Photographs by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission
Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission.
‘Space Station Milton Keynes’ was a Screen Two drama written and directed by Leslie Stewart. It went out in 1985. Colin Rogers was the producer, John Williams the DOP, and Steve Saunderson cameraman.
The drama tells the story of a young girl fostered in a magical city. It starred Penny Murray, Patricia Garwood, Peter Jonfield, Judy Gridley, Gian Sammarco, Nigel Baguley, and Robert Walker.
The first photo shows (l to r) Ian McNulty (grips), Leslie Stewart (writer/director), Steve Saunderson (camera), Colin Rogers (producer), John Williams (DOP). The second tracking shot photo, shows Leslie Stewart and Colin Rogers running, and Steve Saunderson on camera. The final photo includes John Cole (sound), Steve Saunderson (camera), with John Williams (DOP) foreground left, with probably Leslie Stewart and Colin Rogers (producer).
Photo by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.
This photo from 1989 is of Patrick Flavelle, on the left, (with the clipboard), directing on ‘Countryfile’. The man with the rabbit is presenter Roger Tabor.
Patrick adds the following comment:
‘It was for a piece called ‘What’s British?’ about common animals and plants that you might imagine were native to Britain. Rabbits,not, Horse Chestnut, not etc Roger Tabor presenting and shot at Packington Estate who were really helpful. No facility fee as long as we didn’t say where we were. Very unlike the National Trust!
Nigel Davey on camera I think and my first solo shoot as Director. Clipboard, bouffant hair and pretending I know what I’m doing.’
Photographs by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission.
The photos are of ‘Urban Jungle’ a Robin Midgley, Pebble Mill, studio drama, from around 1985. The main photo is of a technical run at Moseley Hall.
The large photo shows Robin Midgley himself on the left hand side, Sally Daniels (PA), Annette Martin (light coloured top), Phil Wilson (camera), Charlie Bond (production designer), Ian Tootle (AFM), Andrew Smith (1st AD) (beard, nr door on right hand side).
The drama starred Roy Kinnear, Annie Raitt, and Tim Roth. Unfortunately it didn’t ever make transmission.
Thanks to Gareth Williams for identifying the drama, he was a newly arrived floor assistant on the show.
Photos by Vanessa Jackson, no reproduction without permission.
There were three series of the garden design show, ‘Small Town Gardens’. The first was made in London, the show then transferred to Birmingham, with me series producing the second and third series at Pebble Mill 2002 -3. I was delighted to be asked to make the show by Owen Gay. The London series was presented by Rachel de Thame, Joe Swift presented the second series and James Alexander Sinclair (shown in these photos) presented the third. Mark Scott and Paul Vanezis were the producer/directors, Sarah Wilkin and Emily Rusted researched on it, with Sarah Costigan and Jo Gray the production co-ordinators. Martin Dowell and Ant Smith were the editors. There were eight episodes in the second series and six in the third. The series were transmitted on BBC 2 on Friday nights before ‘Gardeners’ World’.
The idea of the series was to show how small town gardens could be transformed into creative, innovative spaces. We teamed up well known garden designers with contributors, they went on inspiration and shopping trips to discover what they wanted for their gardens.
It was a brilliant series to make – a lovely production team, great experts, presenters and contributors (well with a couple of exceptions), wonderful locations and a decent budget! And we knew we were lucky at the time.
The photos shown here are from a shoot in Kennington, London, series 3. The garden was a converted farrier’s workshop, with a tiny courtyard garden. The contributors were great, and I seem to remember that when the garden was finished they held a party, and rather the worse for wear tried to bathe in the water feature! The couple shown in the photo are the garden designers, not the contributors!
James always wore his trade mark hat, in fact he had about seven different ones, in various states – some tatty ones reserved for gardening. I think we were lucky enough to have the use of his second best hat! We used to have to check for ‘hat hair’, if we were filming inside and he took his hat off, as his hair would get all squashed and have to be sorted!
