John King – Page 4 – What Was Pebble Mill?

‘The Golden Oldie Picture Show’ – Siobhan Maher Kennedy

‘The Golden Oldie Picture Show’ was my first and last directing experience. John King was great, he gave me my first chance at directing for this show. I was 20 yrs old and I presented a storyboard idea to one of the Beatles songs, ‘Help!’, and shot on location in my home town of Liverpool. The idea was to show Liverpool in a positive light. IRONY: on the last day of the shoot the camera car was broken into by Liverpool scallywags and the equipment and film reels were stolen. That kind of ended the directing thing for me! It was just too stressful! I had a great little movie somewhere in those film cans.

It was sad at the time. I was so young and ambitious. Everyone worked so hard and we had beautiful weather. We went on the radio and appealed to return the film but no luck. We did re- shoot but the weather was against us and it looked so miserable. It was broadcast I think. I can’t remember the storyline but went everywhere! All my favorite sights. I had a cameraman who went on to be really famous ,Chris …I can’t remember!

Siobhan Maher Kennedy

Dave Lee Travis recording Christmas edition

Golden Oldie Picture Show, Minehead – photos from Gail Herbert

Photos by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

These photos were taken in 1986 on a location shot of the ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’ in Minehead, Somerset. The camera, on a track and dolly can be seen on the first photo towards the right of shot.

The ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’, was presented by Radio 1 D.J., Dave Lee Travis. The show was made up of specially shot videos for hit singles which pre-dated the era of music videos. Individual directors would submit ideas for films for individual tracks. It was produced at BBC Pebble Mill; the executive producer was John King.

Gail Herbert was the production assistant on the series.

Please add a comment if you know what hit this video was made for.

Golden Oldie Picture Show – ‘Softly As I Leave You’ – Gail Herbert

Photos by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from a location shoot for the ‘Golden Oldie Picture Show’, an entertainment series, presented by Radio 1 D.J., Dave Lee Travis, and produced at Pebble Mill by John King’s department. Music videos were made for classic hits, recorded before the age of music videos. Guest directors would choose the hit they wanted to shoot the video for, and create the story for it. Dave Lee Travis linked the different videos together.

This shoot was for the song ‘Softly As I Leave You’ composed by Hal Shaper.

Gail Herbert was the production assistant for the series.

The first photo shows sparks Roy Carn, creating a gobo effect with a tree branch. The second photo features exec producer John King.

Tim Manning – 206 Five Star Listening

This photo flyer of Tim Manning dates from 1981, and the relaunch of Radio WM, as ‘206 – Five Star Listening’. Tim was the head of the 206 Information Team, as well as presenting ‘Great! It’s Saturday’, on Saturday mornings.

The photo was taken by Stuart Roper, at the side of Pebble Mill, by the brook.

Tim moved from radio and went on to work with executive producer John King on many television entertainment shows.

Producer/presenter Pete Simpkin remembers the era well:

‘It certainly was a time of great change and for some of us took some time to adapt, but it turned out to be fun, and there is no doubt that although some of the ideas were challenging, the changes laid the foundations for the present success at WM. Among other things I got involved with was a trip to Dallas Texas and another time found myself doing a ‘Radio 3′ style announcing job at the old Town Hall with the CBSO when we went stereo.’

Telly Addicts Christmas Special

The photo includes left to right: Back Row, Pat Mifflin, Richard Lewis, Annette Martin, Noel Edmonds, Steve Pierson, John King; Front Row, Jennifer Hassall, Rajinder Ram, Tim Manning, Sue Williams, Denny Hodge (Comedy Workshops).

‘Telly Addicts’ was a BBC 1 Game Show produced at Pebble Mill, which ran between 1985 and 1998. Noel Edmonds was the host, who tested contestants on their knowledge of television shows. Alongside the regular series were a number of Christmas Specials. This photo was taken after the recording of one of these Christmas shows.

Stuart Gandy remembers the little gadget that engineering made for Noel, known as the hooferdoofer, that he used to indicate to the gallery with. Looked a bit like a TV remote with a few buttons on. Louis Robinson remembers borrowing the word ‘hooferdoofer’ to describe the remote, from his grandmother!

Thanks to Tim Manning for making the photo available.