John Couzens – What Was Pebble Mill?

Pebble Mill at One, HMS Dreadnought – David Weir

Pebble Mill at One: HMS Dreadnought – 14/2/80 ………..
And…..cue the submarine”.

With those words [surely one of the best ever cues over talkback!] John Smith, the Director, began yet another “first” for the Pebble Mill @ One team with a live broadcast from a nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought, near Faslane off the west coast of Scotland on the 14th February, 1980. The submarine took it’s cue, broke through the surface of the choppy Firth of the Clyde and appeared in all it’s glory to the music of the opening title sequence. What happened next – I will never forget.

John Smith was an inspirational Producer/Director and not exactly known for taking “No” or “It can’t be done” for an answer. He was the driving force behind many of Pebble Mill’s ambitious live programmes – particularly those involving the military.

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Steve Weddle by John Williams

Daytime Live special 1990, ‘My Name is Jane’, audience photo. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

The whole country is in a state of shock, but shock associated with the sudden loss of losing someone close concentrates the mind wonderfully and I recognise all the comments that have poured out on Facebook regarding Steve Weddle’s death. They do tick all the boxes. This is what happened to me when our son had a stroke and ended up in Worcester hospital fighting for his life. As a therapy I used the time to write, “Shoot First No Ordinary life,” the story of my BBC career at Pebble Mill which many of you have read.

What a character Steve was and yes taken far too young, for he had much more to offer this life. There were things about him I could never get my head round, like rushing off to London with only the flimsiest of reasons to find time with Hot Spurs or some name like that. There were his books of course, and BBC pensioners meeting every month will certainly not be the same without him, especially as he always dominated the Raffle presentations. But there was much more to this larger than life character than meets the eye, especially for me personally.

As editor of Daytime Live behind all the facade and bonhomie was someone who was deep, showed great courage in his work, often moving where many ‘feared to tread’, even prepared to gamble. Continue reading →

Pebble Mill Cameramen’s Reunion

Pebble Mill Cameramen’s reunion Aug 2019. No reproduction without permission.

The photo includes: Dave Wilkins, Phil Wilson, Dave Ballantyne with Alan Duxbury in front, Bhasker Solanki, Doug Smith?, Bob Meikle, Robin Sunderland and John Couzens.

Keith Salmon held the reunion for Pebble Mill cameramen at The Kings Arms in Knowle in Aug 2019.

Roadside shoot

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Thanks to Kevin Lakin for sharing this photograph.

The photo, probably dates from the early 1980s, and shows, left to right, John Couzens on camera, Eric Crouch (electrician), Andy Payne (cameraman, probably an assistant at this time), Tim Green (sound recordist).

Please add a comment if you can identify the shoot.

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Tom O’Connor Roadshow – Liverpool

Photos by Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from the Tom O’Connor Roadshow winter/spring 1987. The roadshow was staged in each location for one week, these photos were taken in Liverpool, which was the last location on the run, in April 1987. The second photo is of cameraman John Couzens, seated on the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby bench. The bottom two photos are from the after show party, which was obviously attended by Melvyn Bragg. Series producer, Steve Weddle, can just be seen popping up behind Melvyn Bragg.

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

Mary Sanchez: ‘Ok I was there and the girl on piano was Louise someone( can’t remember surname – producer ) and in first pic is a graphics girl (Liz?)( on the right ) and on the left is it Pam Creed? Sorry this is all I can offer! I have LOADS of pics , must dig them out!’

Steve Weddle: ‘The warm-up chap alongside Melvyn Bragg, weirdly enough, is called Bobby Bragg (no relation!) In fact Bobby became a bit of an on screen celebrity as Roadshow Reg, the pretend scene shifter, who’s catchphrase was, I’m not feeling very well Mr. O’Connor. We’d send him on stage whenever we were under running, which happened quite frequently. And as the series progressed his cameos with Tom became increasingly popular, so much so, that when I appeared on Open Air to discuss the Series the following week, it was Reg who joined me on the sofa there! Melvyn Bragg just happened to be in the vicinity of our end of series party in the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool – unsurprisingly, he had nothing to do with the Show – but we invited him along anyway, and he graciously joined us for our knees up. I seem to remember I was dressed as a giant chicken at the time! I think that’s Pam by the old Roadshow Relay scoreboard, and Louise Stellakis is the researcher by the piano.’

Jane Mclean: ‘Just come to me! The audio supervisor Louise married was Paul Cunliffe.’