Julian Hitchcock – What Was Pebble Mill?

Pebble Mill at One, Studio C

1980’s photo of the Pebble Mill at One studio, in the converted foyer of Pebble Mill. Note the Links cameras

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

Wendy Lewis Edwards: Four years on Pebble Mill at One then back years later for Good Morning with Anne and Nick. Remember Beryl Reid crawling on all fours across the floor between cameras to pull faces at Val Doonican singing away with his guitar. The viewing audience were completely unaware…

Julian Hitchcock: I hardly know where to begin. I first worked in the foyer in late 1978, worked on countless Saturday Night at the Mill programmes and hundreds of PM@1s.

Oddly, my last visit was as a guest on the Anne and Nick daytime show that took the same slot, in 1995, when I was escorted there and back in a limousine. On that occasion, I deliberately wore a checked jacket to pull the TM’s leg. (Sorry).

Eurwyn Jones: I remember working on Saturday Night at the Mill and Ginger Rogers arriving in a big car and walking in through the double doors.

The production team were Roy Ronnie, Roy Norton, Patricia Mifflin and Peter Wisdom.

David Crozier: I have many happy memories of being the designer on both Pebble Mill at One and Saturday Night at the Mill. I always loved the live TV atmosphere on both these shows. It was the Pebble Mill live TV experience which inspired my career change, a few years later, to becoming a TV director. I always enjoyed directing multi-camera live TV shows and the impression left by my time at Pebble Mill has never left me!

Carolyn Davies: Forgot how narrow it was! Amazingly well utilised space, remember it well for Daytime and Good Morning with Anne and Nick, bands, demos, cooking, how did we fit it all in!?!

Tim Dann: Great ‘daze!’…& who will forget Roy Norton in the Gallery; at the end of the show jumping up, knocking his chair over & screaming at ‘Presentation’…”Take me prez, take me, take me!!”….then as Susie says…Off to the ‘Strathallan’ for hospitality. Wonderful times.

Ruth Barretto: I used to work for john Grantham in Engineering (one of the loveliest boss) and I remember he had these huge rolled up artist impressions of the foyer area when it was in the planning stage. It was initially the reception area . He asked me if I wanted them . Being young I thought ‘why would I want them?’ Wish I had said yes now!!!

David Shute: I recall when the Wild Eyed Sidey was hot to go with this idea that the head of Engineering, a pleasant person, said it wouldn’t work ‘cos you can’t combine daylight & studio lighting. Phil gave him 30 mins back in his own office to come up with reasons WHY or come ready to discuss his early retirement. What a surprise, it all happened at speed !

Pot Black

This photo is of Jim Dumighan and producer Reg Perrin on the popular snooker series, Pot Black, which was made at Pebble Mill. It looks like the programme planning blackboard in the background.

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘We recorded it just after Christmas. Wonderful convivial days.’

Gordon Astley: ‘Pot Black was my first job when I joined the Beeb. On the first episode it was my responsibility to press ‘play’ on the tape machine for the iconic theme tune !’

Dawn and Kevin Hudson, with their Pot Black T-shirts

Great Expectations – the street

Photo by Albert Sheard, no reproduction without permission

This is the street in Dickens’ Great Expectations from the 1981 series produced at Pebble Mill. The street was constructed in Studio A by designer Michael Edwards, and demonstrates the skill of the production designer.

Thanks to scenic services Albert Sheard for sharing the photograph.

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘Fabulous set. I worked on this. Stratford Johns was Magwitch. Nice man.’

David Headon: ‘Studio A was amazing. You could land a Lancaster Bomber in there..’

Ian Collins: ‘I was the VT Editor on that production. Great times.’

Nick Booth: ‘Peter Booth was the lighting designer’

William Smethurst

William Smethurst, photo by Simon Farquhar, no reproduction without permission

WILLIAM SMETHURST : TRIBUTE AND FUNERAL DETAILS

You may have heard on the news that William Smethurst, one time Editor of The Archers, passed away, on 22nd July.

