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Countdown To War
''Countdown to War'' is a television film made in 1989 as a co-production by Granada Television and PBS. It recounts the events that occurred between 15 March 1939, when the German army commanded by Adolf Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and created the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and 3 September 1939, the date when France and United Kingdom declared war on Germany. The film is divided into 5 different stages: Mussolini's study, Hitler's Chancellery, Stalin's Kremlin, Beck’s bedroom, and Chamberlain's Cabinet. The script is based on private letters, diaries and records of meetings between the different leaders. The film starred Ian McKellen, Michael Aldridge, Alex Norton and Barrie Rutter. Plot Europe's most powerful leaders desperately plot their strategies, attempting to determine the next moves of both their allies and enemies. The private meetings, arguments, anguish and personal battles will change the course of history. The Second World War is about to begin. Cast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norma Percy
Norma Percy is an American-born, documentary film maker and producer. The documentaries she has produced in collaboration with Brian Lapping have covered many of the crises of the 20th Century. In 2010, she was awarded the Orwell Prize Special Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Early life Percy was born and raised in New York City. She studied politics at Oberlin College in Ohio, later studying for a master's degree at the London School of Economics. She then became a researcher at the House of Commons where she spent six years; in her time there, she worked as a researcher for the MP John Mackintosh, who recommended her to the Granada Television producer Brian Lapping when he was looking for a researcher for a documentary on the workings of Parliament called ''The State of the Nation''. Career Percy produced the Granada series ''End of Empire'' (1985), which explored the effects of the end of the British Empire in various former colonies, and worked with Lapping on the 1987 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 1943, and "Duce" of Italian Fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his execution in 1945 by Italian partisans. As dictator of Italy and principal founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired and supported the international spread of fascist movements during the inter-war period. Mussolini was originally a socialist politician and a journalist at the ''Avanti!'' newspaper. In 1912, he became a member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but he was expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on neutrality. In 1914, Mussolini founded a new journal, ''Il Popolo d'Italia'', and served in the Royal Italian Army durin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1943. During this period, he was widely seen as Mussolini's most probable successor as head of government. He was the son of Admiral Costanzo Ciano, a founding member of the National Fascist Party; father and son both took part in Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922. Ciano saw action in the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36) and was appointed Foreign Minister on his return. Following a series of Axis defeats in the Second World War, Ciano began pushing for Italy's exit, and he was dismissed from his post as a result. He then served as ambassador to the Vatican. In July 1943, Ciano was among the members of the Grand Council of Fascism that forced Mussolini's ousting and subsequent arrest. Ciano proceeded to flee to Germany but was arrested and h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Laurenson
James Laurenson (born 17 February 1940) is a New Zealand stage and screen actor. Early life Laurenson was born in Marton, North Island, New Zealand. He was a student at Canterbury University College in Christchurch (now University of Canterbury) where he was directed by Dame Ngaio Marsh, notably in the title role in ''Macbeth'' at the Civic Theatre Christchurch in 1962. He moved to the UK in the mid-1960s and made his film debut in 1969 with a small part in ''Women in Love'', although he also had an uncredited part (as an Oxford rower, playing alongside Graham Chapman) in '' The Magic Christian''. Career He has appeared in numerous British Shakespearean productions, notably ''Richard II'', as Rosencrantz in ''Hamlet'', and on radio in the marathon series, ''Vivat Rex''. He also appeared as Piers Gaveston in the 1970 production of Christopher Marlowe's ''Edward II'', opposite Ian McKellen who later recalled that kissing Laurenson "was a bonus throughout the run". Other cos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov. ; (;. 9 March Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._25_February.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O. S. 25 February1890 – 8 November 1986) was a Russian politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik, and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s onward. He served as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars from 1930 to 1941 and as Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Soviet Union), Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956. During the 1930s, he ranked second in the Soviet leadership, after Joseph Stalin, whom he supported loyally for over 30 years, and whose reputation he continued to defend after Stalin's death, having himself been deeply implicated in the worst atrocities of the Stalin years – the forced collectivisation of agriculture in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Cronin (actor)
