|
Boon (TV Series)
''Boon'' is a British television drama starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV, and was originally broadcast between 1986 and 1995. It revolved around the life of an ex-fireman called Ken Boon. - a motorcycle-obsessed small time businessman who at the same time acts as a private investigator, bodyguard and general troubleshooter. Since 16 January 2017 it has been rerun on UKTV channel Drama. The show was memorable for its theme tune - Hi Ho Silver by Scottish singer Jim Diamond, which became a major UK top ten hit single in 1986. Premise Ken Boon (Elphick) and Harry Crawford (Daker) are both old-fashioned 'smokeys' (firemen) in the West Midlands Fire Service. In episode 1 Crawford takes early retirement and moves to Spain to open a bar, leaving Ken behind. Ken attends a house fire in which a child is trapped upstairs. Realising that he must act quickly, he goes into t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Elphick
Michael John Elphick (19 September 1946 – 7 September 2002) was an English film and television actor. He played the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series ''Boon'' and Harry Slater in BBC's ''EastEnders''. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1983 film '' Gorky Park''. In his prime, Elphick always looked older than he was, and with his gruff Sussex accent and lip-curling sneer he often played menacing hard men. Elphick struggled with a highly publicised addiction to alcohol; at the height of his problem he admitted to consuming two litres of spirits a day, which contributed to his death from a heart attack in 2002. Early life Elphick grew up in Chichester, Sussex, where his family had a butcher's shop. He was educated at Lancastrian Secondary Modern Boys School in Chichester, where he took part in several school productions including ''Noah'' and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. He initially considered joinin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Television
Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of platforms, b) duplication of services, c) regional services, d) part time operations, and e) audio. For the Sky platform alone, there are basically 485 TV channels, additionally 57 "timeshifted versions", 36 HDTV versions, 42 regional TV options, 81 audio channels, and 5 promotion channels as of mid-2010 for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed. There are 27,000 hours of domestic content produced a year, at a cost of £2.6 billion.Taki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for ''The English Patient'' (1996). In addition, he received three more Academy Award nominations; he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for both ''The English Patient'' and ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' (1999), and was posthumously nominated for Best Picture for ''The Reader'' (2008), as a producer. Early life Minghella was born in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England that is a popular holiday resort. His family are well known on the Island, where they ran a café in Ryde until the 1980s and have run an eponymous business making and selling Italian-style ice cream since the 1950s. His parents were Edoardo Minghella (an Italian immigrant) and Leeds-born Gloria Alberta (née Arcari). His mother's anc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin McNally
Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He is known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series. Early life Born in Bristol, McNally spent his early years in Birmingham, attending Redhill Junior School on Redhill Road in Hay Mills and Mapledene Junior School (now Mapledene Primary School) on Mapledene Road in Sheldon. He went to Central Grammar School for Boys on Gressel Lane in Tile Cross. Career McNally's first professional acting work, at age 16, was at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1973 he received a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where, in 1975, he won the Best Actor Bancroft Gold Medal. In 1976, he appeared in BBC's ''I, Claudius'' and, in 1977, was a regular in the second series of ''Poldark'' playing Drake Carne, younger brother of Demelza Poldark. From 1991 to 1994, he wrote nine episodes of ''Minder'', under the pseudonym Kevin Sperring, with writing partner Bernar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoff McQueen
Geoffrey McQueen (24 July 1947 – 6 July 1994) was a British television screenwriter. He is best known for creating Thames Television's long-running police procedural ''The Bill'' and the popular comedy-dramas '' Give Us a Break'', '' Big Deal'' and '' Stay Lucky''. A carpenter and joiner by trade he worked abroad for many years before he began writing in 1978. His first success was in 1982 when an episode of ''The Gentle Touch'' he had written was broadcast. He wrote for other shows, including ''Boon'', and two Jim Davidson sitcoms. He died on 6 July 1994, aged 46, from an aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also be a nidus ( .... He was survived by his wife Jan and their two children External links * 1947 births 1994 deaths British television writers The B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norton Commando
