Telly Addicts – Page 2 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Being a Telly Addicts contestant

Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

In the photo, from left to right. Myself (Billy McLauchlan), Mary McLauchlan ( Mother ), Andy McPherson and Brian Morris (Brother ).

Billy McLauchlan talking about Telly Addicts 1986

“I remember being more excited at the prospect of visiting Pebble Mill than of being a contestant on Telly Addicts in 1986.
The highlight for me was meeting Victoria Wood and Anne Reid along with Hugh Loyd and Christopher Strauli who were recording her As Seen on TV series.
I was a big fan of Pebble Mill at One back in the day.
A shame it’s gone …”

The episode was in series 2 , ep5 ( transmitted 30/9/86 )

Here is the Radio Times entry of the episode, courtesy of the BBC Genome project:

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/89f07df3d53140adad73fdf67059821e

“Pit your television knowledge against the families trying to identify the time traveller, the engine driver, the nobleman and the sleuth – all featured in tonight’s edition of Noel Edmonds ‘s search for the Telly Addicts champions of the year.
Producer JOHN G. SMITH
Executive producer JOHN KING BBC Pebble Mill”

Dan Oliver, 30th July 1973 – 23rd January 2016

Dan Oliver. Copyright remains with the original holder

Style Challenge end of series team photo. Copyright remains with the original holder, no reproduction without permission.

Dan Oliver, who worked on Style Challenge at Pebble Mill in the 1990s and is included in the photo above, sadly died last month. Below is the message he posted on Facebook on Christmas Eve to his friends, telling them of his illness. Dan’s friends suggested that this was the most suitable message to post up about his death. Dan’s funeral was held last week, and was attended by Nick Harris and Simon Lupton.

December 24th, 2015

Dear Friends,

Weird but important email to write. I sincerely hope that all of you are about to have a wonderful Christmas with the people who matter to you Some of you I haven’t spoken to in weeks, some in many, many years -I’m a Facebook lurker, more prone to seeing what others are doing, than posting myself- but I need to get this said……

In September 2014 I was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer. I had hoped to tell everyone in early 2015, when I wanted to announce that I was doing a marathon fuck-cancer charity swim down the river Dart. But then some drug-induced hepatitis got in the way. Then it was the summer, and two lots of surgery to deal with the collapse of my spine, and the autumn, and emergency radio therapy to deal with what had grown back. Blah-de-fucking blah, and on it goes……. Turns out it’s in my spine, my lungs, throughout my lymph system. Originally , we were told I could expect around three years. maybe more, because most people who present with my symptoms tend to be much less fit, and much older.

Unfortunately, things have moved much faster than that, and I was told in mid November to think about living a few more weeks. It seems that I’ll be lucky enough to be around for Christmas, but have little idea beyond that. So, what do you do in a situation like this? Well, it turns out that I seem to want people to know. Not just you, but the friends we had who I kind of lost track of along the way. So that’s the lovely GFL people, with whom I had some of my most joyous working experiences ever. It’s the Scene One crowd. It’s the people I got sober with. Or it’s people from BBC Birmingham.. I want people to know for two reasons. The first is a desire for a packed, rafter raising funeral (details to be followed, posted by a loved one on Facebook). The second is because…well I just do. I’m self-centred and egotistical enough for this not to pass without telling people.

And now the really important stuff. I need to say that amongst all this shit I regard myself as extraordinarily lucky. In marrying Clementina I became the most happily married man I’ve ever met. If that’s boastful, sue me; I’m dying. I also have four mad, extraordinary wonderful children We do something fun every day. I have a fantastic extended family and a circle of friends that are utterly indistinguishable from family. I was told by a mate not long ago that he thought we were put here to love and be loved. I believe that, and I believe it’s pretty much mission accomplished. I regard myself as lucky, privileged So…if you could spread the word….. visits are a bit of a no-no, because I sleep an awful lot of the day, and get tired very quickly. Since I spend hours looking at my bedroom ceiling, letters and messages are very gratefully received, though , (forgive the fact that I’ll porbably be rubbish at responding.) Here endeth my missive. Not the greatest festive message, I appreciate, but one I rather needed to send. I wish you all the happiest, warmest Christmas with your loved ones, and hope to hear from you soon.

With love from Dan x

DAN OLIVER 30th July 1973 – 23rd January 2016

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

Becky Rogers: ‘We worked together on Telly Addicts and Telly Years and sat opposite each other. I remember laughing every day and him telling me my winter clothes were much better than what I wore in summer. Always the man from Style Challenge!!’

Melissa Feather: ‘Such a lovely person xx always jolly, so happy and would do anything xx very very happy memories of working with him on Style challenge’

Lesley Weaver: ‘I don’t think I had the privilege of knowing Dan personally as I didn’t work on those programmes, but I do recognise his face. My heart goes out to Clementina and their children. Having lost my own husband Chris Weaver to kidney cancer 6 months ago it’s painful to hear of another terrible loss to kidney cancer, Dan’s words echo in my heart and bring tears to my eyes!’

Annabel Walker: ‘I had the pleasure of working with Dan on two productions, 10yrs apart… He hadn’t changed at all. When the shit was hitting the fan Dan’s mantra was “Kill ’em, fuck ’em, eat ’em… In that order…” He was a fighter, and a lovely man full of fun.’

