Gail Herbert – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Chris Weaver

Photo from Gail Herbert, copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Director of Photography, Chris Weaver has died recently. He is operating the camera in the photo above, which was on a Regional series, called Day Out, this episode was in Derby, 1983. Production Assistant, Gail Herbert, is next to him, with David Nelson, right of Chris. Chris worked at Magpie, with Jim Knights, and was married to Pebble Mill Make-up Designer, Lesley Weaver. Producer John Clarke is on the far left.

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

Elliot Weaver: ‘Action shot – “you must always point at something”‘

Johannah Dyer: ‘That is sad news – he was a lovely bloke who always went above and beyond what was expected on every shoot.’

Terry Powell: ‘So sad to hear, I knew and worked with his wife Lesley on so many shows and Chris as well sending love to his family.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Chris was the nicest guy ever and so lovely to work with I agree Jane. So sad to hear of this and I do send my condolences to Lesley and all the family. I remember Day Out well as I also worked on it with John Clarke. In fact, John is in this picture extreme left.’

Siobhan Maher Kennedy: ‘Very sad news . I loved the Magpie guys! Chris was great and I have happy memories from when I was in the regional opt out with Pamela Relton Liz Cox Rosalind Gower.’

Samantha Watkins: ‘Sorry to hear about the loss of Chris. Many happy memories . Here’s a photo I found in attic from the early 80’s. Also a photo of me and Lesley in 81 was in same album , on Nanny.

Royal Navy Rescue Helicopter, Pebble Mill at One

Photos by Bhasker Solanki, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are of a Royal Navy rescue helicopter appearing on Pebble Mill at One, and landing on the back lawn.

Thanks to Bhasker Solanki for sharing the photos.

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘Yes, I remember this, but this was not the only time we had aircraft at the mill. We also had a helicopter land on the font lawn, and the harrier on the club field, twice. These were the kind of big event things that put Pebble Mill and BBC Birmingham well and truly on the map.’

Jean Palmer: ‘It was all very exciting. The best was the harrier.’

David Gregory-Kumar: ‘The legend I was always told was it blew the garden shed clean over!’

Nick Owen: ‘My brother started playing Terry Barford in The Archers about 1979 – I think he did some publicity photos for his character being in the army arriving in a helicopter on the pebble mill lawn?’

Eurwyn Jones: ‘I remember them so well, the programmes were usually directed by John Smith.’

Stephen Adams: ‘I was a GPO apprentice based at Pebble Mill whilst all this was going on. I thought wow so this is what broadcasting is all about! Needless to say I changed careers into TV as soon as I could. Never looked back. Thank you PM!’

Richard Stevenson: ‘Before my time sadly, but I very much doubt it would be allowed these days. Believe Noel used to land at the club too?’

Gail Herbert: ‘Pebble Mill must have been the only office block where we would constantly have to say to people on the phone to hang on a minute ’cause there was a helicopter/plane/etc outside the window. Utter magic!’

Attachment Allowance Claim Form

Thanks to Giles Herbert for making this 1988 Transfer/Attachment Allowance Claim Form available.

Staff going on Attachment (when staff were transferred temporarily to another department, often in another building elsewhere in the country) would fill in these forms to claim the allowances they were due.

The Attachment scheme was a great way for staff to develop, and try out departments and jobs they might always have wanted to work in, but without either the member of staff or the new department having to commit permanently to the arrangement. It allowed many members of staff to move from into more challenging positions.

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

Andrew Godsall: ‘I didn’t do attachments at Pebble Mill but did two when I was in London. It was just a great system that allowed you to broaden your horizons in all kinds of ways. It was really forward thinking and one of the best things about being a member of BBC staff.’

Steve Dellow: ‘Hmm…sounds like an good excuse to go in my loft and dig out some T&DE forms, and some of John Malby’s excellent Radio Links planning sheets! Sched A anyone?! My favourites were the Cash Advance forms! ‘

Fiona Barton: ‘What about leave forms – remember when we got bisque (sp?) days? And ERR forms…extra responsibility reward – when did they go?’

Bex Pitt: ‘I used to work for Relocation Unit in Cardiff when it transferred from London. It inspired me to move to Pebble Mill!!’

Stuart Gandy: ‘and remember the cash office on the 6th floor where we often used to collect the results of these forms.’

Andrew Godsall: ‘Oh there were disturbed meal break forms and short turn around between shift forms too….what were they called?’

Stuart Gandy: ‘It was an MHW, meal hour work-through.’

Peter Poole: ‘ERR is extra responsibility reward. It’s paid to staff working at a level above their job description.’

Dave Bushell: ‘As I remember, ERR was calculated by some esoteric formula which meant that even is you were a Technical Assistant standing in for the DG, you only got about an extra 45p a day.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘When I was an engineer I once was away from base for three days covering a cricket match and whilst there had to record the audition of a would-be commentator. In those days each recording had to be accompanied by a recording report . I duly filled this in including the mileage details base to OB site in miles etc.and including the details of the mileage. I missed a tiny box labelled ‘shared’ (with the OB) so when expenses received it my boss was reprimanded for letting me loose on exes for three days including two overnights for a twenty minute recording! Happy days!’

Gail Herbert: ‘Attachments – weren’t they wonderful! I had a terrific year in London at TVC in 1980 working for costume allocations. It was a great place to be then, so vibrant, & I met some lovely people who I sadly lost contact with over the years. Even got to visit the Top of the Pops stuido on a regular basis and stand next to the likes of Rod Stewart. TVC was under seige on those days but it was great fun. And yes, Jimmy Savile was creepy!!!’

Peter Poole: ‘I remember the “Stop Knocking” form. This was given to anyone doing noisy building work. They then had to stop work for the duration of the recording session.’

Susan Astle: ‘We, in make up and costume, had loads of disturbed meal break claims! Susie Bankers.’

CMCR6 – Birmingham’s first colour scanner

Gosta Green Studios – cutting c/o Gail Herbert

The first colour scanner (CMCR) in Birmingham was CMCR 6 which was based at the OB base which was then at Carpenter Road, Edgbaston.

It was equipped with 5 EMI 2001 colour cameras which had the lens within the body of the camera. 4 of the cameras were used normally and the other was used as a spare and for parts to repair the others.

BBC Birmingham did not have a Colour TV studio before Pebble Mill opened in 1971. The BBC had a studio at the Cinema in Gosta Green in Aston. It was fitted out in the days of black & white and during the late 60s until Pebble Mill opened CMCR6 would be used part of the week to produce Dramas or Drama series in colour.

I think that CMCR6 was at Gosta Green on a Wednesday & Thursday each week and would then go and do a Match of the Day or other OBs returning on Tuesday for the rig for the drive in.

CMCR 6 was moved to Kendal Avenue in the 1970s and replaced in Birmingham with CMCR 9 which had Philips PC80 Cameras. This meant that the cameras in the Studios at Pebble Mill and the ones on the OB unit were different which caused problems with maintenance, spares etc.

John Duckmanton

PAs Leaving Party – more photos

Photos from Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

The photos were taken on 17 Dec 1998 at the PAs leaving party. The Production Assistants at BBC Pebble Mill took redundancy, although many came back as freelancers with the BBC.