The former LO5/Midland/ North3’s final outing for this year will be at the University of Salford, Media Centre as part of the Manchester Science Fair.
Here is a link to their website: http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/whatson/msf14semaphoresmartphone
Jerry Clegg
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
You may already know that the journalist and broadcaster, Mark Whittaker, who worked for the BBC at Radio WM in the 80s and returned to Pebble Mill as a presenter of Costing the Earth in the 90s has died after a short illness. He leaves a wife, Jane Stimpson, who also worked at the Mill in the 80s, and two children.
Mark was a know it all in the nicest possible way. He had a huge brain full of stuff that could be deployed at work and at play. As I’ve reflected elsewhere I never lost a pub quiz with him and have never won one without him.
There is a very touching tribute to him on the Ariel page written by his colleagues on BBC World Service World Business Report where he’d been working for the last few years.
Richard Uridge
Here is the link to the article in Ariel about Mark: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/29463075
Below is an excerpt from the article:
“World Service presenter Mark Whittaker has died suddenly of cancer.
One of the presenters of World Business Report and Business Matters, he had finished his last shift at the BBC about a month ago, on August 27.
He was diagnosed with cancer only three weeks before his death on October 1. He leaves behind two children and his wife Jane.
‘Mark was a radio genius who not only had brilliant ideas, but relentlessly executed them to perfection,’ said Martin Webber, editor of BBC World Service business news in an email to World Service staff.
‘We marvelled as he crafted beautiful scripts and then drew on his vast memory of music and sound, to turn a dull topic into a radio delight.
‘He regularly quietly re-edited interviews himself when the producer failed to do a perfect job.
His interviews connected effortlessly with the people he spoke to wherever they were in the world”
‘When Business Matters started with an hour-long format, he thrived doing the extended live interviews that the programme demanded. On location in India and Japan in the past year, he showed us all what could be achieved.”
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Alex Fraser: ‘He was a lovely, lovely man’
Sue Welch: ‘Such a lovely man with a wicked sense of humour.’
Pete Simpkin: ‘Well said all of the above…in addition Mark seemed to want to break down the barriers of the time between news and general programme staff and he planted seeds that bore spectacular fruit.’
Lorraine Randell: ‘I worked with Mark in Radio WM’s News Room and I reiterate everything that has been said…one of the nicest people I have ever worked with.’
Photos by Roy Thompson, no reproduction without permission.
These photos are from the 1989 three part serial: Vote for Them. They were taken at the Regal Cinema in Tenbury Wells, which stood in for an Egyptian cinema. Roy Thompson took these location photos whilst on attachment at Pebble Mill, from Wood Norton. A 5am make up call at Pebble Mill was necessary!
The cameraman in the top photo is Dave Doogood, with Simon Tooley in the striped top.
This titles grab dates from the 1990s. Rally Report was made by members of the Top Gear production team and presented by some of the same presenters as the motoring magazine show. The series reported on the Lombard RAC Rally.
Thanks to Ian Collins to making the grab available.
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Peter Poole: ‘I did some location recording for this.’
Steve Lee: ‘I presented for a while…Denis Adams was the producer…Fun days !!!’
Ned Abell: ‘If this was the one on BBC2 we parked CM2 outside the Laguna Tandoori next to the Albany hotel, Nottingham. Off the air and sit down with chicken tikkas already waiting!!’
Adam Hartley: ‘I remember preparing some of the rushes & working with editors on some time around 1998… Also have a vague recollection of a viewer complaining because a certain rally car had the wrong engine noise synched to it on a wide drive past…’
Simon Edwards: ‘I think Jim Knights might have been involved?’
Paul Hutchins: ‘Yes Simon, Magpie crewed most of the rallies! Some great memories mate. Great team that went on to produce and film the world rally championship for years to come!! Happy days.’
Alan Jessop: ‘I was one of the cameramen on many of the Rally shows – great fun in the forest!’