Jim Gray – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Resources booklet mid 1990s

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. This booklet was produced in the mid 1990s, as Resources were sold off from the rest of the BBC by John Birt, and had to commercialise activities.

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

Dave Bushell: ‘The David Suchet production was ‘Bingo! by Edward Bond. David was a brilliant actor to work with – he always found his light!

The betacam cameraman is Jim Gray and in the left hand image it looks like Sue Cook interviewing with cameramen Paul Woolston and Doug ? and FM Steve Pierson.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Although I can’t put a name to the productions, that little picture bottom right of the Aston brings back memories for me from the time I was engineer for graphics. The keyboard is for the Aston 4 character generator, which was a step up from the stalwart Aston 3’s we had. It could of course do more and fancier captions and the hands seen there would have been those of one of the specialist Aston operators working in the graphics department. The little box above it was one of the 6 or so homebuilt talkback boxes that allowed communication between the studio gallery and the aston desks in the graphics area. A era of turbulent change.’

Peter Poole: ‘Studio 3, the late Mark Decker and Archers producer. Dubbing Theatre, Neve mixer.’

The Old Curiosity Shop

Jim Gray

Tony Wigley on Mole crane, Jim Gray on 4

Tony Wigley on crane, Keith Froggatt swinging

Tony Wigley on Mole crane, Keith Forggatt swinging and Martyn Suker

John Couzens talks to director, Tony Wigley on crane, Richard Reynolds on boom

Closing credits, Jim Gray back to camera

Studio A

The Old Curiosity Shop was a nine part series which went out in from December 1979 to February 1980. Barry Letts was the producer, Julian Amyes the director, Alistair Bell the script editor, William Trevor wrote the script adaptation, Michael Edwards was the production designer and Peter Booth was the lighting designer.

The cast included Sebastian Shaw as grandfather, Trevor Peacock as Daniel Quilp, Natalie Ogle as Little Nell, Granville Saxton as Dick Swiveller, Wensley Pithey as the Single Gentlemen, and Christopher Fairbank as Kit Nubbles.

The photos are of:

Jim Gray
Tony Wigley on Mole crane, Jim Gray on 4
Tony Wigley on crane & Keith Froggatt swinging.
Tony Wigley on Mole crane, Keith Froggatt swinging & Martyn Suker tracking.
A typical set
John Couzens, with arms folded, talks to the director (Julian Amyes). Tony Wigley on Mole crane, Richard Reynolds on boom.
Doing the closing credits. Jim Gray back to camera. Scene hands’ names may be Dick & Phil?

Thanks to James French for sharing the photos.

Three Degrees on Pebble Mill at One

Here is a still of the American female vocal group, The Three Degrees performing on ‘Pebble Mill at One’ in the Foyer (Studio C). The line up of The Three Degrees changed over the years; they originally formed in 1963.

It probably dates from the early 1980s.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook:

Tracy Crump:’ yep got the signed scripts from that one’.

Keith Brook: ‘I vision mixed that item. We pre-recorded three tunes and I still have the video!! John Couzens and Jim Gray were two of the cameramen. BTW, it wasn’t called Studio C at that point.

It wasn’t until it got it’s own gallery was it called Studio C. Before that we used Studio B cameras and gallery Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Studio A cameras/gallery were used Tuesday and Friday. This was because Wednesday and Thursday were drama days in A, and Friday had the Asian programme in B.’

Seed – photo from John Greening

‘Seed’ was a single drama which went out in 1996, it was part of a new writers’ competition, the script was written by Cole Bradley. The BFI database includes the following synopsis for it:

“Rites-of-passage drama set in Birmingham. Les is just out of prison and wants to see his baby but the mother Julie and her family are against the idea. Together with his friend Ben, Les decides to plant a field of wheat on a piece of waste ground for the baby. Ben has to decide whether to go to Jamaica or not and his decision depends on his girlfriend Hashi. She plans that they will make love three times in extraordinary places in order to make their decision.” http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/553215

The drama starred Jim Pyke as Les, Terence Maynard as Ben, Nicola Arumugam as Hashi, Ram John Holder as Ben’s grandad, and Sudha Bhuchar as Aunt Minah.

Photo includes: John Greening – director, Kevin Lakin – location manager, Peter Lloyd – script editor, Amanda Neal – 1^st AD, Barbara Mackie – Producer, Midge Ferguson – AD, Janice Rider – Costume Designer, Bev Dartnall – Associate Producer, Leigh Ashurst – design, Jim Gray – camera, Andy Morton – sound, Jo Mainwaring – PA, Vivienne Oldham – make-up designer. Dave Bushell, was the lighting director, although I can’t see him pictured.

Good Morning with Anne and Nick – photos by Laura McNeill

Photos by Laura McNeill, no reproduction without permission.

These photos were taken during a ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ trip to Guernsey, for a live outside broadcast edition of the show.

Nick obviously missed his vocation – and should have been a bus driver!

The third photo shows some of the crew in Guernsey, including, left to right, cameraman Bob Meikle, sound supervisor Peter Knowles, cameraman Jim Gray, vision mixer Sarah Jayne Phillips and floor manager Marco.