Top Gear Rally Report

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This titles grab dates from the 1990s. Rally Report was made by members of the Top Gear production team and presented by some of the same presenters as the motoring magazine show. The series reported on the Lombard RAC Rally.

Thanks to Ian Collins to making the grab available.

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

Peter Poole: ‘I did some location recording for this.’

Steve Lee: ‘I presented for a while…Denis Adams was the producer…Fun days !!!’

Ned Abell: ‘If this was the one on BBC2 we parked CM2 outside the Laguna Tandoori next to the Albany hotel, Nottingham. Off the air and sit down with chicken tikkas already waiting!!’

Adam Hartley: ‘I remember preparing some of the rushes & working with editors on some time around 1998… Also have a vague recollection of a viewer complaining because a certain rally car had the wrong engine noise synched to it on a wide drive past…’

Simon Edwards: ‘I think Jim Knights might have been involved?’

Paul Hutchins: ‘Yes Simon, Magpie crewed most of the rallies! Some great memories mate. Great team that went on to produce and film the world rally championship for years to come!! Happy days.’

Alan Jessop: ‘I was one of the cameramen on many of the Rally shows – great fun in the forest!’

 

African World Rally

Phil Thickett, African World Rally

Photo by Jim Knights, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is from the first of four World Rally series produced by BBC Pebble Mill.  It was taken on 13 April 1995 in Kenya.

Jim Knights (camera) and Gordon Nightingale (sound), from Magpie were part of the crew on all the World Rallies done at Pebble Mill.

The vehicle was a hired 4 X4 with a wireless intercom, so that Phil Thickett, the task force producer could to talk to other three crews. The four crews produced all the on road material for the World Rally series.

They would shoot during the day and then edited in Niarobi in local production house . The crews wre responsible for 10 mins of world wide rally news each day, which was sent by satellite to Reuters for onward distribution. The production was a co-production between the BBC and Formula 1 Promotions.

There were 10 rounds of the championship – this was the 3rd – the Safari Rally. Each Rally lasted three days. The crews were on location for four days, the first being a Press Day. The recce team came a week in advance.

There were four World Championship teams: Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Subaru, with rallies taking place in all continents.

Locations included: Monte Carlo, Sweden, Kenya, San Remo, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, UK, and Corsica.

The production team included Jacque Brown as the base PA, Phil Thicket and Andrew ? co-producers. The editing was done by Pete Shannon.