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Andrew Faulds
Andrew Matthew William Faulds (1 March 1923 – 31 May 2000) was a British actor and Labour Party politician. After a successful acting career on stage, on radio and in films, he was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1997. Early life Faulds was born to missionary parents in Isoko, Tanganyika. He married Bunty Whitfield in 1945. During the Second World War he served in both the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm. After graduating from the University of Glasgow, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1948. However, he first came to a wider public recognition playing Jet Morgan in Charles Chilton's radio drama ''Journey into Space'' on the BBC Light Programme. Acting career In 1959, Faulds and his wife played host to Paul Robeson, who had travelled to Britain to appear at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in Tony Richardson's production of ''Othello''. Robeson had only recently been permitted again to travel abroad, following the revocation of his pass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godfrey Argent
Bernard Godfrey Argent (6 February 1937 – 1 June 2006) was an English photographer notable for his black and white portraits of royalty, politicians, aristocrats and celebrities. Early life Argent was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, the son of motor engineer Godfrey Stanley Albert Argent, and his wife, Helena (''née'' Smith). He had two sisters. He was educated at Bexhill Grammar School, and then briefly entered the police constabulary, where he first learned photography. Career In 1954, Argent joined the Royal Horse Guards, Household Cavalry, serving with the Life Guards for nine years. In 1960, he became an Associate Member of the Royal Photographic Society and won the British Army Photographic Competition. He photographed Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, who encouraged him to pursue photography instead of staying in the military. Argent later recalled being told by Templer, "Don't get to my age and then regret what you might have been." Templer recommended Argent to Sir Jo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journey Into Space
''Journey Into Space'' is a BBC Radio science fiction programme written by British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC producer Charles Chilton. It was the last UK radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Originally, four series were produced (the fourth was a remake of the first), which was translated into 17 languages (including Hindi, Turkish and Dutch) and broadcast in countries worldwide (including Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and The United States). Chilton later wrote three best-selling novels and several comic strip stories based upon the radio series. The first series was created in 1953, soon after ''Riders of the Range'' (a popular Western (genre), Western, also written by Chilton) ended its six series on the BBC Light Programme. Michael Standing, then Head of the BBC Variety Department, asked Chilton if he could write a sci-fi programme, and ''Journey to the Moon'' (later known as ''Operation Luna'') was the result. Each half-hour e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisztomania (film)
''Lisztomania'' is a 1975 British surreal biographical musical comedy film written and directed by Ken Russell about the 19th-century composer Franz Liszt. The screenplay is derived, in part, from the book ''Nélida'' by Marie d'Agoult (1848), about her affair with Liszt. Depicting the flamboyant Liszt as the first classical pop star, ''Lisztomania'' features contemporary rock star Roger Daltrey (of The Who) as Franz Liszt. The film was released the same year as ''Tommy'', which also starred Daltrey and was also directed by Russell. Rick Wakeman, from the progressive rock band Yes, composed the ''Lisztomania'' soundtrack, which included synthesiser arrangements of works by Liszt and Richard Wagner. He also appears in the film as Thor, the Nordic god of thunder. Daltrey and Russell wrote the lyrics for the soundtrack, and Daltrey provided vocals. Of the other rock celebrities appearing in the film, Ringo Starr appears as the Pope. The term Lisztomania was coined by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahler (film)
''Mahler'' is a 1974 British biographical film based on the life of Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler. It was written and directed by Ken Russell for Goodtimes Enterprises, and starred Robert Powell as Gustav Mahler and Georgina Hale as Alma Mahler. The film was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Technical Grand Prize. Plot The opening credits begin with a little hut on a pier on an idyllic lake exploding in flames; then a cocooned woman struggles to break free of her white wrappings in an outdoor setting near a rough rock carving of Mahler’s head. The structure of the film is that Mahler and his wife Alma have returned to Europe from his time conducting in the United States, and are on the train to Vienna. People are thronging the platforms to greet him at each station, but he makes Alma draw the blinds and won’t listen to the people’s speeches or receive their bouquets. Instead, various incidents on the train trigger his memories or visi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Devils (film)
