|
Alec Bregonzi
Alec Bregonzi (21 April 1930, London – 4 June 2006) was an English actor who appeared in a number of stage and television roles. Bregonzi began his career as a professional actor in 1955 in repertory theatre in Farnham, then in York, Bromley and Leatherhead, amongst other places. Work in the West End followed, in Tennessee Williams's ''Camino Real'', where he played two parts and understudied Ronnie Barker. In 1957, Bregonzi appeared in ''Hancock's Half Hour'' for the first time. He went on to appear in 22 of the 63 television episodes Tony Hancock made for BBC Television. In 1958, Bregonzi toured with Hancock, and they performed the famous "Budgerigar" sketch together on tour and in the Royal Variety Performance and on television (in Christmas Night with the Stars). They toured together again in 1961. Duncan Wood, the television director of ''Hancock's Half Hour'' recommended Bregonzi to other directors, so that he also appeared in 1950s/60s shows starring Benny ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as ''Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city#National capitals, Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national Government of the United Kingdom, government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the Counties of England, counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benny Hill
Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor, singer and writer. He is remembered for his television programme ''The Benny Hill Show'', an amalgam of slapstick, burlesque and double entendre in a format that included live comedy and filmed segments, with Hill at the focus of almost every segment. Hill was a prominent figure in British television for several decades. His show was among the most-watched programmes in the UK, with the audience peaking at more than 21 million in 1971. ''The Benny Hill Show'' was also exported to many countries around the world. He received a BAFTA Television Award for Best Writer and a Rose d'Or, and was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety. In 2006, Hill was voted by the British public number 17 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Outside television, Hill starred in films including the Ealing comedy '' Who Done I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Two Ronnies
''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, serial stories and musical finales. Origins Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett met in 1963 at the Buckstone Club in the Haymarket, London, where Corbett was serving drinks between acting jobs. At the time, Barker was beginning to establish himself as a character actor in the West End and on radio. They were invited by David Frost to appear in his new show, '' The Frost Report'', with John Cleese, but the pair's big break came when they filled in, unprepared and unscripted, for eleven minutes during a technical hitch at a British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards ceremony at the London Palladium in 1970. In the audience was Bill Cotton, the Head of Light Entertainment for the BBC, and Sir Paul Fox, the Controller of BBC1. Cotton was so i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kelly Monteith
Kelly Norton Monteith (October 17, 1942 – January 1, 2023) was an American comedian, actor, writer and producer. He was best known for writing and starring in the BBC comedy show ''Kelly Monteith''. Early life Kelly Norton Monteith was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 17, 1942. Career During the early 1970s, Monteith performed as a guest comedian on various talk shows, including ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' and ''The Late Show with David Letterman''. In 1976, Monteith had a short-lived variety show on CBS, ''The Kelly Monteith Show''. After successful guest appearances on British talk shows, he was offered his own series by the BBC. In 1979, ''Kelly Monteith'' was broadcast, and ran for six seasons. It was noted for often breaking the fourth wall by showing Monteith in his dressing room before and after a scene. ''Kelly Monteith'' won the Silver Rose for the BBC at the Montreux Television Festival in Switzerland during the series' run. In the Unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little And Large
''Little and Large'' were a British comedy double act comprising straight man Syd Little (born Cyril John Mead; 19 December 1942) and comic Eddie Large (born Edward Hugh McGinnis; 25 June 1941 – 2 April 2020). Comedy duo They formed their partnership in 1962, originally appearing as singers in local pubs around north-west England. According to an interview with Eddie Large in ''Metro'' newspaper (11 January 2019), they went professional in October 1963. After deciding to concentrate on comedy, Little and Large's big break came in 1971 when they appeared on ITV talent show '' Opportunity Knocks''. They won the programme's vote, turning them into household names virtually overnight. Within five years, the duo had their own prime-time show on ITV called ''The Little and Large Tellyshow''. It began with a pilot episode in 1976, which earned the pair a commission for a series in 1977. However, the duo transferred to BBC1 with a new show called '' The Little and Large Show'' fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hale And Pace
