Roy Thompson – Page 3 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Tenth Anniversary Envelope

Photo by Roy Thompson, no reproduction without permission

Photos by Roy Thompson, no reproduction without permission

Thanks to Roy Thompson for posting these photos of the envelope designed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of BBC Pebble Mill. In the closer photo you can see the myriad of programmes made at the broadcast centre. Here’s the impressive list:

Network Television – Pebble Mill at One, Saturday Night at the Mill, New Life, Farming, Gardeners’ World, Kick Start, Top Gear, Pot Black, Pebble Mill Showcase, Day and Night, Dig This, Pop at the Mill, Top Sailing, 6.55 Special, Bypass, Shakespeare or Bust, The Fishing Party, Penda’s Fen, The Roses of Eyam, Three for the Fancy, The After Dinner Game, Gangsters, Glitter, Trinity Tales, Licking Hitler, Empire Road, Underdog, Vampires, Bull Week, The Muscle Market, The History Man, The Olympian Way, Artemis 81

Network Radio – On your Farm, Farming Today, Make Yourself at Home, Voice of the People, From the Grass Roots, My Music, My World, The Archers, Top Tunes, Alderburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival, One Man One Voice, A La Carte

Local Radio – Coming Home, The 206 Team, Home James, Saturday Sport

Regional Television – Midlands Today, Look!Hear! Midlands Tonight, Straight Talk, Know Your Place, Spare Time, Day Out, The Garden Game, Weekly Echo, Buying Time, Action, The R & D Show

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Midlands Yesterday – photos Maureen Carter

Here is a selection of photos from the Midlands Today reunion – entitled Midlands Yesterday, held on Saturday 3rd September 2016 at the Midlands Arts Centre. Thanks to Maureen Carter for sharing the photos.

Anita Bhalla, Sue Beardsmore

Ann Gumbley Williams, Jim Knights

Sally Morris and Ann Banks

Jane Ward, Mary Sanchez, Kay Alexander

Maurice Blisson

Pete Shannon, Gary Hudson

Pete Shannon, Maureen Carter

Richard Uridge

Rick Thompson and Gill Thompson

Rick Thompson, Pete Shannon, Jim Knights, Maureen Carter, Cathy Houghton,

Roz Gower and Mike Wilkie

Tony Francis and Roy Saatchi

Sue Beardsmore, Maureen Carter

? and Keith Ackrill

Brian Conway, Kathy Rochford, Sally Morris

Bob Sinkinson, Frances Coverdale, Mike Wilkie, Jim Knights

Gary Hudson and Mark Readman

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Syncing film rushes with Dawn Trotman and Oliver White

This video was recorded in August 2015 as part of Royal Holloway’s ADAPT project. The aim of the project is to recreate how television programmes used to be made, before digital technology. The project reunited Pebble Mill film editor, Oliver White, with former film assistant editor, Dawn Trotman. Oliver had a long and illustrious editing pedigree, cutting dramas like Nuts in May, The Red Shift, A Touch of Eastern Promise amongst many others. He retired as Avid editing came in. Dawn is now a freelance Avid editor, cutting programmes like Countryfile for many years. The ADAPT team asked Dawn and Oliver to demonstrate how film and sep-mag audio were synched up using a Picsync and Steenbeck. This film cutting room was in the London Film School.

Dawn Trotman with Oliver White in the London Film School cutting room

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

Roy Thompson: ‘Remember teaching all of these film techniques, sound transfer, syncing up, track laying and dubbing to the ITO course (Introduction to Technical Operations) at Wood Norton after being taught by Henry Fowler formerly of Pebble Mill. A great exercise in logic, and creativity, for the students who, in a group of 3 or 4, were given 200 foot of 16mm reversal to make a short film. Great learning even though by then single electronic cameras were making inroads into production and news gathering. Great memories.’

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Countryfile – Ken Pollock

Countryfile team. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Regarding Countryfile, it is fun to look at the photograph and recognise old friends/colleagues.
My involvement was to be a producer on Farming, with Martin Small, and Exec John Kenyon. We wanted to acknowledge the large “over the shoulder” audience we had on Farming, and hence wrote the brief for Countryfile. I remember it well, sitting in John Kenyon’s office sketching in the idea, and kicking around names. I came up with the Countryfile name, although we may have thought it should be two words…
Michael Grade, Controller BBC1 accepted the idea, the team went from 4 to 24, and the Countryfile bandwagon started rolling.
After poor Brain Strachan died, there was a vacancy on Top Gear, and John Kenyon told me to get some broader experience, before applying to run Countryfile. So I did, but they did not want me to run Countryfile, as I was supposedly too biased to the farming community and Mike Fitzgerald got the gig.
I stuck with Top Gear and the rest is history…

Ken Pollock

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

Patrick Flavelle: ‘I started on a rolling weekly contract working with Fitz surfacing potential stories at the fag end of Farming…led to working on the show for its first 11 years. Happy days and incredibly boozy Xmas do’s…the one after this photo was very messy!’

