought along Ali Lewis, who played a young Rosie Herriot, Paul Lyon, who was young Jimmy Herriot in series four, and Jessica Sewell, who was Mary, granddaughter to Thora Hird in two episodes, to the signing at White Rose Books in Thirsk. Accompanying them were costume designer Janice Rider and make-up artist Vivien Oldham. In support was Alf Wight’s daughter, Dr Rosie Page, who gave valuable information to the author for his book.
Mr Crocker thanked the White Rose Books for hosting the signing event and told everyone present about the writing of the original edition and the revamped and extended version.
Visitors from around the country, who had travelled long distances in some cases, were thrilled to meet members of the cast, the real life Rosie, and the author. At the end of the afternoon the whole party walked over to Kirkgate, to the Herriot Museum to chat with Dr Page.”
https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/19634434.creatures-great-small-visitors-thrilled-herriot-book-event/?fbclid=IwAR0pwKMgwzQX-euPl2c0i7DfIcbMxvZmWYQVV1Az9HYVwHUGsL6-YRqZTOw

Pebble Mill Blue Plaque

 

On Wednesday 8 September 2021 a BBC Heritage Trail blue plaque was unveiled on the site of BBC Pebble Mill, now a rehabilitation hospital, to commemorate the building and all the fantastic programmes that were created there. A small number of former BBC staff attended the ceremony. The plaque was unveiled by Midlands Today presenter, Nick Owen, who presented the last ever news programme from the broadcast centre.

Included in the photographs are:

  1. Annie Gumbley Williams, Jim Dumighan
  2. ?, Nick Owen
  3. Ken Pollock, Nick Owen
  4. Ken Pollock, Ivor Williams, John Duckmanton
  5. Norman McLeod, John Williams, Nick Owen
  6. Annie Gumbley Williams, Nick Owen, Jenny Brewer

John Holmes’s memories of working at Pebble Mill

John Holmes

I was fortunate enough to work at Pebble Mill during those heady days of regional TV when we had the luxury of not only ‘Midlands Today’ but two half hour opt-outs a week, Tuesday evenings and Friday nights.

That legendary producer Roger Casstles was the first to ask me to join the ‘Look! Hear!’ team as a presenter alongside Chris Phipps and Michael Woods. After the first series Michael left and Toyah Wilcox replaced him. At one time the programme was so popular we were receiving over 600 letters a week.

As a result John Clarke, another legend, asked me to present a new hobbies based series called ‘Sparetime’. The moment I saw the opening credits that Anne Jenkins had created I knew we were on to another winner.

The ground breaking programme ‘Together’ followed this. Ground breaking at the time because it focussed on the lives of communities that had settled in our region. The programmes objective was to bring us all closer together. I well remember the Sikhs of Coventry, the Muslims in Stoke, the Irish in Leicester and the Caribbean community in Handsworth, an OB.

If you have memories of this please contact me. They were halcyon days at The Mill.

I’ve written about it all in my autobiography, ‘This Is the BBC Holmes Service’.

For more details visit johnholmes.co.uk