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A Sleep Of Prisoners
''A Sleep of Prisoners'' is a 1951 verse play by Christopher Fry. It concerns four English prisoners of war locked up in a church overnight, and the Old Testament style dreams they have springing from an argument between them. Plot Four English soldiers are trapped in a bombed out Cathedral. Private King attempts to strangle Private Able. Separated by Corporal Adams and Private Meadows they bed down for the night. The remainder of the play reveals the dreams of each soldier and their attitude to life and death. Background Commissioned as part of the Festival of Britain, the anti-war drama, directed by Michael Macowan, opened at St. Thomas' church in Regent Street, London, in May 1951. It then toured churches around Britain with its cast of Stanley Baker, Denholm Elliott, Hugh Pryse and Leonard White. It was also performed in churches in America later the same year. Critical reception T.C. Worsley wrote "Each of the dreams is dramatically conceived and touched off with that sha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially ''The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Early life Fry was born as Arthur Hammond Harris in Bristol, the son of Charles John Harris, a master builder who retired early to work full-time as a licensed Lay Reader in the Church of England, and his wife Emma Marguerite Fry Hammond Harris. While still young, he took his mother's maiden name because, on very tenuous grounds, he believed her to be related to the 19th-century Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. He adopted Elizabeth Fry's faith, and became a Quaker. After attending Bedford Modern School, where he wrote amateur plays, he became a schoolteacher, working at the Bedford Froebel Kindergarten and Hazelwood School in Limpsfield, Surrey. In the 1920s, he met the writer Robert Gittings, who became a lifelong friend. Caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festival Of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: Labour cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the original plan to celebrate the centennial of the Great Exhibition of 1851. However, it was not to be another World Fair, for international themes were absent, as was the British Commonwealth. Instead the 1951 festival focused entirely on Britain and its achievements; it was funded chiefly by the government, with a budget of £12 million. The Labour government was losing support and so the implicit goal of the festival was to give the people a feeling of successful recovery from the war's devastation, as well as promoting British science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts. The Festival's centrepiece was in London on the South Bank ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regent Street
Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place in St James's at the southern end, through Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, to All Souls Church. From there Langham Place and Portland Place continue the route to Regent's Park. The street's layout was completed in 1825 and was an early example of town planning in England, replacing earlier roads including Swallow Street. Nash and Burton's street layout has survived, although all the original buildings except All Souls Church have been replaced following reconstruction in the late 19th century. The street is known for its flagship retail stores, including Liberty, Hamleys, Jaeger and the Apple Store. The Royal Polytechnic Institution, now the University of Westminster, has been based on Regent Street since 1838. Route Regent Str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Baker
Sir William Stanley Baker (28 February 192828 June 1976) was a Welsh actor and film producer. Known for his rugged appearance and intense, grounded screen persona, he was one of the top British male film stars of the late 1950s, and later a producer. Born into a coal mining family in Glamorgan, Baker began his acting career in the West End. Following national service in the Royal Army Service Corps after the Second World War, he befriended actor Richard Burton and began appearing in film and television roles. He played the lead role in '' Hell Drivers'' and supporting role in '' The Guns of Navarone''. He was producer and lead actor in the 1964 film '' Zulu'', in which he portrayed John Chard. Baker's performance in the 1959 film ''Yesterday's Enemy'' was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor, and he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his turn in the BBC serial ''How Green Was My Valley''. He was awarded a knighthood in 1976, although he died before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in ''Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989). Elliott gave acclaimed turns in a succession of commercial and critical hits throughout his storied career, as well as three consecutive (to this day, a still-unbeaten record) Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award wins in the 1980s for his performances as Coleman the butler in ''Trading Places'' (1983), Dr. Charles Swamby in ''A Private Function'' (1984), and as the endangered newspaper reporter Vernon Bayliss in ''Defence of the Realm'' (1985). But it was his portrayal of the eccentric Mr. Emerson in 1986's ''A Room with a View'' that earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Pryse
Hugh Pryse (1910–1955) was a British character actor. He was born on 11 November 1910 with the name John Hwfa Pryse, and was billed as Hwfa Pryse in the films ''Penn of Pennsylvania'' and '' "Pimpernel" Smith. His stage work included Peter Brook's production of '' Dark of the Moon'' in 1948–9 at the Ambassadors Theatre; and John Gielgud's 1954 staging of ''The Cherry Orchard'' at the Lyric, Hammersmith. Selected filmography * ''School for Secrets'' (1946) * '' Jassy'' (1947) * ''The Woman in the Hall'' (1947) * '' Easy Money'' (1948) * ''The Story of Shirley Yorke'' (1948) * ''Calling Paul Temple'' (1948) * ''Christopher Columbus'' (1949) * '' Dark Secret'' (1949) * '' The Broken Horseshoe'' (1953) * ''Botany Bay'' (1953) * '' Marilyn'' (1953) * ''The Happiness of Three Women'' (1954) * ''Three Cases of Murder'' (1955) * ''Port of Escape ''Port of Escape'' is a 1956 British thriller film directed by Tony Young and starring Googie Withers, John McCallum, Bill Kerr and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard White (producer)
