February 2013 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Last 6.55 Special

Photo by Paul Scholes, no reproduction without permission

This photo was almost certainly taken after the last episode of the 6.55 Special on 19 August 1983, outside the front of the building. The 6.55 Special was an entertainment show, which involved live music and celebrity guests.

Included left to right are: Chris Glover (moved down south and opened a Chandlery shop); Leigh Sinclair, VT editor (2nd from left); John Burkill, VT engineer; Elaine Baldwin; Ivor Williams, VT editor; Paul Wheeldon, Communications Supervisor. It was Elaine Baldwin’s last day at Pebble Mill before leaving and working at Central.

Thanks to Jane Mclean, Ann Gumbley-Williams and Steve Dellow for identifying everyone!

Juliet Bravo – Bacup

Thanks to make-up designer, Carol Churchill for sharing this photo, from the early 1980s, of the crew of ‘Juliet Bravo’ outside the Police Station in Bacup, Lancashire.

Cameraman Nigel Davey is on the far left, next to electrician Arthur Heywood, then grips Jimmy Monks.

Please add a comment with other names.

BAFTA – Brown Paper Bag

Photo by Steve May, no reproduction without permission.

Included in the photo, left to right are: John Reynolds; editing organiser, Shirley O’Mara; assistant editor, James Cole, dubbing mixer, Fiona Voght; editor, Steve Killick.

The BAFTA was for a short called ‘Brown Paper Bag’, directed by Michael Baing Clifford and produced by Natasha Carlish. Steve Killick was the editor.

CMCR9 Vision Area

CMCR9 Vision area

CMCR9 Vision area 2

CMCR9 Philips CCUs

Photos by John Abbott, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from the 1969 outside broadcast scanner, CMCR9, which was Pebble Mill’s original CM1. This scanner became Manchester’s North 3, in around 1979.

The photos show the Vision area of the truck, as well as the Camera Control Units for the original Philips/Pye cameras.

This scanner has recently been restored by a team up in Manchester, and is now owned by Steve Harris.

Rob Cherry added the following comment on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

‘Having completed an ‘A’ course at Evesham in December 1974 I went to Pebble Mill Audio Unit and was put out on OBs for that long, hot summer of 1975. All sorts of stuff including the final of “Sportstown” from Wales, somewhere, with Alan Edwards as EM1 or whatever it was called; culminating in what I believe was the first World One-Day Cricket competition in England, including the final at Lord’s. I had to pinch myself. I’m getting paid, for this?’

One Show pilot run

This cutting is about the pilot run of The One Show, in the summer of 2006, which was a BBC Birmingham production at the Mailbox, before the series moved to London. A temporary studio was built outside the back of the Mailbox building.

The photo includes left to right: Tessa Finch, executive producer; Nadia Sawalha, co-presenter; Adrian Chiles, co-presenter; Chris Rybczynski, series editor.

The show built on the legacy of Pebble Mill shows like Pebble Mill at One, and Good Morning with Anne and Nick, the latter which Tessa Finch was editor of for several years in the 1990s.

Thanks to Andrew Morland for sharing the cutting.

The following comments were added on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Andy Walters: ‘I remember the portakabins and the scanner sat in the Mailbox loading bay. A lot of the tie circuits are still there. Wasn’t that the first thing to come from the Mailbox in HD?’

Stephen Neal: ‘Andy – afraid not. The One Show was SD in Birmingham (and also in London until Summer 2010) We did use Visions HD1 – an HD scanner – to make it – but we were running the truck in SD, and had SD cameras (rather than HD cameras running in SD mode).’