Mark Kershaw – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Director Chris Wright on Pebble Mill at One – Steve Weddle

Director, Chris Wright, deep in thought, during Tom O’Connor Roadshow. Photo Jane Mclean

That’s a classic Chris Wright pose. He would often wander off on his own to think things through prior to going into the gallery or scanner. Mind you, there was that time on a certain infamous edition of Pebble Mill At One when, dressed as a teddy boy, he leapt out of the director’s chair, to be replaced by Mark Kershaw, so he could dance a rock and roll routine downstairs, on camera, in the foyer. It worked a treat, except one of the prgramme guests had imbibed too much and went on air somewhat worse for wear. Consequently, the entire edition went under the microscope, and questions were asked in high places why the programme director was to be seen rocking and rolling with Josephine Buchan, the presenter. How do I know this? … I was Producer of what was our last show before Christmas in that particular year…circa 1984. Hope you don’t mind me mentioning this Chris. It still makes me smile.

Steve Weddle

Mark Kershaw directing Pebble Mill at One. No reproduction without permission

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

Jane Clement: ‘All the shows leading into Christmas were great fun. And – given the generosity of the green room – inebriated guests were not exactly a rarity, but never a big problem. I’m having a drink with Chris this afternoon, as it happens. We both live in the same city (Auckland, New Zealand) so I expect we’ll be reminiscing about old times.’

Steve Weddle: ‘I should stress that Chris was totally sober when he danced on the show. It was the guest who was was worse for wear! If Chris was a celebrity he would have been on Strictly by now!’

Ruth Kiosses: ‘Drunken guests! I want to know what they put in the audience’s tea? That warm-up guy telling the audience the cameraman would be like a rat up a drainpipe if legs weren’t kept together on the front row. Must have heard that over the monitor everyday for years! It always livened them up with giggles.’

Betti Moretti: I’ was a bit late to Pebble Mill… but I had so much fun there! I remember a particularly merry Pudsey Bear after a long Children in Need taking a tumble from top to bottom of the stairs into the green room where Anne & Nick were based… wiped a couple of people out at the bottom – Jeremy Paxman included… so many funny memories… happy days indeed’

Tom O’Connor Roadshow – Mark Kershaw & Jane Mclean

The Directors: Chris Wright, David Weir, Mark Kershaw

Nicky Savage, Jane Mclean, Tom O’Connor, Jo Dewar

Photos from Jane Mclean, no reproduction without permission.

(The following blog was written after a conversation with director, Mark Kershaw in Feb 2014)

The Tom O’Connor Roadshow was a live entertainment show transmitted from around the country early 1987, it went out daily around 12pm on BBC1. The show was based in a different town or city each week, including: Derby, Falkirk, Port Talbot, Blackpool (twice!), Portsmouth, Newcastle, Cambridge, Exeter, Bradford, Londonderry with Liverpool being the final week’s location.

The show was commissioned to plug a gap in entertainment programming after Pebble Mill (the lunchtime magazine show) was decommissioned in May 1986. There was a move to use underutilised resources, and it was felt that outside broadcast scanners were busy at weekends during the winter, with football and other sport, but were available during the week. Therefore a live entertainment show, like the Tom O’Connor Roadshow, ticked all the boxes.

It was important that all areas of the country were covered, hence shows coming from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as England. Two versions of the set had to be made, travelling round the country in different directions, with one set being erected as the other one was in use.

There were three multi-camera directors assigned to the show. Mark Kershaw did all the advance planning. There was a main director of the week, which was either Mark, David Weir or Chris Wright. One of the others was the support director for the week, whilst the third, planned ahead for the following week.

The series encountered a few issues along the way. A week in Aviemore was planned, but because of an electricians’ strike had to be relocated as a return visit to Blackpool. Inserts from Aviemore were included instead. The Londonderry week was eventful. ‘The Troubles’ were still very active. The final show on the Friday in Derry had to be stopped part way through because of a bomb scare at the venue. The show went to an filmed insert, and never came back on air, with Pres taking over the transmission! UHF mics had to be hired in for the Cambridge shows, as the University complained that the Roadshow mics were using the same frequencies as the lecturers, meaning that instead of some erudite academic lecture,the sound of the Tom O’Connor Roadshow was coming through instead!

The series was expensive to make, although it was popular with the viewers. It was its high budget that meant that it wasn’t recommissioned.

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

Jane Green: I worked on this series. It was great fun. I thought being sent to the Port Talbot TOCRS was drawing the short straw, until the Fine Young Cannibals came out of their dressing room dressed as Welsh Dolls and Miners to sing She Drives Me crazy!

End of Pebble Mill 1996

Crew and production team of the last Pebble Mill show, May 1996. Pebble Mill was an entertainment magazine show which went out before the lunchtime news on BBC 1 Daytime.

The show was presented by Alan Titchmarsh, Sarah Greene amongst others.

Here are a few of those in the photo:

Front row, left to right: Mark Kershaw (director),?,Kate Hillman, Crispin Evans , Alan Titchmarsh, Sarah Greene, Ross King, ?, Ronnie Butt, ?, Annie Gumbley-Williams

2nd row, l to r: Royston Horsley, Nick Harris, Shirley Benson,? , ?, Gill Thompson, Sarah Reddi, Melissa Feather

3rd row, l to r: ?, ?, Caroline Marshall, ?

