Copyright resides with the original holders, no reproduction without permission.
This article by David Rose, BBC Pebble Mill’s first Head of the English Regions Drama Department, was published in the BBC retiree’s magazine: Prospero, in April 2013.
Thanks to Peter Poole for finding and sharing this article.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
This still is from a Thirty Minute Theatre, called ‘You and Me and Him’, by David Mercer. It features Peter Vaughan, and would have been recorded onto 2″ videotape. It was transmitted on 22 Feb 1973. Barry Hanson was the director, David Rose, the producer, Michael Edwards the production designer, and John Lannin the VT editor.
The play was ordered to be wiped in the 1970’s, as was the case with many programmes on 2″, due to the high cost of tape, but the VT guys changed the number on the tape and put it in the basement. It was re-discovered in 1990 by Paul Vanezis, and put in the BBC Archive where more enlightened minds were happy to ensure its survival.
Thanks to Ben Lamb and Paul Vanezis for identifying the drama, and adding much of the information here.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
This grab is from the 1973 Play for Today, ‘Shakespeare or Bust’, by Peter Tersen. David Rose was the producer, Brian Parker the director, Barry Hanson the script editor, assisted by Tara Prem.
The film featured three characters who’d appeared in an earlier Play for Today, ‘The Fishing Party’ again by Peter Terson. The drama followed the miners, Art, Ern and Abe, on a canal narrowboat trip down to Stratford Upon Avon. Art was played by Brian Glover, Ern, Ray Mort and Abe by Douglas Livingstone.
Peter Terson wrote the script whilst doing the journey himself in a narrowboat, leaving chunks of the finished script at lock-keepers’ cottage along the route for Tara to pick up.
The following comments were added on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Caroline Hawkins: ‘Yep, I remember it. Mum was the costume designer and after the filming was over we hired the very same boat for a family holiday.’
Dawn Trotman: ‘I think Oliver White cut it and of course Barry Hanson went on to head up the department as well as produce the Long Good Friday.’
Copyright resides with the original holder. No reproduction without permission.
The still is from a 1973 Second City First studio drama, called ‘The Great Acrobile’, transmitted on 1st March. It was directed by Tristan de Vere Cole, produced by David Rose, written by Roy Minton, with Barry Hanson as the script editor, and Michael Edwards as the production designer.
The drama was recorded in Studio A. It starred Bernard Spear as Mawson, Brian Godfrey as Bernard, John Garry as Sproggs, Ian Gammell as Ticky, Ben Tabiner as Mick, and Ralph Arliss as Slim.
Unfortunately it seems that ‘The Great Acrobile’ was recorded over, and that no copy now exists. This was the case with many studio dramas from the 1970s.
Thanks to Mike Bloore for identifying the drama.
Origins of Artemis 81 from pebblemill on Vimeo.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Specially recorded interview with writer David Rudkin talking about how the drama ‘Artemis 81’ came about. ‘Artemis 81’ was transmitted in 1981, when producer David Rose still headed up the English Regions Drama Department. The drama was a three hour epic about the battle of good and evil, starring Hywell Bennett and Sting. Alastair Reid was the director, Dawn Robertson the associate producer, Jenny Brewer the PA, Roger Gregory the script editor, Ian Churchill the camera operator, Bob Jacobs and William Hartley were the production managers, and Mick Murphy was the AFM.
