Radio 4 – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

‘Dead Girls Tell No Tales’ – Why Grace Archer had to die

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Last weekend I heard the Radio 4 play: Dead Girls Tell No Tales, Joanna Toye’s backstage drama of the story behind the death of Grace, in The Archers, sixty years ago this week. Grace had recently married Phil Archer, and there was talk about them starting a family, so the young couple were at the centre of The Archers world, when the decision was made by the editor, to controversially kill Grace off.

The momentous episode of the radio soap was transmitted on 22^nd September 1955, which was also the launch date of the ITV network. Apocryphally, the death of Grace Archer in a fire in the stables, whilst she was trying to save her horse, Midnight, was designed to scupper ITV’s opening night, but Toye’s play shed new light on that theory. Grace’s death certainly resonated with the audience – around 20 million tuned in, and the BBC switchboard was inundated with distraught listeners, often in tears, after the programme. Press attention was definitely distracted from the ITV launch, but Toye poses that the real reason for Grace’s death was because the actress, Ysanne Churchman, was seen by series editor, Godfrey Baseley, as a trouble maker. Apparently she wanted equal pay for female actresses on the soap, as well as involving the actors’ union, Equity, and campaigning for professional actors to always be employed, as opposed to smaller parts being played by country folk.

The radio play was very evocative of the period, with RP accents and class distinctions, and was very convincing. Ysanne Churchman, in the drama, was played by Eleanor Tomlinson, a younger actress, but Ysanne herself appeared at the end, and explained what happened to her own career, after being forced to leave The Archers. The rise of ITV, ironically, provided her with a good living, voicing commercials.

One of the things that struck me about the drama, was that Godfrey Baseley, really could ‘play god’ with his characters’ lives. He wouldn’t even tell the BBC Press Office why the episode on the 22^nd September warranted a Press showing – such a thing would never happen in today’s BBC, when the Press Office would be involved from the start, and micro managing the whole campaign.

The ghost of Grace Archer still seems to haunt Ambridge today, and the older female characters have recently been reminiscing about Grace’s death, 60 years ago.

Joanna Toye is one of The Archers’ regular writers, and Sean O’Connor, the series editor, produced Dead Girls Tell No Tales. The radio play is available on iPlayer for download – it’s well worth a listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06bcv9s.

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

Lynne Cullimore: ‘I heard the play and thought it very good. I used to work at the Beeb (when (I very first started) for Tony Ysanne’s husband who sadly died earlier this year. Lovely to bring back memories of Grace and well done to Jo Toye (whom I used to work with in Countryfile) for writing the play.’

Mark Whittaker 1957-2014

You may already know that the journalist and broadcaster, Mark Whittaker, who worked for the BBC at Radio WM in the 80s and returned to Pebble Mill as a presenter of Costing the Earth in the 90s has died after a short illness. He leaves a wife, Jane Stimpson, who also worked at the Mill in the 80s, and two children.

Mark was a know it all in the nicest possible way. He had a huge brain full of stuff that could be deployed at work and at play. As I’ve reflected elsewhere I never lost a pub quiz with him and have never won one without him.

There is a very touching tribute to him on the Ariel page written by his colleagues on BBC World Service World Business Report where he’d been working for the last few years.

Richard Uridge

Here is the link to the article in Ariel about Mark: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/29463075

Below is an excerpt from the article:

“World Service presenter Mark Whittaker has died suddenly of cancer.

One of the presenters of World Business Report and Business Matters, he had finished his last shift at the BBC about a month ago, on August 27.

He was diagnosed with cancer only three weeks before his death on October 1. He leaves behind two children and his wife Jane.

‘Mark was a radio genius who not only had brilliant ideas, but relentlessly executed them to perfection,’ said Martin Webber, editor of BBC World Service business news in an email to World Service staff.

‘We marvelled as he crafted beautiful scripts and then drew on his vast memory of music and sound, to turn a dull topic into a radio delight.

‘He regularly quietly re-edited interviews himself when the producer failed to do a perfect job.

His interviews connected effortlessly with the people he spoke to wherever they were in the world”

‘When Business Matters started with an hour-long format, he thrived doing the extended live interviews that the programme demanded. On location in India and Japan in the past year, he showed us all what could be achieved.”

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

Alex Fraser: ‘He was a lovely, lovely man’

Sue Welch: ‘Such a lovely man with a wicked sense of humour.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Well said all of the above…in addition Mark seemed to want to break down the barriers of the time between news and general programme staff and he planted seeds that bore spectacular fruit.’

Lorraine Randell: ‘I worked with Mark in Radio WM’s News Room and I reiterate everything that has been said…one of the nicest people I have ever worked with.’

Jock Gallagher Prospero Article

This article was written for the February 2014 edition of the BBC retirees newspaper, Prospero.

Ambridge’s Yorkshire beginnings

Ambridge's Yorkshire beginnings 3

This article was written by Chris Phipps for The Dalesman magazine, it is published here with his and their permission.

Additionally, Chris Phipps was also a presenter on the Pebble Mill youth series, Look! Hear! and would produce the music on the show.

Motor Show

The British International Motor Show was held in Birmingham between 1976 and 2004. The Motoring Unit recorded Motor Show specials from the show at the NEC.

Thanks to VT editor, Ian Collins for making this grab from the titles available.

Peter Simpkin added the following comment on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

‘There were several years Motor Shows in the 80s when the BBC went really overboard with coverage, especially Radio, where we at Radio WM shared an enormous stand /studio with Network. My afternoon show live was sandwiched between something on Radio 4 and afterwards the John Dunn Show on R2. All the changeovers were quite hairy with network and local staff doing ‘hot’ changes as news bulletins were on from the appropriate studios. I had been running my show with the huge doors to the audience wide open. Dear John a really true pro but a bit shy I think, expressed surprise as we changed chairs and said that he would not like to be quite so close to the crowd and asked me to close the glass doors as I left the stage!’