Julie Walters – What Was Pebble Mill?

Days at the Beach

Here is the Radio Times entry for the 1981 Playhouse production, Days at the Beach, starring Julie Walters. It was produced by David Rose, and directed and written by Malcolm Mowbray. John Kenway was the cameraman, with Chris Rowlands being the film editor, and Margaret Peacock being the designer. Roger Gregory was the script editor. Thanks to Roger for keeping the copy safe since 1981.

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

Steve Saunderson: ‘Days at the Beach was a very classy piece of writing and direction by Malcolm Mowbray on which I was the un-credited Camera Operator. We shot most of it on Harlech Beach and Llandudno Pier. The very talented Graham Hazard was my Focus Puller who was constantly battling the sand being blown into the camera kit. Micky Patten was the Grip?I think Mick Murphy was on this too, maybe he’ll correct me on this. I remember Julie Walters was very nervous on one scene with her husband who had returned “Shell-Shocked” from the battle fields of WW 1. It was one of her first film roles, and it was a very difficult scene. After the take she tugged frantically at my sleeve and whispered “was I ok? was I ok?” I whispered back that she was perfect and she smiled back at me. I felt very humble. I also remember Stephen Bill, known from “Nuts in May” played a great part. A lot of night shoots.’

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Philip Saville obituaries

Philip Saville from an interview I did with him in 2009

Director of Boys from the Blackstuff, Philip Saville died on 22nd Dec 2016. Here is an excerpt from his obituary in ‘The Guardian’ from January 2017, written by Toby Hadoke:

The director Philip Saville, who has died aged 86, was an important figure in British television drama – an innovative practitioner who brought Alan Bleasdale’s 1986 Boys from the Blackstuff to the screen. The series, which concerned the harrowing effects of unemployment on five Liverpudlian men, had a difficult gestation – the BBC was not easily persuaded to allow a supposedly “arty” director to convey the reality of disenfranchised working classes. While he greatly admired Bleasdale’s scripts, Saville suggested rewrites, notably expanding the role of Angie, the wife of one of the men, Chrissie (Michael Angelis). This added a strong female element to an otherwise male-dominated piece and provided Julie Walters with a breakthrough role.

One episode, Yosser’s Story, featured the broke Yosser Hughes (Bernard Hill) desperately asking “gissa job” as his sanity was eroded along with his self-respect. By shooting Yosser’s Story on film, Saville gave it a haunting grandeur (the other episodes benefited from the immediacy of being made entirely on videotape, unusual for the time). The series won the Bafta award for best drama serial.

The full obituary is available on this link: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/01/philip-saville-obituary

A further obituary was published by The Telegraph in February. Here is an excerpt:

Filmed with recently introduced lightweight cameras, Saville’s Boys from the Blackstuff caught the punch-drunk spirit of the industrial north-west during the early Thatcher years with its highly stylised portrayal of a gang of out-of-work tarmac-layer in Liverpool.

Saville had been parachuted in at the eleventh hour after the original director withdrew, and shot four of the five episodes on outside broadcast (OB) video, working on location in derelict docks and factories in and around Merseyside, exploiting video’s greater flexibility over film.

Rapturously acclaimed by critics, Boys from the Blackstuff transferred from BBC2 to BBC1, secured one of the swiftest repeat runs in television history and earned Saville two Bafta awards in 1983.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/02/17/philip-saville-television-director-obituary/

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Club Havana

Here is a series of screen grabs from the Second City First, Club Havana. It features a very young Julie Walters as the barmaid, Terry, and Don Warrington (perhaps best know from Rising Damp), as a young man just arrived from Jamaica to go to university. It was produced by Tara Prem, and was shown at the recent Flatpack Film Festival in April 2016, at the Midlands Arts Centre, which Tara attended.

The transmission copy of the studio drama is lost, so the version shown was a rough cut. Which made for interesting viewing, as we saw when recording was stopped and picked up by the actors.

It was transmitted on BBC 2, on 25th October 1975, at 21.30.

Here is the Radio Times entry for the drama, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

“Synopsis

A series of new plays from Birmingham
Club Havana by BARRY RECKORD
Mrs Jordan left her son behind in Jamaica. He’s finally arrived in Birmingham, after 12 years …
Script editor PETER ANSORGE Designer GAVIN DAVIES Producer TARA PREM
Director PAM BRIGHTON”

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9245b562ffef40a5a30209247ad65f83

Flatpack Film Festival – Second City Firsts

A Touch of Eastern Promise

The Flatpack Film Festival are going to be screening six 30 minute dramas made at Pebble Mill by the English Regions Drama Department, in April 2016 at the Midlands Arts Centre, Edgbaston:

“SECOND CITY FIRSTS

During the 1970s, a key strength of the drama department at BBC Pebble Mill was its ability to unearth new talent; not just through flagships like Play For Today, but also the entry-point offered by the likes of Second City Firsts. Running from 1973 for ten series, this half-hour slot took a chance on a spectacular range of ‘regional talent’ including Willy Russell, Julie Walters, David Rudkin, Brian Glover and many others. Just as importantly, it offered a diversity of representation that often compares favourably with today’s TV drama.

Volume One:

A Touch of Eastern Promise; Girl; Early to Bed

A Touch of Eastern Promise (1973), is not officially a Second City First, though it emerged from a very similar slot. Written by Tara Prem, it’s the tale of a daydreaming shop-boy who has the opportunity to meet his favourite star. Partly shot in Balsall Heath, all the cinema scenes were captured at the now-demolished Imperial on Moseley Road. To follow, an Alison Steadman double-bill: studio-shot military drama Girl (1974), which features the first lesbian kiss seen on British TV; and then Early to Bed (1975), with Steadman smouldering on location in a depressed mill town. This claustrophobic tale of infidelity was the first television script by Alan Bleasdale, who later went on to Boys From the Blackstuff and GBH.

Volume Two:

The Permissive Society; Club Havana; Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

It was at the Midlands Arts Centre where Mike Leigh first embarked on his unique approach to devising scripts, and Pebble Mill which commissioned much of his early TV work. Made a year before camping comedy Nuts in May, The Permissive Society (1975) is an overlooked gem. Also confined to a single set, Club Havana (1975) is a tense portrait of a Handsworth speakeasy by playwright Barry Reckord, featuring Don Warrington as the landlady’s son newly arrived from Jamaica and an incredibly young Julie Walters as the barmaid. We conclude with Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration (1976), a psychosexual nightmare from the pen of Ian McEwan which is very much in keeping with his short stories of the time.”

Days at the Beach – photos by Willoughby Gullachsen

Photos by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission.

‘Days at the Beach’ was a BBC 2 Playhouse drama transmitted in 1981. It was produced by David Rose at BBC Pebble Mill, and written and directed by Malcolm Mowbray. It was filmed on location in Wales. Set in 1920, the story follows three soldiers: Sergeant Major Globe, Corporal Mumford and Private Tobe as they guard an unexploded mine washed up on the beach.

The film was edited by Chris Rowlands and Bob Jacobs was the location manager, and John Kenway the Director of Photography.

It starred Mark Aspinall as Private Tobe, Sam Kelly as Sergeant Major McGlobe, Stephen Wale as Corporal Mumford and Julie Walters as Mrs Morgan.

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