All Memories Great and Small

Here is an article from the Darlington and Stockton Times. Costume designer, Janice Rider and make-up artist, Vivien Oldham travelled up to the north east to attend the ‘All Creatures’ book signing event.

“SCORES of people attended an author event and book signing for the recent second edition of “All Memories Great and Small” by Oliver Crocker, last Saturday.

The book is about the making of the original, and much loved, BBC television series “All Creatures Great and Small”, based on the James Herriot books of Thirsk vet Alf Wight.

Channel Five have recently remade the show, and the second series is mid-way through its run.

From the original series, Mr Crocker brought along Ali Lewis, who played a young Rosie Herriot, Paul Lyon, who was young Jimmy Herriot in series four, and Jessica Sewell, who was Mary, granddaughter to Thora Hird in two episodes, to the signing at White Rose Books in Thirsk. Accompanying them were costume designer Janice Rider and make-up artist Vivien Oldham. In support was Alf Wight’s daughter, Dr Rosie Page, who gave valuable information to the author for his book.

Mr Crocker thanked the White Rose Books for hosting the signing event and told everyone present about the writing of the original edition and the revamped and extended version.

Visitors from around the country, who had travelled long distances in some cases, were thrilled to meet members of the cast, the real life Rosie, and the author. At the end of the afternoon the whole party walked over to Kirkgate, to the Herriot Museum to chat with Dr Page.”

https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/19634434.creatures-great-small-visitors-thrilled-herriot-book-event/?fbclid=IwAR0pwKMgwzQX-euPl2c0i7DfIcbMxvZmWYQVV1Az9HYVwHUGsL6-YRqZTOw

All Memories Great and Small – Part 9, Alex Christison

Alex Christison recording film sound on the Asian show: New Life. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

This is the final excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” – by Oliver Crocker

This time it is memories from Alex Christison (Film Sound):

‘The main problem on All Creatures was that we are talking about the days before multi-mic radio microphones were available – so you couldn’t just scatter personal mics around each actor and mix accordingly. We were also recording in mono audio, so I didn’t even have another track to play with like the dramas do these days with split track. Basically, I relied on my boom swinger to get my sound. We’d done away with the old sync lead by then, thank God, which meant I wasn’t joined up to the camera – the boom mic would be connected to my Nagra mixer and would be recorded separately to picture. The clapperboard really did concentrate the minds in those days because it was quite a costly process if you got it wrong.’

60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to preorder now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts

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All Memories Great and Small – part 8, Maggie Thomas

Maggie Thomas make-up artist on ‘All Creatures Great and Small’

Excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” by Oliver Crocker.

Memories from Maggie Thomas (Make-up Assistant, and later Make-up Designer):

‘Television was still in its infancy in comparison to what they can do today. We didn’t have mobile phones on location, they hadn’t been invented then, the AFM had walkie talkies, but they could only be used a short distance within the crew – we were totally on our own once we were out on location. It was too late to make any important changes once you left Pebble Mill, so you had to make sure you had everything you needed in your kit before you left for Yorkshire, because it was something like a four hour journey from Birmingham up to Darlington to the unit base, so you had to do a lot of preparation behind the scenes before you hit the road.’

60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to order now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts

All Memories Great and Small – part 7, Carol Churchill

Photo of All Creatures Great and Small set in Studio A, by Tim Savage. No reproduction without permission.

Here is the latest excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” – by Oliver Crocker.

This time, it is the memories of Carol Churchill (née Ganniclifft) (Make-up Artist):

‘I’d joined the BBC in 1973. I had heard they were looking for make-up artists at Pebble Mill and I thought it sounded interesting so I applied and I got the job – though when I applied, I really had no idea what it was! My mother had a hairdressing salon, so I had that skill, because in television you needed to do both. They sent me to London for a course for three months and then I was up and running. I feel very sad for the girls today because it is so hard to get into it and they have to pay for their training now, which for the same course I did is about £9,000, so not everyone can afford it.’

60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to preorder now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Richard Burn: ‘Great to see this set again, first programme I ever worked on in television. I did the pre-production sign design for Darrowby and packaging and signage for the Dispensary, I had never heard of set dressing before then.’

Andy Frizzell: ‘Ha! First studio drama I ever worked on. Bob Gell was TM1 (lighting director nowadays) the hands on the clock in the hall were held on with blue tack.’

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All Memories Great & Small – part 2

Excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” by Oliver Crocker.

Memories from Mike Duxbury (Film Editor):

‘I’d got a job as an Assistant Film Editor at the BBC in Pebble Mill in 1976 and spent most of my time assisting Henry Fowler. He was one of the senior Film Editors there and edited most of the high quality dramas. I was twenty-eight and Henry must have been in his fifties and we got on great. I had assisted him on a couple of series of Gangsters and I learned so much from him then. Henry had been editing for all of his career and by this time was becoming a little jaded. He lived in Tewkesbury which was a fifty minute drive down the motorway and he used to find the flimsiest of excuses to come in late or go home early – his favourite being “Fog on the motorway.”

60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to preorder now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts

Thanks to Oliver Crocker for sharing this excerpt.

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Roy Thompson: ‘Remember Henry Fowler so well from his, and my, time at Wood Norton. He taught me so much about film production.’

Henry Fowler, film editor. Photo by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

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