Nanny – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Nanny – script front page, ep 3

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. Thanks to Roger Guest for sharing the script front page.

This is the first page of the script for the episode of the drama series: Nanny, The Magic Island. Nanny was a London series, hosted by Pebble Mill. Wendy Craig was cast in the title role.

Notice that this episode was recorded third, but is actually the fourth episode to be transmitted, on 31st January 1981.

Here is the entry from the BBC Genome project for this episode of Nanny, http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/47192fea43904e21a5b7ceea47f1ed1c:

A series in ten parts 4: The Magic Island by TERENCE BRADY and CHARLOTTE BINGHAM with Rain … all day, every day. The children trapped indoors become quarrelsome. Barbara’s solution is simple, if eccentric. But dealing with Miss Sullivan, the old-fashioned governess, is not so easy.
Senior cameraman KEITH SALMON Make-up artist VIVIEN OLDHAM Designer MYLES LANG
Associate producer CHRISTOPHER BARRY Producer GUY SLATER
Director MICHAEL CUSTANCE.

Contributors

Script: Terence Brady
Script: Charlotte Bingham
Senior cameraman: Keith Salmon
Make up Artist: Vivien Oldham
Designer: Myles Lang
Producer: Christopher Barry
Producer: Guy Slater
Director: Michael Custance.
Nanny Barbara Gray: Starring Wendy Craig
Mrs Sackville: Patience Collier
Donald Gray: Colin Douglas
Dorinda Sackville: Patricia Hodge
Frederick Sackville: And Benjamin Whitrow
Alice: Gabrielle Lloyd
Miss Sullivan: Sonia Graham
Dr Lindsay: Philip Dunbar
Sackville children:Artemis: Annabelle Lanyon
Sackville children:Dorothy: Veronique Gunner
Sackville children:Emerald: Anna Campbell
Sackville children:Nancy: Sally-Ann Messervy
Sackville children:Caro: Katherine Burman

Nanny – track laying sheets

These kind of sheets were prepared by the person track-laying a piece of film, to inform the dubbing mixer about what was intended for the audio mix. In this case, film editor, Oliver White, was also the track-layer. The sheets are from episode 6 of the 1981 drama series, Nanny. Wendy Craig played the title role.

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

Roger Slater: ‘The numbers are film footage from zero at first frame and were on a large display beneath the screen in the dubbing theatre. The yellow blocks represent where the sound is in the tracks and were hard cuts or mixes as decided in the mixing. The arrows are just an indication of where to go. This is a very simple chart with a few tracks, You could be mixing 8 -10 or up to 40 tracks on a big drama or film.’

Nanny, S2, Ep4, Slate and Take information

This paperwork is from the drama series: Nanny, starring Wendy Craig. The script is from series 2, episode 4. What is interesting is that the script includes the hand written Slate and Take information, with alternative possible shots listed. This copy of the script belonged to film editor, Oliver White, and would have been used in the editing process.

The abbreviations included stand for the following:

O/s – over the shoulder

a.b. – as before

f/g – foreground

b/g – background

LS – long shot

MCU – medium close up

MS – medium shot

Thanks to Oliver for sharing the script, and for keeping it safe since 1981!

Nanny – script front page

This is the rehearsal script front page for series 2, episode 4 of the 1981 drama series: Nanny. The series starred Wendy Craig as the nanny. The producer of the drama was Guy Slater and the director, David Tucker.

You’ll notice that the crew would be filming the winter sequences of this script on New Year’s Eve 1981 – that’s dedication!

Thanks to film editor, Oliver White, for keeping the script safe all these years.

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

Helen Wheatley: ‘I loved this programme with all my heart and told my parents I wanted to change my name to Artemis as a result of watching…’

Lynne Cullimore: ‘Loved it. I remember talking to Wendy Craig in the canteen and she was worried about which salads contained onion, as she was recording in the afternoon and did not want to breath onion over her fellow actors. I thought that was so nice of her. Loved Butterflies too but we did not do that one.’

Belinda Essex: ‘I remember temping while I was still at college for the Beeb early 80s and Wendy Craig was the first celeb I ever saw there, in the lift up to the canteen – I was very impressed.’

Roy Thompson: ‘Remember showing Wendy how to operate the tea machine, wonderful times.’

Angels shoot in Calais

Thanks to Eurwyn Jones for sharing this photo. The shoot was for the second series of the continuing drama, Angels, a London production, which was hosted at Pebble Mill in 1982.

Eurwyn was an AFM, and is second from the left, next to Pauline Quirke. The photo was taken in Calais.