William was at the helm when I was first trusted to mix the drama. I have always remembered trying to compassionately manage a particularly lethargic spot operator during an episode that William was directing. William, kindly but authoritatively, encouraged me to deal with the issue. With knots in my stomach, fearing the immense hurt I was going to cause my colleague, I went into the studio, only to discover that he couldn’t have cared less! I learned valuable lessons: that not everyone has the same sense of duty and obligation, and that difficult issues are best tackled sooner than later. This has stood me in good stead ever since. Thank you, William. Needless to say, said spot operator went on to become a very successful Radio 1 producer, later to forge a successful career in both broadcasting and feature films!

Writer, Jo Toye, was learning her craft at the same time that I was learning mine, and has sent this tribute:

“William arrived on the writing team of The Archers in the mid-Seventies and started his shake-up of the programme in his typically imaginative way then. By the time I joined the production team as a PA in 1980, he’d been Editor for a year and delighted in the team of ‘left-wing, feminist’ writers he’d engaged. His storylines eschewed social comment for what he called ‘social comedy’ – a typical Bridge Farm family story involved not the dawning realisation of domestic abuse but the saga of CND-supporting Pat changing their daily paper from the ‘Express’ to the ‘Guardian’, to Tony’s mystification. As I typed the scripts his bold crossings-out and rewritings taught me everything I know – no chance of the writers doing their own rewrites then as everything was sent in hard copy, by post…

With his clear-sightedness about what The Archers should be – ‘the voice of the shires’ – and the support of then Network Editor Radio, Jock Gallagher, who’d rescued the programme from the doldrums after the retirement of the legendary Godfrey Baseley – William’s energy and ever-whirring marketing brain raised the programme’s profile and listenership.

So many of the characters he created are still there today – Caroline Sterling, Susan Carter, and the inimitable Grundys, while others (Nelson, Nigel) have passed into Archers mythology. So many of the writers he took on – me included – are still writing today. His willingness to back untried young hopefuls didn’t stop at The Archers: when he later created and ran the sci-fi soap Jupiter Moon for BSkyB he gave their first big break to Anna Chancellor and Jason Durr.

He could be tough when he wanted to be – when he moved to Crossroads in 1986 he revelled in the title of ‘Butcher Bill’ – but he was also ingenious, inventive, intelligent, witty, warm, massively well-read, and a genuine lover of the countryside, its seasonal rhythms and its history.

He shepherded The Archers through what many now see as a golden age – in simpler times and in the very special atmosphere of Pebble Mill itself. He brought great pleasure to millions of people but for me it was personal. I owe him everything and shall always be grateful.”

William’s funeral will be at 2pm, on Tuesday 2nd August, at Halford Village Church, Queen Street, Halford, Near Shipston on Stour.

Louise Willcox

(Here is an obituary for William Smethurst on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36905761 )

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘Sad indeed. Fine, much deserved tributes. I loved his sense of mischief and gossip, wry chuckle and that dangerous glint in his eye that warned that you or your name might just find their way into Ambridge.’

Cathy Houghton: ‘I worked with him on Midlands Today, a really lovely man.’

Linda Flavell: ‘Loved working with Bill so many years ago, a truly lovely guy.’

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Phil Lewis

The creator of Pot Black, Phil Lewis has sadly died recently. He was a long serving television producer in BBC’s Midland Region, and later became Head of Events in London. Phil began his career on cameras at Alexandra Palace and Lime Grove. He produced a wide range of programmes, both in the studio and on outside broadcasts, including Come Dancing, and Miss World. Together with colleagues like Barrie Edgar and John McGonagle, Phil helped make BBC Birmingham into a prolific production centre and outside broadcast hub. He will perhaps be best known for creating the television snooker tournament, Pot Black, in 1969, which helped the BBC in the switchover to colour. He moved to London in 1970.

There will be a private family cremation, and a memorial service in September in Gerrards Cross.

(Thanks to Annie Gumbley-Williams and Jim Dumighan for supplying this information)

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

Julian Hitchcock: I remember several Christmas holiday sessions in Studio A working on Pot Black. Phil had a particular, very inclusive, rather old world warmth that endeared himself to all who worked on the show.