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Ed Reardon's Week
''Ed Reardon's Week'' is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4 recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly middle-aged writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email". The names of two central characters, Ed Reardon (played by Christopher Douglas) and Jaz Milvane (played by Philip Jackson), are references to the characters Edwin Reardon and Jasper Milvain, who appear in George Gissing's 1891 novel ''New Grub Street'', which is set in the hack-literary London of the late 19th century, although ''Edward'' was revealed to be his given name in the second episode of the third series and Milvain is referred to as Jaz Milvane. Ed lives in precarious circumstances with his cat, Elgar, scraping a living as a hack writer by working through commissions for coffee table books such as ''The Brands Hatch Story'' and ''Pet Peeves'', a book of celebrity pet anecdote ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms. A situation comedy television program may be recorded in front of a studio audience, depending on the program's production format. The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. Critics disagree over the utility of the term "sitcom" in classifying shows that have come into existence since the turn of the century. Many contemporary American sitcoms use the single-camera setup and do not feature a laugh track, thus often resembling the dramedy shows of the 1980s and 1990s rather t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Am I Blue?
"Am I Blue?" is a 1929 song copyrighted by Harry Akst (music) and Grant Clarke (lyrics), then featured in four films that year, most notably with Ethel Waters in the movie '' On with the Show''. It has appeared in 42 movies, most recently ''Funny Lady'', '' The Cotton Club'' and Downton Abbey: A New Era, and has become a standard covered by numerous artists. Eddie Cochran version Eddie Cochran recorded his version of "Am I Blue" sometime between May and August 1957. It was released on the B-side of Liberty Records single 55087. The A-side was " Drive In Show" which rose to number 82 on the Billboard charts. Personnel used in the recording session: * Eddie Cochran – guitars, ukulele, vocals * Perry Botkin – rhythm guitar * Connie "Guybo" Smith – double bass * The Johnny Mann Chorus – backing vocals Cher version American singer-actress Cher recorded and released "Am I Blue" in 1973. It was released on single and the album ''Bittersweet White Light.'' Chart performan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and '80s. Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Leigh's most notable works include the black comedy-drama ''Naked'' (1993), for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willy Russell
William Russell (born 23 August 1946) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are ''Educating Rita'', ''Shirley Valentine'', '' Blood Brothers'' and ''Our Day Out''. Early life Russell was born in Whiston, Lancashire (which is now Merseyside). On leaving school, aged 15, he became a ladies' hairdresser, eventually running his own salon, until the age of 20 when he decided to go back to college. This led to him qualifying as a teacher. During these years, Russell also worked as a semi-professional singer, writing and performing his own songs in folk clubs. At college, he began writing drama and, in 1972, took a programme of two one-act plays to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where they were seen by writer John McGrath, who recommended Russell to the Liverpool Everyman, which commissioned the adaptation, ''When The Reds…'', Russell's first professional work for theatre. Career Russell's first play was ''Keep Your Eyes Down'' (1971), written while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne (born 4 March 1941) is an English film director, writer and producer. Having begun his career directing 1970s television commercials, Lyne made well-received short films which were entries in the London Film Festival. He started making feature length films in 1980 and is known for sexually charged stories and characters, often using stylised light. He is best known for directing ''Flashdance'', ''9½ Weeks'', '' Fatal Attraction'', ''Jacob's Ladder'' and ''Indecent Proposal''. For directing ''Fatal Attraction'', Lyne received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. Early life Lyne was born in Peterborough, Northamptonshire (now Cambridgeshire) and raised in London. He was educated at Highgate School in North London;Highgate School Register 7th Edn 1833–1988, Ed. Patrick Hughes & Ian F Davies 1989 together with his younger brother, Oliver Lyne (1944–2005), a classical scholar and academic at the University of Oxford. Their father was a teacher at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Scott
Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was an English film director and producer. He was known for directing highly successful action and thriller films such as ''Top Gun'' (1986), ''Beverly Hills Cop II'' (1987), ''Days of Thunder'' (1990), ''The Last Boy Scout'' (1991), ''True Romance'' (1993), ''Crimson Tide (film), Crimson Tide'' (1995), ''Enemy of the State (film), Enemy of the State'' (1998), ''Man on Fire (2004 film), Man on Fire'' (2004), ''Déjà Vu (2006 film), Déjà Vu'' (2006), and ''Unstoppable (2010 film), Unstoppable'' (2010). Scott was the younger brother of film director Sir Ridley Scott. They both graduated from the Royal College of Art in London, and were among a generation of British film directors who were successful in Hollywood having started their careers making television commercials. In 1995, both Tony and Ridley received the British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2010, they ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and nominations for a Tony Award and for two British Academy Film Awards. Field began her career on television, starring in the comedies ''Gidget'' (1965–1966), ''The Flying Nun'' (1967–1970), and ''The Girl with Something Extra'' (1973–1974). In 1967, she was also in the western ''The Way West''. In 1976, she attracted critical acclaim for her performance in the television film '' Sybil'', for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. Her film debut was as an extra in ''Moon Pilot'' (1962). Her film career escalated during the 1970s with starring roles in films including ''Stay Hungry'' (1976), ''Smokey and the Bandit'' (1977), ''Heroes'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territories of the United States by population, most populous U.S. state and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated Administrative division, subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous Statistical area (United States), urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7million residents and the latter having over 9.6million. Sacramento, California, Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the List of largest California cities by population, most populous city in the state and the List of United States cities by population, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, which had a population of 237,110 in 2019. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, and with little early history to speak of, Oldham rose to prominence in the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and among the first ever industrialised towns, rapidly becoming "one of the most important centres of cotton and textile industries in England." At its zenith, it was the most productive cotton spinning mill town in the world,. producing more cotton than France and Germany combined. Oldham's textile industry fell into decline in the mid-20th century; the town's last mill closed in 1998. The demise of textile processing in Oldham depressed and heavily ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to five published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries. (Gardner and other sources cite the date of Gray's death as 6 August 2008; some sources, including the obituary by Billington and the book review by Scurr, give the day of Gray's death as 7 August 2008.) Biography Simon James Holliday Gray was born on 21 October 1936 on Hayling Island, in Hampshire, England to James Gray and his wife Barbara (née Holliday). His father, who later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web servers and can be accessed by programs such as web browsers. Servers and resources on the World Wide Web are identified and located through character strings called uniform resource locators (URLs). The original and still very common document type is a web page formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). This markup language supports plain text, images, embedded video and audio contents, and scripts (short programs) that implement complex user interaction. The HTML language also supports hyperlinks (embedded URLs) which provide immediate access to other web resources. Web navigation, or web surfing, is the common practice of following such hyperlinks across multiple websites. Web applications are web pages that function as application s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pick Of The Week (radio)
''Pick of the Week'' is a long-running British radio programme featuring extracts from BBC radio (and originally television) programmes broadcast over the previous seven days. It was first broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1959, and transferred to its successor station BBC Radio 4 in 1967. Until 1998, it was broadcast on Friday evening, with a repeat (sometimes edited) on Sunday. Since 1998, it has appeared on Sunday only. Items are drawn from all of the BBC's local and national radio networks, as well as the BBC World Service. Although not a request show as such, listeners are invited to send in suggestions for the programme. History The programme was originally written and produced by Gale Pedrick and presented by John Ellison. After Pedrick's death in 1970, production was taken over by Nancy Wise. Ellison died in January 1974, and over the first half of the year David Davis, Martin Muncaster and David Dunhill all had short runs as presenter, before Margaret Howard took ov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
