lynda kettle – Page 6 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Morning Surgery – photos by Lynda Kettle

Photos by Lynda Kettle, no reproduction without permission. Lynda Kettle was a Production Designer at BBC Pebble Mill, working on factual, entertainment and drama shows in studio and on location. The photos were taken as records of the Sets.

‘Morning Surgery’ was a summer spin off from ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’. There were two series, the first was transmitted in June 1993 and the second in September 1993. It was a BBC 1 Daytime show and featured Dr Mark Porter and Lydia Thomas taking the mystery out of medical matters. The show was studio based in Pebble Mill Studio C (the foyer). The title music was composed by David Lowe.

Production Designer, Lynda Kettle also worked as a theatre designer and an artist, and now runs courses from her art studio http://www.lynda-kettle.com. She is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham Water Colour Society. Midland Pastel Society and Birmingham Art Circle . She exhibits her paintings several times a year at selected galleries.

Style Challenge – Lynda Kettle’s photos

Photos by Lynda Kettle, no reproduction without permission. Lynda Kettle was a Production Designer at BBC Pebble Mill, working on factual, entertainment and drama shows in studio and on location. The photos were taken as records of the Sets.

Style Challenge was a BBC 1 Daytime make over show, presented by John Leslie, Shauna Lowery, Caryn Franklin and Oz Clarke. The image of two volunteers were transformed by hair, make-up and clothes experts. The show’s trademark was the revolving mirror, revealing the contributor’s new image with maximum effect. The series was broadcast on weekday mornings on BBC1, from September 1996 to December 1998, and recorded in Studio A. Eileen Stokes was the producer.

Angels

Angels, began life in 1975 as a seasonal drama, but switched to a soap format between 1979 to 1983. It was produced out of the BBC in London, with some series being filmed there as the ‘St Angela’s Hospital’, Battersea. Later series in the 1980s were recorded at Pebble Mill in the imaginary ‘Heath Green Hospital’, Birmingham. It followed the lives of student nurses and tackled issues such as contraception, alcoholism and sexuality. The series was sometimes criticised for its gritty portrayal of nursing. To make the performances more realistic the actresses had to work in real hospital wards to gain experience.

The series offered opportunities to many actresses who have become well known household names, like Fiona Fullerton, Lesley Dunlop and Pauline Quirke.

An Actor’s Life for Me

Photos by Lynda Kettle, no reproduction without permission.

Lynda Kettle was a Production Designer at BBC Pebble Mill, working on factual, entertainment and drama shows in studio and on location. The photos were taken as records of the Sets, and in some you can just see the studio lights over the top of the flats.

Previously a Radio 4 comedy, ‘An Actor’s Life for Me’ was a 6 part television drama series recorded in Pebble Mill Studio A and outside broadcast, and transmitted in 1991. The drama starred John Gordon Sinclair, who played Robert Neilson, a struggling actor with an incompetent agent, Desmond, played by Victor Spinetti. Gina McKee played his teacher girlfriend, Sue. Lynn Scott-Farrell played the fourth character, Brenda. The comedy was directed and produced by Bryan Izzard. ‘An Actor’s Life for Me’ was a series hosted at Pebble Mill, but produced out of London.