John Kenway

Don Leaver – The Chain

The Chain. Photo by Willoughby Gulachsen, no reproduction without permission

The Chain. Photo by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission

“I read just read that the director Don Leaver sadly died back in December. Responsible for some of the best telly including Police Surgeon, the first series of The Avengers, The Protectors, Hammer House of Horror, and Armchair Theatre among much more. I had the good fortune to meet him as a 2nd assistant film editor on The Chain, which was made at Pebble Mill in 1989/90. Produced by Carol Parks it was film edited by John Rosser.”

Neil Roberts

Here is the link to Don Leaver’s obituary in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/dec/22/don-leaver

Here is the entry from the Radio Times for The Chain, from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/b217a5f921884ca8892f412ae9b43864

“A tense thriller by Desmond Lowden.
1: Ten years of property boom in the rich south. Lots of losers, lots of tough cases for Crown Prosecutor Cassidy. Then the mysterious McRae arrives with the first pieces in a jigsaw of murder and corruption that takes over their lives.
Stunt arranger Alf Joint Music Courtney Pine
Script editor Brian Wright Designer Nigel Jones
Photography John Kenway Producer Carol Parks Director Don Leaver BBC Pebble Mill

Written by: Desmond Lowden.
Editor: Brian Wright
Robert McRae: Peter Capaldi
Michael Cassidy: Robert Pugh
Sonia Cassidy: Julia Hills
Phil Benson: Michael Troughton
Marianne Benson: Susan Kyd
Barry: Henry Goodman
James Denton: Terence Budd
Hickman: Kenneth MacDonald
Sergeant Roderick: Aran Bell
Samantha: Auriol Goldingham
Chief Prosecutor Royston: Tony Mathews
Assistant police commissioner: Graham Weston
Pike: Sean McKee
Pike’s mate: Ian Burfield
Court clerk: Colin Rix
Social worker: Karen Benjamin
Alison Cassidy: Anna Day
Jo-Ann: Viveka Dagnell
Dorinda: Eniola Jaiyeoba

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Howards’ Way 30 years anniversary

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. Thanks to Les Podraza for making the cast and crew photo available.

(This iPlayer link is to an item by South Today about the making of Howards’ Way)

The end of 1st September 2015 marked the 30 years anniversary of Howards’ Way, the sailing drama series, which was likened to a British version of the US drama Dallas.

The series was hosted at Pebble Mill, and recorded on location in Southampton, with some of the interiors being recorded in Studio A.

Here is the Radio Times synopsis for the first episode, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

“A serial in 13 parts devised by GERARD GLAISTER and ALLAN PRIOR
Episode 1 written by JILL HYEM
‘I’m sorry, Jan … It may be selfish, but I intend to spend the rest of my working life doing something I want to do.’
Title music
SIMON MAY and LESLIE OSBORNE Film cameraman JOHN KENWAY Designer MYLES LANG
Script editor JOHN BRASON Director PENNANT ROBERTS Producer GERARD GLAISTER”

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/14bd8b49c7524441b9e9a278e19e74d7

Thanks to Paul Burton for pointing out the anniversary, and the South Today piece.

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

Dawn Trotman: ‘I think it is John Kenway yet it was John Willey who shot the first and second series.. I edited the first series with Nigel Pardoe-Matthews and the second on location with Sharon Pemberton and Lynne Hawkins..great fun.. We always knew it would be successful..It was our Dallas..’

Maggie Humphries: ‘Not John Kenway,, it’s Jimmy Monks, Grips who worked on the series.’

Lesley Weaver: ‘Maggie Humphries is right, it is the lovely freelance grip Jimmy Monks near left of camera and far right is David Evans a lovely freelance Camera operator. Can’t really work out who’s behind camera. I worked on the second series so I ought to remember. In the clip I remember Tony ‘O’ sparks from Lee North and Susie Peck is the designer talking about the costumes, lots of others I remember too.’

Great Expectations

Photo from Kevin Lakin, no reproduction without permission.

‘Before’ and ‘after’ shot, of how a stone cottage was turned into a wooden one, for the 12 part BBC drama series: Great Expectations. The Charles Dickens adaptation was transmitted in 1981. I think this series was a London production, hosted at Pebble Mill.

The BFI database lists Michael Edwards as the production designer, and the film cameraman as John Kenway. The director was Julian Amyes; the producer, Barry Letts; script editor, Terrance Dicks; the adaptation by, Andrew James Hall; music by Paul Reade. http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/223977.

Thanks to Kevin Lakin for sharing the photos.

Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of film cameraman, John Kenway, possibly dressed for a fancy dress party. John was a sought after cameraman, who usually worked on high profile dramas.

John was the cameraman on my first shoot as a director on Gardeners’ World, I was terrified at having someone with such a high reputation – but he was great. First and last time I got to film in a helicopter! I decided the best approach was to let John know what I was trying to achieve – and leave the actual shots up to him!

Vanessa

England’s Greens and Peasant Land – press cutting

This cutting is probably a Radio Times listing. It dates from January 1982 and gives a synopsis and cast list for the Play for Today: ‘England’s Greens and Peasant Land’, which was produced by John Norton at Pebble Mill. It was Yorkshire’s take on a Watergate like scandal, where a dirty battle is played out in the local government elections over whether the motorway extension goes through the golf course, or the allotments!

John Kenway was the cameraman, with John Parker on sound, Chris Rowlands: film editor, Ian Ashurst: designer, Jim Hill: director, Janice Rider was the costume designer.

Thanks to Janice Rider for making the cutting available.