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‘Good Morning Summer’ was presented by Sarah Greene, and Will Hanrahan.
As the name suggests, the series was a summer version of ‘Good Morning with Anne and Nick’, but without Anne Diamond and Nick Owen. The production team was pretty much the same.
The photo includes: Katie Wright (deputy editor), Sue Walton (producer), Natasha Wood (PA), Tessa Finch (editor), Sue Robinson (director), Merrick Simmonds (director), Belinda Essex (researcher), Jane McLean (PA), Vanessa Jackson (producer), Sarah Greene (presenter), Will Hanrahan (presenter), Rosemary Edwards (producer), Sarah Jayne Phillips (vision mixer), Jane Lomas (producer), Claire Popplewell (PA), Julie Tanner (AP), Slavka (researcher), Sharon Fisher (researcher), Marco (FM), Jackie Deitrich (producer).
Thanks to Jane McLean for making the photo available.
Photos by Vanessa Jackson, no reproduction without permission.
There were three series of the garden design show, ‘Small Town Gardens’. The first was made in London, the show then transferred to Birmingham, with me series producing the second and third series at Pebble Mill 2002 -3. I was delighted to be asked to make the show by Owen Gay. The London series was presented by Rachel de Thame, Joe Swift presented the second series and James Alexander Sinclair (shown in these photos) presented the third. Mark Scott and Paul Vanezis were the producer/directors, Sarah Wilkin and Emily Rusted researched on it, with Sarah Costigan and Jo Gray the production co-ordinators. Martin Dowell and Ant Smith were the editors. There were eight episodes in the second series and six in the third. The series were transmitted on BBC 2 on Friday nights before ‘Gardeners’ World’.
The idea of the series was to show how small town gardens could be transformed into creative, innovative spaces. We teamed up well known garden designers with contributors, they went on inspiration and shopping trips to discover what they wanted for their gardens.
It was a brilliant series to make – a lovely production team, great experts, presenters and contributors (well with a couple of exceptions), wonderful locations and a decent budget! And we knew we were lucky at the time.
The photos shown here are from a shoot in Kennington, London, series 3. The garden was a converted farrier’s workshop, with a tiny courtyard garden. The contributors were great, and I seem to remember that when the garden was finished they held a party, and rather the worse for wear tried to bathe in the water feature! The couple shown in the photo are the garden designers, not the contributors!
James always wore his trade mark hat, in fact he had about seven different ones, in various states – some tatty ones reserved for gardening. I think we were lucky enough to have the use of his second best hat! We used to have to check for ‘hat hair’, if we were filming inside and he took his hat off, as his hair would get all squashed and have to be sorted!
Photos by Vanessa Jackson, no reproduction without permission.
‘Sunday Home and Garden’ was a 90 minute compilation programme presented by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen made at Pebble Mill. The series was transmitted in the early 2000’s, probably around 2003, and went out on Sunday mornings before ‘Countryfile’. I was the series producer. We used to chose clips from other BBC programmes about homes or gardens e.g. ‘Home Front’, ‘Real Rooms’ etc. We would group programmes around themes e.g. ‘Georgian’, ‘Gustavianism’, ‘Arts and Crafts’, and then choose clips that fitted with the theme. Laurence would link the clips together and add some new content e.g. making something himself or demonstrating how to dress a room in a particular style. I used to really enjoy writing Laurence’s scripts. I found it easy to hear his voice in my head when I wrote them – especially when being sardonic or ironic!
We’d record two scripts a day, so finding locations which would fit two different programmes could be a challenge. We did go to some great locations, some in London, but we also recorded two shows in Cornwall near a holiday home Laurence has there.
I remember on one shoot Laurence had insisted on wearing his rather large sunglasses all day. When we’d edited the show our exec producer objected to the sunglasses, because you couldn’t see his eyes properly, and made us re-shoot the whole thing! None of us were best pleased, but Laurence never insisted on wearing his sunglasses again!
Photos by Gail Herbert, no reproduction without permission.
Gardening writer, presenter and plant pathologist Dr Stefan Buczacki made a number of gardening series at BBC Pebble Mill:
Stefan Buczacki’s Gardening Britain was a six part series transmitted in 1996 on BBC 2. Stefan travelled round Britain dispensing gardening advice. This series was recorded as a two camera outside broadcast. The producer was Clare Boulter and the series producer Clare Stride. (The end of run meal features in the photos).
Stefan Buczacki’s Gardening Roadshow was a similar gardening advice show produced at Pebble Mill in 1998 for UK Style. Again it was recorded as a two camera outside broadcast. The crew for the series included cameraman Nigel Davey and Noel Paley, and sparks Herbie Donnelly.
Stefan also presented several stories for Gardeners’ World in 1990-1, including a feature on the restoration of Heligan Gardens in Cornwall, shown in one of the photos (Stefan with umbrella and palm trees).
Stefan also presented a series for UK Style called Stefan’s Ultimate Gardens, where he helped garden owners create a particular style of garden. This series was recorded single camera. Series producer Vanessa Jackson, director Paul Newman, researcher Emily Rusted.
Thanks to production assistant Gail Herbert for sharing her photos.
