Milton Hainsworth, Graham Winter and Mike Brown in TK

Milton Hainsworth-Graham Winter & Mike Brown June 1973 b-w

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Jim Gregory, no reproduction without permission.

The photo includes: Milton Hainsworth, Graham Winter and Mike Brown. It was taken by Jim Gregory in June 1973.
“Milton Hainsworth was a News film editor, Graham was TK supervisor, although technically the post had been re-titled Senior Recording Engineer. Mike was the original film projectionist for Film Unit and the Dubbing Suite, he defected to Central and is now a Video Editor at BBC Nottingham.
In the background is a Westrex Sepmag machine. The photograph was taken by Jim from the Telecine Quality Check Room, which only lasted for a few more years as fairly big alterations were made to that end of the Telecine VT area later.”

Jim Gregory

 

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

Ray Lee: ‘I remember all 3 as I joined Telecine in 1974, Graham soon moved to Wood Norton, but Milton was still around when News editing had gone to Betacam tapes. Don’t remember where Mike moved to, but our paths didn’t cross often.’

Christopher Hall: ‘I remember Graham Winter from Wood Norton. Sadly he died a couple of years ago.’

Peter Woolley: ‘I remember Milton! I think he refused to go to his own leaving party!’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Well I certainly remember Milton. Yes, I think he did not go to his leaving party bless him.’

Mike Dhonau: ‘I spent 7 weeks with Graham running training in Oman – in 1993. Great times. He was a little plumper then…’

Max Mulgrew: ‘Peter Woolley is correct. Milton was not at his leaving do, on floor two at Pebble Mill, and later refused to accept his leaving present. I think Sue Beardsmore was among those at the gathering.’

Peter Greenhalgh: ‘Mike Brown is still around. Just showed him the pic as he’s not on FB. He does all the tech op jobs here, and was a freelance camera op before joining us.’

 

GTC Award to Pebble Mill Camera Department

Copyright resides with the original holders no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with the original holders no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the presentation of the GTC’s (Guild of Television Camermen) TiCA (Television Cameraman’s Award) to the Pebble Mill camera department for Pebble Mill at One circa 1979.

The names are as follows:

Back (L to R): Doug Smith, Robin Sunderland, Bob Meikle, Don Cooper, Paul Woolston, Tony Wigley, Phil Wilson, Mike Solomons (GTC Chairman from Thames TV), Brian Cave, Jim Gray, Bob Hubbard, Chris Allen, not sure (perhaps Phil Sidey?), Jack Rooke, Keith Salmon, Dave Lawson, Dave Doogood, Dave Wilkins, Pete Edwards, Tim Konewko, Bhasker Solanki.

Kneeling down (L to R): Barrie Foster, Keith ‘Scouse’ Brook, Roger Mulliner, Dave Ballantyne, John Couzens, Eric Wise

(Thanks to James French for providing the names, Annie Gumbley Williams for sending me the photo and to Roger Mulliner for sharing it in the first place).

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

Richard Stevenson: ‘That is an amazing picture! I have never seen so many cameramen in ties! Brilliant.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘They all look so young and thats because they were – then. hah.’

Bob Bishop: ‘There are no women in the photograph, would that be the same today.’

Keith Brook (Scouse): ‘We were told to dress up by management. Bhaskar Solanki, far right (physically, not politically) went on to be a very, very successful news cameraman and is now a senior producer. Good for him!! I should also mention that I’m the only one wearing a waistcoat. Even then, standards were sloppy!!’

‘Dead Girls Tell No Tales’ – Why Grace Archer had to die

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend I heard the Radio 4 play: Dead Girls Tell No Tales, Joanna Toye’s backstage drama of the story behind the death of Grace, in The Archers, sixty years ago this week. Grace had recently married Phil Archer, and there was talk about them starting a family, so the young couple were at the centre of The Archers world, when the decision was made by the editor, to controversially kill Grace off.

The momentous episode of the radio soap was transmitted on 22nd September 1955, which was also the launch date of the ITV network. Apocryphally, the death of Grace Archer in a fire in the stables, whilst she was trying to save her horse, Midnight, was designed to scupper ITV’s opening night, but Toye’s play shed new light on that theory. Grace’s death certainly resonated with the audience – around 20 million tuned in, and the BBC switchboard was inundated with distraught listeners, often in tears, after the programme. Press attention was definitely distracted from the ITV launch, but Toye poses that the real reason for Grace’s death was because the actress, Ysanne Churchman, was seen by series editor, Godfrey Baseley, as a trouble maker. Apparently she wanted equal pay for female actresses on the soap, as well as involving the actors’ union, Equity, and campaigning for professional actors to always be employed, as opposed to smaller parts being played by country folk.

