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Clive Swift
Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for his role as Richard Bucket in the BBC sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances''. He played many other television and film roles. Life and career Swift was born in Liverpool on 9 February 1936, the son of Abram Sampson Swift, who owned a furniture shop in Bootle, and Lily Rebecca, née Greenman. His elder brother David was also an actor. Both were educated at Clifton College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where Clive read English literature. He was previously a teacher at LAMDA and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His family was Jewish. He appeared as Snug in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1968 film production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' as part of a cast that included Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren and Ian Richardson. During the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LAMDA
LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was announced at the following year's event. In June 2022, LaMDA gained widespread attention when Google engineer Blake Lemoine made claims that the chatbot had become sentient. The scientific community has largely rejected Lemoine's claims, though it has led to conversations about the efficacy of the Turing test, which measures whether a computer can pass for a human. History Announcements Google announced the LaMDA conversational neural language model during the Google I/O keynote on May 18, 2021, powered by artificial intelligence. Built on the Transformer neural network architecture developed by Google Research in 2017, LaMDA was trained on human dialogue and stories, allowing it to engage in open-ended conversations. Google states tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voyage Of The Damned (Doctor Who)
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2007, it is the third List of Doctor Who Christmas specials, ''Doctor Who'' Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. The episode was written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Strong (director), James Strong. In the episode, the alien businessman Max Capricorn (George Costigan) seeks revenge on his company after it votes him out. He sets a starship replica of the RMS Titanic, RMS ''Titanic'' on a collision course with Earth to frame the board of directors for killing the humans on Earth. The episode features the only performance in ''Doctor Who'' by the Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue, who plays the waitress Astrid Peth. Davies described her casting as a "very exceptional case", having written the part of Astrid specifically for Minogue. On its original airdate Christmas 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revelation Of The Daleks
''Revelation of the Daleks'' is the sixth and final serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 and 30 March 1985. This was the final serial to be broadcast in 45-minute episodes; this format would return 20 years later when the series resumed in 2005. ''Revelation of the Daleks'' is the only time the Sixth Doctor encountered the Daleks in a television story. The serial is set on the planet Necros. The galaxy is suffering from famine, but Davros (Terry Molloy) is masquerading as the Great Healer and has commandeered a funeral home, the high-tech facility Tranquil Repose, as a base from which he can convert humans into either food for the starving or into Daleks for his new secret army. However, his manufacturing ally Kara (Eleanor Bron) wants his business and has hired the assassins Orcini (William Gaunt) and Bostock (John Ogwen) to kill him. Plot The TARDIS lands on Necros, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. The TARDIS exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. With various companions, the Doctor combats foes, works to save civilisations, and helps people in need. Beginning with William Hartnell, thirteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; in 2017, Jodie Whittaker became the first woman to officially play the role on television. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the series with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation, a plot device in which a Time Lord "transforms" into a new body when the current one is too badly harmed to heal normally. Each acto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyacinth Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'', portrayed by Patricia Routledge. Routledge won a British Comedy Award in 1991, and was nominated for two BAFTA awards in 1992 and 1993 for her portrayal. Hyacinth is a social-climbing snob who constantly aims to impress people, particularly of the upper and upper-middle classes, and to give the impression that she is of high social standing, despite her modest status. This is epitomised in her pronunciation of her name as " Bouquet". She has an "acquired cultured accent which buckles under stress". The character's creator, Roy Clarke, has called her the "least invented of all the characters I've found in my head": So I knew my Hyacinths and I knew I had to write my own. They fascinated me. They were hilarious in their pretensions, so marvellously unaware of the real impressions they were making, and yet somehow so up front in their crusade to be superior that it was brave. Hyacinth is marr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Barchester Chronicles
