Howards’ Way photos from Les Podraza, no reproduction without permission.
Howards’ Way was hosted at Pebble Mill in the late 1980s, Les was a member of the scene crew. These photos were taken on location in Southampton.
Cast and Crew of Howard’s Way
In this video 1st A.D. Bob Jacobs talks about working on the 1987 four part drama – ‘Heart of the Country’, produced at Pebble Mill. Written by Fay Weldon and directed by Brian Farnham, the series follows the social decline of a single mother and her children. The climax of the action takes place in Glastonbury, during the carnival. The series was produced by Roger Gregory and starred Jacqueline Tong as Sonia, as well as Christian Bale, Rosalind Bennett and Susan Penhaligon.
Filming at the Glastonbury Carnival
Stephane Grappelli on 'Roy Castle Beats Time'
Stephane Grappelli on ‘Roy Castle Beats Time’ with The Suzuki Children.
The Story;
I met Stephane the day before this photo at ‘Pebble Mill at One’ – with Diz Disley and John Etheridge – he was riding high with a new Hot Club Trio and platinum selling albums with Yehudi Menuhin. I’d always been a fan of the original 1930’s HCQ line up with Django Reinhardt.
He wanted somewhere to warm up and I took him to Studio 1 which was empty as usual! – he was in seventh heaven.
He had just acquired his wonderful Galiano violin (he had never had money before!) he played non stop for the next two days and refused to stand under the notoriously hot Pebble Mill lighting in case the Galiano dried out – this caused big problems as he stood in the gloom.
The next day for Roy Castle the producer had prepared a surprise – ‘The Suzuki Children’ came on as a treat and formed a circle around Stephane playing their tiny violins. Stephane was very moved and wanted a souvenir photo – I rushed off and found a freelance who took the snap.
Stephane gave me his address and I posted it to him. Astonishingly he wrote back!
This was the beginning of a friendship of 20 years. I eventually wrote his biography, produced a one hour feature for BBC Radio 2 and directed a three hour DECCA DVD ‘A Life In The Jazz Century’ which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2002.
When we cleared Stephane’s Paris flat in 1997 the photo was still amongst his souvenirs.
Pebble Mill was full of surprises!
Paul Balmer
Photos by Paul Balmer, no reproduction without permission.
‘Trinity Tales’ was produced in Pebble Mill by David Rose in 1975. The six part drama was written by Alan Plater. It was a contemporary take on Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. The series followed a group of rugby fans, who swap stories on their way to the Cup Final at Wembley.
Please comment if you can identify which of the ‘Trinity Tales’ these photos are from.
Dunchurch Silver Band
This shows Barry Lankester and I producing the annual Local Radio Knockout Contest organised by the West Midlands Brass Band Association. This was typical of the programming of the early days of BBC local radio….and the way in which the building itself was used to communicate with the public. A community organisation would get the programmes organised and we would get them on air.
Barry Lankester was the driving force behind all sorts of artistic productions involving over the years literally thousands of local music makers from bands of all types, classical and pop , choirs and many others trooping into Pebble Mill, usually at weekends to record a multitude of broadcasts encouraging and entertaining the listeners. The band shown in the picture is the Dunchurch Silver.
Pete Simpkin