The radio play was very evocative of the period, with RP accents and class distinctions, and was very convincing. Ysanne Churchman, in the drama, was played by Eleanor Tomlinson, a younger actress, but Ysanne herself appeared at the end, and explained what happened to her own career, after being forced to leave The Archers. The rise of ITV, ironically, provided her with a good living, voicing commercials.

One of the things that struck me about the drama, was that Godfrey Baseley, really could ‘play god’ with his characters’ lives. He wouldn’t even tell the BBC Press Office why the episode on the 22nd September warranted a Press showing – such a thing would never happen in today’s BBC, when the Press Office would be involved from the start, and micro managing the whole campaign.

The ghost of Grace Archer still seems to haunt Ambridge today, and the older female characters have recently been reminiscing about Grace’s death, 60 years ago.

Joanna Toye is one of The Archers’ regular writers, and Sean O’Connor, the series editor, produced Dead Girls Tell No Tales. The radio play is available on iPlayer for download – it’s well worth a listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06bcv9s.

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

Lynne Cullimore: ‘I heard the play and thought it very good. I used to work at the Beeb (when (I very first started) for Tony Ysanne’s husband who sadly died earlier this year. Lovely to bring back memories of Grace and well done to Jo Toye (whom I used to work with in Countryfile) for writing the play.’

Chris Weaver

Regional 'Day Out' Derby '83 GH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo from Gail Herbert, copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Director of Photography, Chris Weaver has died recently. He is operating the camera in the photo above, which was on a Regional series, called Day Out, this episode was in Derby, 1983. Production Assistant, Gail Herbert, is next to him, with David Nelson, right of Chris. Chris worked at Magpie, with Jim Knights, and was married to Pebble Mill Make-up Designer, Lesley Weaver. Producer John Clarke is on the far left.

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

Elliot Weaver: ‘Action shot – “you must always point at something”‘

Johannah Dyer: ‘That is sad news – he was a lovely bloke who always went above and beyond what was expected on every shoot.’

Terry Powell: ‘So sad to hear, I knew and worked with his wife Lesley on so many shows and Chris as well sending love to his family.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Chris was the nicest guy ever and so lovely to work with I agree Jane. So sad to hear of this and I do send my condolences to Lesley and all the family. I remember Day Out well as I also worked on it with John Clarke. In fact, John is in this picture extreme left.’

Siobhan Maher Kennedy: ‘Very sad news . I loved the Magpie guys! Chris was great and I have happy memories from when I was in the regional opt out with Pamela Relton Liz Cox Rosalind Gower.’

Samantha Watkins: ‘Sorry to hear about the loss of Chris. Many happy memories . Here’s a photo I found in attic from the early 80’s. Also a photo of me and Lesley in 81 was in same album , on Nanny.

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Angela Profit’s Eulogy

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angela Profit (nee Horsman), from Contracts at BBC Pebble Mill, died in April 2015. Her funeral was held in early May, and here is the eulogy presented by Kay Alexander. Thanks to Annie Gumbley-Williams for sharing the eulogy.

Angela’s Eulogy as presented by Kay Alexander
“I had to say to Angela recently: “Look you’re talking about 71 years, how much time have I got?” There were so many wonderful memories and stories, which is what you have when you’ve lived such a full and inspirational life as she did. I have so enjoyed reading all your emails, thank you so much for sending them, but the conclusion I rapidly came to was, that I would ask her which were the most important things in her life.

She always knew she had a wonderful childhood, with her warm and loving parents and brother. There were the family parties, her two best friends Liz and Kay with whom she went to school, spending happy times in each other’s houses, and romping through Sutton Park on their bicycles, although in Angela’s case that wasn’t always so happy. She went over the handlebars and lost her two front teeth! She learned tap, ballet, drama and the piano. Her parents took her to the ballet when she was 8, and she just didn’t want to leave. She was mesmerised. Did Show Business beckon then?

