Dawn Robertson – What Was Pebble Mill?

England’s Greens and Peasant Land

England’s Greens and Peasant Land. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

The Play for Today was directed by Jim Hill (in front of Janice Rider & next to Heather Storr ), make-Up Sue Bide & Viv Howells (centre back) John Norton producer (left of Heather) William Hartley Ist AD (right at the back behind Viv) . John Parker (sound – back row extreme right). Andrew Smith, front right, with Dawn Robertson to the extreme right), Amin Hassan (middle right), Billy Bennett (next to Amin), Johnny Potter (sunglasses) next to Steve White.

Here is the entry from the Radio Times, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

by RITA MAY

Local Government Elections 1982

A motorway extension is to be built – the route will be through either the local golf course or the allotments. Which will go, the golfer’s beloved greens or the allotment holders’ precious land?

‘ Watergate ‘ comes to South Yorkshire.

Film cameraman JOHN KENWAY Sound JOHN PARKER

Film editor CHRIS ROWLANDS Designer IAN ASHURST Producer JOHN NORTON Director JIM HILL

Contributors

Camera: John Kenway

Sound: John Parker

Editor: Chris Rowlands

Designer: Ian Ashurst

Producer: John Norton

Director: Jim Hill

Ron Ollershaw: Ron Delta

Mavis Ollershaw: Maggie Lane

Horace Burley: Geoffrey Andrews

Old Tom: Teddy Turner

Sid: Peter Martin

Jim: Johnny Leeze

Les: Bill Lund

Joe: Dickie Arnold

Lol: Anthony Addams

Arthur: Joe Belcher

George: Peter Russell

Frank: Sean Glenn

Eileen: Mary Wray

Pat: Rita May

Barman: Ted Beyer

Barmaid: Marlene Jarvis

Sam: Tom Harrison

Angry housewife: Pat Wallis

Angry husband: Tommy Harper

Rover driver: Terry Waddington

Customer at stall: Brenda Castle

Minibus driver: Howard Crossley

Garage attendant: Joanne Griffiths

Dawn Wigley (Robertson)

Dawn Wigley (Robertson), a member of Pebble Mill’s Drama Department for many years, died on Saturday 3rd December 2016, following a brave battle in recent years, against serious health problems.

Dawn, then Production Manager, met Tony Wigley on an OB drama shoot in the North East. They married and settled in Cleeve Prior, Worcs.

Dawn moved to Birmingham Drama as a Production Manager, later becoming Drama Organiser.
Tony predeceased her in Autumn 2015.

The cremation will be private, but a reception for former colleagues will take place at the King’s Arms in Cleeve Prior on a date to be announced.

(Thanks to Annie Gumbley-Williams for sharing this news about Dawn.)

Tony Wigley, photo from Bill Bohanna, no reproduction without permission.

David Rudkin talking about the origins of Artemis 81

Origins of Artemis 81 from pebblemill on Vimeo.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Specially recorded interview with writer David Rudkin talking about how the drama ‘Artemis 81’ came about. ‘Artemis 81’ was transmitted in 1981, when producer David Rose still headed up the English Regions Drama Department. The drama was a three hour epic about the battle of good and evil, starring Hywell Bennett and Sting. Alastair Reid was the director, Dawn Robertson the associate producer, Jenny Brewer the PA, Roger Gregory the script editor, Ian Churchill the camera operator, Bob Jacobs and William Hartley were the production managers, and Mick Murphy was the AFM.

Live from Pebble Mill – Cargo Kings

Copyright resides with the original holder, probably Willoughby Gullachsen; no reproduction without permission. Thanks to Janice Rider for making the photographs available.

‘Cargo Kings’ was a live play produced at Pebble Mill in 1983 in Studio A, when Robin Midgley was Head of Drama.

The BFI Database describes the storyline thus:

‘Roger Savage, an anthropologist, visits at remote island, where the natives, Mambu, Baku and Abode learn about an obscure cargo cult from him. Soon they are in London putting Savages ideas into practice.’ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/161953

The script was written by Stephen Davies, directed by Donald McWhinnie, Dawn Robertson was the production associate, with Will Hartley the production manager. Roger Gregory was the script editor. Ian Ashurst was the production designer, with Janice Rider the costume designer and Carol Ganniclifft the make up designer. Bob Hubbard was the camera supervisor, lighting was by Barry Hill, and Annette Martin was the vision mixer.

The play starred Jeffrey Kissoon as Baku, Norman Beaton as Mambu, Michael Cochrane as Roger Savage, Christopher Asante as Obode and Ray Smith as Chief Inspector Beltrap.

Nuts in May title cards from Oliver White

These stills are of the original title cards for the 1976 Pebble Mill, Play for Today, ‘Nuts in Play’. The title cards are hand painted on individual sheets of acetate. They have been kept safe by Film Editor, Oliver White.

Mike Leigh was asked by Producer, David Rose, to set a television drama in his home county of Dorset. Mike then wrote and directed ‘Nuts in Play’, which starred Roger Sloman as Keith and Alison Steadman as Candice-Marie. Keith and Candice-Marie are a politically correct home counties couple on a camping holiday in Dorset. They have a frustrating encounter with a Brummie motorcycling couple whose loud music and uncivilised behaviour offend them.

Mike Williams was the cameraman, John Gilbert the sound recordist, and Dave Baumber the dubbing mixer. The costume designer was Gini Hardy, make-up was by Gwen Arthy, the production designer was David Crozier. The production unit manager was Dawn Robertson, with production assistants Cyril Gates and Gerard Patterson.

Thanks to Oliver White for making the title cards available.

Dawn Trotman (nee Mears) left the following comment about ‘Nuts in May’: ‘Just such a wonderful and very funny film. Pebble Mill at its height, and Oliver White a brilliant editor. He taught so many of us lowly assistants our craft. Who will teach the Tech ops, as they are called, now? There is no training.’