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Comedy Playhouse
''Comedy Playhouse'' is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including ''Steptoe and Son'', '' Meet the Wife'', ''Till Death Us Do Part'', ''All Gas and Gaiters'', ''Up Pompeii!'', '' Not in Front of the Children'', ''Me Mammy'', ''That's Your Funeral'', ''The Liver Birds'', ''Are You Being Served?'' and particularly ''Last of the Summer Wine'', which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In March 2014, it was announced that ''Comedy Playhouse'' would make a return that year with three new episodes. Background The series began in 1961 at the prompting of Tom Sloan, Head of BBC Light Entertainment at the time. Galton and Simpson were no longer writing for Tony Hancock and Sloan asked them to write ten one-offs with the hope that one might become established as a series. Thus, the first two series of ''C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Sloan (television Executive)
Thomas James Harman Sloan (14 October 1919 – 13 May 1970) was a British broadcaster and journalist and BBC Head of Light Entertainment in the 1960s. Early life Sloan was born in Hertfordshire, England, the son of a Scottish Free Church Minister, and educated at Dulwich College. He entered the BBC Sound Effects Department in 1939, but left at the start of World War II to serve in the Royal Artillery throughout the war. He married Patricia Coverdale in 1943 and had four children. Broadcasting career In 1946 he returned to BBC radio as a talks producer and spent several years as the BBC's representative in Canada. In 1956 he joined the BBC Light Entertainment group, under Ronnie Waldman. During this period, he provided the British commentary for the Eurovision Song Contests in 1957, 1958 and later the 1964 on radio (BBC Light Programme), and in 1959, 1961 and 1968 on BBC Television. In 1961 he was appointed Head of Light Entertainment, taking over from Eric Maschwitz (who beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Not In Front Of The Children (TV Series)
''Not in Front of the Children'' is a BBC Television sitcom, which ran for four series from 1967 to 1970. It starred Wendy Craig as Jennifer Corner, a rather scatterbrained middle-class housewife. Her husband Henry was a school art teacher, played by Paul Daneman in the ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot "House in a Tree" and the first series, and Ronald Hines subsequently. They had three children, a boy in his early teens (played by Hugo Keith-Johnston) and two girls who were slightly younger (played by Roberta Tovey and Jill Riddick). Charlotte Mitchell played her friend Mary. In later series, she had a baby, and they moved from the London suburb of Battersea to the country. It is significant mainly as Wendy Craig's first role as a scatty housewife; she played similar roles in several other series over the next 15 years. Surviving episodes *Series 1 **Episode 3: "The Word" (8 September 1967) *Series 2 **Episode 2: "Religious Revival" (1 March 1968) **Episode 5: "The Iron Hand" (2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bird (actor)
John Bird (born 22 November 1936) is an English satirist, actor and comedian, known for his work in television satire, including many appearances with John Fortune. Early life John Bird was born in Bulwell, Nottingham, and attended High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham. While studying at King's College, Cambridge, he met John Fortune. Bird became well known during the television satire boom of the 1960s, appearing in ''That Was The Week That Was'', the title of which was coined by Bird. Bird was intended by Ned Sherrin for David Frost's role in the series, but was committed elsewhere. He also appeared in the television programmes ''Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life'', ''If It Moves File It'', ''Dangerous Brothers'', ''A Very Peculiar Practice'' and '' My Father Knew Lloyd George'', as well as in ''The Secret Policeman's Other Ball''. Acting career Bird acted straight and comic roles in several television series and in films such as '' Red and Blue'' (1967), '' A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ABC Television (Australian TV Network)
ABC Television is the general name for the national television services of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Until an organisational restructure in 2017/2018, ABC Television was also the name of a division of the ABC. The name was also used to refer to the first and for many years the only national ABC channel, before it was renamed ABC1 and then again to ABC TV. The Australian public broadcaster's television service was launched in November 1956 from its first television station in Australia, ABN Sydney. This was the second one in the country, with the commercial channel TCN having launched two months earlier. An ABC television network covering every state and territory was completed by 1971, and in 2000 the television operations joined the ABC radio and online divisions at the Corporation's Ultimo headquarters in Sydney in 2000. The ABC provides five non-commercial channels within Australia, headed by its flagship ABC TV channel, as well as ABC Australia, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiping
Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect. Common reasons for loss A significant proportion of early television programming was never recorded in the first place. Early broadcasting in all genres was live and sometimes performed repeatedly. Due to there being no means to record the broadcast or, later, because the content itself was thought to have little monetary or historical value it was not deemed necessary to save it. In the United Kingdom, early programming was lost due to contractual demands by the actors' union to limit the rescreening of performances. Apart from Phonovision experiments by John Logie Baird, and some 280 rolls of 35mm film containing some of Paul Nipkow television station broadcasts, no recordings of transmissions from 1939 or earlier are known to exist. In 1947, Kinescopes (preserving the image on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-and-white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. However, there are exceptions to this rule, including black-and-white fine art photography, as well as many film motion pictures and art film(s). Photography Contemporary use Since the late 1960s, few mainstream films have been shot in black-and-white. The reasons are frequently commercial, as it is difficult to sell a film for television broadcasting if the film is not in color. 1961 was the last year in which the majority of Hollywood films were released in black and white. Computing In computing terminology, ''black-and-white'' is sometimes used to refer to a binary image consisting solely of pure black pixels and pure white ones; what would normally be called a black-and-white image, that is, an image containing shades of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galton And Simpson
Ray Galton OBE (17 July 1930 – 5 October 2018) and Alan Simpson OBE (27 November 1929 – 8 February 2017) were English comedy scriptwriters whose partnership lasted over 50 years. They met in 1948 whilst recuperating from tuberculosis at the Milford Sanatorium, near Godalming in Surrey. They are best known for their work with comedian Tony Hancock on radio and television between 1954 and 1961 and their long-running television situation comedy, ''Steptoe and Son'', eight series of which were aired between 1962 and 1974. Career The partnership's break in comedy writing came with the Derek Roy vehicle ''Happy Go Lucky'', although this was not a success. The Hancock connection began with their involvement with later radio variety series, and from November 1954 continued with ''Hancock's Half Hour'' on radio; a series featuring their scripts for Hancock ran on television between 1956 and 1961. In October that year Hancock ended his professional relationship with the writers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Hancock
Anthony John Hancock (12 May 1924 – 25 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor. High-profile during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series ''Hancock's Half Hour'', first broadcast on radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James, when it became known in early 1960, disappointed many at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best-remembered work (including " The Blood Donor" and "The Radio Ham"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career declined. Early life and career Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham (then in Warwickshire), but, from the age of three, he was brought up in Bournemouth (then in Hampshire), where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Sloan (broadcaster)
Thomas James Harman Sloan (14 October 1919 – 13 May 1970) was a British broadcaster and journalist and BBC Head of Light Entertainment in the 1960s. Early life Sloan was born in Hertfordshire, England, the son of a Scottish Free Church Minister, and educated at Dulwich College. He entered the BBC Sound Effects Department in 1939, but left at the start of World War II to serve in the Royal Artillery throughout the war. He married Patricia Coverdale in 1943 and had four children. Broadcasting career In 1946 he returned to BBC radio as a talks producer and spent several years as the BBC's representative in Canada. In 1956 he joined the BBC Light Entertainment group, under Ronnie Waldman. During this period, he provided the British commentary for the Eurovision Song Contests in 1957, 1958 and later the 1964 on radio (BBC Light Programme), and in 1959, 1961 and 1968 on BBC Television. In 1961 he was appointed Head of Light Entertainment, taking over from Eric Maschwitz (who be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Last Of The Summer Wine
''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and directed all episodes of the show. The BBC confirmed on 2 June 2010 that ''Last of the Summer Wine'' would no longer be produced and the 31st series would be its last. Subsequently, the final episode was broadcast on 29 August 2010. Since its original release, all 295 episodes, comprising thirty-one series—including the pilot and all films and specials—have been released on DVD. Repeats of the show are broadcast in the UK on BBC One (until 18 July 2010 when the 31st and final series started on 25 July of that year), Gold (UK TV channel), Gold, Yesterday (TV channel), Yesterday, and Drama (British TV channel), Drama. It is also seen in more than 25 countries, inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Are You Being Served?
''Are You Being Served?'' is a British sitcom created and written by executive producer David Croft (Croft also directed some episodes) and Jeremy Lloyd, with contributions from Michael Knowles and John Chapman, for the BBC. Set in London, the show follows the misadventures and mishaps of the staff of the retail ladies' and gentlemen's clothing departments in the flagship department store of a fictional chain called Grace Brothers. The series was broadcast on the BBC for ten series, totalling 69 episodes between 8 September 1972 and 1 April 1985 – and included five Christmas specials. There was also a 1977 film, a spin-off series ''Grace & Favour'' with the same main cast in 1991–1992, and a one-off episode with a new cast in 2016. Since its original release, all 69 episodes, the pilot, the Christmas specials, the sequel and the film have been released on DVD. ''Are You Being Served?'' was a success in the UK audience ratings. The series was screened in Canada, New Zeal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
