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Beyond Our Ken
''Beyond Our Ken'' is a BBC radio comedy programme first broadcast between 1958 and 1964. It starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, Bill Pertwee, and, as announcer, Douglas Smith. The title is a play on the name Kenneth and the familiar expression "beyond our ken" (''ken'' being a mainly Northern English and Scots word meaning 'knowledge or perception'). The show ran for seven series, and a total of 121 shows. The scripts were by Eric Merriman, with Barry Took as co-writer in the first two series. Musical accompaniment was provided by the BBC Revue Orchestra, with musical interludes mostly by the Fraser Hayes Four. When the show finished it was replaced by the series ''Round the Horne'' (1965–1968), which built on, and exceeded, the success of the earlier show. Background Eric Merriman had written some material for Barry Took, when the latter was an aspiring stand-up comic.Took, p. 137 They subsequently collaborated in writing material ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sketch Comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke (or "bit") while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation. definition 3b, Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved 5/4/2019 History Sketch comedy has its origins in |
Stand-up Comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke, one-liners, stories, observations or a shtick that may incorporate Theatrical property, props, comedy music, music, Magic (illusion), magic tricks or ventriloquism. It can be performed almost anywhere, including comedy clubs, comedy festivals, bars, nightclubs, colleges or theatres. History Stand-up as a Western world, Western art form has its roots in the Stump speech (minstrelsy), stump speech of American minstrel shows, which featured an actor in blackface delivering nonsensical monologue to the audience. While the intention of stump speeches was to mock African-Americans, they also occasionally contained political and social satire. The minstrel show would later influence theatrical traditions of the late 19th and early 20th centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ITMA
''It's That Man Again'' (commonly contracted to ''ITMA'') was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran for twelve series from 1939 to 1949. The shows featured Tommy Handley in the central role, a fast-talking figure, around whom the other characters orbited. The programmes were written by Ted Kavanagh and produced by Francis Worsley. Handley died during the twelfth series, the remaining programmes of which were immediately cancelled: ''ITMA'' could not work without him, and no further series were commissioned. ''ITMA'' was a character-driven comedy whose satirical targets included officialdom and the proliferation of minor wartime regulations. Parts of the scripts were rewritten in the hour before the broadcast, to ensure topicality. ''ITMA'' broke away from the conventions of previous radio comedies, and from the humour of the music halls. The shows used sound effects in a novel manner, which, alongside a wide range of voices and accents, created the programme's atmosphere. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh
''Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh'' was a comedy show broadcast from 1944 to 1950 and 1951 to 1954 by BBC radio and in 1950–51 by Radio Luxembourg. It was written by and starred Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne as officers in a fictional RAF station coping with red tape and the inconveniences and incongruities of life in the Second World War. After the war the station became a country club and finally the show became the chronicle of a newspaper, ''The Weekly Bind''. Among the supporting cast were Sam Costa as the officers' batman, Maurice Denham in a multitude of roles, Diana Morrison, Dora Bryan and Nicholas Parsons. Singers in the musical interludes in the show included Gwen Catley, Maudie Edwards. Binnie Hale and Doris Hare. Among those appearing as guest stars were Phyllis Calvert, Richard Dimbleby, Glynis Johns, Alan Ladd and Jean Simmons. The show followed ''ITMA'' as the most popular British radio comedy, and was succeeded by ''Take It From Here'' and ''The Goon Show''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marty Feldman
Martin Alan Feldman (8 July 1934 – 2 December 1982) was a British actor, comedian and comedy writer. He was known for his exophthalmos, prominent, strabismus, misaligned eyes. He initially gained prominence as a writer with Barry Took on the ITV (TV network), ITV sitcom ''Bootsie and Snudge'' and the BBC Radio comedy programme ''Round the Horne''. He became known as a performer on ''At Last the 1948 Show'' (co-writing the "Four Yorkshiremen sketch" which Monty Python would perform) and ''Marty (TV series), Marty'', the latter of which won Feldman two British Academy Television Awards including British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance, Best Entertainment Performance in 1969. Feldman went on to appear in films such as ''The Bed Sitting Room (film), The Bed Sitting Room'' and ''Every Home Should Have One'', the latter of which was one of the most popular comedies at the British box office in 1970. In 1971, he starred in the comedy-variety sketch se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jill Day
Yvonne Page, known professionally as Jill Day (5 December 1930 – 16 November 1990) was an English pop singer and actress in Britain in the 1950s and early 1960s. Career She was born in Brighton, Sussex, England, and found fame in film, radio and television. By 1954, as the former lead singer for Geraldo's Orchestra, she had topped the bill at the London Palladium, and co-starred in the West End production of ''The Talk of the Town''. A Jill Day comic strip drawn by Denis Gifford was published in Star Comics (1954), edited by Gifford and Bob Monkhouse. Day also appeared in the 1955 comedy film, '' All for Mary''. She also sang on the soundtrack of ''The Good Companions'' and '' Doctor at Sea''. In 1957, she competed in the heats of the contest to represent the United Kingdom in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest, eventually losing out to Patricia Bredin. Day was known for her long slim dresses with stiff petticoat under the below-the-knee hem which she wore in numerous telev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jan Waters