''The Devils'' is a 1971 historical drama film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. A dramatised historical account of the fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft after the possessions in Loudun, France, the plot also focuses on Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who incites the accusations. A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, ''The Devils'' is in part adapted from the 1952 non-fiction book ''The Devils of Loudun'' by Aldous Huxley, as well as John Whiting's subsequent 1960 play '' The Devils''. United Artists initially pitched the idea to Russell but bowed out after reading his finished screenplay, as they felt it was too controversial in nature. Warner Bros. agreed to produce and distribute, and filming largely took place at Pinewood Studios in late 1970. The film's graphic portrayal of violence, sexuality and religion ignited har ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of socialism in ''fin de siècle'' Great Britain. Morris was born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a wealthy middle-class family. He came under the strong influence of medievalism while studying Classics at Oxford University, there joining the Birmingham Set. After university, he married Jane Burden, and developed close friendships with Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and with Neo-Gothic architect Philip Webb. Webb and Morris designed Red House in Kent where Morris lived from 1859 to 1865, before moving t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dante's Inferno (1967 TV Film)
''Dante's Inferno: The Private Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter'' (1967) is a feature-length 35 mm film directed by Ken Russell and first screened on the BBC on 22 December 1967 as part of ''Omnibus (UK TV series), Omnibus''. It quickly became a staple in cinemas in retrospectives of Russell's work. Using nonlinear narrative technique, it tells of the relationship between the 19th-century artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his model, Elizabeth Siddal.Russell' s Rossetti Bruxner, David. The Guardian 26 Nov 1966: 7. Plot The exhumation of Lizzie Siddal's desiccated body is seen, followed by a shot of Rossetti dancing among the flames of a bonfire of paintings by Reynolds and Gainsborough. A voice-over informs us that Rossetti is a founder of a revolutionary group of artists called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The figure of the young Lizzie dressed as Joan of Arc appears above the flames. Lizzie is seen modelling for Millais' ''ophelia (painting), Ophelia' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptations of existing texts, or biographies, notably of composers of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for Film studio, studios. Russell is best known for his Academy Awards, Oscar-winning film ''Women in Love (film), Women in Love'' (1969), ''The Devils (film), The Devils'' (1971), The Who's ''Tommy (1975 film), Tommy'' (1975), and the science fiction film ''Altered States'' (1980). Russell also directed several films based on the lives of classical music composers, such as Elgar (film), Elgar, Song of Summer, Delius, The Music Lovers, Tchaikovsky, Mahler (film), Mahler, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cyprus, a possession of the Venetian Republic since 1489. The port city of Famagusta finally fell to the Ottomans in 1571 after a protracted siege. The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago. Othello is a Moorish military commander who was serving as a general of the Venetian army in defence of Cyprus against invasion by Ottoman Turks. He has recently married Desdemona, a beautiful and wealthy Venetian lady much younger than himself, against the wishes of her father. Iago is Othello's malevolent ensign, who maliciously stokes his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage. Due to its enduring themes of passion, jealousy, and race, ''Othello'' is still topical and popular and is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film ''Tom Jones (1963 film), Tom Jones''. Early life Richardson was born in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Shipley, West Riding of Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans (Campion) and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist. He was head girl and head boy, Head Boy at Ashville College, Harrogate and attended Wadham College, University of Oxford. His Oxford contemporaries included Rupert Murdoch, Margaret Thatcher, Kenneth Tynan, Lindsay Anderson and Gavin Lambert. He had the unprecedented distinction of being the President of both the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theatre Club (the ETC), in addition to being the theatre critic for the university magazine ''Isis magazine, Isis''. Those he cast in his student productions included Shirley William ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and south-west of Warwick. The town is the southernmost point of the Arden area on the edge of the Cotswolds. In the 2021 census Stratford had a population of 30,495; an increase from 27,894 in the 2011 census and 22,338 in the 2001 Census. Stratford was originally inhabited by Britons before Anglo-Saxons and remained a village before the lord of the manor, John of Coutances, set out plans to develop it into a town in 1196. In that same year, Stratford was granted a charter from King Richard I to hold a weekly market in the town, giving it its status as a market town. As a result, Stratford experienced an increase in trade and commerce as well as urban expansion. Stratford is a popular touris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is located in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon – Shakespeare's birthplace – in the English Midlands, beside the River Avon. The building incorporates the smaller Swan Theatre. The Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres re-opened in November 2010 after undergoing a major renovation known as the Transformation Project. History The original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre came about after a polemic 'The Tercentenary' was published by James Cox, mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1865, two years after the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, for a fitting memorial in the town. Eventually, through the efforts and donations of Edward Fordham Flower and his son Charles Edward Flower, owners of a local brewery business in Stratford ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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