Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
The Continental was a follow up to John Godber’s comedy drama, The Ritz. It was transmitted in 1987. It was directed by Martin Shardlow, with Chris Parr as the producer. The story followed the staff of The Ritz as they set up a new disco in Spain.
I think this drama was filmed in the Copthorne Hotel in Paradise Circus, Birmingham.
Thanks to costume designer, Janice Rider for sharing this transmission card.
Photo by Paul Vanezis, no reproduction without permission.
This photo shows how spools from old VT tapes were reused as jacks’ lead storage in post production at Pebble Mill. You can see the spools screwed on to the end of this bay outside Dub 1 in post production
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Keith Brook (Scouse): ‘I think they were the 30 minute size of 2″ spools. They took both sides off the centre, screwed it to the wall, then put one side back on.’
Andy Marriott: ‘I would’ve assume timed video leads would make that an MFA area somewhere in post production. Any increase/decrease in cable lengths would’ve played havoc with timings between VT/studios, unless you can compensate for it. This is obviously in the days before you could just stick cheap frame synchronisers on each OS. ISTR that even by the end of Studio B’s life, only a handful of the OS’ had synchronisers on. The others relied on the sources being synchronous and ‘timed in’, like local VT machines etc.
I think the reason they’re ‘timed’ leads, is that basically they’re all the same length, so if you need to patch a component feed between two VT’s (three patch cables required), you’d need the cables to be all the same length to avoid messing up your picture if (for example) the colour difference signals arrive before your luminance signal.
If you were short of spools you can also chop them at 120 degree intervals have three cable hangers instead. You can label as 50Hz, 0-20kHz and >3MHz.’
Raymond Lee: ‘It may have been a JCB [John Burkill] idea, he was quite involved with the refurb.’
Charles White’s timesheet
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This timesheet is from Charles White, who was involved in the post-production of the documentary series: Reaching for the Skies, a history of flight. The twelve part series was transmitted in Sept-Nov 1988. It was a co-production with John Gau Productions, the series producer was Ivan Rendall, with different episodes being produced and directed by different people, including Tony Salmon and Dennis Adams. The editors included Greg Miller and Mike Duxbury.
The timesheet shows an over 80 hour week for Charles, meaning that he would have accrued an awful lot of overtime payments, or time off in lieu!
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Jane Green: ‘I have my Clothes Show and Howards’ Way timesheets. 20 hours days filming – no joke!’
Ruth Barretto: ‘I can remember the days when I used to process all of productions timesheets and Expenses. 4 consecutive days in excess of 12 hours and on the 5th day 4 hours then you earn a day off in lieu…. Oh so sad that i still remember that!!!’
Lynn Cullimore: ‘I can imagine the hours as it was a big production. I worked on it for a few days filming at RAF Coningsby on tornadoes. It was fantastic.’
Victoria Trow: ‘Long hours? Over 100 one week on the dreaded Witchcraft. But nobody ever minded over time – time and a half + less than 10hr break….. Those were the days. My first job at Pebble Mill – in a portakabin with Fiona Haigh syncing up the rushes.’
Mark Heslop: ‘108 hrs on same series, unfortunately no proof, but everybody worked stupid hours on that programme.’
Rosalind Gower: ‘I’m still rather horrified he was scheduled a 60 hour week! I know we all worked crazy hours when we had to but it does seem very wrong that he was officially down to work for five consecutive days of 12 hours per day, big production or not.’
Photos by Joanne Kenyon, no reproduction without permission.
(This Good Morning with Anne and Nick sweatshirt was worn by the band of Community Service Volunteers who manned the phone-lines on the daily live show. Good Morning went out on weekdays between 1993-96. They were sometimes seen in shot, hence the need for the sweatshirts. The hotliners, as they were known, took the calls from viewers, and would then put selected viewers through to the studio phone-in, to talk to presenters Anne Diamond and Nick Owen, as well as TV Doctor, Mark Porter, or Agony Aunt, Deirdre Sanders etc. The sweatshirts were obviously made to last, as this one is still in former hotliner, Joanne Kenyon’s wardrobe, almost twenty years on!)
At an age when you were fresh and new and itching to get into television production, with no idea how to get there, if you were lucky enough, you gained a voluntary position with CSV Media.
The CSVers would turn up every morning at the crack of dawn to Pebble Mill, walk through Reception, down the corridor with all the celebrity pictures, past the ‘Quiet Please’ signs on the Studio doors and would make their way to the Good Morning Hotline office, next door to the main production office.
After the obligatory cuppa and breakfast in the Crush Bar you would hear Maggie’s dulcet Northern Irish tones shouting ‘logooon…’ which would signal that you would spend the next few hours speaking to members of the public about whatever the topic of the day was. You would filter calls and put them through to the Studio floor and when the cameras came to the Hotline (with the live show broadcasting the telephone number) you would concentrate on not looking into the camera and be on the phone looking extremely busy (well after all your Mum was seeing you on TV!). After the excitement of the live show was over you would spend the afternoon researching and answering viewer’s questions and calling them back with the information you had found.
It was a fun time, everything was new and exciting, you would see celebrities in the corridors. I will never forget Dale Winton collapsing in the chair next to me claiming he was shattered after his ten minute interview; Lennox Lewis or Gary Lineker answering the phones with us and sending most of the girls (and some of the boys) in the room giddy! The celebrities are too many to mention. I have very special memories of looking after Bob Monkhouse, a real gentleman.
Despite making life long friends, lots of giggles, feeling part of something important and having great fun in the Pebble Mill bar, it was a vital, amazing and necessary start in your TV life. You were given opportunities that would not exist anywhere else; assisting in the hospitality; meeting the hard working production team, assisting with their research and learning from what they did. It was valuable for your career and an amazing springboard into the life of live television.
You weren’t paid, worked long hours and at times it was extremely difficult, especially if the subject of the day was one that devastated the lives of the people calling in. At the end of my CSV year I had made great friends, created great memories, gained the experience to be recruited by a local Production Company ….and not forgetting, I came away with an extremely memorable and now super cool and retro sweatshirt – what a great time in my life!
Joanne Kenyon
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Does anyone remember an edition of Pebble Mill at One in November 1973, with a guest called John Berkeley who was from a Midlands Aircraft Preservation Society? They brought 4 aircraft in on lorries for the programme. Here’s John leading Bob Langley towards the Flying Flea, with his colleague Roger Smith in the pilot’s seat. If anyone has any photos or even a copy of the programme do get in touch.
David Gregory-Kumar
(This programme was probably one of multicamera director, John Smith’s. He had very good relations with the armed forces and other organisations, and often staged spectacular happenings live on Pebble Mill at One.)