Jan Waters (born ) is an English actress of the theatre, television, and film. She was particularly active in the London theatre scene during the 1960s and 1970s, notably appearing in the original West End productions of Jule Styne's '' Do Re Mi'' and Noël Coward's '' High Spirits''. She also made a moderate number of appearances on British television and appeared in a small number of British films during this time. She was once married to actor Peter Gilmore. Career Waters was born in Bournemouth, Hampshire to Albert Edward and Florence May Waters. She made her professional stage debut in 1960 in the title role of a pantomime version of the classic story of Cinderella at the Adelphi Theatre. The following year she made her first film appearance as Jackie in Lance Comfort's ''Touch of Death'' and she portrayed the role of Tilda Mullen in the original West End production of Jule Styne's '' Do Re Mi'' at the Prince of Wales Theatre. She remained highly active in London theat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Maxwell (radio Producer)
Charles Chalmers Maxwell (1 September 1910 – 4 August 1998) was a British radio producer who produced shows for the BBC such as ''Take It From Here'' and brought together the scriptwriting partnership of Frank Muir and Denis Norden. Later in his career he commissioned the long running series ''I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again''. Early life Maxwell was born in Fife, Scotland and after attending Edinburgh Academy went to university to study law and qualified as a solicitor. However he soon abandoned the law for a career in show business. Independent radio career In 1936 Maxwell joined Radio Luxembourg as a station announcer. One of his jobs was to read out commentary on English Test cricket. The script was written in London and was telephoned through to broadcaster Roy Plomley who was working at another commercial station, Radio Normandy, Plomley then telephoned it through to Maxwell for him to broadcast. As Plomley recalled "As neither Charles nor I had the least knowledge of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Rabinowitz
Harry Rabinowitz MBE (26 March 1916 – 22 June 2016) was a South African-British conductor and composer of film and television music. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he was the son of Israel and Eva Rabinowitz. He was educated at the University of the Witwatersrand and at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Career Rabinowitz's musical career began as a six-week stint playing sheet music for potential customers in a Johannesburg department store. His first job conducting an orchestra was for a show called ''Strike a New Note'' in 1945, using a rolled-up newspaper as a baton. Rabinowitz left Johannesburg for England in 1946 to study conducting. He was conductor of the BBC Revue Orchestra (1953–60), music director for BBC Television Light Entertainment (1960–68), and head of music for London Weekend Television (1968–77). He conducted at the Hollywood Bowl (1983–84) and the Boston Pops Orchestra (1985–92) and with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Unwin (comedian)
Stanley Unwin (7 June 1911 – 12 January 2002), sometimes billed as Professor Stanley Unwin, was a British comic actor and writer. He invented his own comic language, "Unwinese", referred to in the film ''Carry On Regardless'' (1961) as "gobbledygook". Unwinese was a corrupted form of English in which many of the words were altered in playful and humorous ways, as in its description of Elvis Presley and his contemporaries as being "wasp-waist and swivel-hippy". Unwin claimed that the inspiration came from his mother, who once told him that on the way home she had "falolloped (fallen) over" and "grazed her kneeclabbers". Early life Unwin's parents, Ivan Oswald Unwin (1880-1914) and his wife Jessie Elizabeth ( Brand; 1883-1968) emigrated from England to the Union of South Africa in the early 1900s. Their son was born in Pretoria in 1911. Following his father's death in 1914, due to the family's poverty Unwin's mother arranged for the family to return to England. She worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functioning properly. Signs and symptoms of a stroke may include an inability to move or feel on one side of the body, problems understanding or speaking, dizziness, or loss of vision to one side. Signs and symptoms often appear soon after the stroke has occurred. If symptoms last less than one or two hours, the stroke is a transient ischemic attack (TIA), also called a mini-stroke. A hemorrhagic stroke may also be associated with a severe headache. The symptoms of a stroke can be permanent. Long-term complications may include pneumonia and loss of bladder control. The main risk factor for stroke is high blood pressure. Other risk factors include high blood cholesterol, tobacco smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus, a previous TIA, end-st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Moody
Ron Moody (born Ronald Moodnick; 8 January 1924 – 11 June 2015) was an English actor, composer, singer and writer. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in ''Oliver!'' (1968) and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the film, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the stage production. Other notable projects include ''The Mouse on the Moon'' (1963), Mel Brooks' ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1970) and ''Flight of the Doves'' (1971), in which Moody shared the screen with ''Oliver!'' co-star Jack Wild. Early life Moody was born on 8 January 1924 in Tottenham, Middlesex, the son of Kate (née Ogus; 1898–1980) and Bernard/Barnett Moodnick (1896–1964), a studio executive. His father was a Russian Jew and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew; said Moody, "I'm 100% Jewish—totally kosher!" He was a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare Lawrence. His surname was legally changed to the more anglicised Moody in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