Michael Cronin (born 1942) is an English actor. Personal life Born in Cranfield, Bedfordshire during World War II, he was educated at St Brendan's College by the Christian Brothers in Bristol, and at the University of London where he studied English. He is married and has two sons. Acting career Cronin is a television and stage actor, particularly remembered for his role as the tough but fair PE teacher Geoff 'Bullet' Baxter in the television series ''Grange Hill'' between 1979 and 1986. He also made a cameo appearance as Baxter in a 2000 edition of ''The Grimleys''. He also appeared in ''Fawlty Towers'' as Irish cowboy builder Lurphy (whom Manuel memorably called a "hideous orangutan"), and as Eliphaz in the 1977 television miniseries ''Jesus of Nazareth''. He has appeared in episodes of ''Foyle's War'', ''Midsomer Murders'', ''The Gentle Touch'', ''The Sweeney'' and '' Bergerac'', and played Vyacheslav Molotov in the 1989 TV movie ''Countdown to War''. In 1990 he played Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He held several senior ministerial posts during this time, most notably those of Viceroy of India from 1926 to 1931 and of Foreign Secretary between 1938 and 1940. He was one of the architects of the policy of appeasement of Adolf Hitler in 1936–1938, working closely with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. However, after Kristallnacht (on 9–10 November 1938) and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 he was one of those who pushed for a new policy of attempting to deter further German aggression by promising to go to war to defend Poland. On Chamberlain's resignation early in May 1940, Halifax effectively declined the position of Prime Minister as he felt that Winston Churchill would be a more suitable war leader ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Culver
Michael Culver (born 16 June 1938) is an English actor. He was born in Hampstead, London, the son of actor Roland Culver and casting director Daphne Rye. He was educated at Gresham's School. Actor Culver's aunt, father, mother and brother all had theatrical careers. Culver gained experience at the Old Vic, Dundee Rep (performing in 35 plays in 2 years) and London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Culver has appeared in several television series in recurring roles, as Squire Armstrong in ''The Adventures of Black Beauty'' (1972–74), Major Erwin Brandt in the BBC drama '' Secret Army'' (1977–78), crooked banker Ralph Saroyan in the second series of ''The House of Eliott'' (1992) and the strict Prior Robert ('Brother Prior') in ''Cadfael'' (1994–98). His guest roles include an episode of ''The Sweeney'' as Dave Leeford (episode ''Money, Money, Money;'' 1978), ''The Professionals'' (1982) as Lawson, ''Miss Marple'' "The Moving Finger" (1985) as Edward Symmington and as S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 1 (Jasta 1), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934. Following the establishment of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joachim Von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's notice as a well-travelled businessman with more knowledge of the outside world than most senior Nazis and as a perceived authority on foreign affairs. He offered his house Schloss Fuschl for the secret meetings in January 1933 that resulted in Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany. He became a close confidant of Hitler, to the disgust of some party members, who thought him superficial and lacking in talent. He was appointed ambassador to the Court of St James's, the royal court of the United Kingdom, in 1936 and then Foreign Minister of Germany in February 1938. Before World War II, he played a key role in brokering the Pact of Steel (an alliance with Fascist Italy) and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (the Nazi–Soviet non-aggr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II. Daladier was born in Carpentras and began his political career before World War I. During the war, he fought on the Western Front and was decorated for his service. After the war, he became a leading figure in the Radical Party and Prime Minister in 1933 and 1934. Daladier was Minister of Defence from 1936 to 1940 and Prime Minister again in 1938. As head of government, he expanded the French welfare state in 1939. Along with Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, Daladier signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, which gave Nazi Germany control over the Sudetenland. After Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War, France's failure to aid Finland against the Soviet Union's invasion during the W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrie Rutter
Barrie Thomas Rutter OBE (born 12 December 1946) is an English actor and the founder and former artistic director of the Northern Broadsides theatre company based in Dean Clough complex, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. Biography Rutter was born and brought up in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, attending Newton Hall, part of Greatfield High School. He participated in school plays, joining the National Youth Theatre and at the age of 17 in 1964, he left Hull to live with his aunt in Kennington, London. He later studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, but left early before finishing the course to go on a European tour with the NYT. Rutter was passed over for the 1967 production of Peter Terson's football play Zigger Zagger, but Terson wrote a role for him in ''The Apprentices''. He was with the Nottingham Playhouse in 1968, then freelanced until joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1975. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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