Morte D’Arthur – What Was Pebble Mill?

Gillian Lynne

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. Gillian Lynne directing Barbara Kellerman, with Bob Jacobs floor managing behind.

Gillian with cameraman David Short

The choreographer and director, Gillian Lynne has died aged 92.

“Quite a lot of us will remember working with her at Pebble Mill. I was her Production Assistant on MORTE D’ARTHUR, an extraordinary piece produced by Robin Midgley and performed by John Barton, RSC, with Jeremy Brett and Barbara Kellerman in the leads. A strong mix of narration with the tableaux painted by a mixed bag of actors and dancers including Sir Anton Dolin.”

Jenny Brewer

Here is a link to Gillian Lynne’s obituary on the BBC website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44677722

Here is the entry for Morte D’Arthur from the Radio Times (transmitted 5th May 1984), from the BBC Genome project:

Morte D’Arthur

by SIR THOMAS MALORY edited by JOHN BARTON
Malory’s prose masterpiece was written in 1470 while he was imprisoned in Newgate Jail. He wove together the many legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and created the great romantic story of Arthur, the sword Excalibur, the treachery of his son Mordred, and the love of Lancelot for Arthur’s Queen Guenevere, which has inspired painters, poets and writers throughout the centuries. and Music composed by STEPHEN OLIVER Costume ANN ARNOLD
Make-up SUSIE BANCROFT Lighting PETER BOOTH Designer GAVIN DAVIES
Produced by ROBIN MIDGLEY
Devised and directed by GILLIAN LYNNE

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/14c0be58416840708647d6087c2fb6af

Gavin Davies CV

Gavin Davies on Dead Head. Photo by Willoughby Gulachsen, no reproduction without permission

Gavin Davies on Dead Head. Photo by Willoughby Gullachsen, no reproduction without permission

Here is production designer, Gavin Davies’s CV, and impressive credits list. I think the CV dates from the mid 1990s when the services of crafts people were hired to Independent companies, following John Birt’s re-organisation of the BBC.

Thanks to Ann Chancellor-Davies for sharing Gavin’s CV. Gavin sadly died some years ago.

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1984 Spring and Summer line-up

This page from the 1984 Pebble Mill News, includes an article about David Waine’s press briefing about Pebble Mill’s output: 500 hours of network TV, 1,000 hours of network radio, and 160 hours of regional television. Highlights include a new Saturday night light entertainment show, new series of Top Gear, Kick Start and Top Sailing, as well as Now Get Out of That, Gardeners’ World, Asian Magazine, and Gharbar. On the drama front there is mention of The Groundling and the Kite, Phoebe, The Amazing Miss Estelle, and Morte d’Arthur.

Network Radio was also busy, with a new Radio 4 series of Enterprise, and Rollercoaster, as well as hosting a Schools Radio Festival hosted by Sue Lawley, Rolf Harris and Duncan Goodhew.

In regional television there were new series of, Midlands Sound and Midlands Tonight, and a television version of Malcolm Stent’s Radio WM series, In the Barmaid’s Arms.

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

Peter Poole: ‘I worked on The Barmaid’s Arms in Studio A. They had a good band called The Nightriders. This was before producer choice. After that regional TV could never afford Studio A.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘As producer of the Radio version of the Barmaids it was quite pleasant to be a member of the audience with the real beer and not have to worry about anything! I do remember that someone had crafted a tiny hole in the chest of Malc’s shirt to take the cable for his personal mic.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘Yes, Peter it was Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders…I was the PA and I loved it. Malc was wonderful to work with and i did many programmes with him. Malcolm is still going too..doing shows and things. Mary someone or other did a brilliant set for it…cannot remember her other name but she was very good.’

Peter Poole: ‘Hi Lynn, it was great when regional TV could do shows like this. Do you remember who the producer was? Malcolm often did warm up for PM at One. He always did a great job entertaining the audience.’

Lynn Cullimore: ‘The Producer was John Clarke whom I worked with for a long time. I did many Studio A programmes at one time – do you remember The Garden Game?’

Stuart Gandy: ‘I do remember The Garden Game. Wasn’t it on during the Friday night opt slot? In those days regional programmes had two opt slots per week.’

Peter Poole: ‘I remember John he was great producer and a very nice man. It’s amazing the programmes produced on such small budgets. I didn’t work on The Garden Game but do remember it. One of the many panel shows in Studio A. I always enjoyed working on regional TV programmes. The production teams were lovely people.’

Morte D’Arthur – David Short (cameraman)

Here is a crew photo from Morte D’Arthur and a shot of me operating an EMI 2001 camera with Gillian Lynne looking on. Morte D’Arthur was the first time that I had a chance to operate a camera on a major drama production. I had a lot of encouragement from fellow cameraman, Jim Gray, who encouraged me greatly. Drama became my favoured type of production to work on.

David Short – Cameraman at Pebble Mill from Sept. 1981 until May 1985 (when I transferred to TV Centre)

In the first photo l to r: Toby Horwood, Phil Thickett, Gillian Lynne (seated centrally), Bob Meikle (back right)

Crew of Nike

David Short on the EMI 2001 with Gillian Lynne

(Photo copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission)

The following comments were added on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Steve Dellow: ‘I’m sure that the last EMI2001’s were in Studio B during autumn ’83….? Then it was Link 125’s all round….and of course the old EMI in Pres?

Dave Bushell: ‘Looks like a 2001 – nasty things!’

Steve Dellow: ‘When I arrived in Sept ’83, Studio A was being refurbished and I was assigned to Colin Speirs to do acceptance testing. So maybe the recordings were done earlier in the year before it was stripped out?

Nasty things? From what I heard,once they were lined up they stayed lined up, not like the Links that needed realigning twice a day! However, they didn’t like being left pointing at a line up chart for an excessive period – like Doug (Services) did when he left it while he went for his dinner! New tube please!’

Dave Bushell: ‘Just stirring it, Steve! I never liked the tinted-monochrome feel of the EMIs but I was a voice crying in the wilderness when I arrived at Pebble Mill in 1984. Criricising the EMI 2001 was not a move guaranteed to endear me as the new boy.’

Steve Dellow: ‘No worries – I was coming from an engineer’s direction! ;-)’

Dave Short: ‘Ask any cameraman who worked during the 70’s or 80’s what was the best camera to operate, and the EMI 2001 would come out tops.’

Morte D’Arthur – photos from Bob Jacobs

Morte D’Arthur was a drama adaptation of the book by Sir Thomas Malory, based on John Barton’s adaptation. It was transmitted in 1984, under Robin Midgley’s leadership of the English Regions Drama Department at Pebble Mill in Studio A. It was directed by Gillian Lynne (seen in both photos here) and produced by Robin Midgley. Bob Jacobs (behind Barbara Kellermann in the top photo) was the 1st Assistant Director.

The drama featured: Barbara Kellerman, David Robb, Anton Dolin, Jeremy Brett and Nickolas Grace.