''The Barchester Chronicles'' is a 1982 British television serial produced by Jonathan Powell for the BBC. It is an adaptation by Alan Plater of Anthony Trollope's first two Chronicles of Barsetshire, ''The Warden'' (1855) and '' Barchester Towers'' (1857). The series was directed by David Giles. Location work was videotaped in and around Peterborough Cathedral, using locations such as the Deanery and Laurel Court. Plot overview The clerical community around Barchester's cathedral is rocked by a press investigation into the finances of Hiram's Hospital almshouse. Following the death of the bishop in the midst of the controversy, the chaplain and wife of the new bishop lead a reforming crusade, which arouses strong opposition within the diocese. These public events have a significant effect on the private lives of many of those involved. Cast * Donald Pleasence as Mr Harding * Nigel Hawthorne as Archdeacon Grantly * Angela Pleasence as Mrs Grantly * Cyril Luckham as Bishop Gran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Warning To The Curious
"A Warning to the Curious" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his book ''A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories'' first published in 1925. The tale tells the story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist who holidays in "Seaburgh" (a disguised version of Aldeburgh, Suffolk) and inadvertently stumbles across one of the three lost crowns of East Anglia, which legendarily protect the country from invasion. Upon digging up the crown, Paxton is stalked by its supernatural guardian. Written a few years after the end of the First World War, "A Warning to the Curious" ranks as one of M. R. James's bleakest stories. Synopsis The story is written in M. R. James's typical style, and uses a multi-layered narrative device to tell the tale. Time is taken to describe a pleasant traditional Victorian holiday resort, Seaburgh. The narrator states that he collects stories about the area as a result of his happy memories there as a child, and that this is one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Stalls Of Barchester
''The Stalls of Barchester'' is the first of the BBC's ''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' strand, first broadcast on BBC 1 at 11.00pm on 24 December 1971. Based on the story " The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" from the 1911 collection ''More Ghost Stories'' by M. R. James, it was adapted, produced and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Plot Whilst cataloguing the library of Barchester Cathedral in 1932, a scholar, Dr Black (Clive Swift) is shown a box containing a 50-year-old diary (sealed under the order of the Dean) detailing the events leading up to the mysterious death of Dr Haynes (Robert Hardy), a former Archdeacon of the cathedral. From the diary, Dr Black is able to piece together how the murder of Haynes' agéd predecessor, a 17th-century carving on the cathedral choir stalls and the appearance of a large black cat ultimately cursed the former archdeacon. It is implied that Dr Haynes caused the death of his aged predecessor, and therefore falls under the curse of 'Austin t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Ghost Story For Christmas
''A Ghost Story for Christmas'' is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas. Each instalment is a separate adaptation of a short story, ranges between 30 and 50 minutes in duration, and features well-known British actors such as Clive Swift, Robert Hardy, Peter Vaughan, Edward Petherbridge and Denholm Elliott. The first five are adaptations of ghost stories by M. R. James, the sixth is based on a short story by Charles Dickens, and the two final instalments are original screenplays by Clive Exton and John Bowen respectively. The stories were titled ''A Ghost Story fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson (7 April 19349 February 2007) was a Scottish actor. He portrayed the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's '' House of Cards'' (1990–1995) television trilogy. Richardson was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor. Richardson's other notable work included a portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in two films ( ''The Sign of Four'' and ''The Hound of the Baskervilles''), significant roles in ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', ''Brazil'', ''M. Butterfly'', and '' Dark City'', and as the lead in the Broadway production of ''Marat/Sade''. Early life Richardson was born in Edinburgh, the only son and eldest of three children of Margaret (née Drummond; 1910–1988) and John Richardson (1909–1990). He was educated in the city, at Balgreen Primary School, Tynecastle High School and George Heriot's School. He first appeared on stage at the age of 14, in an amateur production of Charles Dickens' ''A Tale of Two Cities''. The director encourage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. She received an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in ''The Queen'', a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for the same role in '' The Audience'', three British Academy Television Awards for her performance as DCI Jane Tennison in ''Prime Suspect'', four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. Mirren's stage performance as Cleopatra in '' Antony and Cleopatra'' at the National Youth Theatre in 1965 provided her an opportunity to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, before making her West End stage debut in 1975. She subsequently went on to achieve success in film and television, appearing in films such as ''The Madness of King George'' (1994), ''Gosford Park ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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