Don Warrington – What Was Pebble Mill?

Club Havana screening 11th Feb 2019

Club Havana screen grab. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Screening on Monday 11 Feb, 18.00 NFT2

Club Havana (BBC2 1975, Second City Firsts, Dir Pam Brighton, with Don Warrington, Mona Hammond, Julie Walters, Alfred Fagon. 35mins)
After twelve years apart, Mrs Jordan’s son (Warrington) arrives in Birmingham from Jamaica. Writer Barry Reckord returns to the theme of an inter-racial relationship, first explored in You in Your Small Corner, which causes conflict within a Jamaican family.

Introduction by season co-curator Lez Cooke, producer Tara Prem, script editor Peter Ansorge and actor Don Warrington (work permitting).

Here is the link to the ‘Forgotten Drama’ project website for more details:
https://forgottentelevisiondrama.wordpress.com/2019/01/10/forgotten-black-tv-drama-season-at-bfi-southbank-february-2019/

Club Havana

Here is a series of screen grabs from the Second City First, Club Havana. It features a very young Julie Walters as the barmaid, Terry, and Don Warrington (perhaps best know from Rising Damp), as a young man just arrived from Jamaica to go to university. It was produced by Tara Prem, and was shown at the recent Flatpack Film Festival in April 2016, at the Midlands Arts Centre, which Tara attended.

The transmission copy of the studio drama is lost, so the version shown was a rough cut. Which made for interesting viewing, as we saw when recording was stopped and picked up by the actors.

It was transmitted on BBC 2, on 25th October 1975, at 21.30.

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

“Synopsis

A series of new plays from Birmingham
Club Havana by BARRY RECKORD
Mrs Jordan left her son behind in Jamaica. He’s finally arrived in Birmingham, after 12 years …
Script editor PETER ANSORGE Designer GAVIN DAVIES Producer TARA PREM
Director PAM BRIGHTON”

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9245b562ffef40a5a30209247ad65f83

Flatpack Film Festival – Second City Firsts

A Touch of Eastern Promise

The Flatpack Film Festival are going to be screening six 30 minute dramas made at Pebble Mill by the English Regions Drama Department, in April 2016 at the Midlands Arts Centre, Edgbaston:

“SECOND CITY FIRSTS

During the 1970s, a key strength of the drama department at BBC Pebble Mill was its ability to unearth new talent; not just through flagships like Play For Today, but also the entry-point offered by the likes of Second City Firsts. Running from 1973 for ten series, this half-hour slot took a chance on a spectacular range of ‘regional talent’ including Willy Russell, Julie Walters, David Rudkin, Brian Glover and many others. Just as importantly, it offered a diversity of representation that often compares favourably with today’s TV drama.

Volume One:

A Touch of Eastern Promise; Girl; Early to Bed

A Touch of Eastern Promise (1973), is not officially a Second City First, though it emerged from a very similar slot. Written by Tara Prem, it’s the tale of a daydreaming shop-boy who has the opportunity to meet his favourite star. Partly shot in Balsall Heath, all the cinema scenes were captured at the now-demolished Imperial on Moseley Road. To follow, an Alison Steadman double-bill: studio-shot military drama Girl (1974), which features the first lesbian kiss seen on British TV; and then Early to Bed (1975), with Steadman smouldering on location in a depressed mill town. This claustrophobic tale of infidelity was the first television script by Alan Bleasdale, who later went on to Boys From the Blackstuff and GBH.

Volume Two:

The Permissive Society; Club Havana; Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

It was at the Midlands Arts Centre where Mike Leigh first embarked on his unique approach to devising scripts, and Pebble Mill which commissioned much of his early TV work. Made a year before camping comedy Nuts in May, The Permissive Society (1975) is an overlooked gem. Also confined to a single set, Club Havana (1975) is a tense portrait of a Handsworth speakeasy by playwright Barry Reckord, featuring Don Warrington as the landlady’s son newly arrived from Jamaica and an incredibly young Julie Walters as the barmaid. We conclude with Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration (1976), a psychosexual nightmare from the pen of Ian McEwan which is very much in keeping with his short stories of the time.”