John Allinson – What Was Pebble Mill?

Queen Elizabeth II visits Pebble Mill 1981

Queen Elizabeth meets Vera Lynn and Bill Pertwee

Queen Elizabeth with Jim Dumighan

Queen Elizabeth, Jim Dumighan, Phil Sidey, Keith Bullock and John Allinson top left next to Steve Pierson. Top right is Chris Harris behind Phil Sidey.

Jim Gray on camera, Geoff Nawn design assistant & Samantha Watkins make up next to Keith Bullock

Queen Elizabeth meets Peter Seabrook

Queen Elizabeth meets Marian Foster, Bill Pertwee

Alan Ford, Trevor Elwell from scenery is to Donny MacLeod’s right, Fred Foster, prop master, back left

Queen Elizabeth, Jim Dumighan, Phil Sidey

34 years since Torvill and Dean’s Gold Medal

With the opening of the 2018 Winter Olympics today, it is 34 years since the Pebble Mill crew brought Torvill and Dean’s Gold Medal winning performance of Bolero to millions of viewers. The action was caught on Eric Wise’s single camera, when the Yugoslav pictures proved disappointing. Besides Eric, the team included Roger Guest on sound; Bill Youel, vision recording; and John Allinson, Engineering Manager.

The article above is from the internal BBC newsletter, Midlands News from March 1984. It gives the audience for the broadcast as 17.5 million, whilst the BBC today was listing it as 24 million.

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

Marie Phillips: ‘I remember this. I had tickets for their Show that night and was able to get them signed. I asked if they would be performing Bolero and Christopher Dean said “You will have to wait and see !” and of course, they did – wonderful.’

James Lund: ‘”Bad luck had led to disappointing coverage from the Yugoslav’s six rink-side cameras” – seems a strange way to describe things. Is it put diplomatically? Does anyone have further details? I assume the Pebble Mill camera was only for UK viewers, and not fed back to host broadcaster, JRT.’

Break time on CMCR9

This photo is of break time on the outside broadcast scanner, CMCR9 – Pebble Mill’s first CM1.

The liquid refreshment seems to be beer, as opposed to tea!

Sitting on the stool is Engineering Manager, Bob Chaplin. Bottom left may be Steve Searley. Sitting on the ground, possibly John Allinson. The other man may be Peter Hodges.

Thanks to Janet Collins, John Duckmanton and Jane Maclean for identifying the heads!

Torvill and Dean at the 1984 Olympics

This article is from Pebble Mill News, March 1984. It tells how a Pebble Mill single camera crew comprising of Eric Wise, Roger Guest, Bill Youel and John Allinson, brought Torvill and Dean’s, Bolero performance to 17.5 million viewers of the Winter Olympics, when the six Yugoslav rink-side cameras gave disappointing coverage!

The second article is about Nigel Pargeter’s drinking habits in The Archers.

Thanks to Robin Sunderland, for sharing this newsletter, and keeping it safe in his loft for many years!

Here is a link to a clip on YouTube of Torvill and Dean’s gold medal winning performance. Notice that consists of just one shot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcCj0xfO3H8

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Stuart Gandy: ‘Wow, how amazing that Robin has still got this after all these years. Funny thing is memories come flooding back, I can remember myself and my engineering collogues standing in TAR reading that very article back in 1984 and thinking what a coup it was that a Pebble Mill team got this coverage. Good stuff.’

CMCR 9 Vision Crew

Photo by E.M. John Abbott, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of the Vision Crew of the outside broadcast scanner: CMCR9, Pebble Mill’s CM1 in the 1970s. This scanner went on to become North 3, in Manchester.

The truck was used on programmes like ‘Gardeners’ World’ and ‘Songs of Praise’, as well as dramas and sport.

Included in the photo are: Ian Dewar at the back, Ron Pickering on the phone, Rod Bach at the front and John Allinson on the right. (Thanks to Janet and Ian Collins for the identification!)