The Ritz – What Was Pebble Mill?

The Continental

Thanks to costume designer, Janice Rider, for sharing these publicity photos of the 1987 comedy drama series, The Continental, by John Godber. The director was Martin Shardlow, and the producer, Chris Parr. It was the sequel to The Ritz, and followed the staff as they set up a new disco in Spain.

The comedy starred: Richard James Lewis, Richard Ridings, Andrew Livingstone, Paul Rider, Andrew Dunn, Frank Bruno, Martin Ronan, and Mark Addy.

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

Mary Sanchez: ‘Yes that’s Richard Ridings (top photo). I was Chris Parr’s secretary and remember typing some of these scripts up! It was the first drama I ever went down to watch and it gave me the bug to work in Floor managing! Brilliant.’

The Ritz – costume polaroids

Here are a couple of polaroids from costume designer, Janice Rider, which would have been taken for continuity reasons. They are from the comedy, drama series: The Ritz, by playwright John Godber. Martin Shardlow was the director and Chris Parr the producer. It was a six part series, set on consecutive nights in a newly acquired Northern disco, and transmitted weekly in spring 1987.

The Ritz – Publicity Photos

Publicity photos, probably taken by Willoughby Gullachsen, of The Ritz, the comedy drama written by John Godber, and adapted from his theatre piece, Bouncers.

The series was transmitted in 1987, it was produced by Chris Parr, and was co-directed by John Godber and Martin Shardlow.

Thanks to costume designer, Janice Rider, for sharing the photos.

The Ritz – Costume Sketches

Trashman Tony, Carol

Veronica, Eric, Lisa

Episode 5

Episode 2, Gorgeous Gary

Costume sketches for the 1987 comedy drama series, The Ritz, written by John Godber. The series was an adaptation of Godber’s theatre production: Bouncers, set in a Northern disco.

The Ritz – Janice Rider

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Specially shot video with costume designer, Janice Rider talking about the 1987 Pebble Mill drama series: ‘The Ritz’.

The series was written by John Godber, who along with Martin Shardlow, directed it. It was produced by Chris Parr. The comedy drama was set in a newly acquired nightclub in the North of England. It was based on the play, ‘Bouncers’, by John Godber.

The series starrred Richard James Lewis, Paul Rider, Andre Dunn, Andrew Livingstone, and Richard Ridings.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page about ‘The Ritz’:

Mary Sanchez: ‘I was secretary to Chris Parr at the time and went along to Libertys nightclub to watch some of the filming. ( my first time on a film set) Mark Addy also starred in it who as you know is v well known now and also andrew dunn . A fun production to be involved in!’

Terry Powell: ‘I loved this show one of the best things I worked on we were such a happy team.’