Well, that meant she was right at home at the BBC. There’s enough theatricality there for anyone! Especially with her first boss, the Administrative Assistant, a woman who enjoyed tearing people to pieces, but then Angela discovered this woman was having an affair with one of the BBC accountants in London. When she wasn’t happy she was given to screeching down the phone to her lover that he was to tie a brick to his leg and jump off Brighton Pier. Just think what a fascinating education for a 20 year old that was. She must have wondered what she’d come to.

Well it wasn’t all quite as colourful as that. The BBC was a magical place, full of excitement  for a young woman, where so many different departments carried out so many different jobs. You worked with such interesting people, many at the top of their game, and what’s more, you called them all by their first names. For those of us brought up never to call anyone anything except by their title, this was so different. Angela wanted to experience it all and made a pledge to herself that she would change jobs every three years. She became a Secretary in Engineering, working out the wages, overtime and holiday pay for the Cameramen, Sound men, Lighting and Film editors. Then she became Engineering Supervisor with a team of 6 girls. Her time with her first boss had taught her how not to behave, and her team were totally loyal to her as she was to them. By this time Angela was married and it was only the imminent arrival of her first son Jonathan which prevented her from taking up the job of Station Assistant at the new BBC local Radio station, Radio Birmingham. Women left their jobs when they became pregnant in those

days and Angela was heartbroken. But two years later, the BBC wrote to her to ask her to do part-time work in the Cash Office at their new  premises at Pebble Mill. She was ecstatic!

Perhaps it was her performance as a Dalek at a BBC Open Day in the Granby Halls in Leicester, but she was asked to become secretary to the Head of Television Drama, and she leapt at the chance. When she arrived she found a chaise longue in his office and immediately thought this was the dreaded casting couch. But no, he always took a snooze in the afternoon. She typed scripts to impossible deadlines. Well, that hasn’t  changed, but this was Programme Production and she loved it.

I think Angela must have stood out as someone so attractive, clever and fun to be with, because she got headhunted by the Head of Contracts Michael Treloar. I remember him well, he was my first Head of Contracts, and he was a blunt, but charming Yorkshire man, and I think he liked a pretty face. Angela became responsible for all the programme budgets, and artists, and musicians, because the BBC had it’s own Midland Light Orchestra then. They would come to the office to have their expenses authorised. I remember meeting all sorts of people in that office and there were so many laughs. It was quite hard getting out!

Next it was to The Archers and the job of production secretary, typing scripts, timing recordings, even being Shula’s stand-in as a typist. Apparently some of the cast were so old that 2 of them died on the way to the studio!

Angela loved working on The Archers but her other passion was music, and her next post was as Production Assistant in the Radio 2 Music Department working for a young producer called Geoffrey Hewitt. She remembered that time as more fun than any other before. Radio 2 covered Jazz, Brass Bands, Folk, Big Bands, Country and Western and of course, what had now become the Midlands Radio Orchestra. They would go all over the country to record concerts, often getting back in the early hours, and no overtime pay, but that’s what you did, and loved it. Angela remembered a Christmas Special recorded at Hagley Hall, in which one of the performers was the author, Laurie Lee who wrote “Cider with Rosie”. He insisted on pinching Angie’s bottom every time she passed. His wife said to her in a rather tired voice; “When you’re a genius, you can get away with anything”.

She also worked with another music producer called David Bellinger. He had a bit of a reputation, not like that, but for being completely bonkers. Well, let’s say eccentric. Angela saw this as a challenge. And of course, she won. She tamed him to the extent that he just stopped complaining when something else PINK came in to decorate the office. David has said that he would never have become the Producer and Boss that he did

without her experience, character, humour, and personality. Lots of people wondered though, if they ever got any work done, there was so much laughter coming out of that office.

Watching the arrivals of the guests on Pebble Mill at One, which they could from their office, was also great entertainment – Claudia Cardinale, Joan Collins, Raquel Welch, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, who gave her a rose, Jack Jones, Sting, Sacha Distel,  and the one for whom the whole building stopped – Sophia Loren. She was stunning, but … she went on air with a ladder in her stocking. Human after all.

Angela remembered that no-one could find Oliver Reed who was appearing on Saturday Night at the Mill, or Saturday Night over the Hill, as it was often referred to, but he was discovered dead drunk and fast asleep on the snooker table. When the poor floor manager got him into the studio, Reed promptly dropped his trousers. The Director screamed down talkback to the cameraman to shoot him wide angle, but the audience had been treated to the full view. The eyes of presenter Donny Mcleod, a true pro, never left Oliver Reed’s face.

