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A Gift To Last
''A Gift to Last'' is a CBC Television Christmas special broadcast in 1976, a subsequent family drama series that ran from 1978 to 1979, and a stage play based on the pilot episode. In both the special and series, Gordon Pinsent portrayed North-West Mounted Police officer Sgt Edgar Sturgess. Christmas Special Melvyn Douglas was cast as the senior Clement Sturgess, a nephew of Sgt Edgar Sturgess. The special dramatises Clement's Christmas memories of his life around the year 1900. Mark Polley, the brother of Sarah Polley, was cast in the role of the young Clement. Series The series was set during 1899–1905, around the time of the Second Boer War. Stage Play The pilot Christmas episode of ''A Gift to Last'' was adapted for the stage by Walter Learning and Alden Nowlan Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright. History Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Wildeblood
Peter Wildeblood (19 May 1923 – 14 November 1999) was an Anglo-Canadian journalist, novelist, playwright and gay rights campaigner. He was one of the first men in the UK publicly to declare his homosexuality. Early life Peter Wildeblood was born in Alassio, on the Italian Riviera, in 1923. He was the only child of Henry Seddon Wildeblood (b. 1863), a retired engineer from the Indian Public Works Department, and his second wife, Winifred Isabel, née Evans, the daughter of a sheep rancher in Argentina. He was brought up in his parents' cottage near Ashdown Forest. His mother was considerably younger than his father, and Wildeblood later wondered whether that had affected his development. Career Wildeblood won a scholarship to Radley College and then went up to Trinity College, Oxford, in 1941, but dropped out after 10 days because of ill health. Soon afterwards, he volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as a pilot in Southern Rhodesia. However, after a series of cras ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Pinsent
Gordon Edward Pinsent (born July 12, 1930) is a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He is known for his roles in numerous productions, including ''Away from Her'', ''The Rowdyman'', ''John and the Missus'', ''A Gift to Last'', '' Due South'', ''The Red Green Show'' and ''Quentin Durgens, M.P.'' He was the voice of Babar the Elephant in television and film from 1989 to 2015. Early life Pinsent, the youngest of six children, was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland (present-day Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada). His mother, Florence "Flossie" (née Cooper), was originally from Clifton, Newfoundland and his father, Stephen Arthur Pinsent, was a paper mill worker and cobbler originally from Dildo, Newfoundland. His mother was "quiet spoken" and a religious Anglican; the family was descended from immigrants from Kent and Devon in England. He was a self-described "awkward child" who suffered from rickets. Pinsent began acting on stage in the 1940s at the age of 17. He soon to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-language counterpart is Ici Radio-Canada Télé. With main studios at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, CBC Television is available throughout Canada on over-the-air television stations in urban centres, and as a must-carry station on cable and satellite television providers. CBC Television can also be live streamed on its CBC Gem video platform. Almost all of the CBC's programming is produced in Canada. Although CBC Television is supported by public funding, commercial advertising revenue supplements the network, in contrast to CBC Radio and public broadcasters from several other countries, which are commercial-free. Overview CBC Television provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and child ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Television Special
Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of Christian media, the topic first appeared in in literature and Christmas music. Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptations of Christmas novels, in the forms of Christmas films, Santa Claus films, and Christmas television specials. It also includes animation, comics, and children's books, including '' A Charlie Brown Christmas'', ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'', and ''Frosty the Snowman''. Films Many Christmas stories have been adapted to movies and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on TV. Since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, their many editions are sold and re-sold every year during the holiday shopping season. Notable examples are the many versions of the ballet ''The Nutcracker'', the 1946 film ''It's a Wonderful Life'', and the similarly themed versions of Dickens' '' A Christmas Carol'', in which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North-West Mounted Police
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory to Canada from the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Red River Rebellion and in response to lawlessness, demonstrated by the subsequent Cypress Hills Massacre and fears of United States military intervention. The NWMP combined military, police and judicial functions along similar lines to the Royal Irish Constabulary. A small, mobile police force was chosen to reduce potential for tensions with the United States and First Nations in Canada, First Nations. The NWMP uniforms included red coats deliberately reminiscent of British and Canadian military uniforms. The NWMP was established by the Canadian government during the ministry of Prime Minister of Canada, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, John Macdonald who defined its purpose as "the pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy ''Ninotchka'' (1939) with Greta Garbo. Douglas later played mature and fatherly characters, as in his Academy Award-winning performances in ''Hud'' (1963) and ''Being There'' (1979) and his Academy Award–nominated performance in ''I Never Sang for My Father'' (1970). Douglas was one of 24 performers to win the Triple Crown of Acting. In the last few years of his life Douglas appeared in films with supernatural stories involving ghosts. Douglas appeared as "Senator Joseph Carmichael" in '' The Changeling'' in 1980 and '' Ghost Story'' in 1981 in his final completed film role. Early life Douglas was born in Macon, Georgia, the son of Lena Priscilla (née Shackelford) and Edouard Gregory Hesselberg, a concert pianist and composer. His father was a Je ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarah Polley
