Photo from David Headon, no reproduction without permission
This is the front drum head from the BBC Pebble Mill Club house band. The kit belongs to house band drummer and Midlands Today camera operator, Jonathan Sales. The artwork was hand painted by Tony Ore, who worked on Midlands Today. Tony sadly died ten years ago, he was a popular figure in the newsroom and the BBC Club.
Thanks to David Headon for sharing the photograph.
Copyright resides with the original holder.
This is the ten year anniversary show of Pebble Mill at One, from 1982. It features the landing of the Harrier, amongst other memorable items. Some, like the ‘Black and White Minstrels’ are very much of their time, and seem quite shocking when viewed today. It is presented by Marian Foster, Donny Mcleod and Bob Langley.
Screen grab of the opening titles. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.
(Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission).
Thanks to Ann Chancellor-Davies for sharing this card. Ann’s late husband, Gavin Davies, was the production designer.
This is the transmission card for Out of the Blue, shown on 22nd August, 1991, on BBC1 at 21.30. Here is the entry from the Radio Times, from the BBC Genome project:
http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/1cb8a4d8341248c39da75f8d6802bf2f
The fourth in a series of six new plays written for television.
Starring Colin Firth and Catherine Zeta Jones
Alan makes films in the warehouse studio where he lives, with the help of his friends Rudy and Liz. Even
Rudy’s girlfriend, Julie, finds herself caught up in his plans. But when Alan falls in love with a beautiful young girl,
Chirsty, and decides to create the perfect romance between them, life begins to imitate the film fantasy which has become an obsession for him.
Featuring Cathy Tyson , who starred opposite Bob Hoskins in the film Mona Lisa ;
John Lynch , seen recently in ITV’s Chimera; and Dexter Fletcher , well-known from Press Gang, the children’s drama series also seen recently on ITV.
Written by Graham Alborough Producer Barry Hanson Director Nick Hamm
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Kevin Lakin: ‘It was my job to keep fire going on an island in the lake at Edgbaston Golf Club, night shoot. It was hard to avert my eyes because Catherine Zeta Jones was without clothes. It took years for me to recover.’
Carolyn Davies: ‘Remember doing loads of mag transfers for it in Film Transfer….Audio Trainee initiation room….’
Keith Butler: ‘I worked in the gallery on lighting and vision control on this production. Even then it was obvious that Catherine Zeta Jones had “Star” written all over her, she was a joy to work with.’
David Rose 2009. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
News has come through today that David Rose has sadly died. His death was apparently very peaceful.
David had a long and distinguished television career. He flew in Lancaster bombers during the WWII, joining the BBC in the mid 1950s. In the 1960s he produced Z-Cars and the spin-off series, Softly, Softly.
In 1971 he was appointed by director of programming, David Attenborough, as Head of English Regions Drama at Pebble Mill. His remit was to produce dramas which depicted life outside London. The era at Pebble Mill was a rich and creative one. David proved himself to be an inspiring leader, with an impeccable knack of putting together talented and innovative teams. He took creative risks and was responsible for bringing many new writers and directors to the television screen. Pebble Mill was incredibly productive under his leadership, producing many Plays for Today, as well as anthology series like Second City Firsts. The talent he worked with included: Alan Bleasdale, Willy Russell, Alan Plater, David Hare, Mike Leigh, Stephen Frears, Peter Terson, David Rudkin, amongst many others, as well as the staff team including Michael Wearing, Peter Ansorge, Tara Prem, and Barry Hanson.
In 1981 David moved to the newly formed Channel 4, where he was made Commissioning Editor of Fiction by Jeremy Isaacs. He was responsible for the development of Film on Four. It was during his time at Channel 4 that he won the Roberto Rossellini award for services to cinema in 1987, an honour he was incredibly proud of.
David Rose’s legacy at Pebble Mill is still evident in the BBC Birmingham Drama Village today, in the shape of some members of staff, and also in the innovative production practices.
David will be much missed, and we are unlikely to see his like again.
2-Opportunities from pebblemill on Vimeo.
I recorded this film in 2009, of David, Barry Hanson, Tara Prem and Peter Ansorge talking about English Regions Drama.
Copyright Steve Dellow, no reproduction without permission
The photo shows a radio links van at a mid-point on an outside broadcast at the Burghley Horse Trials, in September 1985. The radio links van would receive the OB signal from the truck at the event, and then send it on to the transmitter, or to another links van.
The following comments were posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Bryan Comley: ‘Burghley is a huge job with 20 plus cameras covering the cross country course, today the cameras all come back to one truck via fibre optics. In the 80’s there were two trucks one at the start/finish and one at Lion bridge, the cameras at the extremes of the course were radio linked to the trucks , Formula one at Silverstone use cross course microwave too.
Too get the pictures on air, links had to be set up to the nearest inject point, either a BBC centre or a transmitter site, the max distances for one link was around 40 miles sure to the curvatures of the earth and signal strength, so mid points on high ground would be set for some OBs. This could fail due to fog if the midpoint was high above the fog and the OB was in fog as the beam would get bent leaving the fog.’
Steve Dellow: ‘Indeed – a big job – and I’ve still got the Comms planning sheets! In 1985, at Burghley Park there were two Comms vans (758 and 602) – ‘Dairy Park’ and Main. The van in the photo (356) was at Tinwell Lodge (with Generator PG50), then 587 at Cold Overton, then onwards to Sutton (and underground circuit to Pebble Mill). Receiver 102R and Transmitter 124T on the top of 356, with Pete Myslowski asleep in the cab! I was supposed to give £25 cash to the site owner (Mr Flint), plus £20 as they hadn’t been paid the year before! The ‘hops’ were 5km, 18.5km, and 69km.’
Comms planning sheet
Malcolm Hickman: ‘On other occasions, we used a different mid point, where the vehicle would pick up the signals (7ghz microwave) and relay them to a receiver located at the Morborne transmitter. We used a passive reflector up the mast to bounce the signals down to a receiver on the ground. They were then injected by BT into a protection circuit to Pebble Mill.’
Roy Thompson: ‘As explained radio links had to be line of sight. This could be a problem for some starter links (the first one from the ob site) especially in town centres. Eagle towers were used, which had a self erecting, two stage tower which would carry the transmitter. It was rigged at 30 foot and then sent up to its maximum height of 60 foot. Have no actual photos but came across this model Dinky toy at my local dentist. Unfortunately the second part of the tower is missing.’
Andy Marriott: ‘I love seeing stuff like this. I joined the comms dept at Pebble Mill in 2000. But by then it was a shadow of its former self. Still got to work on a few OB’s before the plug finally got pulled a year or so later. OB’s aren’t nearly as cool when they’re over satellite or fibre!’