Mick Murphy: ‘3rd from right, 2nd row – Sue Lloyd, Director. 1st on the left, front row – Barry Paine, former BBC producer / wildlife narrator, who used to voice over some of our films. Girl behind Fitz is called Sarah…? Great picture. ‘

Jane McLean: ‘John Clarke on the left .. who I went to Russia and Siberia with for Countryfile in 1989. Should try & find the Russian pix. Talk about an eye opener. The director was Dick Colthurst (what happened to him?) and the crew was Nigel Davey, Barrie Foster, Keith Rodgerson and Andy Frizzell. We were force-fed vodka shots 24/7 – honestly! ‘

Pam Relton: ‘Dick is very successful Jane – he went to BBC Bristol after CountryFile and is now MD at Tigress Productions.’

Jane McLean: ‘Good on him. Never heard of Tigress Prods – am SO out of the loop these days re anything telly!’

Viv Ellis: ‘I recognise Yasmine O’Grady looking glam – as ever. I worked on Farming for a few months’

Roy Thompson: ‘Spent a very happy attachment to Countryfile from Wood Norton even getting to direct a piece on arts in rural communities. Very supportive and friendly team.’

Andrea Buffery: ‘This picture would look amazing next to the Countryfile team today. It consists of 30 plus people.’

Steve Johnson: ‘I worked on Countryside for a short time in mid nineties, arranged the filming of the brand new RSPB reserve at Conwy.’

Pam Relton: ‘As a real City girl, CountryFile opened my eyes to so many things. I remember my first shoot – in a battery hen farm, a barn the size of a hanger filled with chickens in cages no bigger than themselves, floor to ceiling, the noise!! I’ve not knowingly eaten anything other than free range, outdoor-reared produce since. I learned so much about the pressures on farmers and producers to comply with the big supermarkets. This was the great thing about working on programmes like this – that open up the issues to do with farming and the countryside to everyone.’

Jane McLean: ‘I was country born & bred Pam – my brother was a pig farmer – and I know exactly what you’re talking about from the other side! ‘

Dave Pick wins Radio Club prize

Pebble Mill News 1984

This cutting is from the Pebble Mill News, March 1984. This was the internal staff newspaper.

The article tells how Dave Pick, an OB Maintenance Engineer at Pebble Mill, won a short-wave radio competition, by contacting more short-wave radio stations than any other competitor. He did all this from the 2nd floor of Pebble Mill.

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

Roy Thompson: ‘I think it was a popular past time for many engineers, John Endall I think was one. At Wood Norton there was a radio shack which was popular with trainee engineers and operators.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘There were quite a few Radio Amateurs at Pebble Mill. Dave is still about.’

Thomas Graal: ‘We shortwave fans were well served back in the day….unlike now.’

David Ackrill: ‘Many organisations had Amateur Radio groups as part of their sports and social groups. I belonged to the MEB Radio Club (G6MEB and G4MEB) on Mucklow Hill, Halesowen. I became friends with Giles Herbert when he moved to Birmingham and lived just down the road from each other for a while. I worked the Children In Need special event station and still have a QSL card for the contact somewhere.’

Dave Pick: ‘Yes we had a radio room in what used to be the 2nd floor club’s bottle store. We had access to the roof for aerials (not so much health and safety then!). Who remembers that geodesic dome they tried to use for programmes up there? I still hold the G2BBC call sign. Radio club had quite a few members including Maurice Darkin, John Endall, Simon Evans, Frank Stevens, Malcolm Hickman and loads more.’

Jim Lee: ‘I remember having a few plays on G2BBC in the 90s with Dave and Giles in that store. I remember going up on to the roof as well – probably with Dave – where there was a Cobwebb and the top of a sloping 160m dipole.’

Brian Empringham: ‘Hi Jim, don’t know about Pebble Mill, but there were some hams at Bush – including the late George Eason – who worked out of some sort of shack on the roof.’