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Bob Spiers
Robert Alexander Spiers (27 September 1945 – 8 December 2008) was a Scottish television comedy director and producer. He worked on many sitcoms and won two British Academy Television Awards for ''Fawlty Towers'' and ''Absolutely Fabulous''. He also directed the film '' Spice World'' (1997). Biography Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he attended Southgate College in the 1960s. "Jock", as he was affectionately known at the time, organised several student trips from the college to mainland Europe, including Brussels and Cologne, during this period. He was also already an accomplished tennis player, having achieved a very high national standard during the time he lived in Scotland. Spiers joined the staff of the BBC in 1970,Anthony Hayward, Jon Plowma"Bob Spiers: Director of 'Absolutely Fabulous', 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Dad's Army'" ''The Independent'', 9 December 2008 working as an assistant floor manager and later a production assistant, before eventually working his way up to become a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. Straddling the border between historic Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Glasgow has the largest economy in Scotland and the third-highest GDP per capita of any city in the UK. Glasgow's major cultural institutions – the Burrell Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera – enjoy international reputations. The city was the European Capital of Culture in 1990 and is notable for its architecture, cult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rose D'Or
The Rose d'Or ('Golden Rose') is an international awards festival in entertainment broadcasting and programming. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) first acquired the Rose d’Or in 1961, when it was created by Swiss Television in the lakeside city of Montreux. The awards stayed with the EBU for almost 40 years. The EBU re-acquired the awards in 2013 and successfully re-launched the event that year in Brussels, then relocated to Berlin from 2014 to 2018. In 2014 the event took place on 17 September in Berlin, Germany. For the first time in its 53-year history, the competition categories were extended to include radio and online video programmes in addition to the traditional focus on television. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from several countries took part. In 2019 the EBU partnered with international publishing company and digital channels business C21Media to take over the organisation of the Rose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joking Apart
''Joking Apart'' is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark (Robert Bathurst) and Becky (Fiona Gillies), who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced. The twelve episodes, broadcast between 1993 and 1995, were directed by Bob Spiers and produced by Andre Ptaszynski for independent production company Pola Jones. The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then-recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Some of the episodes in the first series followed a non-linear parallel structure, contrasting the rise of the relationship with the fall. Other episodes were ensemble farces, predominantly including the couple's friends Robert ( Paul Raffield) and Tracy (Tracie Bennett). Paul Mark Elliott also appeared as Trevor, Becky's lover. Scheduling problems meant that the show attracted low viewing figures. However, it scored highly on the Appreciation Index an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audio Commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add information which otherwise would not be disclosed to audience members. Types of commentary The DVD medium allows multiple audio tracks for each video program. DVD players usually allow these to be selected by the viewer from the main menu of the DVD or using the remote. These tracks will contain dialogue and sound of the movie, often with alternative tracks featuring different language dialogue, or various types of audio encoding (such as Dolby Digital, DTS or PCM). Among them may be at least one commentary track. There are several different types of commentary. The two main types simply define the length of the commentary rather than the type of content. They are: *Partial or scene-specific, which only covers selected scenes of the film. Som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tracking Shot
A tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly that is then placed on rails – like a railroad track. As a result, this type of shot is often referred to as a dolly shot. A handheld steadycam or gimbal may also be used for smaller scale productions. The camera is then pushed along the track while the scene is being filmed or moved manually when using a handheld rig. The technique is often used to follow a subject that would otherwise leave the frame (ergo, it is often called a following shot), such as an actor or vehicle in motion. In this spirit, any conveyance, such as a motorized vehicle like a car, may also be used to create a tracking shot. A handheld or Steadicam mounted camera following a similar trajectory is called a tracking shot as well. While the core idea is that the camera moves parallel to its subjec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Cornell
Paul Douglas Cornell (born 18 July 1967) is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as ''Doctor Who'' fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield. As well as ''Doctor Who'', other British television dramas for which he has written include ''Robin Hood'', ''Primeval'', ''Casualty'', '' Holby City'' and ''Coronation Street''. For US television, he has contributed an episode to the modern-day set Sherlock Holmes series ''Elementary''. Cornell has also written for a number of British comics, as well as Marvel Comics and DC Comics in America, and has had six original novels published in addition to his ''Doctor Who'' fiction. Career Already known in ''Doctor Who'' fan circles, Cornell's professional writing career began in 1990 when he was a winner in a young writers' competition and his entry, ''Kingdom Come'', was produced and screened on BBC Two. Soon after, he wrote '' Timewyrm: Revelation'', a novel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITV (TV Network)
ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. ITV was for four decades a network of separate companies which provided regional television services and also shared programmes between each other to be shown on the entire network. Each franchise was originally owned by a different company. After several mergers, the fifteen regional franchises are now held by two companies: ITV plc, which runs the ITV1 channel, and STV Group, which runs the STV channel. The ITV network is a separate entity from ITV plc, the company that resulted from the merger of Granada plc and Carlton Communications in 2004. ITV plc holds the Channel 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Moffat
Steven William Moffat (; born 18 November 1961) is a Scottish television writer, television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and the contemporary crime drama television series '' Sherlock'', based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. In the 2015 Birthday Honours, Moffat was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama.United Kingdom: Born in Paisley, Scotland, Moffat, the son of a teacher, was formerly a teacher himself. His first television work was the teen drama series ''Press Gang''. His first sitcom, ''Joking Apart'', was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage. Later in the 1990s, he wrote ''Chalk'', inspired by his own experience as an English teacher. Moffat, a lifelong fan of ''Doctor Who'', wrote the comedic sketch episode ''The Curse of Fatal Death'' for the Comic Relief chari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Bit Of Fry And Laurie
''A Bit of Fry & Laurie'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, broadcast on both BBC1 and BBC2 between 1989 and 1995. It ran for four series and totalled 26 episodes, including a 36-minute pilot episode in 1987. As in ''The Two Ronnies'', elaborate wordplay and innuendo were staples of its material. It frequently broke the fourth wall; characters would revert into their real-life actors mid-sketch, or the camera would often pan off set into the studio. In addition, the show was punctuated with non sequitur vox pops in a similar style to those of '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', often making irrelevant statements, heavily based on wordplay. Laurie was also seen playing piano and a wide variety of other instruments and singing comical numbers. Broadcast details The 36-minute pilot was broadcast on BBC1 at 11:55pm on Boxing Day 1987, although it was later edited down to 29 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French And Saunders
''French and Saunders'' is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows. In a 2005 poll to find ''The Comedian's Comedian'', the duo were voted among the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Their last special, ''French and Saunders Christmas Celebrity Special'', aired on 27 December 2005 on BBC One. In 2006, both French and Saunders announced their sketch show was now dead, and that they had moved ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Comic Strip Presents
The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series ''The Comic Strip Presents...'', which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others. Early history Two double acts, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall under the name " 20th Century Coyote" and Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson as "The Outer Limits", started performing at the newly opened Comedy Store in London in 1980, alongside compere Alexei Sayle who had been resident there since the Comedy Store opened in 1979. Concurrently Richardson searched for a venue to mount a play he had produced with Michael White. He planned to run the Comic Strip late at night after the play's performances. He sourced the Raymond Revuebar in Soho, but reali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
