Caroline Jones – What Was Pebble Mill?

Midlands News 1992

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This page from the internal newspaper, Midlands News from 1992, shows what a vibrant place Pebble Mill was at this time, with both radio and television programmes winning all kinds of accolades, and even the restaurant winning an award for healthy food! Jeremy Clarkson is looking very youthful in the top right-hand corner, but down at the bottom the photographs for Countryfile‘s day out and Sarah Rowlands and Mark Decker’s digital editing session seem to have been swapped over – oops!

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Front Room mug

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Thanks to Jonathan Relf for sharing this mug from the series Front Room, which was presented by Jason Bradbury, who has gone on to find fame with the Gadget Show. It went out in 1999 on BBC Knowledge, which was one of the BBC’s first digital channels.

The series was recorded in Studio 1 (built as a radio studio). Studio C’s gallery was cross-wired to cover Studio 1.

Jonathan recalls that the show included, “the cutting edge of “new media” content. I can remember a segment involving the “Take Hart” gallery music too, but was internet related.” The show involved viewers sharing ideas via webcams, video diaries, online chat and email.

Jonathan thinks he was training as a lighting operator on the show, probably under the tutorship of Dave Bushell.

I seem to remember that Tony Steyger was the Exec and Caroline Jones the Series Producer, with Bob Davies as Studio Director.

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All Over The Shop

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab of the series, All Over The Shop available.

All Over The Shop was a shopping and consumer panel game show, presented by Paul Ross, in 1997-9. Panelists included actors and celebrities. It went out on BBC1 Daytime at 12.25pm. The producer was Caroline Jones, and the exec, Steve Weddle.

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

Steve Weddle: ‘It was a London creation – the second series was shipped in to Pebble Mill for reasons I can’t recall. So we inherited the format – flimsy, to say the least – and tried to make a half decent telly show out of it. I think we just about succeeded, but there was so much politics behind the scenes,given the half London/ half Birmingham set up. It did however open up channels for some PM production people to work in Events in London, especially Veronica Butt.’

Veronica Butt: ‘Linda Flavell Michelle Furey Ellena Stojanovic Yvonne Stevenson Julia Versluis Merrick Simmonds, Andrea Miller, Caroline Jones and Steve Weddle worked on it’

Julia Versluis: ‘I had fun trying to get Paul’s script onto all those lovely cards. Hours of fun! as well as trying to dodge the rest of the office printing on my labels before I could shout “no-one print” I do believe I have a photo of Veronica Butt, Paul Ross and myself at the end of show BBQ. I’ll see if I can find it.’

Caroline Jones: ‘Wow now that’s a blast from the past clearing all those logos was a copyright nightmare and all the guest who suddenly developed allergies to the items slated for the taste tests! Weird commission shipped up from London to stop us from closing the first time!’

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Front Room

This title grab is taken from the interactive educational series Front Room. The show was described in the Radio Times as the: interactive show presented by Jason Bradbury in which viewers exchange views and ideas using webcams, video diaries, online chat and e-mail http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?q=Front+Room#search.

It was aired from June 1999, and finished in 2000, going out on the newly formed BBC Knowledge channel. Which was one of the BBC’s first digital channels, whose remit was to produce educational programming in a fun and interactive fashion. See this link of Wikipedia for more information about the channel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Knowledge.

BBC Knowledge was short-lived as a channel, closing in March 2002, to make way for BBC Four.

Caroline Jones was a producer on the show, and Tony Steyger certainly worked on it, possibly as editor, and Bob Davies was the show’s studio director. The show was quite innovative, and Tony was ideal to work on it, with his background of working for Maverick TV, on self-shot shows like Trade Secrets.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the grab available.

The Really Useful Week

The Really Useful Show was a BBC1 Daytime magazine show, which tended to concentrate on consumer items. It began in 1996, and was presented by a repertory company including: Chris Choi, Kaye Adams and Cheryl Baker. The series editor was Huw Marks. The Really Useful Week was a spin-off to the main series. The Really Useful Week with this specific title card, was a week long initiative to encourage volunteering. It was transmitted in Feb 98 and won the Royal Television Society Community Programming Award. It featured the usual presenting team going to charities and services that required help and taking calls in the Hub from viewers to match the jobs.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this grab available, and to Caroline Jones for providing the information.