Don Pinchbeck

Don, in the centre

Children in Need: Jason (postroom) (left), Marie Phillips (Children in Need Organiser) (centre) next to Don

My dad, Don Pinchbeck, worked at Pebble Mill between 1977-2001 as a Studio Attendant, he absolutely loved working for BBC Pebble Mill, he always had great stories about stars that he’d seen and the lovely people he worked with, unfortunately he passed away on 27 Dec 2015 aged 80, a great dad, husband and grandad, much loved and missed. His funeral will be taking place at St Edwards Church, Selly Park on Wed 20 Jan 2016 at 9.30am.

My dad worked at the BBC from retired in 2001 (though he really didn’t want to) he was always based at Pebble Mill, the shows I know he worked on were:

Pebble Mill at One

Telly Addicts

Basil Brush Show

I can’t remember if he worked on the Clothes Show, I know he worked on a similar show with John Leslie hosting it.

The Alan Titchmarsh show

Maybe Top Gear

Children in Need

He mentioned lots of celebrities over the years, probably when Pebble Mill at One was still on, Barry Manilow, Joan Collins, Roger Moore, the stars from the shows above and lots of others. He received lots of commendations for his hard work over the years which my mom kept. He took me to a few staff kid’s Christmas parties at the BBC, we went to see Basil Brush a few times, we attended an open day they had for the public in the early 90’s I remember which are great and we went in the audience a few times at Children in Need. He was very hard working, dad to 5, grandad to 3, great grandad to 2. He lived in Selly Oak all his life, so he loved working locally and for the Beeb as he called it.

Catherine Pinchbeck

(The show that Catherine mentions, presented by John Leslie, would have been Style Challenge).

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

Les Podraza: ‘I remember Don very well. A great charachter and hard working part of Studio A. Always ready to muck in and help out. So sad he has now departed this world. ‘

Richard Smith: ‘Sad to learn of Don’s death. A lovely, friendly and hard working man, would do anything to help you. Many happy times with him in House Services. In the photos are Jason Edwards, Robert Pash, Alan Evans, Billy Gardner, Frank Barber and Marie Phillips. Condolences to Don’s family.’

Donald Steel: ‘I remember Don very well and with fondness – always the same always cheerful. It was a great gang in those days everybody helped you. So very sorry to hear of his passing.’

Marie Phillips: ‘The group photo was my retirement party in March 1998. Don was not fond of “does”so I was thrilled he and the rest of “my lads” came along. I honestly could not have done so many events for Children in Need without the enthusiasm and often out of hours help given by Don and all of them. He and they were a breed apart and I was forever grateful. Fond memories Don.’

Gill Thompson: ‘I worked with Don looking after the audiences at Pebble Mill, a lovely man and excellent at his job, always smiling and very professional.’

Mary Sanchez: ‘I remember him well from my Pebble Mill days – always really nice and friendly. I also used to see him out and about around Selly Park and we’d wave .’

Telly Addicts titles grab

Thanks to Ian Collins for making this titles grab available.

Telly Addicts was a BBC1 early evening, game show about television presented by Noel Edmonds. It was first transmitted in 1985, and ended in 1998. John King was the Executive Producer, with producers including Tim Manning and Richard Lewis. It was recorded in Studio A.

The questions were about television programmes past and present, with the usual format being a clip followed by questions. There were usually two teams of four people each, with a tournament style of 16 teams, in 8 qualifying heats, being adopted from 1987-1996.

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

Denny Hodge: ‘Yes fond memories doing the warm up on the show.’

Jane Green: ‘Your warm ups were a treat to see Denny. Remember them well. I worked on this. Noel was a dream to look after. Helicopter arrived literally 5 minutes before rehearsals began and he had his clothes all ready and pressed and he’d be in studio on time. No fuss, no silly demands. Went to collect him from his dressing room once and found him standing on a chair waving a ‘brick’ around. It was a new thing called a mobile phone and he was trying to get a signal. His very beautiful new wife Helen turned up to rehearsals one evening to support him as his much loved dog had just died and he was so upset. She just walked in – I didn’t know who she was and was about to ask her to leave when someone explained…’

Andrew Langstone: ‘My friend Jennifer Kings (was Hassall) was a production secretary on Telly Addicts. Managed to get us some tickets for a few recordings.’

Malcolm Hickman: ‘Didn’t John King flog the rights to Noel Edmonds?’

Richard Stevenson: ‘The first show I worked on in 1997. Ironically I then went on to work with Noel on numerous Gotchas (65 I think), Noel’s House Party and some great worldwide trips for Noel’s Christmas Presents.’

Belinda Essex: ‘I used to do auto cue sometimes’

Gill Thompson: ‘I used to organise the audiences for this show, never had a problem filling seats was always a popular one!’

Sarah Dunning: ‘And the graphic designer was the brilliant Annie Jenkins!’

Jane Upston: ‘I remember recruiting for this programme (I was Jane Morgan then and worked in HR). I remember Nick Hurran too, the Director and Jennifer Hassell. Who was the PA?’

Richard Stevenson: ‘Trudi Stanton and Roger Sutton vision mixed I think. Can’t remember the PA but it will come to me!….Thea Harvey?’

BBC Telephone Directory 1995/6

This is a page from the BBC Telephone Directory of 1995/6. It promotes the Resources Department of the Midlands and East Region. This would have been after the vertical split imposed by John Birt, when Resources had to become more commercial and take paying work from Independent Production Companies. The page is lists prominent productions serviced by Pebble Mill’s Resources Department, which included design, graphics, editing, crewing – both radio and television.

Thanks to Peter Poole for making this page available.