Don Leaver – What Was Pebble Mill?

Don Leaver – The Chain

The Chain. Photo by Willoughby Gulachsen, no reproduction without permission

The Chain. Photo by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission

“I read just read that the director Don Leaver sadly died back in December. Responsible for some of the best telly including Police Surgeon, the first series of The Avengers, The Protectors, Hammer House of Horror, and Armchair Theatre among much more. I had the good fortune to meet him as a 2nd assistant film editor on The Chain, which was made at Pebble Mill in 1989/90. Produced by Carol Parks it was film edited by John Rosser.”

Neil Roberts

Here is the link to Don Leaver’s obituary in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/dec/22/don-leaver

Here is the entry from the Radio Times for The Chain, from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b217a5f921884ca8892f412ae9b43864

“A tense thriller by Desmond Lowden.
1: Ten years of property boom in the rich south. Lots of losers, lots of tough cases for Crown Prosecutor Cassidy. Then the mysterious McRae arrives with the first pieces in a jigsaw of murder and corruption that takes over their lives.
Stunt arranger Alf Joint Music Courtney Pine
Script editor Brian Wright Designer Nigel Jones
Photography John Kenway Producer Carol Parks Director Don Leaver BBC Pebble Mill

Written by: Desmond Lowden.
Editor: Brian Wright
Robert McRae: Peter Capaldi
Michael Cassidy: Robert Pugh
Sonia Cassidy: Julia Hills
Phil Benson: Michael Troughton
Marianne Benson: Susan Kyd
Barry: Henry Goodman
James Denton: Terence Budd
Hickman: Kenneth MacDonald
Sergeant Roderick: Aran Bell
Samantha: Auriol Goldingham
Chief Prosecutor Royston: Tony Mathews
Assistant police commissioner: Graham Weston
Pike: Sean McKee
Pike’s mate: Ian Burfield
Court clerk: Colin Rix
Social worker: Karen Benjamin
Alison Cassidy: Anna Day
Jo-Ann: Viveka Dagnell
Dorinda: Eniola Jaiyeoba

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Richard Griffiths – Bird of Prey

Thanks to Kevin Lakin for sharing this camera script for the Pebble Mill drama: Bird of Prey II.

Bird of Prey was a four part thriller produced at Pebble Mill, which went out in 1982. Bird of Prey II was the sequel series, which went out in 1984. Both series starred actor Richard Griffiths, as civil servant Henry Jay. Richard, 65, died yesterday after complications following a heart operation. He was well known for playing character parts like Uncle Monty in Withnail and I, Uncle Vernon in Harry Potter, and Hector in The History Boys.

Bird of Prey 2 – camera script front page

Thanks to Kevin Lakin for making this camera script available.

‘Bird of Prey 2’ was the sequel series to the 1982 conspiracy thriller of the same name. The series was written by Ron Hutchinson and produced at Pebble Mill, being transmitted in September 1984. It was a four part series about computer fraud, recorded in Studio A.

The series featured: Richard Griffiths as Henry Jay, Carole Nimmins as Anne Jay, Lee Montague as Roche, Jan Holden as Mrs Lucas and as Timothy Bateson as Mr Jorry, and Bob Peck as Greggory.

As you can see on the camera script, the series was directed by Don Leaver and produced by Bernard Krichefski.

Dawn Mears worked as an assistant editor on the series and remembers it well:

“It was my first break editing drama as Nigel Pardoe Matthews let me cut an episode all by myself! Andy Turley did the graphics which involved a computer game. Unheard of in those times . Ron Hutchinson was the writer I think. It was beautifully written, very clever. It was a studio drame with film inserts.”