Pete Simpkin – The Mad Axeman!

THE MAD AXEMAN

When the Pebble Mill Radio Studios were being built someone forgot to install a visual alarm so that people broadcasting in soundproof areas would be made aware of any emergency and respond accordingly. One afternoon I was presenting the scheduled show alone in studio 1 when I looked up to see a Fireman complete with helmet and an axe waving at me through the control room window. Apparently there was a fire alarm and I was the only person who was not aware of it. Actually it turned out to be a false alarm and I refused to leave my post and kept on the air but soon flashing alarms were installed throughout the area for future safety!

On another occasion we were all evacuated from the building and as we  trooped out we became aware that we were being filmed…..it was for a programme about how quickly

a building could be evacuated…..we were not best pleased.

Coming down from the 7th floor restaurant one afternoon I walked into a lift and was told to ‘carry on, behave quite normally’ A silent sequence was being filmed for some drama for TV and I had to stand next to a famous actor until we reached the required floor. I never saw my appearance!

Pete Simpkin – Memories of the Ghostly Voice

Pete in WM Studio 1

THE GHOSTLY VOICE

One of the security men who was on early duty at the back door in the early hours had a frightening habit of scaring me witless every time he was in situ by waiting until I had collected my studio keys from him and walked up the darkened back corridors of the building to a particular point where there was a security loudspeaker installed. He could work out the time to reach this place and then whisper ‘Pete’ into his microphone. The effect of this unseen voice whispering my name in the stigeon gloom of the early morning was unsettling to day the least but I was always caught out. Luckily he retired before I did!

Pete Simpkin – Memories of Working at Pebble Mill

WORKING TOGETHER

With the creation of the famous ‘Pebble Mill at One’ show there was an immediate challenge to how to produce a live TV programme in the entrance Foyer and yet keep the building operating. In the end it proved impossible and the actual operating Reception area had to be relocated but for several years we all mixed in and went about our daily business as best we could. On one never to be forgotten lunchtime I had been recording some ‘Thought for the Day’ talks for the breakfast show given by a local Catholic priest.

At the end of the session I had to get him back out to the street and the routine when PM@1 was on air was to just make our way out along a narrow gangway at the back of reception. This usually worked well but on the particular occasion in question the TV show was broadcasting some dancers at that end of the area and just as the producer switched cameras to a wide angle of the dancers there could be seen a bespectacled person pushing gently with hands to the shoulder blades of a frightened looking priest crossing the scene! Clearly the director was not happy because when I attempted to get back into the building after seeing the priest off the door was locked against me. As my next duty was to read the 2pm news summary it was essential to get back in and the only way was to run up Pebble Mill Road to the side entrance, down the long drive, along the back corridor and up a flight of stairs to the studio. My eventual performance was breathless reading with long gaps to get my breath. After the Manager had rushed in to tell me off for careless work and I had explained my reasons there were hurried top level enquiries made and arrangements made to prevent breathless newsreading in the future…….but that’s the sort of building and challenges we had.

Pete Simpkin radio producer

Oliver White (Editor) – His Unreliable Memoirs – The Garland

The Garland

I was nervous of working with Horace Ove on ‘The Garland’.  I’d looked at his previous drama and was alarmed.  Like Mozart’s king, who said, ‘Too many notes’, this had ‘Too many shots’!  and he did ‘The Garland’ the same way!  He was a distinctive figure in his leather jacket…..If I’d squeezed in every angle he’d covered, it would certainly have looked too fussy, so I spent a lot of the time saying, ‘Horace, do you really think we need that shot?’  Then one glorious day, about a month into editing, he said ‘Oliver. Just do what you want to do’.  I could then RELAX and use three shots out of four!  He brought us mangoes from Southall, and I still have his Dracula mug.

There was a room of his fine photographs at the National Portrait Gallery about eighteen months ago.

I regard this film as a personal triumph!