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An Awfully Big Adventure
''An Awfully Big Adventure'' is a 1995 British coming-of-age film directed by Mike Newell. The story concerns a teenage girl who joins a local repertory theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of ''Peter Pan'', the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue. The title is an ironic nod to the original Peter Pan story, in which Peter says, "To die will be an awfully big adventure." Set in 1947, the film was adapted from the Booker Prize-nominated 1989 novel of the same name by Beryl Bainbridge. Plot In the film's prologue, a hotelier ushers a child into a bomb shelter during the Liverpool Blitz. We see a brief flashback to a woman leaving her baby in a basement surrounded by flickering candles. Before departing from the house, she quickly drops a string of pearls on the child's pillow, twined around a single rose. Years later, 16-year-old Stella Bradshaw lives in a working class household ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Newell (director)
Michael Cormac Newell (born 28 March 1942) is an English film and television director and producer. He won the BAFTA for Best Direction for '' Four Weddings and a Funeral'' (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and directed the films ''Donnie Brasco'' (1997) and ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' (2005). Early life Newell was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, as the son of amateur actors, and was educated at St Albans School. He read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He then attended a three-year training course at Granada Television with the intention of entering the theatre. Career Newell directed various British TV shows from the 1960s onwards (such as '' Spindoe'', credited as Cormac Newell, and ''Big Breadwinner Hog''), but eventually shifted his focus to film direction. His first feature-length project was '' The Man in the Iron Mask'' (1977), a made-for-television film. His first critically acclaimed movie was '' Bad Blood'' (1981), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter And Wendy
''Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' or ''Peter and Wendy'', often known simply as ''Peter Pan'', is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans, and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family. Barrie continued to revise the play for years after its debut until publication of the play script in 1928. The play debuted at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 27 December 1904 with Nina Boucicault, daughter of the playwright Dion Boucicault, in the title role. A Broadway production was mounted in 1905 starring Maude A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prunella Scales
Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales (''née'' Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy '' Fawlty Towers'', her nomination for a BAFTA award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in '' A Question of Attribution'' ('' Screen One'', BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett, and for the documentary series '' Great Canal Journeys'' (2014–2021), travelling on canal barges and narrowboats with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West. Early life Scales was born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, the daughter of Catherine (''née'' Scales), an actress, and John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman. She attended Moira House Girls' School, Eastbourne. She had a younger brother, Timothy "Timmo" Illingworth (1934–2017). In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, Scales's parents moved with their children to Bucks Mill near Bideford in Devon. Scales herself and her brother were eva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rita Tushingham
Rita Tushingham (born 14 March 1942) is an English actress. She is known for her starring roles in films including ''A Taste of Honey'' (1961), '' The Leather Boys'' (1964), '' The Knack ...and How to Get It'' (1965), '' Doctor Zhivago'' (1965), and '' Smashing Time'' (1967). For ''A Taste of Honey'', she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and Most Promising Newcomer at both the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards. Her other film appearances include '' An Awfully Big Adventure'' (1995), '' Under the Skin'' (1997), ''Being Julia'' (2004), and '' Last Night in Soho'' (2021). Early life Tushingham was born on 14 March 1942 in the Garston area of Liverpool, where her father was a grocer who ran three shops. She grew up in the Hunt's Cross district of the city. She attended the Heatherlea School in Allerton, the La Sagesse School in Grassendale (which later became part of St Julie's Catholic High School), and studied shorthand and typing at a secretarial scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Drinkwater
Carol Drinkwater (born 22 April 1948) is a British actress, writer and filmmaker residing in France. She portrayed Helen Herriot (née Alderson) in the television adaptation of the James Herriot books '' All Creatures Great and Small'', which led to her receiving the Variety Club Television Personality of the Year award in 1985. Career Drinkwater was a member of the National Theatre Company under the leadership of Laurence Olivier and has acted in numerous television series and films including the highly successful ''Chocky'', '' Bouquet of Barbed Wire'', '' Another Bouquet'' and ''Golden Pennies''. Drinkwater won a Critics' Circle Best Screen Actress award for her role, Anne, in the feature film ''Father'' (1990) in which she starred opposite Max von Sydow. Amongst many other film and television series, she has appeared in Stanley Kubrick's '' A Clockwork Orange'' (1971), ''Queen Kong'' (1976), '' The Shout'' (1978), ''Father'' (1990), and the film adaptation of Beryl Bainbri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Firth
Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lifespan. He has given many other television and film performances, most notably as Alan Strang in ''Equus'' (1977), earning both a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the role. Early life, family and education Firth was born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the son of publicans Mavis (née Hudson) and Eric Macintosh Firth. He attended Hanson School in Bradford. Early career Child actor Firth was a leading child actor by the middle of 1969, having starred in the first series of ''The Flaxton Boys'' as Archie Weekes and then the following year in the series '' Here Come the Double Deckers'', both of which featured child actors in the leading roles. Firth played Scooper, the leader of the gang. In 1972 h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alun Armstrong
Alan Armstrong, known professionally as Alun Armstrong, is an English actor. He grew up in County Durham in North East England, and first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic".Kalina, Paul"Old Hand Returns with New Tricks" ''The Age'', 8 November 2007. Retrieved 2018-06-08. His credits include several Charles Dickens adaptations, and the eccentric ex-detective Brian Lane in ''New Tricks''. He is also an accomplished stage actor who spent nine years with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He originated the role of Thénardier in the London production of ''Les Misérables'', and won an Olivier Award in the title role in ''Sweeney Todd''. Early life Born Alan Armstrong in Annfield Plain, County Durham, his father was a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Pan (play)
''Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' or ''Peter and Wendy'', often known simply as ''Peter Pan'', is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel. Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans, and pirates. The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook. The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family. Barrie continued to revise the play for years after its debut until publication of the play script in 1928. The play debuted at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 27 December 1904 with Nina Boucicault, daughter of the playwright Dion Boucicault, in the title role. A Broadway production was mounted in 1905 starring Maude Adams. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is a fictional character and the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play '' Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'' and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the brig ''Jolly Roger.'' His two principal fears are the sight of his own blood (supposedly an unnatural colour) and the crocodile who pursues him after eating the hand cut off by Pan. An iron hook replaced his severed hand, which gave the pirate his name. Creation of the character Hook did not appear in early drafts of the play, wherein the capricious and coercive Peter Pan was closest to a "villain", but was created for a front-cloth scene (a cloth flown well downstage in front of which short scenes are played while big scene changes are "silently" carried out upstage) depicting the children's journey home. Later, Barrie expanded the scene, on the premise that children were fascinated by pirates, and expanded the role of the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesar And Cleopatra (play)
''Caesar and Cleopatra'' is a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw that depicts a fictionalized account of the relationship between Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. It was first published with '' Captain Brassbound's Conversion'' and '' The Devil's Disciple'' in Shaw's 1901 collection '' Three Plays for Puritans''. It was first performed in a single staged reading at Newcastle upon Tyne on 15 March 1899, to secure the copyright. The play was produced in New York in 1906 and in London at the Savoy Theatre in 1907. Plot The play has a prologue and an "Alternative to the Prologue". The prologue consists of the Egyptian god Ra addressing the audience directly, as if he could see them in the theater (i.e., breaking the fourth wall). He says that Pompey represents the old Rome and Caesar represents the new Rome. The gods favored Caesar, according to Ra, because he "lived the life they had given him boldly". Ra recounts the conflict between Caesar and Pompey, their battle at P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator
Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator ( grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος Θεός Φιλοπάτωρ, ''Ptolemaĩos''; c. 62 BC – 13 January 47 BC) was Pharaoh of Egypt from 51 to 47 BC, and one of the last members of the Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BC). He was the son of Ptolemy XII and the brother of and co-ruler with Cleopatra VII. Cleopatra's exit from Egypt caused a civil war to break out between the pharaohs. Ptolemy later ruled jointly with his other sister, Arsinoe IV. Biography Co-ruler of Egypt, inner turmoil Son of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy XII (r. 80–58 BC and 55–51 BC), Ptolemy XIII succeeded his father as pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the spring of 51 BC at the age of 11. His father had stipulated that Ptolemy XIII would be married to his older sister Cleopatra (r. 51–30 BC), with the couple ruling as co-rulers. In October 50 BC, Ptolemy XIII was promoted to senior ruler along with her, although the eunuch Pothinus acted as regent for him. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to people of the same sex. It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions." Along with bisexuality and heterosexuality, homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation within the heterosexual–homosexual continuum. Scientists do not yet know the exact cause of sexual orientation, but they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences and do not view it as a choice. Although no single theory on the cause of sexual orientation has yet gained widespread support, scientists favor biologically based theories. There is considerably more evidence supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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