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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 first two series are currently streaming on BritBox. The show was memorable for its theme tune - " Hi Ho Silver" by Scottish singer Jim Diamond, which became a 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 ... [...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] |
UKTV
UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through a joint venture between the BBC and Thames Television. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest television companies. UKTV's channels are available via a digital satellite or cable subscription in the UK and Ireland. The Dave, Drama, W and Yesterday channels are also available in the UK on Freeview and Freesat, two free-to-air television services in the UK. Most programmes on the channels are repeat broadcasts of productions from the BBC archives, although the entertainment channels also feature some programmes produced by other companies and UKTV have commissioned a small number of programmes. Playout and other technical services are provided by SES. The UKTV channels have broadcast in 16:9 widescreen format since 31 January 2008, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kieran Prendiville
Kieran Prendiville (born 25 December 1947) is an English-Irish television writer, producer, and presenter. Early life Prendiville was born on 25 December 1947 in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of an Irish father from Killorglin, County Kerry, who had relocated to Rochdale to practise medicine. He attended Clongowes Wood College in Clane, County Kildare, the same Jesuit boarding school his father had attended. Career Presenting Working alongside Glyn Worsnip, Prendiville was a presenter of the BBC consumer programme ''That's Life!'' from 1973 to 1978, having served on the production team from the very first episode. Also featuring on ''Tomorrow's World'', the BBC's science programme, an urban myth has it that he claimed that the CD was indestructible and that he demonstrated this by spreading strawberry jam on a copy of the Bee Gees' '' Living Eyes''; this in fact happened on BBC Breakfast Time. He was the BBC's on-site commentator on the first Space Shuttle mission, reporting f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony McHale
Tony McHale (born Anthony John Wright, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire) is a British actor, writer, director and producer, who is known for starring in ''Coronation Street'' and also known as a "stooge" to Jeremy Beadle on ''Game For A Laugh'' and later ''Beadle's About''. He trained at the Rose Bruford College. He also enjoyed a long stint as a writer/story consultant/director on the top rated BBC1 soap opera ''EastEnders'' from its conception to the mid 1990s. He co-created BBC medical drama ''Holby City'', and served as its executive producer and showrunner from 2007 to 2010. Tony also served as a core writer on numerous other TV dramas. Early life Tony McHale was born Anthony John Wright in Wibsey a suburb of Bradford in West Yorkshire. His father Gordon Wright was a police officer and road safety specialist who was awarded an MBE for his work. His mother Madeline Wright was a school teacher. He attended St Paul's Church Primary School, Buttershaw, where he passed his elev ... [...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] |
