Sue Robinson – Page 4 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Good Morning in Berlin

‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ did a live outside broadcast from Berlin, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Nov 1994. The show was transmitted from the Radisson Hotel in Berlin. The presenters included Anne Diamond, Nick Owen, Will Hanrahan, Tania Bryer, and Jeni Barnett.

The photos include: Sue Robinson, Sangeeta Modha, Katie Wright, Will Hanrahan, Nick Owen, Nick Thorogood, Marco, Steve Pierson.

The furniture for the broadcast was delivered to the hotel – but it was flat-packed, which meant that the first job was to literally build the set!

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

Conal O’Donnell: ‘The Doolan programme did a show out of the former GDR studios in Liepzig a year after the wall came down .Strangely we still had a sort of old style communist minder with us who got terribly drunk over dinner & talked endlessly about the ghastliness of the fallen regime. Ashen faced & hung over the next morning he approached in tears begging us not to repeat anything he’d said the night before “it could ruin my career”(!)It was apparent that the old cultural cringe at saying anything remotely controversial was very much still there.Impressed too at our free wheeling ” anything goes” broadcasting style were the former GDR broadcasters who watched the show go out in some awe.A pleasant reminder of a time when the BBC was regarded as a free speech beacon to the world not a Saville style cess pit..’

Katie Wright (now Cooper): ‘God…memories! Yes it was the 5th Anniversary. The furniture arriving ‘flat’ was unbelievable but in the way of Pebble Mill folk, everyone just got on with building the stuff. I’m amazed it lasted the two hours…there were a lot of bits left over?! It was a great show with some very moving memories from Andrew Sachs. Then we all had to pile onto a rather ancient chartered aircraft to get back in time for the next day’s show……’

Daytime Live – Children in Need

Photo from Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo was taken in the Studio C, Foyer. It is of the ‘Daytime Live’ team on a ‘Children in Need’ day – when production staff from many programmes would answer the phones and take pledges from members of the public.

Included left to right are:

Back row: Katie Wright, John McNish,Celia Marks, ?,?,Maria Needle, Pam Creed, Kevin Gill,

Front row:?, Sangeeta ?, Pati Marr, ?

Please add a comment if you can fill in the gaps.

Good Morning with Anne and Nick Office

Photos by Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

Sue Robinson (studio director) took these photos in the ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’ office. The office was in a portacabin at the side of the building, near the radio studios, and Pebble Mill garden. Pebble Mill was so full at the time that there was no available office space, and so the portacabins had to be bolted on the side. ‘Good Morning’ was a live mid morning magazine show presented by Anne Diamond and Nick Owen. It ran from 1992-6, and used Studio C, the foyer for the set.

The photos include reporter/presenter Will Hanrahan; head of newsdesk, Neil Morris; producer, Nick Thorogood; producer, Marjorie ?; assistant producer; Sue Walton; the practicals desk team; assistant producer, Shirley Thomas, Nick Kenton.

Going for a Song – Sue Robinson

Sue Johnston – Autocue, Jane Mclean, Dave Brazier, Sue Robinson

Claire Hobbs, Jane Mclean, Kate Southcott (now Hillman)

Roger Sutton, Sue Robinson, Jane Mclean, Claire Hobbs

Gallery A lighting – Mark Smithers, Dave Ashton, Ian Cull, Pete Eggleston, John Cooke

Photos from Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

These photos are from the daytime antiques quiz show: ‘Going for a Song’. The show was recorded in Studio A. Claire Hobbs was the series producer, Sue Robinson the studio director, Kate Southcott (now Hillman) was an assistant producer on the series and Jane Mclean was the gallery production assistant. Dave Brazier was the floor manager, and Roger Sutton, the vision mixer.

The photos date from Christmas 1998, the show was presented by Michael Parkinson and Penny Smith, with Eric Knowles as the antiques’ expert.

This was Jane Mclean’s last ever programme before leaving the BBC.

The following information was added via the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Stuart Gandy: ‘Also note that by that date this was the new digital widescreen refurbished Studio A, you can tell that by the purple colour scheme as well. It went into use in the spring of 1998 and as we all know only lasted 3 years until its closure as a fully fledged studio in 2001.’

Mike Workman: ‘Yes, the equipment was either left to rot or sent down to London, why didn’t Midlands Today get dibs on any of it?! Interestingly enough though, does that purple colour scheme not remind anybody of the Mailbox, look the Mill was forward thinking, even predicted how its sucessor would look!’

PAs’ Leaving Party – photo by Sue Robinson

Photo by Sue Robinson, no reproduction without permission.

The photo was taken in the BBC Club bar in Dec 1998, when the staff Live Production Assistants left Pebble Mill. They include, left to right: Sue Williams, Jane Mclean, Anne Varley, Sylvia Lloyd. The stop-watch cake was a very good idea!

Jane Mclean adds the following information: ‘The only thing I can tell you about it is that it was THE BEST PARTY EVER. And that not just from me!’