Pebble Mill Club – final days

Photos by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

Tim took these photos on 23 Nov, 2004, one of the final days at Pebble Mill.

The photos include post production staff including: John Burkill, Jim Gregory, Amrik Manku, Brian Watkiss, Ivor Williams, John Duckmanton, Tony Rayner, Martin Dowell, Mike Bloore, Pete Shannon, John Macavoy, Dave Pick, Frank Stevens.

Please add a comment if you can identify others.

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘In image 1016 the guy in the blue shirt holding a pint is John Macavoy, Engineer, and in image 1017 I see Dave Pick in the check shirt and next to him is Frank Stevens, former engineering services manager.’

Keith Brook: ‘If I may take friendly issue with Stuart Gandy about John Macavoy. He wasn’t just an engineer, he was a god. He was able to invent magical cures for any crazy idea that production could conjure up. Even worse, he would undertand their mumblings and give them more than they ever dreamed of. I hate him. The best days were, of course, when the bar was on the second floor. Very few managers realised all the post recording toxic, adrenaline, hyper-excitement that could corrode a great day’s work was diffused with a few beers upstairs. Incidentally, a truly ‘involving’, ‘participating’ and ‘egalitarian’ system, as we had at The Mill, works in any organisation. British industry, banking and the NHS would be major successes if they applied the same rules.’

VT – photos by Jim Gregory

Nigel Evans & Ivor Williams in VTB

Brain Watkiss in VT A

Dave Schoolden in PSC A

Photos by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

These photos probably date from the late 1980s, judging by the 1″ tape editing machines, and labels for U-matic and D2 formats in the PSC A photo.

They show several areas of the VT editing department at Pebble Mill.  Programmes recorded in the Pebble Mill studios would be edited in the VT editing suites, and programmes recorded on film or PSC formats, would be finished and onlined in the VT suites.

Pebble Mill – TK


Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows Jim Gregory and Dave Schoolden in Pebble Mill’s TK area in 1976.

TK was also known as Telecine, and was the technical area where film was transferred to video.

Pebble Mill Film Editors – photos by Jim Gregory

Photos by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photos feature some of the Film Editors from BBC Pebble Mill, including: Beverly Mills and Dawn Mears, Alan Barnby, John Rosser, John Bland, Oliver White, Greg Miller, Peter Gower and Lynn Hawkins. They were taken in 2004 by Jim Gregory, at one of the editors’ annual get togethers.

Editing ‘King and Company’ – photos from Jim Gregory

Photos from Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photos are of Ian Collins and Jim Gregory editing the 1988 wildlife series ‘King and Company’.  The series was presented by wildlife cameraman Simon King.  In each episode a different celebrity, or member of the pulbic teamed up with Simon, on a filming assignment about a different British creature. The idea was to show how wild animals were filmed. The celebrities included Wendy Richards, Liza Goddard, Mark McManus, David Essex, Keith Barron, and Toyah Willcox.  The animals featured included deer, dormice, salmon, frogs, and golden eagles.

The executive producer on the series was John King, Simon’s father, with Tony Rayner the director.