Fiona Quigley – What Was Pebble Mill?

These photos are of the Real Rooms team, during a makeover to coincide with Children in Need day. The show went out on Friday 21st November 1997, and was the last episode of that series. The makeover was of a centre used by special needs children, somewhere in south Birmingham.

Included in the first photo are left to right: back row, Elaine Walker, Jon ?, Richard White, John Gregg, Robert David, ?, front row Beverley ?, Leah ?, Kieran Kelly, Simon Biagi (presenter), Fiona Quigley, Dee Mortimer.

Working on Real Rooms was my first programme as a series producer, with Mark Kershaw as executive producer, and Roger Casstles as Managing Editor. We had an initial commission for 20 programmes, but the series proved very popular and it was recommissioned many times over. I worked on the first 80 programmes, before moving on to other series.

It was one of the first programmes at Pebble Mill to extensively use self shooting by researchers and assistant producers, on Sony VX1000s. Some of the quality was mixed, but it was only through self shooting that the programmes were cost effective. We used to have a full Beta crew for all presenter, Simon Biagi’s pieces to camera, and the opening and reveal, as well as the ‘inspiration’ and ‘shopping’ trips. The self shooting was reserved for the makeover happening in the actual room.

Vanessa Jackson

‘Big Strong Girls’ was commissioned as a series of 20, half hour shows for BBC 1, by Daytime Controller, Liz Barron. It was Liz who came up with the title when the idea was pitched to her by BBC Pebble Mill. The series was transmitted in 1999.

It is the only series idea that I thought up, developed and actually made. It was centred around the empowerment of women, in the wake of the Spice Girls – that women ought to get on with their own DIY projects, without waiting for the men in their lives to lead the way! The key talent were two sisters, Fiona Quigley, and Siobhan Palmer, who were both on screen team members of the Daytime makeover series ‘Real Rooms’, which I series produced at the time. Fiona and Siobhan were funny, creative, and yes – both big and strong! They visited members of the public and got to grips with their DIY jobs. I think one of the funniest episodes involved a family in Hall Green, Birmingham, who had missing skirting boards, which they’d replaced using tea towels! Unfortunately that episode was never shown, as it had been originally scheduled for the Opening of Parliament day.

Unfortunately the Daytime Controller changed between commissioning and delivery, and Liz Barron’s taste was not shared by Jane Lush and her team. When we’d already made and delivered around ten episodes of the series, I received a phone call from the Controller’s office, saying that they really liked the idea of ‘Big Strong Girls’, but that couldn’t we use a couple of fit, attractive young men instead, and rename the series ‘Big Strong Boys’. I felt that this was somewhat missing the point of the original series, but it’s difficult to argue with Channel Controllers! We recorded another five episodes that we had already researched and were committed to, and then the girls were replaced by the ‘Big Strong Boys’, which in my opinion was a far more predictable approach to DIY on television. Focus group research was carried out into a pilot of ‘Big Strong Boys’, whilst ‘Big Strong Girls’ was actually airing, and I was secretly pleased that the audience research said that people preferred the female version – not that it made any difference of course!

‘Big Strong Girls’ had a great production team, Roger Casstles was our executive producer, and was an early experiment in directors self shooting, using the Sony DSR 200 – which produced some very good results. We did employ a professional recordist – and were very glad we did.

Tag: Fiona Quigley

Real Rooms – Children in Need special

Big Strong Girls – Vanessa Jackson