1st row standing: Belinda Essex, ?, ?, ?, Vicky Jepson, Anya Francis, ?, Helena Taylor, Claire Chambers, Jane Benham, Clara Hewitt, Sue Lowe, ?

2nd row standing: Merrick Simmonds, Geoff Nawn, Andy Frizzell, (further across) Roulla Xenides, Janice Rider

Next to back row: (fourth and fifth from the right) John Carney (Tech manager), Mike Lee (Vision supervisor), in front of these row is Ian Cull (Vision engineer)

Back row: Dave Brazier, ?,?,?,?,?

(Thanks to Roulla Xenides, and Stuart Gandy for adding in some names).

Please add a comment if you can name some of the others!

Thanks to Ronnie Butt for sharing the photo.

‘A’ Course – Wood Norton 1970 studio

The photo is from an ‘A’ Course held at BBC Wood Norton in July 1970. Included in the group are trainees (left to right): Dave John, with Pebble Mill’s Keith Brook on camera, John Bennett, Tony Nicholson (he worked for the ILEA’s TV unit, (Inner London Education Authority). They made OU type programmes before the OU began).

The camera is probably a Pye Mk 6: http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/pye/mk6/p1.htm

Thanks to Mark Kershaw for sharing the photo.

Mark adds the following information:

‘The pic is August 1970, the final part of our A1 training course, where the 10 TV people split off from the engineers to train in the studio – then called “the Phoenix”. It was a converted indoor badminton court. I was told it was originally built with the insurance money after the top floor of Wood Norton hall burnt off, and the BBC didn’t rebuild it, just put a roof on! Hence called Phoenix as out of the ashes! (Not sure if true or not)! Later the bar took over the name. For intested the Studio now called Studio A is still in use!

The camera is (I think) a Pye mark 6, it was one of a group from a recently decommissioned B/W OB Unit, as they had all just gone colour. The OB scanner (that looked just like the Dinky model) was parked behind the studio and we worked it like a drive in. For info at that time Wood Norton had only one colour camera – an EMI2001, it was used to train the engineers on how to line them up –we were not even allowed to touch it!’

Keith Brook adds some more detail:

If my memory serves me correctly, the ‘A’ Course, starting in 1970, replaced the old Technical Operations (TO) Course to reflect the less technical aspect of life as a cameraman or sound bloke. And, yes, a man’s world in those distant days.

There was still loads of technical stuff – knowledge of the tools is crucial to any job, not just TV or sound – but the ‘A’ courses concentrated more on learning the basics of how to operate the gear.

The course lasted 3 months, and A1 took place in the middle of summer which was a scorcher that year. Bliss!

In those days, the ‘A Block’ was the only one built of bricks and mortar. ‘B block’, where I lay my drunken head, was still a wooden hut from the war days, as were the classrooms!

The course finished with two important items.

Firstly, a programme that we were required to write, produce and shoot and which is sadly lost in the old 405 line cemetery. That’s me on the camera and the reason you can only see one leg is that I’m using my knee to stop the bloody thing from rising due to the heat!!

Secondly was the end of course exam. I scored 97% despite having no sleep after crashing my car on the M5 after returning from an OB at Radio Merseyside. After moving the mess to the side they reopened the motorway. Intrigued at what might be in the boot of my upturned car, they opened it and everything I owned in the world spilled back onto the motorway, which had to be closed again. I was picked up from hospital in the morning by the BBC chauffeur who drove at 20mph so as not to alarm me. He was actually making me even more nervous because I was worried about missing the exam.

A few days earlier I’d commented that no one had crashed their car that week. Dropping cars into the ditch halfway between the school and the BBC Club was a weekly event. Evidently is was my turn.

After that it was off to TV Centre for me and then, two years later, Pebble Mill.

Happy days!!’

‘A’ Course at Wood Norton – 1970

The photo is of ‘A’ Course trainees at Wood Norton in July 1970. Note in the front row Pebble Mill’s Mark Kershaw, and Keith Brook (5th and 6th from the left). Mark worked at Pebble Mill as a cameraman, multi-camera director, series producer and deputy editor until the early 2000s. Keith left Pebble Mill in the early 1980s, and worked as a cameraman, vision mixer and director.

Thanks to Keith Brook (Scouse) for sharing the photo.

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

Stuart Gandy: ‘The engineers A course was the introduction to the BBC for all those engineers that started without having first gone to university. It was split into two parts each 6 weeks long. The first part was basic electronics needed to prepare us for broadcast engineering. The second part was operational and much more interesting. It was effectively the first time we had chance to get our hands on the equipment. Depending on which section you were destined for, you would probably be grouped off to a more specific area of training, such as TV ops, or radio etc. Most of the A course students would have stayed in the ubiquitous D block, back when I started back in 1979. An experience not to be forgotten!’

Alan Miller: ‘For what it’s worth on the second row from the left John Lunn went to Belfast , Richard Elkin to Glasgow from where he recently retired from the audio department and Rob Hastie also went to Glasgow but became a radio sports producer in London.’