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Charlie Hanson
Charlie Hanson is a British producer and director. His award-winning work includes television shows such as ''Desmond's'', ''Chef!'', ''The Big Impression'', ''The Sketch Show'' and ''Whites'', and the 2003 feature film '' A Way of Life''. Career Hanson's work as a producer spanned more than two decades of television drama and comedy. His work included BBC Television's '' This Morning with Richard Not Judy'', '' Birds of a Feather'', Channel 4's ''Desmond's'', ''Chef!'', starring Lenny Henry for the BBC, '' Kelsey Grammer Presents The Sketch Show'' for Fox Television, both ''The Harry Hill Show'' and an episode of ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' for Channel 4, Alistair McGowan's ''The Big Impression'', winner of the BAFTA award for Best Comedy Programme in 2003, and ITV's ''The Sketch Show'', winner of the BAFTA award for Best Comedy Programme in 2002. In 2003 Hanson produced his first feature film, Amma Asante's BAFTA award-winning '' A Way of Life''. The film, which had its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desmond's
''Desmond's'' is a British television situation comedy broadcast by Channel 4 from 1989 to 1994. Conceived and co-written by Trix Worrell, and produced by Charlie Hanson and Humphrey Barclay, ''Desmond's'' stars Norman Beaton as barber Desmond Ambrose, whose shop is a gathering place for an assortment of local characters. The show is set in Peckham, London, and features a predominantly black British Guyanese cast. With 71 episodes, ''Desmond's'' became Channel 4's longest running sitcom in terms of episodes.Paul Jackson"Desmond's" ''Britain in a Box'', BBC Radio 4, 11 May 2013. Notability While the show was not the first black (or predominantly black) British television situation comedy ('' The Fosters'', produced by London Weekend Television, aired 1976 –77), ''Desmond's'' was the first to be set mainly in the workplace, providing an insight into black family life different from what had been seen before on British television. The characters had aspirations (Desmond to retu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toronto Film Festival
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,765,188 people (as of 2021) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area proper had a 2021 population of 6,712,341. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, sports and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Indigenous peoples have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matt Lucas (comedian)
Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series '' Little Britain'' (2003–2006, 2020) and '' Come Fly With Me'' (2010–2011). From 2015 to 2017, Lucas portrayed the role of Nardole in the BBC series ''Doctor Who''. He has also appeared in films, including ''Alice in Wonderland'' (2010), ''Bridesmaids'' (2011), ''Small Apartments'' (2012), and ''Paddington'' (2014). Lucas presented ''The Great British Bake Off,'' alongside Noel Fielding from 2020 to 2022. Early life Matthew Richard Lucas was born on 5 March 1974 in the Paddington area of London, the son of Diana (née Williams; born 1945) and chauffeuring business owner John Stanley Lucas (1944–1996). His family was Jewish; some of his mother's family fled Nazi Germany just before the Second World War. He has had alopecia since childhood, before losing all of his hair at the age of 6 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek (Pilot Episode)
''Derek'' is a British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ... comedy-drama television series starring, written by and directed by Ricky Gervais. The Pilot episode, pilot was produced by Derek Productions Ltd. for Channel 4 and aired on 12 April 2012. Channel 4 describes the show as "A bittersweet comedy drama about a group of outsiders living on society's margins". On 9 May 2012, Channel 4 announced it had commissioned a full series, which aired from 30 January 2013. On 4 March 2013 (two days before the final episode of the first series was aired), they announced ''Derek'' had been recommissioned for a second series, to be shown again on Channel 4 and later on Netflix. The first series became available for streaming on Netflix on 12 September 2013. The second serie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical hour-long legal or medical drama, but exhibit far fewer jokes-per-minute as in a typical half-hour sitcom. In the United States Examples from United States television include: ''M*A*S*H'', ''Moonlighting'', ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'', '' Northern Exposure'', '' Ally McBeal'', ''Sex and the City'', '' Desperate Housewives'' and '' Scrubs''. The term "dramedy" was coined to describe the late 1980s wave of shows, including ''The Wonder Years'', ''Hooperman'', ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' and ''Frank's Place''. See also *List of comedy drama television series *Black comedy *Dramatic structure * Melodrama *Seriousness *Tragicomedy *Psychological drama References Comedy drama Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Life's Too Short (TV Series)
''Life's Too Short'' is a British mockumentary sitcom created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, based on an idea by Warwick Davis, about "the life of a showbiz dwarf". Davis plays a fictionalised version of himself, and both Gervais and Merchant appear in supporting roles as themselves. The show began airing on BBC Two on 10 November 2011. Premium cable channel HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC, has the US rights and aired the series from 19 February 2012. In January 2013, it was announced that ''Life's Too Short'' would end later in the year with a special that would bring the series' closure. The one-hour special aired on 30 March 2013 in the UK and 5 July 2013 in the US. Background The genesis of the show was when Davis worked with Gervais and Merchant in an episode of the second series of '' Extras'', in which he co-starred with Daniel Radcliffe. Gervais said that Davis is funny in real life and tells great stories. Merchant said that Davis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sony International
