Photograph from Tom Ross, no reproduction without permission.
The Top Gear team proudly showing off their new electronic camera kit – complete with Top Gear sticker, late 1980s. Included are Dave Wilkins, cameraman; Tom Ross, producer/director; and it looks like Dave Baumber on sound.
The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Andy Frizzell: ‘I think that may have been the Top Gear Special in Spain, Hispano Suiza Rally. Could have been me taking the picture.’
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
Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
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.’
Copyright Mark Pinder photography, no reproduction without permission
Chris Phipps, who used to present on Look! Hear! at Pebble Mill in the early 1980s, and was the BBC’s Black Country correspondent in the 1970s, has written a book about the films and television of Newcastle.
“We associate Newcastle with TV and Film icons Get Carter, Byker Grove, The Tube and Our Friends in the North. However, do you know where Ralph Richardson stole money from in 1939? Why a den of spies were living in Jesmond in 1951? Who met Tommy Lee Jones on the High Level Bridge in 1988? Why Gateshead High Street was under siege in 2009? and which Newcastle flats seem to appear in every programme or film made in Newcastle?
The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Andy Frizzell: ‘Co-presented look hear with Toyah Wilcox. One of the first things I worked on and the first time I met Barry Chatfield. A long, long time ago.’
Countryfile team. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission
Regarding Countryfile, it is fun to look at the photograph and recognise old friends/colleagues.
My involvement was to be a producer on Farming, with Martin Small, and Exec John Kenyon. We wanted to acknowledge the large “over the shoulder” audience we had on Farming, and hence wrote the brief for Countryfile. I remember it well, sitting in John Kenyon’s office sketching in the idea, and kicking around names. I came up with the Countryfile name, although we may have thought it should be two words…
Michael Grade, Controller BBC1 accepted the idea, the team went from 4 to 24, and the Countryfile bandwagon started rolling.
After poor Brain Strachan died, there was a vacancy on Top Gear, and John Kenyon told me to get some broader experience, before applying to run Countryfile. So I did, but they did not want me to run Countryfile, as I was supposedly too biased to the farming community and Mike Fitzgerald got the gig.
I stuck with Top Gear and the rest is history…
Ken Pollock
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Patrick Flavelle: ‘I started on a rolling weekly contract working with Fitz surfacing potential stories at the fag end of Farming…led to working on the show for its first 11 years. Happy days and incredibly boozy Xmas do’s…the one after this photo was very messy!’
Mick Murphy: ‘3rd from right, 2nd row – Sue Lloyd, Director. 1st on the left, front row – Barry Paine, former BBC producer / wildlife narrator, who used to voice over some of our films. Girl behind Fitz is called Sarah…? Great picture. ‘
Jane McLean: ‘John Clarke on the left .. who I went to Russia and Siberia with for Countryfile in 1989. Should try & find the Russian pix. Talk about an eye opener. The director was Dick Colthurst (what happened to him?) and the crew was Nigel Davey, Barrie Foster, Keith Rodgerson and Andy Frizzell. We were force-fed vodka shots 24/7 – honestly! ‘
Pam Relton: ‘Dick is very successful Jane – he went to BBC Bristol after CountryFile and is now MD at Tigress Productions.’
Jane McLean: ‘Good on him. Never heard of Tigress Prods – am SO out of the loop these days re anything telly!’
Viv Ellis: ‘I recognise Yasmine O’Grady looking glam – as ever. I worked on Farming for a few months’
Roy Thompson: ‘Spent a very happy attachment to Countryfile from Wood Norton even getting to direct a piece on arts in rural communities. Very supportive and friendly team.’
Andrea Buffery: ‘This picture would look amazing next to the Countryfile team today. It consists of 30 plus people.’
Steve Johnson: ‘I worked on Countryside for a short time in mid nineties, arranged the filming of the brand new RSPB reserve at Conwy.’
Pam Relton: ‘As a real City girl, CountryFile opened my eyes to so many things. I remember my first shoot – in a battery hen farm, a barn the size of a hanger filled with chickens in cages no bigger than themselves, floor to ceiling, the noise!! I’ve not knowingly eaten anything other than free range, outdoor-reared produce since. I learned so much about the pressures on farmers and producers to comply with the big supermarkets. This was the great thing about working on programmes like this – that open up the issues to do with farming and the countryside to everyone.’
Jane McLean: ‘I was country born & bred Pam – my brother was a pig farmer – and I know exactly what you’re talking about from the other side! ‘
Photo by lighting director, Dave Bushell, no reproduction without permission.
‘Shalom Salaam’, filming at Leicester Station, 1988.
John Trew laying a camera track (while there’s a perfectly good one already in place on the right). The rigger on the left is Peter Mylowski, and I think it’s Elson Godbolt (vision engineer) at rest on the dolly.
Just visible in the distance in the trademark sheepskin coat is director Gareth Jones.
Dave Bushell
(Thanks to Andy Frizzell for identifying the rigger)