Hale and Pace were an English comedy double-act that performed in clubs and on radio and television in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s. The duo was made up of Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, with the ''Hale and Pace'' television show running for ten years and 66 episodes, from 1988 to 1998. Early career Gareth Hale (born 15 January 1953) and Norman Pace (born 17 February 1953) met at Avery Hill teacher-training college in Eltham, South-East London. After five years in education, they moved to entertainment in the late 1970s. They performed mostly in the Tramshed in Woolwich, London for seven years. This developed into sketch-writing, with a show entitled ''Don't Stop Now - It's Fundation''. Before appearing on TV, they did a series of radio shows for Radio 4 based on their show at the Tramshed. Their early TV breaks came on ''The Entertainers'' (1984) and ''Pushing Up Daisies'' (1984), and they went on to appear in the Channel 4 sketch show ''Coming Next'' (1985 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English comedian, radio disc jockey and television presenter. After spells on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, he was one of the first DJs to join BBC Radio's newly created BBC Radio 1 in 1967. It was here he developed his trademark voices and surreal characters which he later adapted for television. Everett was dismissed from the BBC in 1970 after making remarks about a government minister's wife. He was later re-instated at the BBC, working both on local and national radio, but, in the Autumn of 1973, when commercial radio became licenced in the UK, he joined Capital Radio. Starting in the late 1970s, he transitioned to television where he made numerous comedy series on ITV and BBC, often appearing with Cleo Rocos, whose glamorous and curvaceous figure was often used to comic effect. Rocos would be his assistant in the 1987 BBC gameshow ''Brainstorm''. He was a hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Melville (writer)
Alan Melville (9 April 1910 – 24 December 1983) was an English broadcaster, writer, actor, raconteur, producer, playwright and wit. Biography Born William Melville Caverhill in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England, he was educated in his home town and then a boarder at the Edinburgh Academy. Leaving school at 17, he started work in the family timber merchants as an apprentice joiner. At the age of 22, he entered an essay competition in ''John O'Leary's Weekly'' with an essay entitled ''My Perfect Holiday'' and won the first prize; a return trip to Canada (1934). Soon afterwards he sent the BBC North Region six short stories called ''The Adventures of the Pink Knight'' (1934), which were accepted and used on ''Children's Hour''. He was required to read the stories himself, his first professional engagement. He continued to write from the timber yard, his short stories, poems, manuscripts sometimes being accepted by various publishers. He wrote his first novel, a whodunit c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Logan
James Allan Short, OBE, FRSAMD (4 April 1928 – 13 April 2001), known professionally as Jimmy Logan, was a Scottish performer, theatrical producer, impresario and director. Family Logan was born in Dennistoun, Glasgow, a member of a family of entertainers; the tradition began with his parents (Jack Short and Mary Dalziel "May" Allan) who were the music hall act Short and Dalziel. His aunt, from whom he took his stage surname, was Broadway performer Ella Logan. He had four siblings including actress/singer Annie Ross. Career Educated at Gourock High School, Inverclyde, and latterly Bellahouston Academy, Glasgow, Logan left school at the age of 14. His family, in the 1930s and 1940s, toured the small music halls of Scotland and Northern Ireland and ran seasons at the Metropole, Glasgow and in the Theatre, Paisley, where Logan became house manager for the family. He was in pantomime by 1944, playing the cat in '' Dick Whittington and His Cat'', and soon became a comedy st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Worth
Harry Bourlon Illingsworth (20 November 1917 – 20 July 1989), professionally known as Harry Worth, was an English comedy actor, comedian and ventriloquist. Worth portrayed a charming, gentle and genial character, totally bemused by life, creating comedic confusion wherever he went. Early life Worth was born in Hoyland Common, West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest child of a miner. He had ten siblings. When he was only five months old, his father died from injuries resulting from an industrial accident. He left school at 14 and was a miner for eight years. He earned 2 shillings 2½ pence a day and worked near the lift in the mine; he said he hated every minute of it. He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941.''Daily Mirror'', 15 August 1971, page 11: "Harry Lands a Scoop" As a teenager, he was in the Tankersley Amateur Dramatics Society and taught himself ventriloquism from a book he borrowed from the local library, buying his first dummy in 1936. During the Seco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Howerd
Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992), better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. Early life Howerd was born the son of soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934)England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005 and Edith Florence Howard (née Morrison, 1888–1962), at the City Hospital in York, England, in 1917 (not 1922 as he later claimed). His mother worked at the Rowntree's chocolate factory. For his first two and a half years, Howerd lived in a terraced house at 53, Hartoft Street. He described it as "a poorish area of the city near the River Ouse". He later said he had only one memory of living in York and that was of falling down the stairs, an experience which left him with a life-long dread of heights. He returned to York on many occasions for family holidays, however, and later in life spoke of his fondness for the city. His family moved to Eltham, London when he was a young child, and he was educated at Shooter' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
