Louis Robinson – What Was Pebble Mill?

Maggy Whitehouse joins Radio WM

This cutting is from the March 1984 edition of the Pebble Mill News – the internal Pebble Mill newsletter. It describes presenter Maggy Whitehouse joining the Radio WM drive show, from Hereward Radio, in Peterborough.

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

Maggy Whitehouse: ‘Oh my! Thanks for posting this. God bless the perm!’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Maggy is now a priest , author and stand up comedian and lives in the West of England.’

Louis Robinson: ‘Age shall not weary them – go on, a Mags, what’s a good punchline?’

Maggy Whitehouse: ‘But programme controllers shall wither them…’

Personnel Department Memo

Memo from Mary Mallet in Personnel to film editor, Charles White, about the need to produce his birth certificate due to joining the BBC Pension Scheme.

I particularly like the sarcastic tone of the first line!

Thanks to Charles for sharing the letter, and keeping it safe!

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

Louis Robinson: ‘In the awful, awful days of the bloodbath that was the “Pamela Armstrong Show” Mary Mallett saved my sanity. Caught between two warring factions of management, she convinced me not to resign and leave. For that I am forever grateful.’

Mary Sanchez: ‘Hey! I worked on Pam Armstrong show ! Hilarious ! I’d only been at the Beeb a few weeks and this show was a real eye opener!’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Andy Tylee was the ‘personnel officer’ which was what they were called in those days, who I was assigned to when I joined.’

Marie Phillps: ‘Yes Stuart – Andy knew every member of staff he was responsible for and introduced many innovations including Career Development amd workshops for we “penpushers” to better understand the pressure and timescales faced by programme makers
I loved my morning Vision Mixing ! He gave me lots of confidence and is owed much by many. Still my Second Son!’

Andrew Godsall: ‘That is fabulous! I recall my first personnel officer at the BBC back in 1977. I was 18 and had no idea that I could just behave normally and didn’t have to bow and scrape to authority…she told me how she hadn’t really wanted to recruit me as she thought I should have gone to university instead! Then we talked about jazz and how much she loved it. Hardly any work talk at all!’

Pete Simpkin: ‘They certainly don’t make them like Mary in this sophisticated age!!’

Telly Addicts – Hooferdoofer

One of the characteristics of ‘Telly Addicts’ was a specially made ‘remote’, which Noel Edmonds would use to cue the clips for the contestants. This device was called the ‘hooferdoofer’.

The ‘hooferdoofer’ was built by Dave Pick from engineering, ‘It was unusual in that it didn’t use infra red light like a TV remote, it used low frequency radio picked up by a wire loop that ran all round the set. This meant that Noel didn’t have to point it in any particular direction. The three buttons operated three lights in the gallery via tie-lines from the studio floor.’

Louis Robinson came up with the name of the remote:‎ ‘”Hooferdoofer” was a word I stole from my grandmother to describe the remote.The requirement was – if I remember – Jules May wanted Noel’s hooferdoofer to signal her as the director giving her freedom to cue the clips thus keeping her control of the studio. The tightness of the relationship between Noel’s intro and the start of the clip was 90% done by the excellent editing in post production.’

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.