Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
These grabs are taken from a rehearsal of the lunchtime studio entertainment show, Pebble Mill, which went out from Studio A from 1991-6. The rehearsal was recorded by Paul Vanezis.
Thanks to Laura McNeill for taking the grabs and sharing them.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
The floor management team, led by Steve Pierson, and accompanied by Laura McNeill, mime to Curtis Steiger, You’re all that matters to me. VT recorded the Pebble Mill rehearsal for posterity.
Thanks to Laura McNeill for making the grabs available.
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. This booklet was produced in the mid 1990s, as Resources were sold off from the rest of the BBC by John Birt, and had to commercialise activities.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Dave Bushell: ‘The David Suchet production was ‘Bingo! by Edward Bond. David was a brilliant actor to work with – he always found his light!
The betacam cameraman is Jim Gray and in the left hand image it looks like Sue Cook interviewing with cameramen Paul Woolston and Doug ? and FM Steve Pierson.’
Stuart Gandy: ‘Although I can’t put a name to the productions, that little picture bottom right of the Aston brings back memories for me from the time I was engineer for graphics. The keyboard is for the Aston 4 character generator, which was a step up from the stalwart Aston 3’s we had. It could of course do more and fancier captions and the hands seen there would have been those of one of the specialist Aston operators working in the graphics department. The little box above it was one of the 6 or so homebuilt talkback boxes that allowed communication between the studio gallery and the aston desks in the graphics area. A era of turbulent change.’
Peter Poole: ‘Studio 3, the late Mark Decker and Archers producer. Dubbing Theatre, Neve mixer.’
Photo by Keith Brook, no reproduction without permission.
The Queen visited Pebble Mill to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the building’s opening, in 1981.
Her majesty is accompanied by Jim Dumighan, immediately on her right, with Head of Network Production, Phil Sidey, further to the right. Ian Trethowan, the Director General, is 2nd on the right, next to the military man. The Queen is talking to cameraman Phil Wilson. Keith Bullock is by the window talking to Steve Pierson, with Sam from Make-up in the green smock, next to Guy from Design, with the red tie. Chris Harris is between Phil Sidey and Ian Trethowan, with the beard; possibly Ken Hodges next to Chris.
Please add a comment if you recognise the crew and others in the photo.
It was taken in the Foyer Studio, where Pebble Mill at One was transmitted from.
Copyright Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.
‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ did a live outside broadcast from Berlin, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Nov 1994. The show was transmitted from the Radisson Hotel in Berlin. The presenters included Anne Diamond, Nick Owen, Will Hanrahan, Tania Bryer, and Jeni Barnett.
The photos include: Sue Robinson, Sangeeta Modha, Katie Wright, Will Hanrahan, Nick Owen, Nick Thorogood, Marco, Steve Pierson.
The furniture for the broadcast was delivered to the hotel – but it was flat-packed, which meant that the first job was to literally build the set!
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:
Conal O’Donnell: ‘The Doolan programme did a show out of the former GDR studios in Liepzig a year after the wall came down .Strangely we still had a sort of old style communist minder with us who got terribly drunk over dinner & talked endlessly about the ghastliness of the fallen regime. Ashen faced & hung over the next morning he approached in tears begging us not to repeat anything he’d said the night before “it could ruin my career”(!)It was apparent that the old cultural cringe at saying anything remotely controversial was very much still there.Impressed too at our free wheeling ” anything goes” broadcasting style were the former GDR broadcasters who watched the show go out in some awe.A pleasant reminder of a time when the BBC was regarded as a free speech beacon to the world not a Saville style cess pit..’
Katie Wright (now Cooper): ‘God…memories! Yes it was the 5th Anniversary. The furniture arriving ‘flat’ was unbelievable but in the way of Pebble Mill folk, everyone just got on with building the stuff. I’m amazed it lasted the two hours…there were a lot of bits left over?! It was a great show with some very moving memories from Andrew Sachs. Then we all had to pile onto a rather ancient chartered aircraft to get back in time for the next day’s show……’