Jane Mclean. – Page 4 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Ainsley’s Barbecue Bible

Ainsley’s Barbecue Bible was a six part series made for BBC 2 in summer 1997, with a second series in 1998. Ben Warwick was the director, with producers, Roulla Xenides and Jane Lomas. The assistant producers were Sue Ashcroft and Lisa Kendrick, with Liz Darby being the PA on the first series and Jane Mclean the PA on the second.

The series involved Ainsley travelling round the world in search of the best barbecue ideas. His journey included: Britain, South Africa, Jamaica, Thailand, Australia and Greece.

Here is the link to the Radio Times entry for the first episode, from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/bf1a6891e372488fa092dc8f8f0ae415.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the grab available.

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

Roulla Xenides: ‘I made barbecued jerk chicken on Saturday using the jerk marinade recipe from the book which is a pretty good one. Many memories of the series including baboons attacking our BBQ at the Cape of Good Hope – we had to escape to the car and watch an entire family of them eating all of the ingredients for the South African Sosaties, not to mention the male baboon displaying his ‘virility’ in a rather belligerent manner. Annie Jenkins designed the graphics and this shot was filmed in her back garden. Funny, we were just talking about it this morning!’

Tom O’Connor Roadshow – Jim Clelland

Photo by Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is from the Tom O’Connor Roadshow, a touring live entertainment show. It was a BBC1 Daytime show which went out at midday in 1987. It shows Jim Clelland on stage, carrying out a lighting check; Jim was an Engineering Manager.

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

Keith Brook (Scouse), talking about Jim’s hand signal: ‘It’s a signal to one of the sparks to stop lowering the light, or panning it up, for example.’

Kevin Lakin: ‘Foreground is John Potter ( props ), a brilliant bloke who sadly passed away a year or so after this picture was taken.’

Alan Jessop: ‘Jim’s son Iain works with us at CTV Outside Broadcasts’

Tom O’Connor Roadshow – prop making

Photo by Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

Blue Peter like prop making on the Tom O’Connor Roadshow,
1987.

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

Sarah Dunning: ‘Teresa Olds is the lady on the left but I can’t remember the name of the other. She also worked in the newsroom!’

(The other lady is possibly Vinette Lynch)

Martin Suker on Tom O’Connor Roadshow

Photo by Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is of Martin Suker, in the outside broadcast truck, for an edition of the Tom O’Connor Roadshow, which was a live entertainment show from around the UK.

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

Jonathan Dick: ‘He [Martin Suker] was a vision-mixer I believe, based in Bristol, back in the days when they did network productions from their Studio A and OB unit. I think he went on to direct as well.’

Ray Lee: ‘The Tom O’Connor Road show was extravagant it used both CM1 Type 5 Scanner, and SCV6 Sound vehicle. I have a few photo’s from the Port Talbot venue, when I went out as a support engineer to SCV6.’

Ned Abell: [The OB truck was] CM1. The window is between the “gallery” and the sound/comms end.’

Nicky Savage, Jane Mclean, Tom O’Connor, Jo Dewar

Saturday Night at the Mill – running order

This is the running order for a dummy run recording of Saturday Night at the Mill in December 1976.

Saturday Night at the Mill was an entertainment show which used the Pebble Mill Foyer studio and the courtyard area, for performances. The show was presented by Donny MacLeod and Bob Langley, amongst others, and Kenny Ball and his Jazzman were the resident band.

For live studio shows there were often dummy recordings to make sure that the crew were all up to speed, and that technically the show was going to work.

Thanks to Roger Guest for sharing this running order.

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

Jane Mclean: ‘Roy Norton was the director, Roy Ronnie the producer, Margaret Walne was PA and I was on autocue. The Kenny Ball band was the house band on all the programmes. The hospitality back at the Strathallen was legendary…!’

Annie Gumbley Williams: ‘I did autocue too. Roy Norton used to shout down the head phones! Liz Silver was PA then and she trained me as PA on Sat Night at the Mill. Roy Norton producer and Keith Ackrill was Researcher or Assistant Producer? Patricia Mifflin too. Great fun.’

Susan Astle: ‘Goodness ..those were the days. Trying to get artists back for makeup checks when they would rather be in hospitality. I think we had our own, obvs! Susie Bankers’

Keith Brook (Scouse): I think I vision mixed that show. I know I did the series. After we complained that there was no hospitality food left, Roy Norton used to shoot down to the Strathallan after the show to stop the office people from scoffing the lot. They didn’t work on the show which allowed them to get there early and hoover it all up!! The gallery talkback was distributed around Telly Centre to entertain the bored troops in London.

Michael Fisher: ‘Kenny Ball was a frequent guest on the show. Am I right in thinking that the recently deceased Alvin Stardust appeared in some Pebble Mill Saturday evening shows and a special stage with a catwalk-like extension so he could strut up & down!’ http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/36299c085523447eaa4bf3fac59b4563

Raymond Lee: ‘I remember working on many of these shows. The pilot programme actually went by the title “Pebble Mill at Night”. Kenny Ball was actually the “resident” musician for the show.’

Eurwyn Jones: ‘I remember working on the series with Ron Sowton. Ginger Rogers was the guest on a show, she arrived in a massive car live in front of the foyer.’

Tim Dann: ‘I remember it as though it were yesterday!!…fantastic fun!…then all back to the ‘Strathallan Hotel’ for hospitality. I was the Designer for the first series. Those were the ‘daze!!”

Keith Ackrill: ‘Patricia Mifflin and I were the two researchers on “SNATM.” Roy Ronnie was the Executive Producer and Roy Norton the Director. We had a great crew working with us, which made the programmes so enjoyable to work on.’