Dave Bushell – Page 6 – What Was Pebble Mill?

After You, Hugo – photos from John Greening

‘After You, Hugo’, was basically a silent play – starring Nola Rae a mime artist. It was a comedy, set backstage at a seedy ‘30’s Music Hall. The Music Hall company develops a new mime act because of members’ difficulty in communicating with each other. It was directed by Bob Jacobs, and produced at Pebble Mill by Roger Gregory. The ‘Summer Season’ drama was transmitted in 1985. The script was written by John David, Chris Harris and Nola Rae.

The drama featured Chris Harris, Nola Rae, Jonathan Adams, Peter Hale, Derek Tansley, Pip Hinton, Nick Cursi, Lyn Farrell, Tina Grundy, Donna Kellie and Barbi Levard.

First photo, features Chris Harris (in bag) and Nola Rae, Australian mime artist

Second photo, includes Andy Meikle (FM/PM), John Greening (AFM), tying up Chris Harris, and props guy, Dave Bushell (known as Gonzo) on the right.

Thanks to John Greening for making the photos available.

Olly’s Prison – Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen

Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission.

‘Olly’s Prison’ was a three part drama series produced at Pebble Mill by Richard Langridge. The script was written by Edward Bond, and directed by Roy Battersby. It was transmitted in 1993, and was probably the last studio only drama to be recorded in Studio A at Pebble Mill. Dave Bushell was the lighting director, and Bob Jacobs the 1st A.D. and Ian Barber the AFM. Dave Bushell remembers it being a satisfying drama to work on, although not a bundle of laughs.

Mike Eastman remembers working on the series: “I had a small acting role in this production playing a prisoner, my filming days were just prior to Christmas 1991. It was the first time I had worked with Bob Jacobs as ‘first’, but went on to do lots more work with him later on.”

The BFI database http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/489433 includes this precis of the storyline:

Part 1: Tells the tragic story of Mike who sees his life crumble as his grip on reality becomes ever more tenuous. He shares a claustrophobic flat with his 16-year-old daughter, Sheila. Sheila is uncommunicative, like many teenagers, and Mike becomes increasingly frustrated by her silence. He resorts to violence.

Part 2: Bernard is serving a life sentence for the murder of his daughter. He attempts suicide but fails. His fellow prisoner Smiler uses his makeshift noose to hang himself.

(No precis of Part 3 is included)

‘Olly’s Prison’ featured Bernard Hill as Mike, Jonny Lee Miller as Smiler, Mary Jo Randle as Vera, George Anton as Frank, Bryan Pringle as Barry, Richard Graham as Olly, and Maggie Steed as Ellen.

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Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook – photos Dave Bushell, comment from Caroline Officer

The second photo shows Jean Campbell holding our National Television Award for Best Daytime Programme 1997, beating Dale Winton’s ‘Supermarket Sweep’, ‘This Morning’ and ‘The Vanessa Show’. We all had so much fun working on the show and as you can see there are a lot of familiar faces in the team however, special mentions for Steve the washer upper, warm up man, Ray Turner, Orla, Silvana, Merilees and Annalisa, the amazing home economics team and the legendary (at least in Warrington) showbiz agent Dave Warwick (2nd pic, front row, far right)

Who can forget Ainsley’s black sausage show, the food mixer trick which somehow raised a laugh every single time and Sir Terry Wogan’s constant swearing!

Best team ever!

Caroline Officer

(Included in the photos are: vision engineers Ian Cull, Pete Eggleston, John Cooke, and Mike Tomlin, along with Sarah Williams, Jill Francis, Jim Gray, Caroline Officer, Andy Payne, Dave Bushell).

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The Fall Out Guy – TX Card by Dave Bushell

TX Card from lighting director Dave Bushell.

“The Fall Out Guy’ was a spy thriller, produced at Pebble Mill by Caroline Oulton and transmitted in 1991. It was a studio drama recorded in Studio A.

The script was written by John Random, with Tony Dennis as script editor. It was directed by Phil Tickell, with Josephine Ward as production associate and Rob Hinds the designer.

The play featured Lou Hirsch, Amanda Boxer, Eugene Lipinski, Maria Charles, Joe Melia, Lex Van Delden, Nicolas Colicos, Mitch Webb, and James Tillitt.

The BFI database summarise the storyline thus:

“Raymond is an overweight, immature chemical engineer, aged 39 and still living with his parents. He is also a spy, and when the FBI begins to close in, he makes a run for it with Danica, a dental receptionist.”

Tuesday’s Child – photos by Lynda Kettle

Photos by Lynda Kettle, no reproduction without permission. Lynda Kettle was a Production Designer at BBC Pebble Mill, working on factual, entertainment and drama shows in studio and on location. The photos were taken as records of the Sets.

Tuesday’s Child was a play directed and produced by Robin Midgley at Pebble Mill in 1985. It was written by Terry Johnson and Kate Lock, and told the story of a young girl who confesses to her priest that she saw a miracle when in the Holy Land. Kate Lock also acted the part of the girl, with Donal McCann playing Father Doyle and also featuring J.G. Devlin. Dave Bushell was the lighting director. The play was recorded in Studio A.

Production Designer, Lynda Kettle also worked as a theatre designer and an artist, and now runs courses from her art studio http://www.lynda-kettle.com. She is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham Water Colour Society. Midland Pastel Society and Birmingham Art Circle . She exhibits her paintings several times a year at selected galleries.

Tuesday’s Child