Photos by Paul Scholes, no reproduction without permission.
2″ Quad machines were substantial enough to be sat on!
This is Sue Robinson sat on the Quad, with Mike Bloore to the right, and Nigel Evans foreground. The photo dates from 1980 or ’81, when Sue was working in the Planning Department.
The lower photo is of Trudy Stanton.
Photo from Kathryn Shuttleworth, no reproduction without permission.
This photo of celebrity chef, Ainsley Harriott, was taken on the set of ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’. Ainsley was one of the resident experts on the live, morning show, which ran from 1992-6, using Pebble Mill’s Studio C.
The photo was taken with a panoramic camera, being demonstrated on the morning magazine show. They were left on set at the end of the show, and Kathryn kept them safe.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:
Murray Clarke: ‘A lovely man. What you see is what you get! Great chef to work with. I worked with Ainsley on location shoots only (not in the studio). One programme saw him dressed as Superman on a bicycle to secretly cook dinner parties for hosts with zero culinary talents – and then to pop out of the kitchen at the very end to reveal the truth to the amazed guests!!! ‘
Denny Hodge: ‘I worked with Ainsley on ‘Ready Steady Cook’ we had great fun.’
Photo by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.
This photo is from a drama outside broadcast, probably from one of the ‘Come to Mecca’ dramas, called: ‘Salt on a Snake’s Tail’. The Traffic Warden, with the rigger driver, Bob Few, is writing out a ticket for the scanner, CM2 – despite it having a parking permit!
‘Salt on a Snake’s Tail’, was transmitted in 1983, it was written by Farrukh Dhondy. Franco Ross was the director, Peter Ansorge the producer, and Ian Ashurst the production designer.
The cast included: Zia Mohyeddin, Andrew Johnson, Gill Dharminder.
The following comment was posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:
Andy Bentley: ‘Last time I saw Bob (Few) was a number of years ago, I had just parked the car on Barmouth Sea front when someone shouted ‘Oi what the F*** are you doing here. It was Bob driving a coach full of passengers.’
Photos by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.
The photos are of a 1″ Videotape machine, in action.
1″ videotape was introduced in the mid 1970s, and was the broadcasting norm in the 1980s. 1″ machines took up much less space than the earlier Quad machines, and required less maintenance. You could also spool in vision on them, which was a great advantage when trying to locate a particular clip.
The following comments were on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:
Christopher Hall: ‘It is an Ampex VPR-6, 1″ C Format machine. VPR-2 machines were probably more widely used, and Sony BVH- 3100 machines were the last ones bought. ‘
Mark Davies: ‘Looks like VTF/MFA to me’
Alan Miller: ‘It’s funny to think how much we welcomed the arrival of the first “C” format machines. I seem to remember that we all thoughtt that at last VT could compete with film editing?’
Photos and drawing from costume designer, Janice Rider, no reproduction without permission. The main photo is of Phil Cool performing a Rolf Harris sketch.
‘Cool It’ was a 1985 comedy series, presented by Phil Cool. It was directed in Studio A by David Weir, and produced at Pebble Mill by Steve Weddle. The script was written by Phil Cool, along with Jasper Carrott.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group about ‘Cool It’:
Stuart Gandy: ‘It was the programmes he made at Pebble Mill that brought him to stardom.’
Lynda Kettle: ‘I remember this! Phil Cool was so stressed out spent ages pulling faces in the mirror! Needed a stiff drink!’
Denny Hodge: ‘I did the warm up on the show and Phil had the same manager as Jasper. Steve Weddell was the producer.’
Jane Green: ‘Oh crumbs I worked on this too. Must dig out the end of run photos. I playfully ‘punched’ Phil in the tummy as we joked about something. He then said he’d just had a hernia op. I laughed louder thinking it was a joke and then he said it was true. And it was. :-/ I was alone in a sound room with Jasper Carrott for this programme too, and Jasper just didn’t stop cracking jokes. My sides hurt from laughing. Great fun this programme. Loved it. I remember Denny’s audience warm ups – hysterical!!!’
Julian Hitchock: ‘I remember that Steve was very keen to give Phil Cool this opportunity. Now I hear nothing of him, or Steve, who I hope is well,- and haven’t seen Jaspar C for ages. As Jane said, he was hysterical and very clever indeed. Please come back, all of you.’