Gavin Davies – Page 4 – What Was Pebble Mill?

The Other Woman

‘The Other Woman’. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

The 1976 Pebble Mill produced Play for Today, The Other Woman, is going to be released on BBC Store soon, meaning that viewers will be able buy, download and keep the drama.

The researcher on the release would like to make contact with anyone who has memories of working on the programme, to contribute to an article which will be published to tie in with the release.

If you worked on the drama, or have memories of it being produced, then please add a comment, and I will forward your details to the researcher.

The drama was transmitted on BBC1, 6th January 1976. Here is the entry from the Radio Times, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

“The Other Woman by WATSON GOULD
Kim, an angry young artist, disrupts the lives of Robin, a family man, and Niki, a temp sec- for whom she is the other woman.’
Film cameraman MICHAEL Williams Film editor HENRY FOWLER Designer GAVIN DAVIES
Script editor WILLIAM SMETHURST Producer DAVID ROSE
Director MICHAEL simpsox BBC Birmingham

Contributors

Unknown: Watson Gould
Editor: Henry Fowler
Designer: Gavin Davies
Editor: William Smethurst
Kim: Jane Lapotaire
Robin: Michael Gambon
Niki: Lynne Frederick
Aunt Darnley: Barbara Atkinson
Miles Darnley: Leon Sinden
Rose: Rosalind Adams
Louise: Eve Pearce
Ben: Benedict Taylor
LoiS: Martyn West
Barman: John Joyce”

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/6f977b764a6f401399dfb414fda0b503

Club Havana

Here is a series of screen grabs from the Second City First, Club Havana. It features a very young Julie Walters as the barmaid, Terry, and Don Warrington (perhaps best know from Rising Damp), as a young man just arrived from Jamaica to go to university. It was produced by Tara Prem, and was shown at the recent Flatpack Film Festival in April 2016, at the Midlands Arts Centre, which Tara attended.

The transmission copy of the studio drama is lost, so the version shown was a rough cut. Which made for interesting viewing, as we saw when recording was stopped and picked up by the actors.

It was transmitted on BBC 2, on 25th October 1975, at 21.30.

Here is the Radio Times entry for the drama, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

“Synopsis

A series of new plays from Birmingham
Club Havana by BARRY RECKORD
Mrs Jordan left her son behind in Jamaica. He’s finally arrived in Birmingham, after 12 years …
Script editor PETER ANSORGE Designer GAVIN DAVIES Producer TARA PREM
Director PAM BRIGHTON”

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9245b562ffef40a5a30209247ad65f83

Pop at the Mill

Draft script front page from Pop at the Mill August 1976. The show was a pop festival from the back lawn of Pebble Mill.

Thanks to sound supervisor, Roger Guest, for sharing the script, and for keeping it safe all these years.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Keith Brook (Scouse): ‘That’s interesting. I thought I vision mixed that series. Was this before or after my sojourn into button pushing?’

Susan Astle: ‘Wish I could remember….as I worked on it!’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘I remember it very well – dancing in the courtyard and the guest were Joe Brown and dare I say Gary Glitter. Many years ago and I thought it was great. Wish I had worked on it.’

Artemis 81

Jenny Brewer on Artemis 81 from pebblemill on Vimeo.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

In this specially recorded video, Jenny Brewer, who worked as a production assistant in the 1970s and early 1980s, talks about some of the challenges of making the three hour, epic drama, by David Rudkin: Artemis 81.

The film was transmitted on 29th December 1981. The BBC genome project (digitised historic Radio Times entries), provides the following information about Rudkin’s drama:

A film by DAVID RUDKIN with Hywel Bennett
Dinah Stabb , Dan O’Herlihy featuring Sting and Anthony Steel, Margaret Whiting Roland Curram , Ingrid Pitt
A Danish museum case shattered, the pieces of a pagan statue hidden in cars on a North Sea ferry, the subsequent deaths of ferry passengers, an old musician terrified that a curse upon him will cause the devastation of the Earth.
Gideon Harlax, a successful young novelist of ‘ the paranormal and unexplained ‘, thinks he has found the material for a new book. But as Gideon coldly exploits human tragedies, angry powers from Man’s ancient past are gathering. Alien Planet Danish ferry Oxford library
Original music by DAVE GREENSLADE Passacaglia by GORDON CROSSE
Film cameraman DAVID JACKSON Film editor MIKE HALL Designer GAVIN DAVIES
Script editor ROGER GREGORY Producer DAVID ROSE
Director ALASTAIR REID

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e4712cf3ce794d8d9c47c637bf8dbadd

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Stuart Gandy: ‘I remember working on this in the dubbing theatre. Dave Baumber did a wonderful mix. It needed a lot of post-sync recording. A very interesting film, would love to see it again. I don’t think it was ever repeated.’

David Copperfield

This BBC serial of Dickens’s novel David Copperfield, was transmitted in 1986. Barry Letts was the director, with Terence Dicks the producer. Bob Chaplin was lighting director, Gavin Davies the production designer, Ann Arnold the costume designer, Maggie Thomas the make-up designer, Nigel Evans was the VT editor, and Alastair Askham the sound supervisor.

David Copperfield was played as a child by David Dexter, Nolan Hemmings, when slightly older, and as an adult by Colin Hurley. Jeremy Brudenell played Steerforth, Reggie Oliver played Mr Mell, and Simon Callow played Mr Micawber.

Thanks to the BBC Drama Village for sharing the photo.