The Norton Commando is a British Norton-Villiers motorcycle with an OHV pre-unit parallel-twin engine, produced by the Norton Motorcycle company from 1967 until 1977. Initially having a nominal ''750 cc'' displacement, actually , in 1973 it became an ''850 cc'', actually . It had a hemi-type head, similar to all OHV Norton engines since the early 1920s. During its ten years of production, the Commando was popular all over the world. In the United Kingdom it won the ''Motor Cycle News'' "Machine of the Year" award for five successive years from 1968 to 1972. Around 60,000 Commandos were made in total. Background Associated Motor Cycles (AMC), Norton's parent company, had become bankrupt in 1966 and had been purchased by Manganese Bronze Holdings, who already owned Villiers Engineering, forming Norton-Villiers. Chairman Dennis Poore saw the need to produce a new flagship motorcycle to replace the aging 750 cc Atlas, the engine design of which could be traced bac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BSA Lightning
The BSA Lightning is a British BSA 650 cc-class motorcycle made in Birmingham between 1965 and 1972. Development The BSA Lightning was designed as the all-round sports machine of the 1960s,''Motorcycle Sport'', June 1969, p.226 ''BSA Lightning road test''. "The catalogue describes the Lightning as a sports machine...". Accessed and added 2014-07-02 planned largely for export to the US market Motorcycle Mechanics, August 1965, p.36/37, ''Leapaway Lightning. Road test by Editor John Houslander. "Bulk of the Lightning production is said to be earmarked for the American market—and frankly we can't blame the Yanks for wanting them—they are the cream at the top of BSA's big bike production''". Accessed and added 2014-07-02 to complement the touring Thunderbolt and the later development, the supersports Spitfire. Development of the engine aimed to make it more reliable, quieter and less prone to oil leaks, with top speed sacrificed to improve mid-range and rideability. Never ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston (; born 16 February 1964) is an English actor. A two-time BAFTA Award nominee, he is best known for his television and film work, which includes his role as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC sci-fi series '' Doctor Who'' (2005), playing Matt Jamison in '' The Leftovers'' (2014–2017), and his collaborations with filmmakers Danny Boyle and Michael Winterbottom. Eccleston trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London and made his professional acting debut onstage in a Bristol Old Vic production of ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. He garnered attention for his film roles as Derek Bentley in ''Let Him Have It'' (1991) and David Stevens in '' Shallow Grave'' (1994), and for his television performances in '' Cracker'' (1993–1994) and '' Hillsborough'' (1996). His BAFTA Award-nominated performance as Nicky Hutchinson in the BBC miniseries ''Our Friends in the North'' (1996) established him as a household name in the United Kingdo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and Tobacco industry, tobacco industries. The city is also the county town of Nottinghamshire and the settlement was granted its city charter in 1897, as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2018, the city received the second-highest number of overnight visitors in the Midlands and the highest number in the East Midlands. In 2020, Nottingham had an estimated population of 330,000. The wider conurbation, which includes many of the city's suburbs, has a population of 768,638. It is the largest urban area in the East Midlands and the second-largest in the Midland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is known as the second city of the United Kingdom. Located in the West Midlands region of England, approximately from London, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately west of the city centre. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the Midla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Midlands Fire Service
West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) is the fire and rescue service for the metropolitan county of West Midlands, England. The service is the second largest in England, after London Fire Brigade. The service has 38 fire stations, with a blended fleet of vehicles and specialist resources. The service is led by Chief Fire Officer Phil Loach, who is overseen by the West Midlands Fire Authority. The Fire Authority is made up of 15 councillors who represent the seven councils within the West Midlands area. The service's headquarters is located in Nechells in Birmingham, which is also the home to Staffordshire and West Midlands Fire Control. The control room, based at WMFS headquarters is the main incident management and mobilising centre for both WMFS and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service. History The service was created in 1974, when the West Midlands county came into being. Prior to its creation, each of the county boroughs in the West Midlands area (Birmingham, Coventry, Du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drama (UK TV Channel)
Drama is a British free-to-air television channel broadcasting drama (and, to a lesser extent, comedy, sci-fi) programming in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of the UKTV network of channels. History The channel launched on 8 July 2013, replacing Blighty. On Freeview, the channel was placed on channel 20, previously occupied by Gold. On Sky, the channel initially launched on channel 291, in the overspill area of the Entertainment section and moved to channel 166 on 24 July after purchasing the slot used by PBS America (formely named PBS UK in 2011). The channel launched on Virgin Media on 14 August on channel 190. In September 2014, UKTV blamed the channel for their 7% profits fall. In September 2018, Drama and Really were added to Virgin Media Ireland. A timeshift channel, Drama +1 was launched on Sky and Virgin Media on 16 September 2019 replacing Travel Channel +1. On 25 January 2021, it was announced that the timeshift channel would be taking over CCXTV's Freeview ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
