Juliet Bravo – What Was Pebble Mill?

Juliet Bravo filming locations and nostalgia

Juliet Bravo 1989, no reproduction without permission. Photo by Janice Rider, Costume Designer

In November 2020 a Facebook site was set up with the aim of trying to identify as many specific filming locations used in the Juliet Bravo TV series. At the time there was next to no details online other than the following information on Wikipedia:

Filming took place in the Lancashire towns of Colne, Bacup, Accrington, Nelson, Burnley and Todmorden. Other locations around East Lancashire, West Yorkshire and the Black Country (Tipton and Dudley) were also used. The exterior of Hartley Police Station seen throughout the entire series run was in fact the real-life police station in the town of Bacup.

The task was made even harder by the fact that many of the buildings and surrounding areas had been demolished or significantly redeveloped since filming days.

After a rather slow start the Facebook site began to gain interest and eventually had over 1000 members. Many of these people lived, or still live in the filming areas. Quite a few were young actors, mainly from the Burnley Youth Theatre, some as extras and some that actually starred in the program. Other members included cameramen, make-up artists and continuity managers. With all these people on board the members managed to identify hundreds of filming sites. They also identified other areas such as Blackburn, Bury, Kendal, Simonstone and Read, all of which had never been documented before.

Out of all the 6 series, one episode, ‘Lost & Found’ had no locations to find as it was filmed entirely in the studio. Another episode, ‘Talk To Me’ had all its outdoor scenes filmed at night which made location identification virtually impossible.

A document was initially created as a back-up for the Facebook site and updated as each episode was being researched. It has since morphed into something much larger and now contains nostalgia, filming photographs, letters from the BBC, continuity issues and photographs from numerous contributors. It also contains many ‘then & now’ photographs showing how certain locations have changed since filming days.

The document is available to view or download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M4JE-PSQojPhHfj4-_w35MzW6RIQgIrG/view

Throughout the investigations the group tried to be as accurate as possible when identifying each location but as mentioned, some sites / buildings had been changed beyond recognition. Sometimes it was necessary to hunt down old photographs of certain areas to positively identify a location.

Tony Shaw

Here is the link to the Juliet Bravo Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/431724484870895

John Last on Juliet Bravo

The photo shows actor, John Last getting ready for a recording of Juliet Bravo at Pebble Mill, Studio A.

Juliet Bravo was a police series, which went out on BBC1 from 1980-85; it was a London production, hosted at Pebble Mill. Here is an entry on the BBC Genome project, which gives Radio Times listings for an episode: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/3f15aa86430649128412852960d4776a.

“My connection with Pebble Mill is rather a humble one, i.e. as a jobbing Equity member (actor) I seemed to end up at the studios on all manner of productions as an equally humble ‘walk-on’. It’s a rather tedious story, but the long and short of it is basically an association with a pretty long period of production therein. This is a ‘selfie’ (before the term was even thought of) taken in the downstairs dressing room for an episode of Juliet Bravo. A rather good series I feel. Strange to think just how long ago it all was?”

John Last

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

Susan Astle: ‘I was make up designer on this for a while, Lesley Weaver (Perry)was my assistant. Sue Peck, Nicky Deely and Joy were in wardrobe. Good times at The Sparrow Hawk!’

Stuart Gandy: ‘I remember it well, being in TV ops in the early 80s. Another of the many prime time shows made at the mill Good memories.’

John Bland

Photo from Shirley O’Mara of John at the BBC Club, no reproduction without permission

John Bland, film editor, died recently. He joined BBC Birmingham as a news editor in Broad Street, and later became a film editor at Carpenter Road, before Pebble Mill was built. John’s credits include a Play for Today called Packman’s Barn 1976, the police series Juliet Bravo 1980; Mavericks, a BBC1 series in 1984 about eccentrics, produced by John Kenyon, which Sharon Pemberton assisted him on; and Countryfile amongst many others.

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

‘John Bland, a Film Editor at Pebble Mill for many years, passed away suddenly last week aged 78. His funeral will be held at Streetly Crematorium on Weds 26th August 2015 at 10.00am.’

Shirley O’Mara

‘I was John’s assistant for a while and he was very much part of my early years in editing at Pebble Mill. I recall being (pleasantly) surprised by his insistence that ‘Two Tribes’ (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) was the best single EVER and that Ruby Turner was the best singer to come out of Birmingham. (I think eclectic is the word!) I hope they’re both serenading you John. R.I.P.’

Sharon Pemberton

‘Great bloke! I ran the Run the World race with John, Ingrid Wagner and Geoff Dargue. We trained every lunchtime by running up all the flights of stairs at Pebble Mill. Judging by the state of us at the end of the race it didn’t do us much good!’

Mark Ray

Signature Tunes – Midland Tonight, Juliet Bravo, The History Man

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing the following Pebble Mill signature tunes.

The first sig tune is for Midlands Tonight. This was a late night regional opt out, broadcast live from Studio B. The programme covered news and current affairs.

The second sig is for the hosted drama series Juliet Bravo.

The final sig is for The History Man, and includes various versions. The History Man was a four part adaptation of the Malcolm Bradbury novel, transmitted in 1981. Michael Wearing was the producer.

Juliet Bravo 1989, no reproduction without permission

Juliet Bravo polaroids – Janice Rider

Photos by Janice Rider, no reproduction without permission.

Costume designer, Janice Rider, took these polaroids of characters in the police drama series Juliet Bravo for continuity reasons. The polaroids are written on to include the character name, and the episode and ‘take’ number. Juliet Bravo was a hosted drama series at Pebble Mill for a couple of years, although it was a London production. The series ran between 1980-85, with Stephanie Turner playing the lead role in the first three series

Tony Shaw has matched the continuity photos up to the relevant episodes:

Tk6 Beck Ep9 Day1 – Continuity photo taken during the filming of S01 E08 ‘Cages’ episode.

Ep9 Tk7/8/9 Day 1 – S01 E08 ‘Cages’ episode.

Ep5 Tk9 Day 4 – S01 E04 ‘Coins’ episode.

Ep14 Tk3 Day 1 ‘Janice’ – S01 E14 ‘Oscar’ episode.

Tk2 Maureen Ep1 – S01 E01 ‘Shot Gun’ episode.

Ep14 Tk2 Day 1 ‘Pengelly’ – S01 E14 ‘Oscar’ episode.

Bentley Tk7 Ep1 – S01 E01 ‘Shot Gun’ episode.

Tk3(b) Cole Day1 Ep2 – S01 E03 ‘The Draughtsman’ episode.

Ep14 Tk4a Day 1 ‘Harold Coop’ – S01 E14 ‘Oscar’ episode.

Parrish Ep2 Day 1 – S01 E03 ‘The Draughtsman’ episode.

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