Dennis Jarvis – What Was Pebble Mill?

Ray Mears World of Survival

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab available. This was the first of Ray Mears’ survival programmes, after he had built his reputation on the countryside magazine series, Tracks. Many of the same production team worked on this series, including series producer, Kath Moore.

Here is the link to the Radio Times entry for the first episode of this six part series from Pebble Mill, which was transmitted in spring 1997: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Ray+Mears+World+of+Survival&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search

‘Tracks presenter Ray Mears makes himself at home in six of the most inhospitable places on earth and discovers how the indigenous people have survived.

Episode 1: The Arctic. Mears takes on the Arctic, which is twice as cold as the average freezer, and learns survival techniques from the Inuit.
Producer Kathryn Moore

Several Careful Owners

Several Careful Owners was transmitted between 1996 and 2001 on BBC 2, and BBC Choice. There were several series of the motoring programme, which traced the previous owners of different individual iconic cars, to learn the history of particular vehicles.

Directors included Dennis Jarvis, Justine Linnane and Ed Taylor, with Richard Pearson being the series producer. The cars involved included a Rolls Royce, and Hillman Pullman, a Rover 3.5 Coupe, an Austin Healey Frogeye, a Gordon Keeble, and a Dodge Ambulance – all with interesting stories to tell.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the titles grab available.

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

Robin Sunderland (cameraman): “Yes, remember doing a number of these. Very enjoyable. Remember one about a ford capri, which started it’s life as a police traffic car! Always loved the irony of it having ‘careful owners’ !!”

Andrew Chorlton (soundman): “I recorded most if not all of them. Robin Sunderland on camera too.”

The Bike’s the Star

The Bike’s the Star was a four part series which went out in January and February 2001, repeated in the Autumn. The series was produced by the motoring unit. It was presented by Steve Berry, with Dave Smith, and Dennis Jarvis as the producer/directors. The series looked at different classic motorbikes, including the Harley-Davidson, the Italian Vespa Scooter, the BMW Boxer, and the Triumph Bonneville.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the title grab available.

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

Peter Poole: ‘Anyone remember Top Gear on radio 5? I think Steve Berry presented. The other presenter was Zog Zeigler.’

Jeremy Clarkson’s – Motorworld

Jeremy Clarkson’s Motorworld was a lighthearted series on BBC 2, about the culture of the car in different countries. It was a spin off programme of Top Gear. There were two, six part series, with an additional special programme going out as a Christmas special in 1996, about motoring in the United Kingdom. The first series went out in January and February 1995, and the second series going out in January and February 1996.

The countries visited included: Series 1: Japan, Vietnam, Detroit, Iceland, Italy, India; Series 2: Monaco, Cuba, Switzerland, Australia, Texas, Dubai, UK.

There was a DVD made of the highlights, and book, written by Jeremy Clarkson, accompanied the series.

Dennis Jarvis was the series director, and the title music was written by David Lowe.

Thanks to Ian Collins for sharing this grab from the titles.

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

Lynn Cullimore: ‘I was the production assistant. Dennis is lovely and great to work with.’