Leonard White (5 November 1916 – 2 January 2016) was a British actor and television producer. In the latter role he was responsible for '' The Avengers'' and ''Armchair Theatre''. Early life White was born in Newhaven, East Sussex. His father was a bookmaker and racehorse owner, and his mother ran a wholesale newsagents business. He was introduced to acting by the headmaster of his school, who ran a boys' Shakespearean acting troupe. Career After leaving school, White pursued a career as a stage actor in London. Initially, he supported himself with a clerical job while performing with the Tavistock Repertory Company (now the Tower Theatre Company). During World War II, he served in the British Army in Signals; following the end of World War II in Europe, he did the remainder of his service acting in plays produced by the Army Bureau of Current Affairs. On being demobilised in 1946, he made the transition to full-time professional acting. In 1951 he was one of the original leads ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 1932, although the start of its regular service of television broadcasts is dated to 2 November 1936. The BBC's domestic television channels have no commercial advertising and collectively they accounted for more than 30% of all UK viewing in 2013. The services are funded by a television licence. As a result of the 2016 Licence Fee settlement, the BBC Television division was split, with in-house television production being separated into a new division called BBC Studios and the remaining parts of television (channels and genre commissioning, BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer) being renamed as BBC Content. History of BBC Television The BBC operates several television networks, television stations (although there is generally very little distincti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolf Rilla
Wolf Peter Rilla (16 March 1920 – 19 October 2005) was a film director and writer of German background, although he worked mainly in the United Kingdom. Rilla is known for directing ''Village of the Damned (1960 film), Village of the Damned'' (1960). He wrote many books for students, such as ''The Writer and the Screen: On Writing for Film and Television'' and ''The A to Z of Movie Making''. Early life and career Rilla was born in Berlin, where his father Walter Rilla was an actor and producer. (Originally published in the ''Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors'' In common with many others in entertainment and the arts, Walter recognised the dangers when Hitler came to power, and the family moved to London in 1934 when Wolf was 14.) He completed his schooling at the enlightened co-educational Frensham Heights School, Surrey, and went on to St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1942, he joined the BBC External Service's German section, beginning as a script editor, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Slater (actor)
John Slater (22 August 1916 – 9 January 1975) was an English character actor who usually portrayed lugubrious, amiable cockney types. Biography Slater's father was an antiques dealer. After attending St Clement Danes Grammar School in Hammersmith, Slater began acting in farce at the Whitehall Theatre. He first appeared on film in 1938, remaining active in the industry up to his death. He was a familiar face in British films of the 1940s and appeared in many classic films of the period, including ''The Day Will Dawn'' (1942, US title ''The Avengers''), ''Went the Day Well?'' (1942), ''We Dive at Dawn'' (1943), ''A Canterbury Tale'' (1944), ''The Seventh Veil'' (1945), ''It Always Rains on Sunday'' (1947) and ''Passport to Pimlico'' (1949). He was also a singer, and made three solo 78rpm records for Columbia in 1953 and 1954. The first of these was a cover of "(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window?", followed by "Travelling Alone", his own composition. The latter was rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Menmuir
Raymond Edward Menmuir (10 September 1930 – 26 March 2016) was a British-Australian director and producer. His career included producing 44 episodes of ''The Professionals (TV series), The Professionals'' and directing 12 episodes of ''Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 TV series), Upstairs, Downstairs''. He also produced an Australian version of ''The Professionals'' called ''Special Squad (1984), Special Squad'' for the Ten Network in 1984. Early life Menmuir was born in Perth, Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, as the eldest of four children to Edward Menmuir and his wife Dorothy (née Williams). His father ensured Menmuir had a good education, at Wesley College (Western Australia), Wesley College. Work His first employment was as a reporter at the Daily News (Perth, Western Australia), Perth Daily News, but he then transferred to the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a radio producer. He was deeply impressed by European culture, by seeing various films at the 1953 Fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ABC (Australian TV Channel)
ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel and the ABC are in Ultimo, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. The network began operating on 5 November 1956 as the ABC National Television Service, starting in Sydney, followed by Melbourne, with other stations being established in state capitals and regional areas in the following years. In the 1960s and 1970s, the network was also referred to as ABC National Television, or ABC Television. Until the introduction of digital television in 2001, the network was the only domestic television service broadcast by the ABC. On 8 February 2008, the channel was renamed ABC1, before being rebranded as ABC TV on 20 July 2014. As of 2022, the ABC is the third-rated television network in Australia, behind the Seven Network and Nine Netwo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
