Peter Poole – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Top Gear Rally Report

This titles grab dates from the 1990s. Rally Report was made by members of the Top Gear production team and presented by some of the same presenters as the motoring magazine show. The series reported on the Lombard RAC Rally.

Thanks to Ian Collins to making the grab available.

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

Peter Poole: ‘I did some location recording for this.’

Steve Lee: ‘I presented for a while…Denis Adams was the producer…Fun days !!!’

Ned Abell: ‘If this was the one on BBC2 we parked CM2 outside the Laguna Tandoori next to the Albany hotel, Nottingham. Off the air and sit down with chicken tikkas already waiting!!’

Adam Hartley: ‘I remember preparing some of the rushes & working with editors on some time around 1998… Also have a vague recollection of a viewer complaining because a certain rally car had the wrong engine noise synched to it on a wide drive past…’

Simon Edwards: ‘I think Jim Knights might have been involved?’

Paul Hutchins: ‘Yes Simon, Magpie crewed most of the rallies! Some great memories mate. Great team that went on to produce and film the world rally championship for years to come!! Happy days.’

Alan Jessop: ‘I was one of the cameramen on many of the Rally shows – great fun in the forest!’

6.55 Special on the Severn Valley Railway

Photograph by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

This photo is of an outside broadcast edition of the 6.55 Special show, on the Severn Valley Railway, from the early 1980s. Nearest to camera, by the tripod, is floor manager, Nick Patten (later Head of Vision, BBC Birmingham).

AMS Logic 1 digital mixer

Photo by Willie Stott, no reproduction without permission, taken at the BBC OUPC.

This was the first digital mixer at Pebble Mill. It replaced the BBC Type D desk in Radio Studio 1.

Thanks to Peter Poole for sharing the photo.

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

Carolyn Davies: ‘It was revolutionary! It made drama editing and mixing (and even doc editing) a dream! Radio 4 doc editing was transformed by it, no more losing your sentences in the tape on the floor…. The AMS Audiofile attached was introduced by the late great Mark Decker, pioneer of digital audio editing in the BBC, he made sure Pebble Mill were streets ahead of every one else when it came to digital broadcasting. Its down side? The green on black screen made white lines on the road appear pink after a long days edit….’

Kathryn Shuttleworth: ‘I wouldn’t say that digital did anything better than analogue when we had this mixer as it was a fairly new technology at the time. We did end up replacing it though……….with an analogue Calrec desk!’

Brian Vaughton demonstrates the Brenell editing deck

Brain Vaughton demonstrates the Brenell tape editing deck from pebblemill on Vimeo.

Radio producer and editor, Brian Vaughton, demonstrates the Brenell tape editing deck, which would have been used to edit radio documentaries and inserts from the 1960s.

Brian worked as a freelancer at BBC Birmingham in the 1960s, with producers like Philip Donnellan and Charles Parker.

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

Peter Poole: ‘I used Brenell decks in hospital radio. Very good machines and built like a tank!’

Marian Foster and Steve Weddle

Photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

Pebble Mill at One presenter, Marian Foster, with producer, Steve Weddle (who was later editor of Pebble Mill), on the Severn Valley Railway.

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

Jane Clement: ‘I’m pretty certain we did both a PM At One and a 6.55 on this railway. Is this the one where we stopped the train in the middle of the countryside (ie not at a station? for some reason? Steve N Weddle, Diane Reid – you’ll remember. Di, weren’t you the director?’