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment and managed by the American umbrella division of Sony. It was originally founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed as Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, following its acquisition by the Columbia Broadcasting System. In 1966, the company was reorganized to become CBS Records, and Sony Corporation bought the company in 1988, renaming it under its current name in 1991. In 2004, Sony and Bertelsmann established a 50-50 joint venture known as Sony BMG, which transferred the businesses of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group into one entity. However, in 2008, Sony acquired Bertelsmann's stake, and the company reverted to the Sony Music name shortly after; the buyout allowed Sony to acquire all of BMG's labels, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cemetery Junction (film)
''Cemetery Junction'' is a 2010 British coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 14 April 2010. Plot In early 1970s England, three friends spend their days in banter, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. Freddie wants to escape their working class world but cheeky chappy Bruce and kind-hearted slacker Snork are happy with life the way it is. When Freddie gets a job as a door-to-door insurance salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie, the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives forever. Freddie's boss is Julie's father. Selling life insurance in the hopes of improving his life and not ending up like his factory worker father, Freddie learns from the firm's top seller Mike Ramsay, who is also Julie's fiancé, how to scare people into buying insurance. Bruce lives life to the full, with the notion that one day he will leave Cemetery Junction, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English comedian, actor, director, presenter and writer. Alongside Ricky Gervais, Merchant was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series ''The Office'' (2001–2003), and co-writer, co-director, and co-star of both '' Extras'' (2005–2007) and '' Life's Too Short'' (2011–2013). With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted ''The Ricky Gervais Show'' in its radio, podcast, audiobook, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" Wheatley in the 2011 video game ''Portal 2''. Merchant co-developed the Sky1 travel series '' An Idiot Abroad'' (2010–2012) and co-created '' Lip Sync Battle'' (2015–present). Merchant has performed as a stand-up comedian, which led to him writing and starring in the HBO series ''Hello Ladies'' (2013–2014), based on his stand-up material. He starred in his first play, Richard Bean' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms ''The Office'' (2001–2003), '' Extras'' (2005–2007), and '' An Idiot Abroad'' (2010–2012). He also created, wrote and starred in ''Derek'' (2012–2014), and '' After Life'' (2019–2022). He has won seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the Rose d'Or twice (2006 and 2019). Gervais was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest performers in British comedy in 2003. In 2007, he was placed at No. 11 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, and at No. 3 in their 2010 list. In 2010, he was included in the ''Time 100'' list of World's Most Influential People. Gervais initially worked in the music industry. He attempted a career as a pop star in the 1980s as the singer of the new-wave act Seona Dancing, and managed the then-unknown band Sued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Davies
Alan Roger Davies (; born 6 March 1966) is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and TV presenter. He is best known for his portrayal of the title role in the BBC mystery drama series ''Jonathan Creek'' (1997–2016) and as the only permanent panellist on the BBC panel show '' QI'' since its premiere in 2003, outlasting its original host Stephen Fry. Early life Davies was born in Loughton, Essex, and spent his childhood years in Chingford. When Davies was six his mother died from leukaemia and he was raised by his father. He was sexually abused by his father from age 8 to 13, as described in his book ''Just Ignore Him''. Davies wrote that his brother and sister were turned against him. Davies identified this as making him strongly want to please others, which led him to shoplift for schoolmates, and play the joker at home. Davies attended Staples Road School in Loughton and was privately educated at the independent Bancroft's School in Woodford Green, where he gained eig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC2
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence, and is therefore free of commercial advertising. It is a comparatively well-funded public-service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public-service networks worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched (starting on 21 April 1964), and from 1 July 1967, Europe's first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour. It was envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming, and while this tendency has continued to date, most special-interest programmes of a kind previously broadcast on BBC Two, for example the BBC Proms, no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
