Steve Pierson – What Was Pebble Mill?

Queen Elizabeth II visits Pebble Mill 1981

Queen Elizabeth meets Vera Lynn and Bill Pertwee

Queen Elizabeth with Jim Dumighan

Queen Elizabeth, Jim Dumighan, Phil Sidey, Keith Bullock and John Allinson top left next to Steve Pierson. Top right is Chris Harris behind Phil Sidey.

Jim Gray on camera, Geoff Nawn design assistant & Samantha Watkins make up next to Keith Bullock

Queen Elizabeth meets Peter Seabrook

Queen Elizabeth meets Marian Foster, Bill Pertwee

Alan Ford, Trevor Elwell from scenery is to Donny MacLeod’s right, Fred Foster, prop master, back left

Queen Elizabeth, Jim Dumighan, Phil Sidey

Behind the scenes of a Pebble Mill rehearsal

FM Steve Pierson mimes Curtis Steiger

AFM Debbie Hood in the audience seating area

Peter Poole and Andy Morton adjust sound

Peter Poole and Andy Morton sorting out sound

Wilf Welch, cameraman, walks through shot

These grabs are taken from a rehearsal of the lunchtime studio entertainment show, Pebble Mill, which went out from Studio A from 1991-6. The rehearsal was recorded by Paul Vanezis.

Thanks to Laura McNeill for taking the grabs and sharing them.

Floor team mimes to Curtis Steiger on Pebble Mill!

The floor management team, led by Steve Pierson, and accompanied by Laura McNeill, mime to Curtis Steiger, You’re all that matters to me. VT recorded the Pebble Mill rehearsal for posterity.

Thanks to Laura McNeill for making the grabs available.

Resources booklet mid 1990s

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission. This booklet was produced in the mid 1990s, as Resources were sold off from the rest of the BBC by John Birt, and had to commercialise activities.

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

Dave Bushell: ‘The David Suchet production was ‘Bingo! by Edward Bond. David was a brilliant actor to work with – he always found his light!

The betacam cameraman is Jim Gray and in the left hand image it looks like Sue Cook interviewing with cameramen Paul Woolston and Doug ? and FM Steve Pierson.’

Stuart Gandy: ‘Although I can’t put a name to the productions, that little picture bottom right of the Aston brings back memories for me from the time I was engineer for graphics. The keyboard is for the Aston 4 character generator, which was a step up from the stalwart Aston 3’s we had. It could of course do more and fancier captions and the hands seen there would have been those of one of the specialist Aston operators working in the graphics department. The little box above it was one of the 6 or so homebuilt talkback boxes that allowed communication between the studio gallery and the aston desks in the graphics area. A era of turbulent change.’

Peter Poole: ‘Studio 3, the late Mark Decker and Archers producer. Dubbing Theatre, Neve mixer.’

The Queen visits Pebble Mill

Photo by Keith Brook, no reproduction without permission.

The Queen visited Pebble Mill to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the building’s opening, in 1981.

Her majesty is accompanied by Jim Dumighan, immediately on her right, with Head of Network Production, Phil Sidey, further to the right. Ian Trethowan, the Director General, is 2nd on the right, next to the military man. The Queen is talking to cameraman Phil Wilson. Keith Bullock is by the window talking to Steve Pierson, with Sam from Make-up in the green smock, next to Guy from Design, with the red tie. Chris Harris is between Phil Sidey and Ian Trethowan, with the beard; possibly Ken Hodges next to Chris.

Please add a comment if you recognise the crew and others in the photo.

It was taken in the Foyer Studio, where Pebble Mill at One was transmitted from.

I have found this link on YouTube of some clips put together for the Queen’s visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7_cTHpip4

Thanks to everyone for helping identifying people in the photo.