CM2 – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

CM2 and CMCR40 at Chester Races

Photos by Robin Stonestreet, no reproduction without permission.

The photo shows Pebble Mill’s small-ish outside broadcast truck, CM2, with the larger CMCR40 truck at Chester Races in 1985.

The OB trucks were scheduled all over the country, depending on where they were needed, they covered football matches, cricket, as well as working on factual shows like Gardeners’ World.

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

Dave Bushell: ‘Pretty sure we had CM2 out on Vanity Fair in 1987 and other dramas.’

Ray Lee: ‘The cameras were Philips LDK14’s with the Triax adaptor LDK514. From memory there were 3 cameras, but whether there was a spare as well I can’t now remember. The cameras had a short multicore cable (10metres or so) between the triax adaptor box and the camera, then the base station in the vehicle was a modified LDK5 base station which powered the camera and adaptor box down standard triax. (at that time CM1 was a type 5 with Philips LDK5 cameras which also used triax but all the way to the camera) The front area had 2 VPR2 1″ videotape machines. CM2 was thus a complete production and recording vehicle, which meant for programmes like Gardeners World, the could leave site with a complete edited programme, apart perhaps from some captions.’

Bryan Comley: ‘Gardeners World has a very simply caption generator, so we did leave site with a TX tape, and this was 30+ years ago!’

CM2 at Warwick Castle

Photo copyright Robin Stonestreet, no reproduction without permission.

The photos show the Pebble Mill outside broadcast truck, CM2, on location at Warwick Castle, on 16th December 1989.

The Vision crew, in the top photo are Johnny Moore (left) and Ray Sperry (right).

The man on the roof of the larger truck: North 1 (a Type 5, BBC Manchester OB truck), in the blue anorak is Jeremy Chadwick, and the man in the cap is probably Albert Kinsella.

CM2 was fitted with Philips LDK514 cameras, which apparently weren’t very ergonomic. (Thanks to Toby Horwood for adding this information, and identifying Johnny).

Thanks to Robin Stonestreet for sharing the photos.

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

Jayne Savage: ‘This might have been Carols from Warwick Castle – or the programme was called something very similar – that was presented by Douglas Fairbanks Jnr and directed by Roy Norton. I was the PA and it greatly troubles me that I can’t remember who the other contributors were – apart from the choir from St Mary’s, Warwick! However, I do remember a very exciting recce when we accessed the castle roof to look for camera positions by climbing out of the manager’s window.’

Nick Patten: ‘I have very happy memories as an OBSM and a director working with these magnificent trucks.’

Top Gear Rally Report

This titles grab dates from the 1990s. Rally Report was made by members of the Top Gear production team and presented by some of the same presenters as the motoring magazine show. The series reported on the Lombard RAC Rally.

Thanks to Ian Collins to making the grab available.

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

Peter Poole: ‘I did some location recording for this.’

Steve Lee: ‘I presented for a while…Denis Adams was the producer…Fun days !!!’

Ned Abell: ‘If this was the one on BBC2 we parked CM2 outside the Laguna Tandoori next to the Albany hotel, Nottingham. Off the air and sit down with chicken tikkas already waiting!!’

Adam Hartley: ‘I remember preparing some of the rushes & working with editors on some time around 1998… Also have a vague recollection of a viewer complaining because a certain rally car had the wrong engine noise synched to it on a wide drive past…’

Simon Edwards: ‘I think Jim Knights might have been involved?’

Paul Hutchins: ‘Yes Simon, Magpie crewed most of the rallies! Some great memories mate. Great team that went on to produce and film the world rally championship for years to come!! Happy days.’

Alan Jessop: ‘I was one of the cameramen on many of the Rally shows – great fun in the forest!’

CM1 and CM2 last OB

Photograph by Diane Reid, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of the last outside broadcast from Pebble Mill, by the scanners CM1 and CM2. It was a live Sunday morning worship from Edenham. The day started with bacon butties made by friendly parishioners and riggers’ tea!

Included are l-r, Tim Konewko, Steve Pierson, John Allinson, ?, ?, Phil Wilson, JJ Moore, ?, Jack Rooke, John Brierley, Robin Sunderland, Dave Ballantyne, Colin the big strong rigger,John Kimberley (I think), Ron the rigger supervisor at the back, Rod Bach (blue jacket to keep you in sync!!), then a bunch of ‘don’t knows’ until we come to Ray Bradbury (or Bradley) in black jacket and open shirt, Ron Pickering, Pat Childs, Roger Sutton and finally Norman Macloud (sp) on the right.

(Thanks to Keith Brook (Scouse), Jane Maclean and Janet Collins for identifying so many former colleagues).

Salt on a Snake’s Tail – Come to Mecca

Photo by Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is from a drama outside broadcast, probably from one of the ‘Come to Mecca’ dramas, called: ‘Salt on a Snake’s Tail’. The Traffic Warden, with the rigger driver, Bob Few, is writing out a ticket for the scanner, CM2 – despite it having a parking permit!

‘Salt on a Snake’s Tail’, was transmitted in 1983, it was written by Farrukh Dhondy. Franco Ross was the director, Peter Ansorge the producer, and Ian Ashurst the production designer.

The cast included: Zia Mohyeddin, Andrew Johnson, Gill Dharminder.

The following comment was posted on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Andy Bentley: ‘Last time I saw Bob (Few) was a number of years ago, I had just parked the car on Barmouth Sea front when someone shouted ‘Oi what the F*** are you doing here. It was Bob driving a coach full of passengers.’