Sarah Ellen Polley (born January 8, 1979) is a Canadian actress,Howell, Peter (September 24, 1999)"Nobody's Starlet: Toronto's Sarah Polley is Only 20 but already a veteran actor so secure in her craft she can thumb her nose at Hollywood" ''Toronto Star''. September 4, 1999. Retrieved January 21, 2021. writer, director, producer and political activist. Polley first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series ''Ramona'', based on Beverly Cleary's books. Subsequently this led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series '' Road to Avonlea'' (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including ''The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (1988), ''Exotica'' (1994), '' The Sweet Hereafter'' (1997), ''Guinevere'' (1999), '' Go'' (1999), ''The Weight of Water'' (2000), '' No Such Thing'' (2001), ''My Life Without Me'' (2003), '' Dawn of the Dead'' (2004), '' Splice'' (2009), and '' Mr. Nobody'' (2009). Polley made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South African Republic and the Orange Free State) over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902. Following the discovery of gold deposits in the Boer republics, there was a large influx of "foreigners", mostly British from the Cape Colony. They were not permitted to have a vote, and were regarded as "unwelcome visitors", invaders, and they protested to the British authorities in the Cape. Negotiations failed and, in the opening stages of the war, the Boers launched successful attacks against British outposts before being pushed back by imperial reinforcements. Though the British swiftly occupied the Boer republics, numerous Boers refused to accept defeat and engaged in guerrilla warfare. Eventually, British scorched eart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Learning
Walter John Learning (November 16, 1938 – January 5, 2020) was a Canadian theatre director, actor, and founder of Theatre New Brunswick. Biography Walter Learning was born in 1938 in the small village of Quidi Vidi in the Dominion of Newfoundland. Learning attended Bishop Feild College in St. John's and the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick. After receiving his BA, he was awarded a Teaching Fellowship to pursue his MA, and a Commonwealth Scholarship to work on his PhD at the Australian National University in Canberra. Learning returned to Canada in May 1966. He was Director of Drama at the UNB Summer Session, and in the Fall returned to Memorial University of Newfoundland. He became a Lecturer in the Philosophy Department where he remained for two years. In May 1968, Learning moved back to Fredericton to become the General Manager of the Beaverbrook Playhouse. There he founded Theatre New Brunswick which presented its first production in January ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alden Nowlan
Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright. History Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, along a stretch of dirt road that he would later refer to as Desolation Creek. His father, Freeman Lawrence Nowlan, worked sporadically as a manual labourer. His mother, Grace Reese, was only 14 years of age when Nowlan was born, and she soon left the family, leaving Alden and her younger daughter Harriet to the care of their paternal grandmother. The family discouraged education as a waste of time, and Nowlan left school after only four grades. At the age of 14, he went to work in the village sawmill. At the age of 16, he discovered the new library in Windsor. Often on weekends he would travel eighteen miles to the library to get books, which broadened his already keen reading. "I wrote (as I read) in secret." Nowlan remem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orangeville, Ontario
Orangeville (Canada 2016 Census 28,900) is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County. History The first patent of land was issued to Ezekiel Benson, a land surveyor, on August 7, 1820. That was followed by land issued to Alan Robinet in 1822. In 1863, Orangeville was named after Orange Lawrence, a businessman born in Connecticut in 1796 who owned several mills in the village. As a young man, he moved to Canada and settled in Halton County. During Upper Canada Rebellion, Mackenzie's rebellion in 1837, he was a captain in the militia. Lawrence purchased the land that became Orangeville from Robert Hughson. He settled in the area in 1844 and established a mille. The post office dates from 1851. Orange Lawrence committed suicide December 15, 1861. In 1873, the Act of Incorporation was passed and Orangeville was given town status on January 1, 1874. The public library, located at Broadway and Mill Street, was completed in 1908. Andrew Carnegie, well- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1970s Canadian Drama Television Series
Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * February 19 – Battle of Lugdunum: Emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (modern Lyon). Albinus commits suicide; legionaries sack the town. * Septimius Severus returns to Rome and has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed. After his victory he declares himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius. * Septimius Severus forms new naval units, manning all the triremes in Italy with heavily armed troops for war in the East. His soldiers embark on an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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