Annie Jenkins – What Was Pebble Mill?

Ainsley’s Barbecue Bible

Ainsley’s Barbecue Bible was a six part series made for BBC 2 in summer 1997, with a second series in 1998. Ben Warwick was the director, with producers, Roulla Xenides and Jane Lomas. The assistant producers were Sue Ashcroft and Lisa Kendrick, with Liz Darby being the PA on the first series and Jane Mclean the PA on the second.

The series involved Ainsley travelling round the world in search of the best barbecue ideas. His journey included: Britain, South Africa, Jamaica, Thailand, Australia and Greece.

Here is the link to the Radio Times entry for the first episode, from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/bf1a6891e372488fa092dc8f8f0ae415.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the grab available.

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

Roulla Xenides: ‘I made barbecued jerk chicken on Saturday using the jerk marinade recipe from the book which is a pretty good one. Many memories of the series including baboons attacking our BBQ at the Cape of Good Hope – we had to escape to the car and watch an entire family of them eating all of the ingredients for the South African Sosaties, not to mention the male baboon displaying his ‘virility’ in a rather belligerent manner. Annie Jenkins designed the graphics and this shot was filmed in her back garden. Funny, we were just talking about it this morning!’

Telly Addicts titles grab

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab available.

Telly Addicts was a BBC1 early evening, game show about television presented by Noel Edmonds. It was first transmitted in 1985, and ended in 1998. John King was the Executive Producer, with producers including Tim Manning and Richard Lewis. It was recorded in Studio A.

The questions were about television programmes past and present, with the usual format being a clip followed by questions. There were usually two teams of four people each, with a tournament style of 16 teams, in 8 qualifying heats, being adopted from 1987-1996.

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

Denny Hodge: ‘Yes fond memories doing the warm up on the show.’

Jane Green: ‘Your warm ups were a treat to see Denny. Remember them well. I worked on this. Noel was a dream to look after. Helicopter arrived literally 5 minutes before rehearsals began and he had his clothes all ready and pressed and he’d be in studio on time. No fuss, no silly demands. Went to collect him from his dressing room once and found him standing on a chair waving a ‘brick’ around. It was a new thing called a mobile phone and he was trying to get a signal. His very beautiful new wife Helen turned up to rehearsals one evening to support him as his much loved dog had just died and he was so upset. She just walked in – I didn’t know who she was and was about to ask her to leave when someone explained…’

Andrew Langstone: ‘My friend Jennifer Kings (was Hassall) was a production secretary on Telly Addicts. Managed to get us some tickets for a few recordings.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Didn’t John King flog the rights to Noel Edmonds?’

Richard Stevenson: ‘The first show I worked on in 1997. Ironically I then went on to work with Noel on numerous Gotchas (65 I think), Noel’s House Party and some great worldwide trips for Noel’s Christmas Presents.’

Belinda Essex: ‘I used to do auto cue sometimes’

Gill Thompson: ‘I used to organise the audiences for this show, never had a problem filling seats was always a popular one!’

Sarah Dunning: ‘And the graphic designer was the brilliant Annie Jenkins!’

Jane Upston: ‘I remember recruiting for this programme (I was Jane Morgan then and worked in HR). I remember Nick Hurran too, the Director and Jennifer Hassell. Who was the PA?’

Richard Stevenson: ‘Trudi Stanton and Roger Sutton vision mixed I think. Can’t remember the PA but it will come to me!….Thea Harvey?’

Walk on the Wildside

This titles grab is from a factual wildlife programme made at Pebble Mill, and presented by Simon King. It probably dates from the 1990s.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the grab available.

Adam Trotman added the following comment about Walk on the Wildside: ‘I was the assistant editor on it, Jonathan Birkett was the editor and Simon King was director, John King the Exec. It was BBC 2 I think, transmitted around tea time….I loved it as I got to do some editing as Jonathan had to dash as his wife had their first baby. By the way, Annie Jenkins did amazing graphics and animation for it well before CGI!’

Pebble Mill Reunion – Pimms in the Park 6th Sept 2011

Thanks to Annie Gumbley-Williams and Keith Ackrill for these photos of the Pebble Mill Reunion at the Midlands Arts Centre in Cannon Hill Park, on 6th September 2011.

The photos include: Steve Weddle, Annie Jenkins, Jane McClean, Jane Hyde, Bob Jacobs, John Couzens, James French, Howie Dartnall, Annie Gumbley-Williams, Julie Knee, Lis Walker. David Weir with Toni & Jenny Fortey & Sarah Costigan. Steve Weddle with Carol Sparrow and (back of) Nicky Barfoot/Savage. Also Sara-Jayne vision mixer, Robin Sunderland, Keith Froggatt, Kath Woolston, Laura McNeill, Neil Murray, Steve Saunderson, Dave Baumber, Dave Ballantyne, Sue Welch (Radio 2), Pete Johnson (Radio 2), Maureen Carter (ex Midlands Today presenter) Keith Ackrill, Cathy Houghton (Midlands Today journalist), Angela Jameson who was secretary to Dick Knigh before being Secretary to Radio Birmingham News, Ken Hodges and Simon Evens from engineering.