Rajesh Mirchandani – What Was Pebble Mill?

This titles grab is from the Asian magazine show: East, which was transmitted in the summer, whilst its sister show: Network East
went out in the autumn/winter, circa 1990s. The weekly series on BBC 2 focussed on current affairs and issues facing the Asian audience. The links and studio items came from Studio B, with pre-recorded VTs.

Thanks to Ian Collins to making this grab available.

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

Dharmesh Rajput: ‘East was the current affairs series that ran in the summer at the same time as Network East ran in the Autumn / Winter. East had different presenters depending on the documentary – a whole variety of people were used, normally chosen appropriately for the subject matter. Names such as Sankha Guha, Mark Tully, Martin Bashir, Rajesh Mirchandani, Mina Anwar, Meera Syal, John Inverdale to name a few that I can remember of the top of my head.’

Netw0rk East was an Asian magazine show dating from the late 1980s and 1990s it included a mix of dance, music and other items about British Asian life. It had various presenters including Mo Dutta, Sonia Doel, Sanjeev Kohli, Rajesh Mirchandani and Shyama Perera. Narendhra Morar was the series editor in the late 1980s, with John Wilcox being the Executive Producer.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this title grab available.

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

Lynn Cullimore: ‘I worked in that department with Narendra! I remember it well. Mainly because everyone in that department shared everthing – if they went to the canteen for a Kit Kat it was shared amongst us all. I particularly remember the music programmes as the artists had no idea of timing and just played on and on until we had to just cut in and stop it! So funny. Oh happy days.’

Victoria Trow: ‘Narendra Morar was Series Producer. Lots of talented people covered not only music but all kinds of topics of interest to the Asian Community. I was asst editor on The Bollywood Story (never repeated I fear because of copyright issues, clearances were hell) and also a researcher on a lovely piece about a group of Sikhs who had fought in WW2 going to Belgium for a commemoration of their fathers & uncles who had fought in WW1. Great days.’

Ruth Barretto: ‘Paresh Solanki also worked on the programme when Narendra left. It was one of the best departments I ever worked in. It was like one big happy family. I worked on it when Sonia Sangha (Deol) and Sanjeev Kohli were the presenters. Real fun times.’

Peter Poole: ‘I worked on it many times in Studio B. Studio links, interviews and music were recorded. For larger music recordings Studio A was used. In the 1990’s the programme featured contemporary Asian pop music.’