A time came at home, when Angela needed more money and so she went back to the Contracts Department. She booked artists, extras and walk-ons, negotiating fees for radio talks, drama and The Archers.  She had 3,500 artists on her books engaging them for dramas such as Howards’ Way, Poldark, the original one, Precious Bane, All Creatures Great and Small. She was once asked to find an 8 months pregnant woman with breasts like wobbly blancmanges to dance naked in the moonlight for “The Rainbow”. I wonder what D.H. Lawrence would have made of that, but needless to say she did. She once managed to settle a fee with a woman who was refusing to allow a  crew to film out at sea in Wales, saying she owned the beach and 25 feet of the sea. Life was not dull. And occasionally I like to think I brightened it up a little by going to get my contracts signed off. At least, it always took me about ¾ hour to leave. Did you know that Angela liked talking? So do I.

She also worked on Eastenders, and on the last Friday in April 2001, tired and weary after booking her last actress for the programme, she turned off her computer at 7pm. Never to put it on again.

Two days later, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer and given a year to live.

The next fourteen years were to be the most remarkable, I think, of her life.

She lay in hospital thinking about the new man she loved, her wonderful sons and beloved parents who were 86. How could she leave them? She came home pale and thin, and went into her garden. It was May and the sun was shining, the birds were singing and she could smell the scent of the flowers, and there and then, she decided to prove them wrong.

She had also thought in that hospital that she would never marry John, she would never see her first grandchild and she would now never go to Venice. But John did propose, although being Angela, she refused him, saying that he must ask again when she’d got hair.

He did and in 2002, the year she was told she would die, she and John married, they honeymooned in Venice and she welcomed her first grandchild Ben into the world. She was proving them wrong.

There are so many words and phrases which Angela used which sum up how strong and determined her spirit was. For one thing, she was not suffering from cancer, she was “living with it”, and so many people will have learnt to think differently about this terrifying disease because she helped them to look at it differently. MacMillan nominated her to be trained to teach their Living With Cancer courses and she was rewarded by seeing the difference she could make by her example.

The Mayor of Solihull once introduced her as a cancer sufferer battling cancer. Angela corrected her and said she was a cancer survivor, not a sufferer and was not battling it, but on a journey with it.

Later she was to say that cancer had actually enriched her life, not destroyed it. What an amazing thing to say, but cancer had indeed brought so many people into her life whom she would have never met otherwise. For example, Sue Harris, her Macmillan nurse. Angela believed Macmillan nurses were about helping you to die, and she didn’t want her around, but Sue became her rock and her mainstay, and a very close friend. She told her to buy her first wig before she lost her hair. And how glamorous she looked. When Angela became frustrated by the limitations her illness put on her, Sue said “Instead of concentrating on what you can’t do, concentrate on what you can do”. What brilliant advice, for anyone.

Sue sent her to the Bristol Cancer Centre and she made so many friends there. At the end of one healing session there, the healer said; “Your spirit is so strong, you’re not going anywhere.” That meant so much to Angie, it was the first time anyone had said anything so positive to her.

Thanks to Sue, Angela went somewhat reluctantly, to the Solihull Cancer Centre, but it was there she discovered that cancer is about hope, not just despair, and that Macmillan nurses are there to help you live.

And boy! Did Angela live! The first three goals had been achieved so she had to set some new ones. She had always wanted to go to South Africa,

sail down the Nile, and for some lunatic reason, cycle over the Golden Gate bridge. And she had always wanted to be a bridesmaid, but now, at 58 that was perhaps over-ambitious.

Well, guess what? She did them all. In South Africa, a strange thing happened. I quote her; “We were watching the elephants from our jeep. Suddenly one broke away from the herd and came straight up to me. We were eyeball to eyeball, and she gently started touching my cheek with her trunk, and then she slowly ambled back to her family.” Was that an elephant’s blessing?

In April 2006 she began chemo for the third time. This time she recorded a video diary, how she felt, how she coped with it, how devastating it was to lose her hair again. She even included how she’d gone on the back of John’s motor bike for the first time, and on arriving at their busy destination, discovered that her wig had stayed in her helmet. That diary was put on the Birmingham Mail and Macmillan websites.

Just when she thought it was finished and done, she broke both her feet. The chemo had weakened the bones. Oh no! She was only supposed to be running the Macmillan Mile the next week. Well, …. her Dad borrowed a wheelchair from his nursing home, and after an hour of landing in stinging nettles and bushes, she completed that mile.

