Michael Abbensetts – What Was Pebble Mill?

Empire Road – Director Michael Custance

My first BBC job. This series was commissioned by BBC Birmingham drama dept. which was renowned for being more daring and experimental than BBC London. ‘Empire Road’ was no exception and Peter Ansorge the producer was one their most daring producers.

There is a long straight road running up through immigrant area North Birmingham called Bristol Road. All the shops were owned by Asians and all the manual jobs, digging up the roads and council works were done by West Indians. Between the two cultures there was a lot of racist tension.

Written by Michael Abbensetts it was a political series aimed dead centre at the racist problem with the leading family being West Indian and their daughter marrying an Asian. Michael wrote the series using comedy to attack the racism and by using comedy he could get away with going further into the problem than a straight drama could have done.

Filming on the streets was a bit dangerous but thankfully nothing happened. Norman Beaton the top black actor in the country played the lead role and most of the others were first timers. Rehearsals with a cast where half were culturally completely different from the other half was lively to say the least.

The series had a huge impact in the national press particularly when the Imans of the local mosque tried to get the series banned because of the mixed marriage. The producer Peter Ansorge told them to go to the Birmingham marriage registry and see for themselves that there were hundreds of mixed Islam marriages in the district. They still would not have it and went to their member of parliament and of course got no further with a politician.

The series was hysterically funny and mixed with West Indian music, jam sessions, street dances, singers. I will never forget the actress that launched into ‘Sitt’n On The Dock of The Bay’ in the middle of a scene completely unscripted and on the spur of the moment yet quite brilliant. In the studio when shooting a party scene with a reggae band you could have cut the haze of marijuana with a knife. I think we all got a bit high. Illegally, we locked the studio doors to stop anyone complaining in the middle of the shoot.

Getting the mixed race cast to turn up rehearsals at the same time was a battle we never won, despite having two lists of call times, the West Indian list was 15 minutes earlier than the Asian list to try and get them all together at the same time. A young actor turned up 45 minutes late and I let rip, “Why on earth can you never be on time”. “I’m never on time man but I am in time”. Of course he was ‘in time’, because I can not start without him.

In the midst of a studio shoot my gallery was suddenly filled with police coming to arrest Norman Beaton, the star. Peter, the producer managed to talk them into waiting till we had finished shooting that day. They sat down and watched the shooting for two hours. Made their day. Norman was playing Father Christmas and the minute we finished the last shot he was marched away still in his Father Christmas costume.

We needed a really grotty small cafe and found one at the end of Bristol Road yet when we arrived to film a few days later it was totally redecorated and spotless. The owners wanted their cafe looking “Nice for your film”. Embarrassing. We could not say to them we wanted it grotty. Had to leave and find another in a hurry.

Michael Abbensetts 1938-2016

Michael Abbensetts talking to Michael Wearing, at the Midlands Arts Centre 2010

Norman Beaton in Empire Road. Photo by Willoughby Gulachsen, no reproduction without permission.

Norman Beaton in Empire Road. Photo by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission.

The Guyanan-born writer, Michael Abbensetts, sadly died on 24th November 2016. Michael settled in Britain in the 1960s and gave a voice to people from a Carribean heritage, through his writing for the theatre and television. He worked on several Pebble Mill dramas in the 1970s and early ’80s, often with producer Peter Ansorge. His first Pebble Mill production was Black Christmas, in 1977; followed by Empire Road (series 1 and 2), the first black British soap opera, 1988-9; and Easy Money, part of Playhouse, 1982. He also wrote an episode of Doctors in 2001, which was his last television script.

Michael attended the ‘What was Pebble Mill’ screening event at the Midlands Arts Centre in 2010, and was interested in commemorating the dramas made at Pebble Mill.

(Thanks to Lez Cooke for updating some of the information in this post.)

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

Terry Barker: ‘He did an episode of Doctors which I script edited in late 90s’

Janice Rider: ‘The Mac event was the last time I met Michael before he became unwell . Not many people may be aware that there is a beautiful photograph of him in the National Portrait Gallery collection by Horace Ove, filmmaker, who directed some episodes of Empire Road. A lasting tribute to a great, gentle playwright. http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw79463/Michael-Abbensetts?LinkID=mp68713&search=sas&sText=Michael%20Abbensetts&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=0 ‘

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Vision of a Nation: Making Multiculturalism on British Television

This newly published book by Gavin Schaffer, from the University of Birmingham, explores the development of multiculturalism on British television. It includes several mentions of programming from Pebble Mill and BBC Birmingham. Gavin’s research for the book included a detailed interview with Stephanie Silk, who was a PA in the Immigrants Programmes Unit in the late 1960s, as well as interviews with English Regions Drama Department producer, Peter Ansorge (producer of Empire Road , Britain’s first black soap opera, written by Michael Abbensetts).

It is Steph Silk on the front cover, with Saleem Shahed on the left, and Mahendra Kaul in the middle, from the Immigrants Programme Unit. The photo is from summer 1968, at a charity dinner in London, arranged by the Indian High Commission.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Vision-Nation-Gavin-Schaffer/dp/0230292984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401910435&sr=8-1&keywords=vision+of+a+nation+gavin+schaffer

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

Julian Hitchcock: ‘Many, many memories…. Mahendra (who was also a restaurateur) was rather grand. Saleem gave off an air, not only of pipe tobacco, but of a university vice-chancellor.

Studio B! Ah, the glamour!

I was always proud of Pebble Mill’s role in the policy. There were ups and downs, as well as hours of incomprehensible chat shows, but you felt that it was engaging its audience keenly and in a vital way. Year on year, you felt it responding to social developments as, in the other direction, the rest of BBC programming caught up.

Before that happened, there was a period in which the Unit was thought by all too many as a silo for people whose epidermis was insufficiently French. I recollect being mortified with embarrassment by the “helpful” suggestion of a senior producer to a bright new graduate [of Asian complexion] who was gaining work experience at Pebble Mill and who was interested in getting into production. Fag in hand, she advised the girl to try Asian programmes.

The remark was simultaneously offensive and very good advice. I’m delighted that those days are behind us. That they are is in no small part due to the efforts of the Asian Unit.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Yes, remember all that. I worked in what was called The Asian Unit at one time and have to say I never went hungry because there was always a restaurant of a relative somewhere near where we were filming. I worked on Black Christmas too – John Clarke being the producer. There was also a couple of series called “Together” which was about ethnic minorities living in the Midlands. It was interesting and I learnt such a lot.’

Empire Road – Wedding

Photos from Janice Rider, no reproduction without permission.

The wedding episode of the black soap opera, ‘Empire Road’ was transmitted on 25 October 1979, it seems to be the final episode. It was directed by Horace Ove, written by Michael Abbensetts, and produced at Pebble Mill by Peter Ansorge. Janice Rider was the costume designer.

Norman Beaton played Everton, Corinne Skinner-Carter played Hortense, Wayne Laryea played Marcus.

The photos include publicity stills, polaroids taken for continuity reasons and the original drawn design for the wedding dress.

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Empire Road – Radio Times

‘Radio Times’ front cover from 1976, courtesy of Janice Rider, who was the costume designer on ‘Empire Road’.

‘Empire Road’ was the first black soap opera in Britain. It was produced at Pebble Mill by Peter Ansorge. It was written by Michael Abbensetts, and starred Norman Beaton.

‘Empire Road’ was shot in Studio A, and on location in Handsworth.