But there was another important date coming up too.  She was, at the grand old age of 61, going to be a bridesmaid to Sylvia and Mike. Being Angela she chucked away her crutches early and walked down the aisle behind the bride. Mission accomplished.

Her real mission though was to spread the word about Ovarian Cancer. I always remember her saying that so much publicity was given to Breast Cancer, but not Ovarian Cancer. It’s known as the silent killer, because it’s often diagnosed far too late. Angie called it the Neglected Killer because nobody’s listening. For her it was 18 months of not listening, before she became so ill that they couldn’t ignore it any more.

And it’s thanks to Angela and others like her, that this week it has been announced that they have developed a test which will detect ovarian cancer much earlier, and hopefully result in all women being screened.

Angela drove 100 miles in torrential rain to give her first talk. At the end she asked if there were any questions, and a woman said; “ I don’t care how you survived cancer, I want to know how you managed to get a man to marry you when you were 59 and had no hair.”

She spoke to anyone or at any event to which she was asked, WIs, Rotary, Cancer groups, even in a Sainsbury’s loading bay, and in the House of Lords

for the Eve Appeal, which is the Ovarian Cancer research organisation. Lord Digby Jones and his wife were arranging a lunch in the House of Lords in aid of Ovarian Cancer. We couldn’t go, but I rang him and said; “You’ve got to have Angela Profit to speak, she’s just brilliant.” Angela, who was just out of hospital, went, and she stunned them. Digby said she absolutely made that occasion.

In 2009, the Nationwide presented her with a cheque for MacMillan for £250,000. A month later she went to speak to a remedial school for children who came from violent, drug and alcohol-ridden backgrounds. She was warned they had a low attention span and could throw things if bored. These kids had nothing and potentially, little future. But they listened. And they had raised £250. That meant just as much.

Also in 2009, a huge tribute to her arrived. A play was written by Monica Price about 5 women living with different cancers. One of those women was Angela. The actress chosen to play her was Hannah Waterman, the very last actress Angie had booked for Eastenders, before she became ill. Imagine seeing yourself and your story portrayed on stage. She was so proud. It was produced at the Solihull Arts Centre, and Angela even had a small part in it. Two years later it was produced at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham too.

Angie didn’t know the meaning of the word “Stop”. She was determined to keep making a difference. March is Ovarian Cancer month and each year Angela held a tea party to raise money for Macmillan. They got bigger and better each year. She went to Yoga, and eventually those classes would be held at her house.

In 2011 the Daily Mail included her in a photo shoot of 4 women, given a short time to live, yet they were all still there.

And then there were the parties. We were lucky enough to frequently be on the guest list. But you know, she told me that each time a party was about to take place – surviving 5 years, surviving 10 years, her 65th, her 70th, a couple of days before, she would discover that the cancer had returned. Did it stop her? Hell no! And how we all celebrated those dates with her and John, even complying with costume instructions. You can take the girl out of the BBC, but not the BBC out of the girl. Goodness, we looked strange sometimes.

Even on the day John was driving her back from the Royal Marsden hospital for the last time, feeling dreadful from this last course of drugs she had been on, she was still booking speakers for the Solihull Cancer Centre in the car.

That was the woman she was. From all the wonderful, warm and funny emails I’ve read, she was so loved, but also admired, respected and indeed revered for what she gave to everyone she knew.  Her sons talked about the mother who gave them such a wonderful childhood, full of love and laughter, the open house for their friends, even, deciding on Christmas Eve, to re-decorate their bedroom overnight while they slept in it, so that they’d wake up to a proper red and blue Boys’ room on Christmas day. Being Angela, she was hanging the curtains at 3 in the morning.

These last 14 and more years were made extra special for her by her marriage to John. What a leap of faith and courage that was by both of them, what an amazing partnership they have had and how much she loved him for his care and endless support of her when she was so ill. They were a terrific couple.

It is a huge privilege in life to realise that you’ve experienced a truly exceptional person, someone who has flooded the world with colour, light and sunshine; a person whose courage, love, intelligence, warmth, humour and determination, has set such an example of how every minute of every day counts, and should not be wasted.

That was Angela.”

Thank you Kay for sending this to share.

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

Lorraine Randell: ‘A beautiful eulogy for a beautiful person, who I remember so very well…a warm , loving and very happy person.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘That is lovely and I bet Kay did it beautifully.’